Lift line view from Broadway Express.Lift overview.Tower 5.Arriving up top.View down from the summit.Top terminal with height adjustment.View down the line.Side view of the return.Unique perspective from the top of the gondola.Top station seen from Chair 12.In 2024 this lift received a new bottom operator shack and Doppelmayr Connect controls.New control pedestal.Doppelmayr Worldbook entry.
This is about the only lift where I regular hurt myself unloading (not to bad, though) – if you are not fast enough the chair will slam into your legs. This doesn’t happen to me on any other 90-degree unloading lift.
I think the design of the top station is cool because it flattens out. This is because of 90 degree loading. I also really like the color scheme on Mammoth’s lifts.
Exposure has nothing to do with it. In general, its more efficient to have the prime mover at the top station, because you pull the loaded chairs up the hill. A bottom drive has to pull the downhill chairs down, which pulls the uphill chairs on the other side (because you can’t push a haul rope). That means more tension, more power required, etc..
That being said, a top drive is not always the ideal solution. The bottom of chair 3 is right next to the McCoy Station, a massive lodge with a two-stage gondola and snowmaking cooling towers to boot. So when they built the lift, they probably decided that the loss in power efficiency from a bottom drive was worth the tradeoff of having the drive right next to all the existing infrastructure (and the heavy-duty electrical supply to power the lift). This was probably more cost-effective than building utility-grade power to the top of 3 to power a top drive. The top station only has controls and the patrol shack anyways, not major power draws.
The same logic applies to Gondola 1 / 2. The two lifts can operate independently, but the drive machinery for both lifts is at Midstation. That improves ease of maintenance and they have all the power in the world available to them.
Lift Blog 
Hey Peter, have you considered adding an ‘about’ section for each lift page? I’d be a great place to access any information on stats and history.
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Interesting how they alter the design of the Spacejet terminal to allow a 90 degree unload at the top.
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The Wildcat Express at Wildcat, NH has a Uni-L bottom terminal with the flattened end as well for 90 deg. loading.
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This is about the only lift where I regular hurt myself unloading (not to bad, though) – if you are not fast enough the chair will slam into your legs. This doesn’t happen to me on any other 90-degree unloading lift.
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I think the design of the top station is cool because it flattens out. This is because of 90 degree loading. I also really like the color scheme on Mammoth’s lifts.
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It says the old chair 3 had 2800 vertical rise. I think it might be a mistake.
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I think this lift has a new bottom operator shack for 2024-2025.
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Is this lift’s top terminal that exposed to have a bottom drive?
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Exposure has nothing to do with it. In general, its more efficient to have the prime mover at the top station, because you pull the loaded chairs up the hill. A bottom drive has to pull the downhill chairs down, which pulls the uphill chairs on the other side (because you can’t push a haul rope). That means more tension, more power required, etc..
That being said, a top drive is not always the ideal solution. The bottom of chair 3 is right next to the McCoy Station, a massive lodge with a two-stage gondola and snowmaking cooling towers to boot. So when they built the lift, they probably decided that the loss in power efficiency from a bottom drive was worth the tradeoff of having the drive right next to all the existing infrastructure (and the heavy-duty electrical supply to power the lift). This was probably more cost-effective than building utility-grade power to the top of 3 to power a top drive. The top station only has controls and the patrol shack anyways, not major power draws.
The same logic applies to Gondola 1 / 2. The two lifts can operate independently, but the drive machinery for both lifts is at Midstation. That improves ease of maintenance and they have all the power in the world available to them.
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Here is a video of this lift inside of the terminal when it got new equipment.
Face Lift Express 3 Mammoth 1997 Doppelmayr
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