The latest version of the Emerald chair is a Doppelmayr six place opened in 2018.Side view of the upper station.Unloading area.Top terminal underskin.View down from the summit.Note the two different styles of lifting frames.Looking down the lift line.Middle section of the lift line.Lower line.View down with Blackcomb in the background.Looking up with the Peak 2 Peak in the background.The first few towers.View down to the bottom terminal.The bottom terminal with tower 1.The return terminal.Lift line overview.The lower station seen from above.
I don’t mind them. They would probably be a pain in the neck for a snowboard, and you need to be careful with telemark gear. I had one of my bindings try to eat one of those black footrest pucks last year in Big Sky.
I was riding sundown with my friend at powder mountain and the my friend’s telemark skis they got caught on the unloading ramp and the chair got pulled back and both of us barely got off without crashing.
I wonder what the advantage is of this style of footrests. I personally prefer no foot rests at all like Doppelmayr equipped some of their lifts with in the mid 1990s. I am going to Whistler this spring so I am interested to try out these footrests to see if I like them or not.
The only lift I’ve ridden with the puck footrests is the new Lowell Thomas at Tremblant. Personally I did not like them at all. My skis are 90mm underfoot and they barely fit on them. When you’re riding the chair by yourself you can’t sit directly in the middle like you’re supposed to and you can’t spread your legs out. I’ve always been in the habit of putting the safety bar down, and on that lift I usually don’t use it when I’m on the chair by myself.
I rode Emerald and they didn’t bother me at all. I actually found the chairs on Emerald to be the best part. They were marked with 6 individual seats, they were very comfortable, and they had an amazing safety bar. You can lower the bar with one of the straps, then have your own footrest, then have your own handle to raise the bar with. This whole chair felt very premium and nice aside from the fact that it didn’t run at 1000 FPM like it should.
They are for me, but they are also way safer because the bar goes in between your legs, so you can’t really slide out from under. Notice the incidents on lifts now are the ones with earlier foot rests or none at all
I’ve just noticed that on the second to last tower, the lifting frame isn’t the only thing that is beefed up, but the entire crossarm is significantly more robust than the others. All of the other lifting frames seem to the the style which I have previously only seen strictly on heavily loaded towers.
It’s interesting to notice that Emerald 6 uses DT grips, but the Blackcomb Gondola was built with Agmatic grips, despite both being built the same year at the same resort by the same manufacturer. I wonder if this is because Vail Resorts wanted Emerald 6 to share the same grip model as all the other Doppelmayr lifts on the Whistler side of the mountain.
I think that all of Doppelmayr’s 10 passenger gondolas (up until the D-line series) use the A108 grip, perhaps it can hold a heavier load than a single DT grip.
There’s a part of me that kinda wishes that Whistler had gone with painting the terminals on Emerald 6 completely in green, rather than leave them white with a thin green stripe.
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That style of footrest seems particularly uncomfortable.
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It’s not.
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I don’t mind them. They would probably be a pain in the neck for a snowboard, and you need to be careful with telemark gear. I had one of my bindings try to eat one of those black footrest pucks last year in Big Sky.
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I was riding sundown with my friend at powder mountain and the my friend’s telemark skis they got caught on the unloading ramp and the chair got pulled back and both of us barely got off without crashing.
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I wonder what the advantage is of this style of footrests. I personally prefer no foot rests at all like Doppelmayr equipped some of their lifts with in the mid 1990s. I am going to Whistler this spring so I am interested to try out these footrests to see if I like them or not.
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The advantage is primarily safety, especially for small children, the work well for skis but sometimes snowboards can have trouble
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The only lift I’ve ridden with the puck footrests is the new Lowell Thomas at Tremblant. Personally I did not like them at all. My skis are 90mm underfoot and they barely fit on them. When you’re riding the chair by yourself you can’t sit directly in the middle like you’re supposed to and you can’t spread your legs out. I’ve always been in the habit of putting the safety bar down, and on that lift I usually don’t use it when I’m on the chair by myself.
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Collin, that’s interesting. My skis range from 88mm-114mm underfoot, and I have no issues with them staying on the footrests.
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I’ve heard rumors they’re already falling off of the chairs. Doesn’t seem to say much for their durability.
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I rode Emerald and they didn’t bother me at all. I actually found the chairs on Emerald to be the best part. They were marked with 6 individual seats, they were very comfortable, and they had an amazing safety bar. You can lower the bar with one of the straps, then have your own footrest, then have your own handle to raise the bar with. This whole chair felt very premium and nice aside from the fact that it didn’t run at 1000 FPM like it should.
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It does serve a beginner area, which might count for the slower speeds.
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They are for me, but they are also way safer because the bar goes in between your legs, so you can’t really slide out from under. Notice the incidents on lifts now are the ones with earlier foot rests or none at all
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I personally don’t like them but I’m 6’3, and i can see how they would be safer/more comfortable for younger children.
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I’ve just noticed that on the second to last tower, the lifting frame isn’t the only thing that is beefed up, but the entire crossarm is significantly more robust than the others. All of the other lifting frames seem to the the style which I have previously only seen strictly on heavily loaded towers.
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That’s also seen on tower 13.
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It’s interesting to notice that Emerald 6 uses DT grips, but the Blackcomb Gondola was built with Agmatic grips, despite both being built the same year at the same resort by the same manufacturer. I wonder if this is because Vail Resorts wanted Emerald 6 to share the same grip model as all the other Doppelmayr lifts on the Whistler side of the mountain.
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Most likely that is the case. They didn’t want to go completely all out on this lift like they did with the gondi.
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I think that all of Doppelmayr’s 10 passenger gondolas (up until the D-line series) use the A108 grip, perhaps it can hold a heavier load than a single DT grip.
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There’s a part of me that kinda wishes that Whistler had gone with painting the terminals on Emerald 6 completely in green, rather than leave them white with a thin green stripe.
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Alpenglow at Eldora, CO also uses the puck style footrests
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Honestly, WB should’ve sprung to paint the lift terminals to look more like this so that the lift lives up to its name.
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