The Keetley Express was the main out of base lift constructed in Deer Valley’s East Village expansion.The lift features heated green seats, bubbles and an LED screen.View riding out of the East Village.A conical support tower manufacturer in Austria.Breakover towers 14, 15 and 16.Nearing the summit on Keetley Point.D-Line chair with green seat backs.Inside the bottom station.Tension system at the return.Lift overview.View back down the long lift line.Tower 16.T19.Arriving at the drive station.Control cabinets in the drive operator house.Doppelmayr connect touch screen and controls.Outside operator buttons.This lift does not feature a direct drive but rather a traditional gearbox.AC electric motor.View toward Mayflower from the top station.View from the summit.Diesel generator for backup power.A chair passing tower 21.The top terminal sits right next to Galena Express.Work chair and tunnel to future parking facility.Unloading area.Side view of the top station on Keetley Point.The bottom station in front of Grand Hyatt Deer Valley.Lift line parallel to the Hoodoo Express.Lower station overview.View riding up the middle part of the line.Tower 11.Passing tower 12.A bubble carrier on the line.Combination assemblies on tower 13.View from tower 16.Looking back at the first big breakover.Tower 18.Upper lift line and Sultan Express seen from Aurora.The bottom terminal right next to Hoodoo Express.Tower 10.View riding up the upper lift line.Conical tower 18.Tower 21 and Galena Express.UNI-G and D-Line detachables side by side.Upper lift line seen from above.View back down near the base area.Looking back at tower 13.Another view of the drive terminal.
Three stop buttons because when things are going badly, quickly, it’s best to have plenty of options to react. “Stop” does what you think. “Emergency Stop” stops, but stops faster and more aggressively. “Emergency Shutdown” is like pulling the plug. It might stop faster, it might stop slower, but the idea is you use this button if the first two don’t work.
Nope. They’ve been using knobs for a while. One has typically 3 steps, Slow 1, Slow 2 (more slow than slow 1), and Slow 3 (more slow than slow slow). The other is a dial that you can just slightly slow things down or “fine tune” the speed. The knob that’s set slowest “wins”.
Yep. And I’d love to see a resort that actually takes those keys out of the lift and actually controls who has access to them.
Yep, Reset Operation (resetting a stop button, stop gate, etc) and Reset System (resetting a tower fault, system fault, etc).
I can’t comment, that’s been a new addition since the last time I worked on a D-Connect lift.
In my experience, Emergency Stops are no faster or aggressive than a Normal Stop, they just use a hydraulic brake on the bullwheel instead of gearbox braking, and are only necessary to hit when a Normal Stop fails to stop the lift. E-Stops actually have a longer stopping distance than Normal Stops. Perhaps Doppelmayr lifts are different, but this is how the LPA lifts I have experience with work.
This is how Doppelmayr does things, and how I explain it to new lifties and students.
Normal stop: decelerates the lift on a predetermined deceleration rate via the drive, sets the service brake at zero speed, then disconnects the drive.
Emergency stop: same as the normal but with a steeper decel ramp.
Emergency shutdown: Disconnects the drive immediately and sets the emergency (bullwheel) brake. Stopping distance is then dependent upon lift load, how fast the brake sets, and how tight the brake is set up.
LPOA does not have a separate emergency stop button, but does program a steeper decel ramp (faster stop) on certain faults such as zone and cadence faults.
I think deer valley didn’t go direct drive to save cost. Alterra are already spending a lot of money on the expansion anyways and I think maybe for the gondola they’ll go d line given its length.
You can’t get a D-line with a quad chair. Alterra want to have the D-line look there so have added the D-line terminal ends to the UNI-G terminal next to it. I guess they would get a D-line quad if it was available.
We have a number of the Baldor motors and they look a little different to that. Maybe just be some different options. We have had some issue with these and I heard Doppelmayr might try a different ABB motor or a different brand.
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What a nice looking lift. Too bad there aren’t any green bubbles.
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Nor are there any green sheaves. 😂
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I think manufacturers should make green or purple bubbles, they would look fire.
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I would like to see some more lighter colors like yellow and white
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Yellow already exists, see Super Angel LX: https://liftblog.com/super-angel-express-sunshine-village-ab/
White would be an insane bubble colour, it might resemble grey tho.
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Being more familiar with LP and other similar controls. I noticed some buttons on the controls that seem weird.
1. Three stop buttons I usually see 2 or 1.
2. No slow or fast buttons only 2 speed knobs.
3. lots of keys.
4. 2 reset buttons.
5. 2 buttons with red border and fire symbol. (maybe fire suppression system?)
That’s all I see.
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In my experience, Emergency Stops are no faster or aggressive than a Normal Stop, they just use a hydraulic brake on the bullwheel instead of gearbox braking, and are only necessary to hit when a Normal Stop fails to stop the lift. E-Stops actually have a longer stopping distance than Normal Stops. Perhaps Doppelmayr lifts are different, but this is how the LPA lifts I have experience with work.
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This is how Doppelmayr does things, and how I explain it to new lifties and students.
Normal stop: decelerates the lift on a predetermined deceleration rate via the drive, sets the service brake at zero speed, then disconnects the drive.
Emergency stop: same as the normal but with a steeper decel ramp.
Emergency shutdown: Disconnects the drive immediately and sets the emergency (bullwheel) brake. Stopping distance is then dependent upon lift load, how fast the brake sets, and how tight the brake is set up.
LPOA does not have a separate emergency stop button, but does program a steeper decel ramp (faster stop) on certain faults such as zone and cadence faults.
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Compared to other D-Lines, this certainly has more than the usual allotment of towers.
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I’m surprised this lift doesn’t have Direct Drive
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Deer Valley probably decided against using a direct drive for any number of reasons.
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What was the reason for not going with a direct drive?
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Mostly cost, Direct Drives are incredibly expensive…
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I think deer valley didn’t go direct drive to save cost. Alterra are already spending a lot of money on the expansion anyways and I think maybe for the gondola they’ll go d line given its length.
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My impression is that the gondolas and six packs are going to be D-Lines. The high speed quads are going to stick to being UNI-Gs.
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You can’t get a D-line with a quad chair. Alterra want to have the D-line look there so have added the D-line terminal ends to the UNI-G terminal next to it. I guess they would get a D-line quad if it was available.
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Alterras choice in putting rectangular ends on the UNI-G is sure to create plenty of confusion for the posters on this site who don’t read…
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@peter, Did you happen to get the brand of drive and motor they used on that lift?
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It’s most likely ABB/Baldor. It’s got an ABB blower and they’ve been standardized on ABB drives for a long time.
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We have a number of the Baldor motors and they look a little different to that. Maybe just be some different options. We have had some issue with these and I heard Doppelmayr might try a different ABB motor or a different brand.
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where will they Paint the name of the lifts? The Terminal is glass.
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On Big Sky’s D-Lines they put it on the end above the screen, opposite of the Doppelmayr logo
<img src=”https://preview.redd.it/unofficial-snow-report-opening-day-wed-nov-22-v0-hzjr4oo51z1c1.jpg?width=768&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0fa8a63d5997d14bd7718dfe81e8db45ecae058b” title=”Swift Current 6″ width=”500 />
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Does anyone know when the chair barn is to be constructed?
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my guess would be during the summer months while they’re working on 6 other lifts including a two stage gondola
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this might be the only D-Line I’ve seen without a direct drive
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Fitz 8 at WB also does not have a Direct Drive
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Whistler, Targhee and Mammoth (x2) all have D-Lines with conventional gearboxes.
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Also Disney Skyliner.
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Park City, take notes. A lift like this would be amazing there
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This is what Silverlode 8 would’ve been.
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Silverlode was never going to have the bubbles, but it would have been cool.
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They tried to install an eight passenger D-Line in 2022. The town said no.
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Beautiful piece of engineering. I love these D-Lines.
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Gondola is going D-line & Direct Drive. Opening winter 25/26
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