The base to summit gondola at Mont-Sainte-Anne opened in late 1989.Loading on the turnaround at the bottom terminal.Unloading area in the top terminal building.The upper terminal with cabin parking and other facilities.Looking up the steep part of the line.Two types of towers next to each other.The return bullwheel.Another view of the return station and parking rails.Top bullwheel with a vault drive below.A support tower near the summit.Overview of the summit station.Another view of the drive station.Looking down the long lift line.Lower part of the line.Early CWA cabins with DS grips.A Doppelmayr tower.Middle part of the line.Tower 3.Lower station building.
The larger sheaves are 500mm. I wonder if they were retro fitted? All our lifts that age are all 400mm, but the new Creek and Red have both sizes. The 400mm are on the hold downs and combos and one support assembly. All the rest of the supports are 500mm. Not sure of the exact reason, but the 500mm can handle a lot more load. 400mm is a lot easier to work with.
Probably not retrofitted. Tremblant’s gondola was installed in 1998 and has similar setup. Using 500’s was probably preferred in the design to allow fewer towers/smaller sheave trains.
This lift seems to have had a lot of problems recently. I have no experience at this mountain so would a replacement of the lift be a good idea? Are the incidents due to purely bad luck or a mechanical/operational problem?
Kinda both. Mammoth has had a pretty great safety and operational record on their 8 person Dopplemyer gondola built in the same year, and a pretty large number of similar vintage gondolas haven’t suffered the same issues. Plenty of Von Rolls haven’t had multiple cabin detatches. Most of these larger resorts have mostly stuck to the manufacturer’s maintenance recommendations, and one upside of the new mega resort corps is that they take safety (lawsuits) seriously. Both Vail and Alterra are in regular contact with Dopplemyer and Poma respectively. They’re both willing to exceed the original maintenance with the aid of new advice, and they both install new lifts often enough they stay in good contact and standing with the lift makers. Good enough to get real “extra” advice on what parts to buy, new problems, they stay up on lead times. You get the idea.
That being said, today it’s common to see late 80’s/early 90’s detachable lifts are currently being replaced. The maintenance costs creep up, replacement parts might get a bit harder to find or have longer lead times, a newer design often offers the possibility of better capacity and performance, moderatley experienced mechanics will begin to shift to more familiarity with newer technology… Etc. Eventually it becomes worth it to replace, and at larger resorts that time has been now.
Now if you’re in the sweet spot of not being prepared to replace AND not going out of your way to maintain your 30+ year old detachables for at least 6-8 years… You’re gonna be in a rough place.
While. Most of this statement is true, Mammoth’s Panorama Gondola was built 9-10 years after this Gondola (1998 for the upper section and 1999 for the lower section) and is a UNI-Spacejet vintage, whereas this Gondola more closely resembles the CLD-260 models with it’s DS grips, driveshaft driven tire banks, and chain driven contour compared to Mammoths DT grips, PTO driven tire banks, and full tire driven terminals. You do make a valid point though on Mammoth’s pretty stellar maintenance and safety record as far as I know.
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One of those other facilities surrounding the top station is the start ramp for the UCI World Cup DH track that is run every summer. Kinda cool.
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Note the clearly different sized sheave in picture No. 6. The depression sheaves appear to be 400mm, not sure about the larger sheaves.
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Why use different size sheaves? I note that Hall and Poma did too for a while.
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The larger sheaves are 500mm. I wonder if they were retro fitted? All our lifts that age are all 400mm, but the new Creek and Red have both sizes. The 400mm are on the hold downs and combos and one support assembly. All the rest of the supports are 500mm. Not sure of the exact reason, but the 500mm can handle a lot more load. 400mm is a lot easier to work with.
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Probably not retrofitted. Tremblant’s gondola was installed in 1998 and has similar setup. Using 500’s was probably preferred in the design to allow fewer towers/smaller sheave trains.
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This lift seems to have had a lot of problems recently. I have no experience at this mountain so would a replacement of the lift be a good idea? Are the incidents due to purely bad luck or a mechanical/operational problem?
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Kinda both. Mammoth has had a pretty great safety and operational record on their 8 person Dopplemyer gondola built in the same year, and a pretty large number of similar vintage gondolas haven’t suffered the same issues. Plenty of Von Rolls haven’t had multiple cabin detatches. Most of these larger resorts have mostly stuck to the manufacturer’s maintenance recommendations, and one upside of the new mega resort corps is that they take safety (lawsuits) seriously. Both Vail and Alterra are in regular contact with Dopplemyer and Poma respectively. They’re both willing to exceed the original maintenance with the aid of new advice, and they both install new lifts often enough they stay in good contact and standing with the lift makers. Good enough to get real “extra” advice on what parts to buy, new problems, they stay up on lead times. You get the idea.
That being said, today it’s common to see late 80’s/early 90’s detachable lifts are currently being replaced. The maintenance costs creep up, replacement parts might get a bit harder to find or have longer lead times, a newer design often offers the possibility of better capacity and performance, moderatley experienced mechanics will begin to shift to more familiarity with newer technology… Etc. Eventually it becomes worth it to replace, and at larger resorts that time has been now.
Now if you’re in the sweet spot of not being prepared to replace AND not going out of your way to maintain your 30+ year old detachables for at least 6-8 years… You’re gonna be in a rough place.
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While. Most of this statement is true, Mammoth’s Panorama Gondola was built 9-10 years after this Gondola (1998 for the upper section and 1999 for the lower section) and is a UNI-Spacejet vintage, whereas this Gondola more closely resembles the CLD-260 models with it’s DS grips, driveshaft driven tire banks, and chain driven contour compared to Mammoths DT grips, PTO driven tire banks, and full tire driven terminals. You do make a valid point though on Mammoth’s pretty stellar maintenance and safety record as far as I know.
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Ya know…. Someday I won’t mentally transpose numbers. Not today tho.
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