Green Ridge sticks out like a sore thumb at Okemo, the only lift ever built here by Doppelmayr or its related companies.It was built in 1986.Top station seen from below.View down the very long lift line.Another look down line.Middle section of the lift.Looking up towards the summit.Tower 2.The drive-tension station down below.View up the line.Side view of the drive station.
This lift is soon to get replaced, probably with a HSQ. There hav been various talks of doing it in previous years, but it hasn’t happened. Vail will probably want to upgrade it tho. When it does get replaced, it will hopefully extend down to Mountain Road, so that skiers coming from Jackson Gore and the the rest of the runs that flow into Mountain Road to have a direct route back to the summit. It would reduce traffic on Lower Mountain Road And Arrow and allow to avoid the total logjam where Mountain Road And Lower Arrow collide.
I think replacing Green Ridge with a HSQ in its current location would be ok, but extending it down to reach Lower Mountain Road would be a very bad idea IMO. This would lead to more skiers using Lower Mountain Road where it cuts across the Solitude pod, making all those intersections more dangerous and making the Solitude pod worse. Lower Arrow does become a mess currently, but I would prefer to leave that as is instead of making the Solitude trails worse.
My idea is that they should remove Green Ridge without a replacement in that alignment, and build a new lift that starts at Jackson Gore Junction, and ends at the summit where Green Ridge currently terminates. This lift would only need to be a fixed grip and therefore could be a relocated South Ridge chair as one of those two quads needs to be replaced with either a HSQ or HS6. This lift would therefore capture all of the people that want to go to the summit coming from Jackson Gore without having to ski Mountain Road at all. It would also create a nice upper mountain beginner/low intermediate pod for skiers that just want to ski the easier summit runs of Sweet Solitude, Easy Rider, and Upper Mountain Road, without having to navigate down Lower Mountain road.
As stated earlier, I think the first lift Vail should upgrade to a HSQ or HS6 is one of the South Ridge Quads. Then the next lift that should be upgraded to a HSQ i think is Sachem, this would alleviate a lot of the lines at Sunburst and provide an alternative fast way to to get to Glades Peak and therefore South face. Sachem is a very underutilized pod as is, but with a fast lift located there it could become very popular as it has one of the best green runs on the mountain, Sachem, two blues of Lower World Cup and Lower chief, and the black of Ledges. This would also take a lot of the traffic off of Countdown which currently is over skied.
That is actually a pretty solid idea. I would definitely like to see that happen. But still, They should keep a lift in the Green Ridge alignment because it is the only way to lap the blue runs on the upper mountain, and having to ski down to the Sunburst Six every time you ski those trails would get very annoying on a busy day. Having the lift from the Jackson Gore Junction t the summit would be very nice also. It would take traffic off Mountain Road, however, it would make the summit very crowded with 3 lift unloading there and more people coming from Glades Peak.
Another thing they should do is install a transfer lift from the bottom of the Quantum Four in Jackson Gore as another lift to take you out of Jackson Gore to the main mountain. The Quantum Four can get very long lines on busy days, so it would be very useful to take traffic off of it. Use the Quantum Four to lap trails at Jackson, and take the other lift to exit to the main mountain. Maybe even do a mid station at the Jackson Gore Junction and continue to the top. The only problem is a lift that long would need to be detachable, and building a detachable with a mid station would be very expensive. Space at the junction would also be an issue.
The problem with planning lifts at Okemo is that there is so much that could be improved its difficult to think of it all at one time and think what they should do to improve traffic because there are so many things you could do to do it. I guess we will just have to wait and see what Vail does to Okemo’s lift system,
Yes, another lift out of Jackson Gore is also needed. The easiest thing to do would would be to build the lift Okemo originally intended as egress out of Jackson Gore before they switched to the idea of building a Gondola shown as lift line here. https://skimap.org/data/204/7/1244235595.jpg This could just be a fixed grip that goes from the Jackson Gore base to Solitude Village. Skiers then would still need to ride Solitude Express to get to the rest of the mountain, but would alleviate a lot of long lines at Quantum.
Both ideas sound good actually. It really would be beneficial for beginners to lap the upper mountain beginner trails with a. Lift and not have to increase traffic on mountain road. Lie I said, it would increase Summit traffic as well however, but it could probably unload in a semi-isolated area. (E.g. behind the patrol shack at the top).
The original Gondola plan would’ve been cool, but that would also have added traffic and congestion to the top with so many people wanting to ride it (you know the drill with gondolas).
New England Chairlifts & SkiingDecember 9, 2019 / 3:11 pm
UPDATE: This Lift is now being replaced by a relocated Quantum Four, which is being replaced with a new Six Pack. Look at my comment on the new post for my thoughts and other info about it.
New England Chairlifts & SkiingMarch 19, 2020 / 7:42 am
Welp, I rode this chair last Saturday on what turned out to be the last day it would ever carry skiers. Green ridge is all done in it’s location. Hopefully It can start a second life somewhere.
I’m 99% sure that none of the ones you mentioned will buy it. Pats Peak still has a Garaventa CTEC quad that they still haven’t installed yet and Whaleback and Tenney can’t afford a new lift any time soon. I’d expect this to either be relocated to a Jackson Gore beginner area or to be relocated to another Vail resort, although Vail doesn’t seem to like installing lifts this old so we’ll have to see. They haven’t done a project like Gopher Hill in a while.
Likely, but we can’t be 100% certain. Some ski areas might elect to push their lift projects to 2021 if it’s between that or having it open months after opening day due to possible delays. Your guess is as good as mine as to what will actually happen at this point.
New England Chairlifts & SkiingMarch 20, 2020 / 3:55 pm
Another update. Vail is now reassessing their investments planned for the summer due to loss in income due to Coronavirus. It’s possible GR might stay another season. We’ll have to wait and see.
This lift is staying for the 2020-2021 season but is now slated for removal before the 2021-2022 season. The Quantum Four will be moved to replace this lift while a new 6 passenger high speed goes up where the Quantum Four currently resides.
If I’m not mistaken, that green lift replaced a Poma lift from back in the day. It’s an iconic spot. I
Have no issues with replacing it with something more modern but keep the location.
Im from Pennsylvania up here working at Okemo and just stumbled upon this convo. We are currently taking down Green Ridge which is being sent to Jack Frost in Pa. It will be replaced with Quantum Four, also being taken down. In its pkace will be a Poma 6. The towers are all rigged and the helicopter is slated to fly the helicopter arrived today. We will be flying the towers out beginning Monday morning.
I remember a time from the past when the majority of Okemo lifts were also detachable. Fortunate to have had the chance to ride Red, Black, Green, Blue and Yellow….
Lift Blog 
This lift is soon to get replaced, probably with a HSQ. There hav been various talks of doing it in previous years, but it hasn’t happened. Vail will probably want to upgrade it tho. When it does get replaced, it will hopefully extend down to Mountain Road, so that skiers coming from Jackson Gore and the the rest of the runs that flow into Mountain Road to have a direct route back to the summit. It would reduce traffic on Lower Mountain Road And Arrow and allow to avoid the total logjam where Mountain Road And Lower Arrow collide.
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I think replacing Green Ridge with a HSQ in its current location would be ok, but extending it down to reach Lower Mountain Road would be a very bad idea IMO. This would lead to more skiers using Lower Mountain Road where it cuts across the Solitude pod, making all those intersections more dangerous and making the Solitude pod worse. Lower Arrow does become a mess currently, but I would prefer to leave that as is instead of making the Solitude trails worse.
My idea is that they should remove Green Ridge without a replacement in that alignment, and build a new lift that starts at Jackson Gore Junction, and ends at the summit where Green Ridge currently terminates. This lift would only need to be a fixed grip and therefore could be a relocated South Ridge chair as one of those two quads needs to be replaced with either a HSQ or HS6. This lift would therefore capture all of the people that want to go to the summit coming from Jackson Gore without having to ski Mountain Road at all. It would also create a nice upper mountain beginner/low intermediate pod for skiers that just want to ski the easier summit runs of Sweet Solitude, Easy Rider, and Upper Mountain Road, without having to navigate down Lower Mountain road.
As stated earlier, I think the first lift Vail should upgrade to a HSQ or HS6 is one of the South Ridge Quads. Then the next lift that should be upgraded to a HSQ i think is Sachem, this would alleviate a lot of the lines at Sunburst and provide an alternative fast way to to get to Glades Peak and therefore South face. Sachem is a very underutilized pod as is, but with a fast lift located there it could become very popular as it has one of the best green runs on the mountain, Sachem, two blues of Lower World Cup and Lower chief, and the black of Ledges. This would also take a lot of the traffic off of Countdown which currently is over skied.
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That is actually a pretty solid idea. I would definitely like to see that happen. But still, They should keep a lift in the Green Ridge alignment because it is the only way to lap the blue runs on the upper mountain, and having to ski down to the Sunburst Six every time you ski those trails would get very annoying on a busy day. Having the lift from the Jackson Gore Junction t the summit would be very nice also. It would take traffic off Mountain Road, however, it would make the summit very crowded with 3 lift unloading there and more people coming from Glades Peak.
Another thing they should do is install a transfer lift from the bottom of the Quantum Four in Jackson Gore as another lift to take you out of Jackson Gore to the main mountain. The Quantum Four can get very long lines on busy days, so it would be very useful to take traffic off of it. Use the Quantum Four to lap trails at Jackson, and take the other lift to exit to the main mountain. Maybe even do a mid station at the Jackson Gore Junction and continue to the top. The only problem is a lift that long would need to be detachable, and building a detachable with a mid station would be very expensive. Space at the junction would also be an issue.
The problem with planning lifts at Okemo is that there is so much that could be improved its difficult to think of it all at one time and think what they should do to improve traffic because there are so many things you could do to do it. I guess we will just have to wait and see what Vail does to Okemo’s lift system,
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Yes, another lift out of Jackson Gore is also needed. The easiest thing to do would would be to build the lift Okemo originally intended as egress out of Jackson Gore before they switched to the idea of building a Gondola shown as lift line here. https://skimap.org/data/204/7/1244235595.jpg This could just be a fixed grip that goes from the Jackson Gore base to Solitude Village. Skiers then would still need to ride Solitude Express to get to the rest of the mountain, but would alleviate a lot of long lines at Quantum.
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Both ideas sound good actually. It really would be beneficial for beginners to lap the upper mountain beginner trails with a. Lift and not have to increase traffic on mountain road. Lie I said, it would increase Summit traffic as well however, but it could probably unload in a semi-isolated area. (E.g. behind the patrol shack at the top).
The original Gondola plan would’ve been cool, but that would also have added traffic and congestion to the top with so many people wanting to ride it (you know the drill with gondolas).
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UPDATE: This Lift is now being replaced by a relocated Quantum Four, which is being replaced with a new Six Pack. Look at my comment on the new post for my thoughts and other info about it.
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I think they’ll try to sell this lift to another mountain and if that doesn’t happen it will just be scrapped.
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I find it unlikely that it will be scrapped, I could see this chair replacing lookout at Stowe or either D or E chair at Hunter.
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Welp, I rode this chair last Saturday on what turned out to be the last day it would ever carry skiers. Green ridge is all done in it’s location. Hopefully It can start a second life somewhere.
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I wonder if a smaller ski area (such as whaleback, tenney or pats peak) will buy it.
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I’m 99% sure that none of the ones you mentioned will buy it. Pats Peak still has a Garaventa CTEC quad that they still haven’t installed yet and Whaleback and Tenney can’t afford a new lift any time soon. I’d expect this to either be relocated to a Jackson Gore beginner area or to be relocated to another Vail resort, although Vail doesn’t seem to like installing lifts this old so we’ll have to see. They haven’t done a project like Gopher Hill in a while.
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What is pats even planning to do with the G-CTEC quad?
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Likely, but we can’t be 100% certain. Some ski areas might elect to push their lift projects to 2021 if it’s between that or having it open months after opening day due to possible delays. Your guess is as good as mine as to what will actually happen at this point.
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Another update. Vail is now reassessing their investments planned for the summer due to loss in income due to Coronavirus. It’s possible GR might stay another season. We’ll have to wait and see.
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This lift is staying for the 2020-2021 season but is now slated for removal before the 2021-2022 season. The Quantum Four will be moved to replace this lift while a new 6 passenger high speed goes up where the Quantum Four currently resides.
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Update: As seen in the recent News Roundup, this lift will head to another Vail Resort in Pennsylvania.
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As of yesterday, chairs are being taken off the line.
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If I’m not mistaken, that green lift replaced a Poma lift from back in the day. It’s an iconic spot. I
Have no issues with replacing it with something more modern but keep the location.
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And keep it green
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Im from Pennsylvania up here working at Okemo and just stumbled upon this convo. We are currently taking down Green Ridge which is being sent to Jack Frost in Pa. It will be replaced with Quantum Four, also being taken down. In its pkace will be a Poma 6. The towers are all rigged and the helicopter is slated to fly the helicopter arrived today. We will be flying the towers out beginning Monday morning.
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I remember a time from the past when the majority of Okemo lifts were also detachable. Fortunate to have had the chance to ride Red, Black, Green, Blue and Yellow….
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I did NOT know that this was a doppelmayr
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