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.
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).
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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If you could change anything about this lift, what would it be and why?
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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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