A new style Doppelmayr control pedestal.The tower tubes were re-used from a previous double-double.Upper part of the lift line.Lower part of the line.Tower 8 is the only depress tower.Middle lift line.The bottom terminal is well uphill of the old loading location.Doppelmayr Alpen-Star station.View up from the old base terminal location.Return station seen from below.View from the top terminal.Unloading area.Towers 14-15 and the top terminal.Side view of the bottom terminal area.Loading carpet and motor room.View up the line.Alpen-Star drive station.Motor room and lift line.
The towers weren’t reused from the double-double, but the footings were. I think the towers look kind of weird with the super wide base plates relative to the width of the tower.
To be honest, I don’t like this lift at all, even though I haven’t ridden it yet and there are several reasons. I don’t know why they moved up the bottom terminal. The old location allowed for the gondola and beginner lifts to be separate, and now that area is going to be even more cramped than before with perfectly good and unused space right below. This lift does not increase capacity, or reduce ride time compared to what it replaced, and the old lifts did not have reliability issues (unlike several other ORDA lifts) so it was in no way the most important project for ORDA to do this year. This really should’ve been a detachable for easy loading and unloading. The old lifts were a 10+ minute ride with all the stops and slow downs that were inevitable on a beginner lift. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it get converted like the Superchief was after just 7 years.
I spoke to a liftie about the replacement (He was the first one to inform me of the replacement). He said that was the original plan but it didn’t work out.
Not usually, but if that’s the pipe that was available, I’d guess they would. Spiral pipe seemed to be pretty common in the 80s- usually on Yans, but our A-1 lift also has some.
I found out some more information, and now this lift makes more sense as to why it was built in 2019 and why they moved the base up.
If you think of the lift itself, this would not have even been close to the most important lift to build at an ORDA mountain. They have less reliable lifts than the old 1/2 that desperately need replacement.
The bottom was moved up so they can put the magic carpet down there. They did not mention this in the original press release, but it is possibly the most significant on-mountain experience benefit of the entire project. The magic carpet used to be located under the gondola where the Lower Deer Run trail comes in. This location was really in the way and was bad for skier flow. It made Lower Deer Run have a flat entrance and merge into Iroquois. Now, skiers from Lower Deer Run will be able to go down where the bunny hill was which is a much better route. The magic carpet is also more accessible from the lodge, and this lift is more accessible from the magic carpet than the old ones were.
It made sense to reconfigure the whole base area when they replaced the lodge, so they had to move the lift base up. Instead of modifying a 37 year old lift, they just replaced it. Though the capacity, speed, and ride time won’t be improved, there are benefits of having a quad over a double. The biggest one is probably that fewer bystanders have to take ski school kids up the lift. One instructor can now take 3 up at once.
After speaking to a liftie (Same one as last time that informed me about the double-double replacement), he told me that it was to potentially make space for a new lift going from the Discovery base to the top of Yahoo replacing Lift 7. Obviously these plans haven’t been confirmed, but neither was this project until well after the end of the year.
This is a tough lift, besides the fact that is tops at 5 times each trip, it is also dangerous. Placing four day 1 skiers on one fixed grip chair (with a steep exit) is a recipe for trouble. Every time we pack the car to leave we watch people crash on their way down, not get off, jump because the missed the ramp, or see a great pileup on the offload ramp as two or three chairs in a row people just fall while unloading. They made a mistake with this one.
There were a number of problems with the original lifts. Double-Doubles require more energy, more staff and more maintenance for the same capacity of a quad. Also, the chairs on 1 and 2 were incredibly narrow and not beginner-friendly.
The top terminal was either misdesigned or misconstructed – this is widely known among employees and passholders – the bullwheel is past the high point of the ramp resulting in shorter skiers like the beginner kids who often ride this lift experiencing a 6″-1″ drop to the snow regardless of conditions. There’s also no safe way for operators to enter and exit the top control booth without walking the ramp. The lift was also extremely unreliable for its first season with continual stoppages _beyond_ those caused by beginners being dumped at the top, though it seems like they may have that tamed now.
Lift Blog 
The towers weren’t reused from the double-double, but the footings were. I think the towers look kind of weird with the super wide base plates relative to the width of the tower.
To be honest, I don’t like this lift at all, even though I haven’t ridden it yet and there are several reasons. I don’t know why they moved up the bottom terminal. The old location allowed for the gondola and beginner lifts to be separate, and now that area is going to be even more cramped than before with perfectly good and unused space right below. This lift does not increase capacity, or reduce ride time compared to what it replaced, and the old lifts did not have reliability issues (unlike several other ORDA lifts) so it was in no way the most important project for ORDA to do this year. This really should’ve been a detachable for easy loading and unloading. The old lifts were a 10+ minute ride with all the stops and slow downs that were inevitable on a beginner lift. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it get converted like the Superchief was after just 7 years.
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I was thinking the towers were removed, galvanized, and put back up? New Doppelmayr towers don’t normally have spiral tubes.
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But these towers look so much narrower than the old ones.
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Do they do this design on fixed grips?
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I spoke to a liftie about the replacement (He was the first one to inform me of the replacement). He said that was the original plan but it didn’t work out.
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Not usually, but if that’s the pipe that was available, I’d guess they would. Spiral pipe seemed to be pretty common in the 80s- usually on Yans, but our A-1 lift also has some.
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After seeing the towers in person, the tower bases do look like that of the old lift.
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I found out some more information, and now this lift makes more sense as to why it was built in 2019 and why they moved the base up.
If you think of the lift itself, this would not have even been close to the most important lift to build at an ORDA mountain. They have less reliable lifts than the old 1/2 that desperately need replacement.
The bottom was moved up so they can put the magic carpet down there. They did not mention this in the original press release, but it is possibly the most significant on-mountain experience benefit of the entire project. The magic carpet used to be located under the gondola where the Lower Deer Run trail comes in. This location was really in the way and was bad for skier flow. It made Lower Deer Run have a flat entrance and merge into Iroquois. Now, skiers from Lower Deer Run will be able to go down where the bunny hill was which is a much better route. The magic carpet is also more accessible from the lodge, and this lift is more accessible from the magic carpet than the old ones were.
It made sense to reconfigure the whole base area when they replaced the lodge, so they had to move the lift base up. Instead of modifying a 37 year old lift, they just replaced it. Though the capacity, speed, and ride time won’t be improved, there are benefits of having a quad over a double. The biggest one is probably that fewer bystanders have to take ski school kids up the lift. One instructor can now take 3 up at once.
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After speaking to a liftie (Same one as last time that informed me about the double-double replacement), he told me that it was to potentially make space for a new lift going from the Discovery base to the top of Yahoo replacing Lift 7. Obviously these plans haven’t been confirmed, but neither was this project until well after the end of the year.
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I noticed the new control design used on the lift, but I am curious: does this lift have Dopp Connect?
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Beautiful photos, well done. It’s a sexy looking lift.
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Could the towers be from the original superchief that was removed in 06, or was that lift relocated somewhere else?
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It was relocated to Catamount where it became the Ridge Quad.
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This is a tough lift, besides the fact that is tops at 5 times each trip, it is also dangerous. Placing four day 1 skiers on one fixed grip chair (with a steep exit) is a recipe for trouble. Every time we pack the car to leave we watch people crash on their way down, not get off, jump because the missed the ramp, or see a great pileup on the offload ramp as two or three chairs in a row people just fall while unloading. They made a mistake with this one.
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There were a number of problems with the original lifts. Double-Doubles require more energy, more staff and more maintenance for the same capacity of a quad. Also, the chairs on 1 and 2 were incredibly narrow and not beginner-friendly.
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The top terminal was either misdesigned or misconstructed – this is widely known among employees and passholders – the bullwheel is past the high point of the ramp resulting in shorter skiers like the beginner kids who often ride this lift experiencing a 6″-1″ drop to the snow regardless of conditions. There’s also no safe way for operators to enter and exit the top control booth without walking the ramp. The lift was also extremely unreliable for its first season with continual stoppages _beyond_ those caused by beginners being dumped at the top, though it seems like they may have that tamed now.
This one’s shaping up to be quite the lemon.
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You’re not supposed to unload at the bullwheel. You should be unloading at the idler sheave which is where the slope of the ramp begins.
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