The breakover.This lift was relocated from Outrigger.Middle part of the lift line.Lower lift line.Depression tower.Loading area at the base.Bottom tension station.Lift line overview.Riding up the line.Looking back down.Top station motor room.Unloading ramp and operator house.
The lift started as Outrigger in 1978, running parallel to the Eskimo and Apollo double chairlifts, and replacing a T-Bar. Outrigger didn’t stop at Sunspot, the summit of the Winter Park complex, but rather, continued past Sunspot to a point on March Hare below the top of the Olympia Express lift.
The lift was reduced to an auxiliary lift in 1999 after the Eskimo Express lift went in, and was abandoned in 2003. The lift sat abandoned for two years, with no chairs on the line. In 2005, the towers below Cranmer Cutoff were removed, as were the haul ropes. And in 2006, everything else was removed and moved to create Eagle Wind.
Considering that this lift services strictly expert terrain, it should stay a fixed-grip. After some intense skiing on these runs, you want all the ride time on this lift to get the feeling back in your legs!
When this was Outrigger, it had the interesting distinction of how you couldn’t reach the Outrigger trail from the Outrigger chairlift, simply because the lift bypassed Sunspot entirely; you’d have to take Explorer to get to the Outrigger trail. This is apparent when looking at the map from one of its last years in operation, which list the lift as only serving green and blue runs.
It’s a modification of the standard Yan box from that era. I’ve seen others with an addition exactly the size of the drive and control cabinet. Some of the bigger/higher horsepower lifts were a little cramped, and even some of the smaller ones. The easy solution was to add on to the terminal and put the cabinet in there.
Yesterday, this lift ran with loading every other chair, causing the line to stack up to maybe a 15 minute wait. I think it might be related to the addition of safety bars this season.
Would make sense, given that safety bars do add some weight to the chairs. I remember that Telluride had to remove some chairs from the original Plunge triple after the chairs got fitted with bars (especially since the bars also had footrests).
Due to weight constraints, they are continuing to run the lift only loading every other chair when the crowds are large enough such that every chair would otherwise be occupied. The safety bars likely play a role, but the average weight of Americans has also increased more than 20% since this lift was first built in 1978. Killington had similar weight issues with its 1972 North Ridge triple chair that they blamed on heavier skiers.
Lift Blog 
The lift started as Outrigger in 1978, running parallel to the Eskimo and Apollo double chairlifts, and replacing a T-Bar. Outrigger didn’t stop at Sunspot, the summit of the Winter Park complex, but rather, continued past Sunspot to a point on March Hare below the top of the Olympia Express lift.
The lift was reduced to an auxiliary lift in 1999 after the Eskimo Express lift went in, and was abandoned in 2003. The lift sat abandoned for two years, with no chairs on the line. In 2005, the towers below Cranmer Cutoff were removed, as were the haul ropes. And in 2006, everything else was removed and moved to create Eagle Wind.
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The lifting frames were added in 2006 with the relocation to Eagle Wind, as the lift didn’t have them when it was Outrigger.
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When I saw the lift at Skilifts.org I thought the lift was a pulse lift.
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Where did the lifting frames come from?
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I assume they were aftermarket ones.
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Here’s the upper part of Outrigger when it had chairs:
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Outrigger would have been nice to still have. Explorer can get pretty big lines during peak times.
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If you could change anything about this lift, what would it be and why?
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I think this lift could use an upgrade to an HSQ seeing as it is ~5000 feet long
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Considering that this lift services strictly expert terrain, it should stay a fixed-grip. After some intense skiing on these runs, you want all the ride time on this lift to get the feeling back in your legs!
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When this was Outrigger, it had the interesting distinction of how you couldn’t reach the Outrigger trail from the Outrigger chairlift, simply because the lift bypassed Sunspot entirely; you’d have to take Explorer to get to the Outrigger trail. This is apparent when looking at the map from one of its last years in operation, which list the lift as only serving green and blue runs.
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I think you mean that you’d have to take the Eskimo lift to get to the Outrigger trail. You could also take the rope tow up to Sunspot too.
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Was anything added to Outrigger when it became Eagle Wind?
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Other than the tower heads, and lifting frames.
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This lift got a “new” return bull wheel. It came from Steamboat, and I would assume it either came from Preview or Christie 3.
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That’s a thicc drive station. And it has two different sets of stairs to access it. Odd
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Looking at older pictures it only used to have one staircase, the one in the middle of the line.
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It’s definitely a unique design. To me it sort of resembles Doppelmayr fixed drive stations from the 90s.
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It’s a modification of the standard Yan box from that era. I’ve seen others with an addition exactly the size of the drive and control cabinet. Some of the bigger/higher horsepower lifts were a little cramped, and even some of the smaller ones. The easy solution was to add on to the terminal and put the cabinet in there.
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100% roadless construction, all helicopter and spiders.
Rare.
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Yesterday, this lift ran with loading every other chair, causing the line to stack up to maybe a 15 minute wait. I think it might be related to the addition of safety bars this season.
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Would make sense, given that safety bars do add some weight to the chairs. I remember that Telluride had to remove some chairs from the original Plunge triple after the chairs got fitted with bars (especially since the bars also had footrests).
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Due to weight constraints, they are continuing to run the lift only loading every other chair when the crowds are large enough such that every chair would otherwise be occupied. The safety bars likely play a role, but the average weight of Americans has also increased more than 20% since this lift was first built in 1978. Killington had similar weight issues with its 1972 North Ridge triple chair that they blamed on heavier skiers.
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