Heavy Metal is one of nine Lift Engineering-built lifts at Mt. Snow as of 2018.The bottom terminal was upgraded with hydraulic tensioning.Side view of the return terminal.Drive station.Another look at the top terminal.Yan ’80s-style towers and chairs.Looking down the lift line.Another section of the line.For the 2022-23 season, this lift was upgraded to a triple with chairs from the retired Sundance lift.Upper station area after the chair upgrade.View down the line as a triple chair.Loading area.Lift overview after the capacity upgrade.
Note the Carlevaro Savio Sheaves On The Lift. Not sure where they came from or why they re-used them, but it’s interesting to see them. They are Likley from another old chair (I bet the North Face Double) as that was upgraded the same yea as this was built. Definetly not the Gondola, those sheaves are far to small to be from that.
I’ve seen on multiple discussion boards that Vail will upgrade this to a triple by using carriers from the removal of Tumbleweed and Sundance.
Most of the uphill towers have 8 sheaves which seems a bit high for a double considering it’s a fairly flat profile. Could a triple upgrade have been planned long ago?
I am not sure about this lift in particular, but Yan lifts were often overbuilt so they could easily be upgraded from a double to a triple or a triple to a quad. Killington did this with Bear Mountain a number of years ago (installed as a triple and then upgraded to a quad).
I know this is a triple as of when i went on closing day but it should be a quad because of what is happening with the new high speed six bubble replacing fixed grip triples. This is only one of 4 chair lifts that will go in the wind and only 1 high-speed lift this will get 35 minutes lift lines on windy days. Trust me i did it this season❄️
This will be the second time that a Yan lift in Vermont was upgraded, simply by changing the chairs. The first was the Bear Mountain Quad at Killington, which began its life as a triple. I think there’s also a lift somewhere out west that was converted in the same way.
Converting a lift from a double to a triple would be more like this: increased braking force on all brakes, increased tension to counteract the higher loads on line, and full load test on the lift. There would definitely be a bunch of behind-the-scenes engineering reviews and calculations to ensure nothing structural would need to be augmented. We had to do a tower pull test (basically testing each tower footer) on our R and S lifts when we swapped out the original Yan carriers to the current CTEC ones because they were heavier, for example. There is also the possibility of changing out tower assemblies bbecause the loads have increased- maybe not in this case as they seem to be bigger than the standard double would warrant- but engineering calculations may reveal some additional loads. Signs, on the other hand, are the easiest part.
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Note the Carlevaro Savio Sheaves On The Lift. Not sure where they came from or why they re-used them, but it’s interesting to see them. They are Likley from another old chair (I bet the North Face Double) as that was upgraded the same yea as this was built. Definetly not the Gondola, those sheaves are far to small to be from that.
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Everyone call this the metallica double.
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I’ve seen on multiple discussion boards that Vail will upgrade this to a triple by using carriers from the removal of Tumbleweed and Sundance.
Most of the uphill towers have 8 sheaves which seems a bit high for a double considering it’s a fairly flat profile. Could a triple upgrade have been planned long ago?
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Maybe, but the flatter the lift the more load is on the towers. It’s counterintuitive, yes.
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I am not sure about this lift in particular, but Yan lifts were often overbuilt so they could easily be upgraded from a double to a triple or a triple to a quad. Killington did this with Bear Mountain a number of years ago (installed as a triple and then upgraded to a quad).
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I know this is a triple as of when i went on closing day but it should be a quad because of what is happening with the new high speed six bubble replacing fixed grip triples. This is only one of 4 chair lifts that will go in the wind and only 1 high-speed lift this will get 35 minutes lift lines on windy days. Trust me i did it this season❄️
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Apparently ~100 triple chairs from Tumbleweed and/or Sundance are already staged to go on Heavy Metal.
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This will be the second time that a Yan lift in Vermont was upgraded, simply by changing the chairs. The first was the Bear Mountain Quad at Killington, which began its life as a triple. I think there’s also a lift somewhere out west that was converted in the same way.
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The lift out west that did this is the Magic Chair at Blackcomb, which was converted from a double to a triple in 1994.
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Caples Crest at Kirkwood was upgraded from a double to a triple in the 1980s. Kirk would know more specifics of what they did to make the change.
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It’s not that easy because you need to redo all of the signs, Loading frame and running at a faster speed for more weight on the haul rope.
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Converting a lift from a double to a triple would be more like this: increased braking force on all brakes, increased tension to counteract the higher loads on line, and full load test on the lift. There would definitely be a bunch of behind-the-scenes engineering reviews and calculations to ensure nothing structural would need to be augmented. We had to do a tower pull test (basically testing each tower footer) on our R and S lifts when we swapped out the original Yan carriers to the current CTEC ones because they were heavier, for example. There is also the possibility of changing out tower assemblies bbecause the loads have increased- maybe not in this case as they seem to be bigger than the standard double would warrant- but engineering calculations may reveal some additional loads. Signs, on the other hand, are the easiest part.
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They’re are now on the line!!!!!!!!!!!❄️
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