Towers 1 and 2.Compact Poma return station.Lower station arrival side.Maintenance rail.The gully halfway up.Arriving up top.Top station side view.Lift line overview.Upper lift line from below.Middle part of the line.Drive station.
19 thoughts on “High Lonesome Express – Winter Park, CO”
Donald M. ReifFebruary 22, 2019 / 9:30 am
This lift was converted from a fixed grip quad built in 1985. This is the reason for the portal tower at the bottom, and the reason the chairs have three-T-bar footrests that you see on lifts like Gent’s Ridge.
I remember when this lift was installed in 1985 and then converted to a detachable (1991). Not completely sure about the portal tower in relation to a fixed grip at the bottom but the old Summit Express (Now the Super Gauge) had a portal tower at the top just before the unloading station. Also, the old Summit had the exact same footrests (three T-Bar) and it was never a fixed grip. The two details you mention could be because of the generation of the lift. The old Summit and High-Lonesome fixed grip were installed the same year (1985).
The portal tower is a standard feature of many Poma fixed grip return stations, especially on older lifts. Like Sublette at Jackson Hole:
[img]https://skiliftblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/img_1078.jpg[/img]
And even some newer lifts like Powder at Big White:
The defunct Falcon SuperChair on Peak 10 was a fixed grip quad that was converted into a high speed quad after a single year of operation, and thus had a portal tower:
As for the three-footrests design, well, I think that Poma was experimenting as the normal two t-bars footrest option was also available and the majority of their lifts from that timeframe used those instead.
The three-footrest comfort bars were manufactured until 1985, and the two-footrest design dates from 1986. The portal towers were used on heavily-loaded towers, both in support and compression and on both fixed and detachable lifts.
This lift is always so miserable and windy. This is probably not going to happen, but they should put bubble chairs on this lift. It would make it so much better.
True the lift is windy and the bars on the chairs are terrible designs. Plus the loading to this lift is just terrible because there is two ways that ppl can get in and it causes more crowding on the left slope.
What W.P can do is make this a new HSQ with 90° loading on the right side because there isn’t enough room on the left side.
This lift really does need 90 degree loading. That would make more sense than the two tight 90 degree turns into the loading area. Not to mention those coming from the Eskimo Express and Zephyr Gondola basically have to do a complete 360 while entering the line.
Winter park has many lifts that need to be 90 degrees like eskimo for example. There is no need to do a 180 to get on and they even do 90 degree loading in the summer. Prospector could even do 90 degree loading. But what the resort really needs to do is get new towers for olympia and flip all the chairs so it goes counter-clockwise because loading on olympia sucks.
There were two variants of the Challenger terminal. This is the compact version (seven or eight windows per side), used on all of the Winter Park TB-41s except the Pioneer Express, as well as others like Needles Eye (Killington). It maxes out at 900 fpm.
The longer variant of the Challenger terminal, the one designed for 1,000 fpm lifts, has ten windows.
The terminals on this are slightly smaller than on the Gemini Express, Prospector Express and Olympia Express. There’s seven windows on this, vs. eight on the others.
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This lift was converted from a fixed grip quad built in 1985. This is the reason for the portal tower at the bottom, and the reason the chairs have three-T-bar footrests that you see on lifts like Gent’s Ridge.
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I remember when this lift was installed in 1985 and then converted to a detachable (1991). Not completely sure about the portal tower in relation to a fixed grip at the bottom but the old Summit Express (Now the Super Gauge) had a portal tower at the top just before the unloading station. Also, the old Summit had the exact same footrests (three T-Bar) and it was never a fixed grip. The two details you mention could be because of the generation of the lift. The old Summit and High-Lonesome fixed grip were installed the same year (1985).
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The portal tower is a standard feature of many Poma fixed grip return stations, especially on older lifts. Like Sublette at Jackson Hole:
[img]https://skiliftblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/img_1078.jpg[/img]
And even some newer lifts like Powder at Big White:
[img]https://skiliftblog.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/img_9856.jpg[/img]
The defunct Falcon SuperChair on Peak 10 was a fixed grip quad that was converted into a high speed quad after a single year of operation, and thus had a portal tower:
[img]https://skiliftblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/img_3009.jpg[/img]
As for the three-footrests design, well, I think that Poma was experimenting as the normal two t-bars footrest option was also available and the majority of their lifts from that timeframe used those instead.
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The three-footrest comfort bars were manufactured until 1985, and the two-footrest design dates from 1986. The portal towers were used on heavily-loaded towers, both in support and compression and on both fixed and detachable lifts.
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This lift is always so miserable and windy. This is probably not going to happen, but they should put bubble chairs on this lift. It would make it so much better.
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I think that’d necessitate converting the lift to 90 degree loading and modifying the unload area.
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True the lift is windy and the bars on the chairs are terrible designs. Plus the loading to this lift is just terrible because there is two ways that ppl can get in and it causes more crowding on the left slope.
What W.P can do is make this a new HSQ with 90° loading on the right side because there isn’t enough room on the left side.
Btw this is a suggestion.
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This lift really does need 90 degree loading. That would make more sense than the two tight 90 degree turns into the loading area. Not to mention those coming from the Eskimo Express and Zephyr Gondola basically have to do a complete 360 while entering the line.
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Winter park has many lifts that need to be 90 degrees like eskimo for example. There is no need to do a 180 to get on and they even do 90 degree loading in the summer. Prospector could even do 90 degree loading. But what the resort really needs to do is get new towers for olympia and flip all the chairs so it goes counter-clockwise because loading on olympia sucks.
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Are you saying left side loading looking at the bottom terminal from behind looking at the line or looking down from the summit?
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Why is this lift so slow at only 800 fpm. Is it because it was converted from a fixed grip?
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There were two variants of the Challenger terminal. This is the compact version (seven or eight windows per side), used on all of the Winter Park TB-41s except the Pioneer Express, as well as others like Needles Eye (Killington). It maxes out at 900 fpm.
The longer variant of the Challenger terminal, the one designed for 1,000 fpm lifts, has ten windows.
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Short terminals.
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I made this Video…
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I made a complete overhaul of the High Lonesome Express on the Map. Check it out at the link below…
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1JcCC-f3ZtSCIYd9NcbPmAoZ8OZ6cAfhu&usp=sharing
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This lift got a brand new tensioning system over the summer.
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This lift has the same size terminals as all the other high speed quads? Excluding Explorer and Pioneer. It only runs 800fpm rather than 900.
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The terminals on this are slightly smaller than on the Gemini Express, Prospector Express and Olympia Express. There’s seven windows on this, vs. eight on the others.
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I’m seeing some old sheaves from the fixed-grip quad, not to mention that in 2022, LPOA replaced the sheaves on the depression tower in the gully
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