Top station in Gad Valley.Bottom station.View down the lower part of the line.Looking up the line.View back down.Another view of the top terminal with a maintenance rail.Side view of the bottom terminal in all blue paint.Lift overview.Lower part of the lift line.View down the line.The final three towers.Most of the tower tubes on this lift are reused from the previous Doppelmayr double.Breakover towers.View down from the summit.Aerial view of the top station.
I would love to see this lift as a detachable six. Especially as a Dopplemayr D-Line which improves capacity and line speed therefore getting people up the mountain faster. Yes that means it gets skied out faster but this lift needs a replacement soon. If it does get replaced, they could refurbish the lift with new parts and put it in the mid-gad alignment with a mid station. The mid station would be like the one on OBX at Park City where one side doesn’t have it so the chairs slow down. or they could do a mid-station kinda like the Dopplemayr Bubble six pack Vangsliekspressen at Oppdal in Norway. Yes it has an angled mid station but if snowbird we’re to replaced the mid-gad lift with gadzoom and still have a mid station, these are the two ways i would do it.
I just spoke to the head electrical engineer of lifts at Snowbird today. We were on the same chair on Gadzoom. I asked if there were any upgrades coming. He said confidently, that Gadzoom will be the next major upgrade at Snowbird. He explained, that although Snowbird hasn’t signed the official papers, he has already purchased the new transformer and they plan to put in a high speed Doppelmayr D-Line 6-pack within the next 2 years.
After working at Snowbird last winter I don’t think this lift needs replacement so much. This too especially with Wilbere replaced, less people using this to traverse to the center. It only ever really seemed crowded in the mornings and the crowds seemed to be better at queuing. The line generally got cleared in 30 minutes on even the worst of days and then stayed empty until a last rush at 2:00 or so. Mineral basin on the other hand is nuts, but I just cannot imagine the chaos that will occur on the ridge if it ever goes 6, something needs to be done about that before any more capacity increases up there.
This lift has a mix of both CTEC and Doppelmayr (left over from Gad I) tower tubes.
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It is easy to tell which towers are recycled.
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I think that this lift should be replaced with a HSS and the current lift relocated to replace Mid Gad
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A few months ago in a news round up it said that snowbird is gonna try to replace this along with Mineral Basin with detachable sixes.
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I would love to see this lift as a detachable six. Especially as a Dopplemayr D-Line which improves capacity and line speed therefore getting people up the mountain faster. Yes that means it gets skied out faster but this lift needs a replacement soon. If it does get replaced, they could refurbish the lift with new parts and put it in the mid-gad alignment with a mid station. The mid station would be like the one on OBX at Park City where one side doesn’t have it so the chairs slow down. or they could do a mid-station kinda like the Dopplemayr Bubble six pack Vangsliekspressen at Oppdal in Norway. Yes it has an angled mid station but if snowbird we’re to replaced the mid-gad lift with gadzoom and still have a mid station, these are the two ways i would do it.
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I just spoke to the head electrical engineer of lifts at Snowbird today. We were on the same chair on Gadzoom. I asked if there were any upgrades coming. He said confidently, that Gadzoom will be the next major upgrade at Snowbird. He explained, that although Snowbird hasn’t signed the official papers, he has already purchased the new transformer and they plan to put in a high speed Doppelmayr D-Line 6-pack within the next 2 years.
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After working at Snowbird last winter I don’t think this lift needs replacement so much. This too especially with Wilbere replaced, less people using this to traverse to the center. It only ever really seemed crowded in the mornings and the crowds seemed to be better at queuing. The line generally got cleared in 30 minutes on even the worst of days and then stayed empty until a last rush at 2:00 or so. Mineral basin on the other hand is nuts, but I just cannot imagine the chaos that will occur on the ridge if it ever goes 6, something needs to be done about that before any more capacity increases up there.
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