I’ve noticed that on this lift and a few other Riblet lifts that I’ve ridden that some of the towers appear to have weights on them. Does anyone know what these are for? Seems to me that they put them on leaning towers more frequently than straight ones.
Many ski hills put pads on the bottom of ski lift towers. Are you sure that you see weights, could it be that the extra wrap around the lift towers (at the tower base) is in fact a tower pad, to give some padding in case a skier hits the tower? Just asking.,
It’s a vibration dampener. I can tell you from experience how much those tower caps buzzed. Having the weight attached helped mitigate that, to a point. None of the old Riblets I worked on had them, but I thought from time to time they should have.
I noticed something the last time I rode up this – There seem to be two different variants of riblet chairs on this lift, there are the ones you see on Brooks and Seventh Heaven with the T-shaped pole on the bottom of the chair, and these odd ones you see in these pictures with the two metal beams and the hole. I’ve noticed on the ones with the hole on the bottom there appears to be a weld about 2/3 of the way up the chair stem. The welds appear to be right where the top of bail would have started, which gave me the idea that these chairs were initially bail chairs but were later modified to the center pole chairs later on. The ones with the T-shaped frame also appear to be in a lot better condition than that of the ones that have the holes in the bottom, which vibrate a lot more and have multiple layers of chipped paint in yellow and white. Anyone know why this is?
Not sure those carriers were ever anything else but centre-pole. I’ve seen that weld before elsewhere- I think Riblet bent the upper portion of the hanger then welded it to whichever lower portion the customer wanted. Could be wrong.
@ben It’s a moot point now, but the PNW isn’t exactly comfort-bar-friendly. Informal polling (but over the span of 25 adult years skiing 3-7 days a week all winter) even on detaches says 20-30% bar usage on beginner chairs, less elsewhere. Vail might not be good at reading the room, but if they ever considered it, they probly saw both the dearth of centre-pole comfort bars available and the fact they’d all sit unused for the rest of Kehr’s usable life and figured it was an unneeded expenditure.
This is apparently the next lift at Stevens Pass that will be upgraded. Given that the 2022 slate has already been announced, I would guess 2023 is reasonable. I think it will be a fixed-grip quad.
Hi!
I would like one of the chairs from Kehr’s. Who would know and how can find out more. Thanks!
From an avid snowboard bum who has been riding stevens with friends and family for 20+ years.
I’ve got so many great memories on that chair and run, I would love to donate funds and/or purchase a chair.
Candice
Lift Blog 
I’ve noticed that on this lift and a few other Riblet lifts that I’ve ridden that some of the towers appear to have weights on them. Does anyone know what these are for? Seems to me that they put them on leaning towers more frequently than straight ones.
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Many ski hills put pads on the bottom of ski lift towers. Are you sure that you see weights, could it be that the extra wrap around the lift towers (at the tower base) is in fact a tower pad, to give some padding in case a skier hits the tower? Just asking.,
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It’s not the pad, it appears to be a large metal cylinder connected to a rod attached to the top of the tower. I’ve only seen them on Riblet towers.
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It’s a vibration dampener. I can tell you from experience how much those tower caps buzzed. Having the weight attached helped mitigate that, to a point. None of the old Riblets I worked on had them, but I thought from time to time they should have.
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I noticed something the last time I rode up this – There seem to be two different variants of riblet chairs on this lift, there are the ones you see on Brooks and Seventh Heaven with the T-shaped pole on the bottom of the chair, and these odd ones you see in these pictures with the two metal beams and the hole. I’ve noticed on the ones with the hole on the bottom there appears to be a weld about 2/3 of the way up the chair stem. The welds appear to be right where the top of bail would have started, which gave me the idea that these chairs were initially bail chairs but were later modified to the center pole chairs later on. The ones with the T-shaped frame also appear to be in a lot better condition than that of the ones that have the holes in the bottom, which vibrate a lot more and have multiple layers of chipped paint in yellow and white. Anyone know why this is?
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Update: Doesn’t look like any of the parallel beams are there anymore, seems like they all got replaced by ex-Brooks chairs and they’re all Ts now.
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Not sure those carriers were ever anything else but centre-pole. I’ve seen that weld before elsewhere- I think Riblet bent the upper portion of the hanger then welded it to whichever lower portion the customer wanted. Could be wrong.
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Design speed of 500 fpm
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Anyone know when/why the name of this lift was changed? As a kid I recall it being Big Chief and having yellow chairs.
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Looks like it was renamed Kehr’s in 2009: https://www.heraldnet.com/news/the-father-of-stevens-pass-gets-a-chairlift-in-his-name/
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Good stuff. Thanks for the link!
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Video:
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Wow, still no “safety” bars!? It seems that the beauty of an original Riblet centre-pole double isn’t lost on even Vail Resorts.
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Seventh Heaven is an experts-only lift, and Kehrs only has one blue run off of it.
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Well, that didn’t seem to matter when it came time to refit the Jupiter double at PCMR.
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@ben It’s a moot point now, but the PNW isn’t exactly comfort-bar-friendly. Informal polling (but over the span of 25 adult years skiing 3-7 days a week all winter) even on detaches says 20-30% bar usage on beginner chairs, less elsewhere. Vail might not be good at reading the room, but if they ever considered it, they probly saw both the dearth of centre-pole comfort bars available and the fact they’d all sit unused for the rest of Kehr’s usable life and figured it was an unneeded expenditure.
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This is apparently the next lift at Stevens Pass that will be upgraded. Given that the 2022 slate has already been announced, I would guess 2023 is reasonable. I think it will be a fixed-grip quad.
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Peter – You should do a post on Top 10 biggest breakovers! This one comes to mind along with 7th Heaven
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I was thinking about Blackfoot from Grand Targhee, but I realize they’ve since replaced that chair. Riblet breakovers sure were something.
https://skiliftblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/img_2868.jpg?w=994&h=746
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Hi!
I would like one of the chairs from Kehr’s. Who would know and how can find out more. Thanks!
From an avid snowboard bum who has been riding stevens with friends and family for 20+ years.
I’ve got so many great memories on that chair and run, I would love to donate funds and/or purchase a chair.
Candice
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Interesting, they used to have ticket barriers at Stevens Pass, wonder why they switched to the guns.
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