This Doppelmayr platter lift provides a convenient link between the Tahoe Zephyr Express and Lookout Mountain.Lift line.Top station.Tension unit.View down the line.Lower lift line.T4.Fixed return and recycled Yan operator house.
The access to a groomed cat track trail called Backdoor cuts through the lift line a bit more than halfway up. I’ve seen a couple of impressive collisions between people trying to get there and people riding the platter. Never have seen a trail cutting through a surface lift line anywhere else.
Trails cross surface lifts relatively frequently. At Black Mountain of Maine, Lower Rapid passes straight through the unloading area of the T-bar, then passes under the T-bar again just before returning the base area. Mount Abram has two trails which cross under their T-bar.
The platter runs every day and does get a fair amount of use. Lookout Bypass is long and fairly flat, and in spring conditions it’s a tedious slog. Mountain access is Northstar’s second-greatest weakness (after the lack of pitch and variety), and the neither the platter nor Lookout Bypass options for accessing Lookout are very good. Northstar’s master plan calls for a lift from the village to the top of the platter, which would help considerably.
What are your thoughts on a lift from the base of Backside/Promised Land to the top of Lookout Mountain? I know any potential terrain under the lift would be entirely south facing, but it would definitely make it extremely easy to access Martis Camp from the Backside. I remember thinking it would be a good idea last time I skied Northstar.
I love the idea, because getting from the Backside to Martis is difficult in the current configuration, though they’re not far apart as the crow flies. Some of the resulting terrain would be primarily southwest-facing. The landing spot for that hypothetical lift might be somewhere over near the bend in the Schwarzstrasse run rather than up to the top of the Martis lift. Martis is a fair bit lower than the top of the knob, and the elevation difference would make it hard to get from Martis to any new terrain under your new lift.
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The access to a groomed cat track trail called Backdoor cuts through the lift line a bit more than halfway up. I’ve seen a couple of impressive collisions between people trying to get there and people riding the platter. Never have seen a trail cutting through a surface lift line anywhere else.
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Trails cross surface lifts relatively frequently. At Black Mountain of Maine, Lower Rapid passes straight through the unloading area of the T-bar, then passes under the T-bar again just before returning the base area. Mount Abram has two trails which cross under their T-bar.
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Trails cutting through surface lifts are very common in Europe.
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FYI, I posted a picture of one here from last Friday: https://www.alpinforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=144&t=64314&start=25#p5285604
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How much use does this see nowadays? I get the impression most people use the Lookout Bypass trail to Washoe and completely skip the platter.
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The platter runs every day and does get a fair amount of use. Lookout Bypass is long and fairly flat, and in spring conditions it’s a tedious slog. Mountain access is Northstar’s second-greatest weakness (after the lack of pitch and variety), and the neither the platter nor Lookout Bypass options for accessing Lookout are very good. Northstar’s master plan calls for a lift from the village to the top of the platter, which would help considerably.
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What are your thoughts on a lift from the base of Backside/Promised Land to the top of Lookout Mountain? I know any potential terrain under the lift would be entirely south facing, but it would definitely make it extremely easy to access Martis Camp from the Backside. I remember thinking it would be a good idea last time I skied Northstar.
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I love the idea, because getting from the Backside to Martis is difficult in the current configuration, though they’re not far apart as the crow flies. Some of the resulting terrain would be primarily southwest-facing. The landing spot for that hypothetical lift might be somewhere over near the bend in the Schwarzstrasse run rather than up to the top of the Martis lift. Martis is a fair bit lower than the top of the knob, and the elevation difference would make it hard to get from Martis to any new terrain under your new lift.
Sadly, even Northstar’s pie-in-the-sky master plan doesn’t contemplate better connectivity between Backside and Martis: https://www.yourtahoelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/northstar-master-plan.jpg
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another place a trial cuts through a surface lift is at ski vorlage in Quebec, however the t-bar no longer operates.
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