There is only one tower left standing from Bum’s Gulch. It can be seen on the westbound side of the Mt. Rose Hwy between Sky Tavern and Slide Mountain Road (Winters Creek Lodge side of Mt. Rose). I’ll try to head up there and get a picture to share.
The article did say they got county approval to build a terrain park lift on the slide side, which is the east side at the Winters Creek Lodge. However, this was before the April 2020 USFS decision on their Atoma expansion. One of the proposed alternatives had them replacing Wizard and Galena with a “Pondelena Lift” so it was likely they intended to relocate Wizard or Galena to be the new terrain park lift. But the alternative that was selected by the Forest Service was for a 2 stage detachable chair with an angled mid station from the top of Wizard to the bottom of the Atoma expansion while leaving Wizard and Galena in place. The new terrain park chair may have to wait until those lifts are replaced somewhere down the line.
The master plan for Mt. Rose was to have the a detachable quad go from where the Ponderosa lift base was located (now where Wizard lift base is located) to about 300 feet above the end of the Galena lift. The existing Galena lift was to then be relocated to the “Slide side” to operate parallel to Zephyr 6 to service the Double Down terrain park. This may explain why the Ponderosa name was not retained when it was shifted to a different alignment and renamed Wizard. However, Mt. Rose seems to have shifted its focus to get the Atoma expansion completed first, so it may become a priority to work on this part of the master plan after Atoma is completed..
Slide Mountain (Reno Ski Bowl) opened on 11/25/53 with two Ringer double chairs “Lower” and “Upper”, built by Sierra Machinery Co. The lower chair reveiced an additional tower in 1954 after the new road was built and was operating weekends only by 1959 (not sure when it was finally abandoned, but here is the last tower standing: https://goo.gl/maps/7Hyq4PpcEUQmYero7). The other Ringer, Upper or Pioneer, broke down twice during the 70/71 season. They couldn’t immediately afford a whole new lift for $270,000. In 1971, everything but the towers and terminals was replaced and the Yan platter was installed. New terminals were put in in 1972. Slide Mt. and Mt. Rose sold their first joint ticket for the 73/74 season for $10. Slide Mountain’s 1965 double was called “Little Red” and was “designed by Miner-Denver”. The other double chair “Overland Limited” was opened for the 63/64 season (a Riblet?). Pioneer and Overland were replaced by Zephyr in 1989.
I do think that they’re both related. Their designs were pretty much identical and they weren’t around at the same time. Telecar’s last year of building lifts was 1966 and Miner-Denver’s first was 1967. What I wonder is how Poma and Telecar were related. Poma’s first installations in the United States were branded as “Poma-Telecar” A few years later, Telecar and Poma were separate entities. I would think that Telecar would have been introducing Poma in the US, but that was the first mention of Telecar. Does anyone know the history of Telecar?
Here is what I know. Pomalift was incorporated in 1954 by A-Basin’s Larry Jump after he met Jean Pomagalski. At first he only sold Pomagalski’s surface lifts, but was looking for other ways of transportation too. Jump became a licensee for Carlevaro & Savio gondolas in 1957 under the brand Telecar. Their first installation was the gondola at Wildcat, NH. Pomagalski developed his first double chair in 1958. Maybe because Jump did mix parts from both C&S and Poma for the Killington Chairlift in 1959 and didn’t clearly separate both brands in his marketing, the term Poma-Telecar made its way from Australia to the US. Dulmison of Sydney was the Australian licensee for Poma and they advertised both brands as “pomalift” and “poma-telecar”. Chairlifts in the US were originally a product of Pomalift (but again, named as “Poma-Tele-Chair”). Likely in 1963, C&S started selling its own chairlifts, which must have upset Jump. He discontinued the cooperation and became the representative for Miner-Denver. So my guess is that MD was already in the business. I don’t know how the story goes for Telecar and MD after that, but Pomalift was absorbed by Mountain Lift Co. in 1965. Pomagalski bought the brand Pomalift back in 1968 and merged together with Poma Aerial Tramways Inc. (Poma’s representative for the East Coast out of Woodstock, VT) and Heron Eng. to form Heron Poma Co. in 1970.
Mt. Rose Resort opened to the public on 01/22/66 with free lift rides (ribbon cutting was the Sunday before). It had two double chairs (Northwest Passage, 4,800 ft / 1,500 ft & Ponderosa, 3,200 ft / 300 ft) and a T-bar (Kit Carson, later named Alphorn, 2,200 ft / 800 ft). Maybe those were made by Riblet? The T-bar wasn’t ready for opening day. The NP chair had to be evacuated on its first day due to electrical problems. Mt. Rose’s president Luescher already had plans to replace the T-bar and install three more lifts (two double chairs and two T-bar). One of his first ideas was to build a gondola or tramway to Mt. Rose inlcuding a revolving restaurant on top of a space needle. The year before, Luescher told the press that he wants to close Sky Tavern for three years-while developing Mt. Rose Resort-as it is outmoded. After some discussions, Sky Tavern was leased to the Reno Recreation junior program for $10,000 / year. There were also plans to for a joint ticket from day 1, but for some reasons those plans were delayed until the 73/74 season (but it was already included the year before by paying $1 extra). A Poma was installed in 1971, but there was no new lift in 1973. The first two double chairs were likely replaced by the CTEC quad and Yan’s triple, but that is yet to be confirmed. I have found no sign of a Yan double chair named Ponderosa.
Ponderosa could’ve been that Yan that predated the ones at Squaw Valley, the platter at Mammoth, and the platters at Sky Tavern. A new company having that many installations at major ski resorts at that time and not having a single previous installation looks a little odd to me. Especially from Squaw Valley who had previously bought from more well known manufacturers at that time. Usually a new start up company would go local before getting bigger and Ponderosa could have been that installation.
You know that Pomagalski and Yan were working together at Squaw before LE was founded and that LE used parts from Poma in the beginning? LE didn’t come out of the blue, but it would for sure be interesting to see a proof for your theory.
I would guess that the lift from the pic you’re mentioning is the old Northwest Passage triple. Those sheaves, towers, and chairs are definitely from 1984, along with the drive/tension matching the description in the spreadsheet. The lift in the pic looks to be a little high up for Ponderosa. Ponderosa didn’t end along a ridge either. The lift in the pic also looks to be a triple, though it’s a little hard to see.
The Ponderosa double, the Northwest double, and the Alphorn T-Bar were made by the same manufacturer. Not Riblet (had solid crossarms for towers and not the cantilever type that is typical of Riblet crossarms) and also not YAN because these lifts were installed prior to 1968 (when YAN installed its first ski lifts at Squaw Valley). All three lifts were driven and tensioned at the bottom terminal. I remember Northwest getting an auxiliary drive in about 1979 due to the prior year having several motor issues that required rope evacuations. All three had operator houses and the bottom tower (Tower 1) that the bottom crossarm could be adjusted.
What I found interesting about the Alphorn T-Bar is that it had a European feel to it because all but Tower 1 were portal towers. The T-Bar’s path is the Mineshaft Run on the map. The load was on the south side of Ponderosa run while the bottom terminal was on the other side of the same run. I remember as a little kid trying to hit the T-Bar that hung over the run with my ski pole (and always missed). The upper unload and terminal were to the left of Jetta run. You could see the top terminal from Lakeview between Towers 14 and 16.
From the way you describe the T-bar, it sounds like the lift was an SLI. That would make sense because SLI did have quite a few installations in the Tahoe area.
Nope, it was not an SLI. It had the same sheaves and color scheme as Pondo and Northwest. I wish I still had access to the forum comments on skilifts.org, because someone told me there who manufactured Pondo. If I knew how to contact Kurt Buser, owner at Mt. Rose, I would ask him as well. There was also a YouTube video Peter posted a few months ago that featured the Lift Ops Manager at Heavenly who retired after 40 years. This gentleman said in the video that he came to the U.S. to build the lifts at Mt. Rose prior to joining Heavenly. RT (a lift ops guy who comments on this site) may be able to provide more info on this gentleman because he probably worked with him when RT was working at Heavenly. Perhaps he knows how to contact this gentleman to get the full story on the manufacturer of these three lifts at Mt. Rose.
As I side note, I always thought SLI lifts looked cool because they were sleeker and stylish for their time.
Did someone notice the last post about the Hunsucker Ski Lift Co.? I guess that means Paul Hunziker and his Western Lift and Crane was involved at Mt. Rose. And that would fit to the Heavenly video where he says it was a Swiss guy.
I just got the confirmation that Paul Hunziker built the first three lifts at Mt. Rose (the exact name of his company unfortunately is unknown). He also built at least one lift at Mammoth…
Hunziker Lift, Inc. (1965-1967): Hunziker went on to build two double chairs and a T-bar at Mt. Rose, California under his own brand. This is the first confirmed used of the Luck grips. The T-bar’s installation was delayed due to a design error with the crossarms and sheave assemblies. After only three lifts, Hunziker closed his shop in Provo, Utah.
Thanks to whomever downloaded the information from the skilifts.org blog. Full disclusure: I was Phoenix on that site. I used a nickname online back then and I remember writing those posts. The YAN/Hybrid data on the lifts were based on information I could find out at the time, but I was glad the person answered my question and mentioned Hunziker. It all makes sense now, especially the European influence with Alphorn T-Bar. I have some old super-8 film of me when I learned to ski at Mt. Rose in the mid-1970s. I will look through them and see if there are any of the lifts I can get a screenshot of to share. I know there is one of me boarding Pondo in, I believe, 1977. Hopefully, there are pics of the T-Bar and Northwest. :-)
The original Ponderosa, the second Northwest, and a t-bar called the Alphorn T-Bar were built by a company called Hunziker Lift.
Here is some info about Paul Hunziker and Hunziker Lift.
Hunziker Lift, Inc. (Existence: 1965-1967) Hunziker went on to build two double chairs and a T-bar at Mt. Rose, Nevada under his own brand. The T-bar’s installation and opening day was delayed due to a design error with the crossarms and sheave assemblies. After only three lifts, Hunziker closed his shop in Provo, Utah.
Info to add to spreadsheet
Northwest Passage Double Chair
Manufacturer: Hunziker Lift
Length: 4761 feet.
Vertical: 1400 feet.
Number of Carriers: 181
Number of Towers: 17
Installed: 1965
Removed: 1985
Alphorn T-Bar
Manufacturer: Hunziker Lift
Length: About 1700 feet.
Vertical: 800 feet.
Number of Carriers: Unknown
Number of Towers: 6
Installed: 1965
Removed: 1986
Ponderosa Double Chair
Manufacturer: Hunziker Lift
Length: 2980 feet.
Vertical: 450 feet.
Number of Carriers: 56
Number of Towers: 10
Installed: 1965
Removed: 1993
This wasn’t the “second” Northwest lift; the Hunziker lift was the first. It is listed in error on this page that states the Northwest lift was first built in 1952 when this was actually as Chair 2 (built by Ringer) on the Slide side when it was Reno Ski Bowl. Chair 2 was converted by Riblet in 1973 by Slide Mountain using the Ringer towers (at which point the chair was named “Pioneer”). This chair ran on the east slopes of Slide Mountain; there were not any lifts in that area the mountain (namely the northwest facing slopes of what would become Mt. Rose–hence the name of the lift). The Mt. Rose side was the backside of Reno Ski Bowl prior to Mt. Rose’s existence. When one skied the backside, they had to take the old highway down to Sky Tavern, board Chair 1 (the “Ringer” Chair), ride it to the Reno Ski Bowl lodge, and then ride Chair 2 to lap.
Your data regarding the three lifts is very accurate as far as number of towers for all three lifts and the number of carriers for Pondo and Northwest. :-)
Based on that data the Telecar chair in the Liftblog Spreadsheet is likely the Little Red double. Lengths and vertical rise is different on the forum but the numbers on that forum looked rounded.
I think so. I’m pretty certain they were although they could have been made by Hunziker Lift itself. It is confirmed the carriers for both double chairlifts were Hjorth.
Nice! I’m glad you found these. I remember riding the T-Bar as a kid. Though the picture of their is black and white, one can tell that the chair is an off-color than normal; the chairs were painted yellow with wooden seats.
I am almost the pic of the chair is Ponderosa; the line for Northwest was steeper and had trees near the lift line. By the look of it, it is probably Tower 2 (Tower 1 was the split tower load) based on the sheave assembly on the uphill side.
Here’s a new photo of northwest passage and ponderosa chairs https://repository.mines.edu/handle/11124/7890 also mountain scalar doesn’t have the photos of ski lift up but they can all be found on the website with the link.
Wow…that pic takes me back to my childhood of skiing at Mt. Rose. The base area has changed so much since 1976, the year I first learned how to ski. One can see the chairs stacked in the left side of the picture across from the base terminal for Ponderosa.
Many years ago I inherited a ski lift chair from a family friend in Reno, and it hangs in my backyard in Reno. Originally I was told it was a chair that operated from Sky Tavern to the base on the “Slide Side”, but after looking through the posts in this blog I believe that is not correct. It has a single bar in the middle of the two seats, so It can’t separate. I replaced the old, I believe original wooden seat slats, with some reclaimed barn wood, but I have not touched the years of paint jobs on the chair. At one time the chair might have been yellow, many coats of paint ago. It is a cherished family treasure at this point, three generations of Cases have skied and loved Mt. Rose. I would love some help finding out which lift it operated on. I believe it might have been a Pioneer, Northwest or Ponderosa chair. I would be happy to post a photo if that would be helpful. I am not a frequent blogger and am a new visitor to this blog, so my apologies for any confusion. Thank you
If the chair was yellow, then it was either from the Northwest Passage double chair that was removed in 1985 or the Ponderosa double chair that was removed in 1993. Both chairs were originally painted yellow with wooden seats, but the chairs were painted dark green in about 1980 to match the chair color of the Lakeview triple.
The Pioneer chair on the Slide side was always painted a green color (at least since 1976 until its removal in 1989.
Awesome that you have one of the double chairs from Rose. :-)
The 2 old 1953 Ringer doubles both could have been Detachable doubles here is a thing I found at Snow Summit CA!
Here is a comment of the ski lift at Snow Summit it was also a 1953 Ringer
from skilifts.org:
“Although in 1952, Ringer was hurting for lift parts for a lift that he recently installed at Snow Summit in California, which made history as America’s first monocable detachable lift. The lift opened in January of 1953 and had a length of 5,000 feet with a vertical of 1,500 feet. For this lift, Ringer used the automatic couplings off old German cable-car sets Ringer made the necessary modifications to make this lift work. Each chair had a sheave with the clutch that was attached to the grip. The lift was operated by a person who pushed the chairs around the contour to the area where the riders would board the lift. Then the operator would push the chair further to a spot where the spring-loaded clutch would open the jaw and then close onto the moving haul rope. When the chair arrived at the top station, the clutch would disengage, allowing the grip to detach from the haul rope. Once the riders unloaded from the chair, a lift operator would then push the chair around the contour and send it back down. Unfortunately, the final story on this detachable lift wasn’t a happy one. Dick Kun, who is the president of Big Bear Resorts, which owns Snow Summit remembers “The design was unnecessarily advanced and complicated for the technology of the times. It was labor-and-parts intensive.” The first season the lift operated, a chair fell of the haul rope when its clutch failed to engage properly. The riders sustained injuries, but luckily didn’t die. But the fallowing summer, the chair derailed on the uphill side, knocking the sheave off the chair as it crashed into a tower dropping the chair and killing one passenger. The lift was never operated again after this incident.”
Peter, the new trail map has the HSQ that replaces the old Lakeview triple named “Tahoe Express.” The resort also renamed a couple of runs (Upper Lakeview is now called “Booker” and Lower Lakeview is now called “Lone Tree”). It seems Mt. Rose wants to have a fresh start for the new lift and give it its own identity.
I take this back…two maps show the lift named Tahoe Express and two maps show Lakeview Express. The lift status report also still shows Lakeview. So, I will ask around and see if I can confirm the actual name of the HSQ. Also, one of the run was renamed “Bunker,” not Booker. Sorry for the error.
Honestly, both Lakeview and Tahoe do not seem original at all. So many other lifts are named Lakeview for example at Alpine. Tahoe is just copying the name of the lake so it does not seem do be a “fresh start” and for it to have its “own identity.”
This is the new map. It is going to be named Tahoe Express, and it is a refresh, because it’s a new name for Mt. Rose. Forget how ambiguous Tahoe is with areas at other ski areas; the idea is to have a new name never before used at Rose.
Geez Joshua…negative much? My point was that this lift is going to have its own identity and fresh start (meaning new beginning) instead of carrying the Lakeview name. A name is a name, nothing more. Change is good and from a marketing perspective it indicates Mt. Rose will make a big deal about this as the next season approaches. Mt. Rose has precedent doing a lift rename when replacing/relocating a lift (e.g., Ponderosa changed to Wizard when the lift was moved to a different alignment to coincide with the future Atoma project, and the Zephyr quad replaced the two doubles–Overland and Pioneer–on the Slide side).
Mt. Rose: We flew out 98,500 pounds of towers and equipment with a Blackhawk Helicopter from Skydance Helicopters in Minden Nevada in less than 3 hours last Wednesday. In snow and fog. Torch cutting each towers base. Good day, great pilot !
RGJ (the local paper) has an article on Lakeview Express and alludes to the timetable for the Lakeview replacement getting moved ahead of the Atoma expansion. I guess the issues with the Lakeview triple were an issue not worth repairing since they wanted to eventually update the lift.
They had planned on doing Lakeview ahead of the expansion anyway. As far as the big mystery on the issue with lakeview lift, was the outdated Pilz PLC control system was failing and unreliable for continued use.
There are several pictures of the Lower and Upper Ringer Chairs, even a couple in color. There is also an embedded promotional video of Mt. Rose at the year 1966 section that shows pics of Northwest, Pondo, and the T-Bar in operation. I miss the old Northwest double, especially in windy days. LOL!
As a bonus, there is a picture of a maintenance person actually shooting down a chair on Northwest that had blown around the cable during a storm. Since it is a color picture and the chairs are painted dark green, I am guessing this occurred between 1980 (when the chair color was changed from yellow to green) to 1985 (when the chair was removed and the triple was installed). Looking at the location of the shot, it looks like this occurred at about the Kit Carson Traverse.
Lift Blog 
Did zephyr sell or was it scrapped
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Zephyr was relocated to Chuter.
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I wonder if the bums gulch lift still stands
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Maybe some of the towers are on the lifts at Mt Baldy.
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There is only one tower left standing from Bum’s Gulch. It can be seen on the westbound side of the Mt. Rose Hwy between Sky Tavern and Slide Mountain Road (Winters Creek Lodge side of Mt. Rose). I’ll try to head up there and get a picture to share.
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Will they have to upgrade capacity on wizard for the two stage detachable?
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Apparently in this article by the Reno gazette it mentions Mt Rose potentially building a terrain park on the slide side. Is the slide side the bowl or the chute side. 2 stage detachable or a completely different lift. https://www.rgj.com/story/life/outdoors/recreation/2016/02/05/want-your-own-ski-resort-ll-cost-you-big-bucks/79868642/
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The article did say they got county approval to build a terrain park lift on the slide side, which is the east side at the Winters Creek Lodge. However, this was before the April 2020 USFS decision on their Atoma expansion. One of the proposed alternatives had them replacing Wizard and Galena with a “Pondelena Lift” so it was likely they intended to relocate Wizard or Galena to be the new terrain park lift. But the alternative that was selected by the Forest Service was for a 2 stage detachable chair with an angled mid station from the top of Wizard to the bottom of the Atoma expansion while leaving Wizard and Galena in place. The new terrain park chair may have to wait until those lifts are replaced somewhere down the line.
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The master plan for Mt. Rose was to have the a detachable quad go from where the Ponderosa lift base was located (now where Wizard lift base is located) to about 300 feet above the end of the Galena lift. The existing Galena lift was to then be relocated to the “Slide side” to operate parallel to Zephyr 6 to service the Double Down terrain park. This may explain why the Ponderosa name was not retained when it was shifted to a different alignment and renamed Wizard. However, Mt. Rose seems to have shifted its focus to get the Atoma expansion completed first, so it may become a priority to work on this part of the master plan after Atoma is completed..
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I forgot to mention the plan included moving the top of Lakeview about 200 feet further uphill to allow better access to Wild Card.
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Slide Mountain (Reno Ski Bowl) opened on 11/25/53 with two Ringer double chairs “Lower” and “Upper”, built by Sierra Machinery Co. The lower chair reveiced an additional tower in 1954 after the new road was built and was operating weekends only by 1959 (not sure when it was finally abandoned, but here is the last tower standing: https://goo.gl/maps/7Hyq4PpcEUQmYero7). The other Ringer, Upper or Pioneer, broke down twice during the 70/71 season. They couldn’t immediately afford a whole new lift for $270,000. In 1971, everything but the towers and terminals was replaced and the Yan platter was installed. New terminals were put in in 1972. Slide Mt. and Mt. Rose sold their first joint ticket for the 73/74 season for $10. Slide Mountain’s 1965 double was called “Little Red” and was “designed by Miner-Denver”. The other double chair “Overland Limited” was opened for the 63/64 season (a Riblet?). Pioneer and Overland were replaced by Zephyr in 1989.
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How could Miner-Denver have designed a lift in 1965 before they were even founded?
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Idk why but sometimes I think that Telecar and Miner-Denver are related in some way.
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I do think that they’re both related. Their designs were pretty much identical and they weren’t around at the same time. Telecar’s last year of building lifts was 1966 and Miner-Denver’s first was 1967. What I wonder is how Poma and Telecar were related. Poma’s first installations in the United States were branded as “Poma-Telecar” A few years later, Telecar and Poma were separate entities. I would think that Telecar would have been introducing Poma in the US, but that was the first mention of Telecar. Does anyone know the history of Telecar?
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Here is what I know. Pomalift was incorporated in 1954 by A-Basin’s Larry Jump after he met Jean Pomagalski. At first he only sold Pomagalski’s surface lifts, but was looking for other ways of transportation too. Jump became a licensee for Carlevaro & Savio gondolas in 1957 under the brand Telecar. Their first installation was the gondola at Wildcat, NH. Pomagalski developed his first double chair in 1958. Maybe because Jump did mix parts from both C&S and Poma for the Killington Chairlift in 1959 and didn’t clearly separate both brands in his marketing, the term Poma-Telecar made its way from Australia to the US. Dulmison of Sydney was the Australian licensee for Poma and they advertised both brands as “pomalift” and “poma-telecar”. Chairlifts in the US were originally a product of Pomalift (but again, named as “Poma-Tele-Chair”). Likely in 1963, C&S started selling its own chairlifts, which must have upset Jump. He discontinued the cooperation and became the representative for Miner-Denver. So my guess is that MD was already in the business. I don’t know how the story goes for Telecar and MD after that, but Pomalift was absorbed by Mountain Lift Co. in 1965. Pomagalski bought the brand Pomalift back in 1968 and merged together with Poma Aerial Tramways Inc. (Poma’s representative for the East Coast out of Woodstock, VT) and Heron Eng. to form Heron Poma Co. in 1970.
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Mt. Rose Resort opened to the public on 01/22/66 with free lift rides (ribbon cutting was the Sunday before). It had two double chairs (Northwest Passage, 4,800 ft / 1,500 ft & Ponderosa, 3,200 ft / 300 ft) and a T-bar (Kit Carson, later named Alphorn, 2,200 ft / 800 ft). Maybe those were made by Riblet? The T-bar wasn’t ready for opening day. The NP chair had to be evacuated on its first day due to electrical problems. Mt. Rose’s president Luescher already had plans to replace the T-bar and install three more lifts (two double chairs and two T-bar). One of his first ideas was to build a gondola or tramway to Mt. Rose inlcuding a revolving restaurant on top of a space needle. The year before, Luescher told the press that he wants to close Sky Tavern for three years-while developing Mt. Rose Resort-as it is outmoded. After some discussions, Sky Tavern was leased to the Reno Recreation junior program for $10,000 / year. There were also plans to for a joint ticket from day 1, but for some reasons those plans were delayed until the 73/74 season (but it was already included the year before by paying $1 extra). A Poma was installed in 1971, but there was no new lift in 1973. The first two double chairs were likely replaced by the CTEC quad and Yan’s triple, but that is yet to be confirmed. I have found no sign of a Yan double chair named Ponderosa.
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Ponderosa could’ve been that Yan that predated the ones at Squaw Valley, the platter at Mammoth, and the platters at Sky Tavern. A new company having that many installations at major ski resorts at that time and not having a single previous installation looks a little odd to me. Especially from Squaw Valley who had previously bought from more well known manufacturers at that time. Usually a new start up company would go local before getting bigger and Ponderosa could have been that installation.
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You know that Pomagalski and Yan were working together at Squaw before LE was founded and that LE used parts from Poma in the beginning? LE didn’t come out of the blue, but it would for sure be interesting to see a proof for your theory.
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If anyone wants to see what the Pioneer chair looked like there’s a pic of it in this article
https://skirose.com/history-of-mt-rose/
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There also appears to be a Yan double likely the Ponderosa double.
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I would guess that the lift from the pic you’re mentioning is the old Northwest Passage triple. Those sheaves, towers, and chairs are definitely from 1984, along with the drive/tension matching the description in the spreadsheet. The lift in the pic looks to be a little high up for Ponderosa. Ponderosa didn’t end along a ridge either. The lift in the pic also looks to be a triple, though it’s a little hard to see.
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Yeah after zooming in I think that’s a yan triple chair which would make it the old Northwest Passage chair. The view looks like the summit too.
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Just look at the file name: NW-trip-unload-95-300×217.jpg
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Also at the end there a picture of a double that I think is the Ponderosa double.
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The Ponderosa double, the Northwest double, and the Alphorn T-Bar were made by the same manufacturer. Not Riblet (had solid crossarms for towers and not the cantilever type that is typical of Riblet crossarms) and also not YAN because these lifts were installed prior to 1968 (when YAN installed its first ski lifts at Squaw Valley). All three lifts were driven and tensioned at the bottom terminal. I remember Northwest getting an auxiliary drive in about 1979 due to the prior year having several motor issues that required rope evacuations. All three had operator houses and the bottom tower (Tower 1) that the bottom crossarm could be adjusted.
What I found interesting about the Alphorn T-Bar is that it had a European feel to it because all but Tower 1 were portal towers. The T-Bar’s path is the Mineshaft Run on the map. The load was on the south side of Ponderosa run while the bottom terminal was on the other side of the same run. I remember as a little kid trying to hit the T-Bar that hung over the run with my ski pole (and always missed). The upper unload and terminal were to the left of Jetta run. You could see the top terminal from Lakeview between Towers 14 and 16.
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From the way you describe the T-bar, it sounds like the lift was an SLI. That would make sense because SLI did have quite a few installations in the Tahoe area.
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Nope, it was not an SLI. It had the same sheaves and color scheme as Pondo and Northwest. I wish I still had access to the forum comments on skilifts.org, because someone told me there who manufactured Pondo. If I knew how to contact Kurt Buser, owner at Mt. Rose, I would ask him as well. There was also a YouTube video Peter posted a few months ago that featured the Lift Ops Manager at Heavenly who retired after 40 years. This gentleman said in the video that he came to the U.S. to build the lifts at Mt. Rose prior to joining Heavenly. RT (a lift ops guy who comments on this site) may be able to provide more info on this gentleman because he probably worked with him when RT was working at Heavenly. Perhaps he knows how to contact this gentleman to get the full story on the manufacturer of these three lifts at Mt. Rose.
As I side note, I always thought SLI lifts looked cool because they were sleeker and stylish for their time.
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Here is the topic on Skilifts.org: http://www.skilifts.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=5792 The user there says the three lifts were made by Yan.
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I don’t have an account can you post the pictures here?
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Here are the photos on the skilifts.org forum:
BumsGulch:
Chair 2:
Pioneer:
Overland:
Ponderosa:
Northwest Passage:
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Did someone notice the last post about the Hunsucker Ski Lift Co.? I guess that means Paul Hunziker and his Western Lift and Crane was involved at Mt. Rose. And that would fit to the Heavenly video where he says it was a Swiss guy.
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I just got the confirmation that Paul Hunziker built the first three lifts at Mt. Rose (the exact name of his company unfortunately is unknown). He also built at least one lift at Mammoth…
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The lift he built at mammoth was under the brand Western Lift & Crane and it was the Chair 7 double lift that operated from 1969-1984.
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Ponderosa, Northwest, and Alphorn T-Bar were made by Hunziker Lift.
http://www.skilifts.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=11167
Hunziker Lift, Inc. (1965-1967): Hunziker went on to build two double chairs and a T-bar at Mt. Rose, California under his own brand. This is the first confirmed used of the Luck grips. The T-bar’s installation was delayed due to a design error with the crossarms and sheave assemblies. After only three lifts, Hunziker closed his shop in Provo, Utah.
Taken from a Skilifts.org forum
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Mt. Rose is located in Nevada, not California. ;-)
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Sorry, I pasted that text from the skilifts.org forum and I forgot to check for typos.
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Thanks to whomever downloaded the information from the skilifts.org blog. Full disclusure: I was Phoenix on that site. I used a nickname online back then and I remember writing those posts. The YAN/Hybrid data on the lifts were based on information I could find out at the time, but I was glad the person answered my question and mentioned Hunziker. It all makes sense now, especially the European influence with Alphorn T-Bar. I have some old super-8 film of me when I learned to ski at Mt. Rose in the mid-1970s. I will look through them and see if there are any of the lifts I can get a screenshot of to share. I know there is one of me boarding Pondo in, I believe, 1977. Hopefully, there are pics of the T-Bar and Northwest. :-)
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Northwest Magnum 6 is a Bottom drive lift. It says top on the spreadsheet.
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The original Ponderosa, the second Northwest, and a t-bar called the Alphorn T-Bar were built by a company called Hunziker Lift.
Here is some info about Paul Hunziker and Hunziker Lift.
Hunziker Lift, Inc. (Existence: 1965-1967) Hunziker went on to build two double chairs and a T-bar at Mt. Rose, Nevada under his own brand. The T-bar’s installation and opening day was delayed due to a design error with the crossarms and sheave assemblies. After only three lifts, Hunziker closed his shop in Provo, Utah.
Info to add to spreadsheet
Northwest Passage Double Chair
Manufacturer: Hunziker Lift
Length: 4761 feet.
Vertical: 1400 feet.
Number of Carriers: 181
Number of Towers: 17
Installed: 1965
Removed: 1985
Alphorn T-Bar
Manufacturer: Hunziker Lift
Length: About 1700 feet.
Vertical: 800 feet.
Number of Carriers: Unknown
Number of Towers: 6
Installed: 1965
Removed: 1986
Ponderosa Double Chair
Manufacturer: Hunziker Lift
Length: 2980 feet.
Vertical: 450 feet.
Number of Carriers: 56
Number of Towers: 10
Installed: 1965
Removed: 1993
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This wasn’t the “second” Northwest lift; the Hunziker lift was the first. It is listed in error on this page that states the Northwest lift was first built in 1952 when this was actually as Chair 2 (built by Ringer) on the Slide side when it was Reno Ski Bowl. Chair 2 was converted by Riblet in 1973 by Slide Mountain using the Ringer towers (at which point the chair was named “Pioneer”). This chair ran on the east slopes of Slide Mountain; there were not any lifts in that area the mountain (namely the northwest facing slopes of what would become Mt. Rose–hence the name of the lift). The Mt. Rose side was the backside of Reno Ski Bowl prior to Mt. Rose’s existence. When one skied the backside, they had to take the old highway down to Sky Tavern, board Chair 1 (the “Ringer” Chair), ride it to the Reno Ski Bowl lodge, and then ride Chair 2 to lap.
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Your data regarding the three lifts is very accurate as far as number of towers for all three lifts and the number of carriers for Pondo and Northwest. :-)
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Interesting. Where did you get the data (towers and carriers)? What happened to the lifts after they were removed?
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Probably from this forum.
http://www.skilifts.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=5792
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Based on that data the Telecar chair in the Liftblog Spreadsheet is likely the Little Red double. Lengths and vertical rise is different on the forum but the numbers on that forum looked rounded.
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From information I have learned the carriers for both the double chairlifts and the T-Bar were made for Hunziker Lift by Hjorth Brothers.
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The T-Bar’s carriers were made by Hjorth too?
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I think so. I’m pretty certain they were although they could have been made by Hunziker Lift itself. It is confirmed the carriers for both double chairlifts were Hjorth.
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Peter, when you added The Hunziker lifts in spreadsheet you spelled it Huntziker and it’s actual spelling is Hunziker.
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Peter, the Alphorn lift was T-Bar and not a platter. ;-)
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And Hunziker should not have a t in it like Peter does on the spreadsheet.
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Some photos of removed lifts
Alphorn
Either Northwest/Ponderosa and alphorn tbar
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Nice! I’m glad you found these. I remember riding the T-Bar as a kid. Though the picture of their is black and white, one can tell that the chair is an off-color than normal; the chairs were painted yellow with wooden seats.
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I am almost the pic of the chair is Ponderosa; the line for Northwest was steeper and had trees near the lift line. By the look of it, it is probably Tower 2 (Tower 1 was the split tower load) based on the sheave assembly on the uphill side.
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Here’s a new photo of northwest passage and ponderosa chairs https://repository.mines.edu/handle/11124/7890 also mountain scalar doesn’t have the photos of ski lift up but they can all be found on the website with the link.
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Wow…that pic takes me back to my childhood of skiing at Mt. Rose. The base area has changed so much since 1976, the year I first learned how to ski. One can see the chairs stacked in the left side of the picture across from the base terminal for Ponderosa.
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Many years ago I inherited a ski lift chair from a family friend in Reno, and it hangs in my backyard in Reno. Originally I was told it was a chair that operated from Sky Tavern to the base on the “Slide Side”, but after looking through the posts in this blog I believe that is not correct. It has a single bar in the middle of the two seats, so It can’t separate. I replaced the old, I believe original wooden seat slats, with some reclaimed barn wood, but I have not touched the years of paint jobs on the chair. At one time the chair might have been yellow, many coats of paint ago. It is a cherished family treasure at this point, three generations of Cases have skied and loved Mt. Rose. I would love some help finding out which lift it operated on. I believe it might have been a Pioneer, Northwest or Ponderosa chair. I would be happy to post a photo if that would be helpful. I am not a frequent blogger and am a new visitor to this blog, so my apologies for any confusion. Thank you
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If the chair was yellow, then it was either from the Northwest Passage double chair that was removed in 1985 or the Ponderosa double chair that was removed in 1993. Both chairs were originally painted yellow with wooden seats, but the chairs were painted dark green in about 1980 to match the chair color of the Lakeview triple.
The Pioneer chair on the Slide side was always painted a green color (at least since 1976 until its removal in 1989.
Awesome that you have one of the double chairs from Rose. :-)
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A photo would be great so we can find out which lift the chair belonged to.
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I have some photos ready to go, but I am not sure how to post them here. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you very much
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Hi Chris, you can email them to me at Peter@liftblog.com and I can add them to your comment.
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The 2 old 1953 Ringer doubles both could have been Detachable doubles here is a thing I found at Snow Summit CA!
Here is a comment of the ski lift at Snow Summit it was also a 1953 Ringer
from skilifts.org:
“Although in 1952, Ringer was hurting for lift parts for a lift that he recently installed at Snow Summit in California, which made history as America’s first monocable detachable lift. The lift opened in January of 1953 and had a length of 5,000 feet with a vertical of 1,500 feet. For this lift, Ringer used the automatic couplings off old German cable-car sets Ringer made the necessary modifications to make this lift work. Each chair had a sheave with the clutch that was attached to the grip. The lift was operated by a person who pushed the chairs around the contour to the area where the riders would board the lift. Then the operator would push the chair further to a spot where the spring-loaded clutch would open the jaw and then close onto the moving haul rope. When the chair arrived at the top station, the clutch would disengage, allowing the grip to detach from the haul rope. Once the riders unloaded from the chair, a lift operator would then push the chair around the contour and send it back down. Unfortunately, the final story on this detachable lift wasn’t a happy one. Dick Kun, who is the president of Big Bear Resorts, which owns Snow Summit remembers “The design was unnecessarily advanced and complicated for the technology of the times. It was labor-and-parts intensive.” The first season the lift operated, a chair fell of the haul rope when its clutch failed to engage properly. The riders sustained injuries, but luckily didn’t die. But the fallowing summer, the chair derailed on the uphill side, knocking the sheave off the chair as it crashed into a tower dropping the chair and killing one passenger. The lift was never operated again after this incident.”
Here is something from Skilifts.org about Ringer Chairlifts from 1951-1953
http://www.skilifts.org/old/chairlift_manufacturers_ringer.htm
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The Ringer chairs at Mt. Rose were not detachable; they had dual grips to the rope (see pics above).
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Peter, the new trail map has the HSQ that replaces the old Lakeview triple named “Tahoe Express.” The resort also renamed a couple of runs (Upper Lakeview is now called “Booker” and Lower Lakeview is now called “Lone Tree”). It seems Mt. Rose wants to have a fresh start for the new lift and give it its own identity.
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I take this back…two maps show the lift named Tahoe Express and two maps show Lakeview Express. The lift status report also still shows Lakeview. So, I will ask around and see if I can confirm the actual name of the HSQ. Also, one of the run was renamed “Bunker,” not Booker. Sorry for the error.
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Honestly, both Lakeview and Tahoe do not seem original at all. So many other lifts are named Lakeview for example at Alpine. Tahoe is just copying the name of the lake so it does not seem do be a “fresh start” and for it to have its “own identity.”
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This is the new map. It is going to be named Tahoe Express, and it is a refresh, because it’s a new name for Mt. Rose. Forget how ambiguous Tahoe is with areas at other ski areas; the idea is to have a new name never before used at Rose.
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Geez Joshua…negative much? My point was that this lift is going to have its own identity and fresh start (meaning new beginning) instead of carrying the Lakeview name. A name is a name, nothing more. Change is good and from a marketing perspective it indicates Mt. Rose will make a big deal about this as the next season approaches. Mt. Rose has precedent doing a lift rename when replacing/relocating a lift (e.g., Ponderosa changed to Wizard when the lift was moved to a different alignment to coincide with the future Atoma project, and the Zephyr quad replaced the two doubles–Overland and Pioneer–on the Slide side).
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Mt. Rose: We flew out 98,500 pounds of towers and equipment with a Blackhawk Helicopter from Skydance Helicopters in Minden Nevada in less than 3 hours last Wednesday. In snow and fog. Torch cutting each towers base. Good day, great pilot !
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I watched on the webcam when I was had slow downs at work here and there. You guys did an awesome job! I couldn’t believe how quick it was done.
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RGJ (the local paper) has an article on Lakeview Express and alludes to the timetable for the Lakeview replacement getting moved ahead of the Atoma expansion. I guess the issues with the Lakeview triple were an issue not worth repairing since they wanted to eventually update the lift.
https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2022/05/26/high-speed-mt-rose-lift-open-2022-23-ski-season/9933998002/
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They had planned on doing Lakeview ahead of the expansion anyway. As far as the big mystery on the issue with lakeview lift, was the outdated Pilz PLC control system was failing and unreliable for continued use.
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Mount Rose compiled a complete history of the resort, including times during the Reno Ski Bowl days: https://skirose.com/history-of-mt-rose/ It is awesome!
There are several pictures of the Lower and Upper Ringer Chairs, even a couple in color. There is also an embedded promotional video of Mt. Rose at the year 1966 section that shows pics of Northwest, Pondo, and the T-Bar in operation. I miss the old Northwest double, especially in windy days. LOL!
As a bonus, there is a picture of a maintenance person actually shooting down a chair on Northwest that had blown around the cable during a storm. Since it is a color picture and the chairs are painted dark green, I am guessing this occurred between 1980 (when the chair color was changed from yellow to green) to 1985 (when the chair was removed and the triple was installed). Looking at the location of the shot, it looks like this occurred at about the Kit Carson Traverse.
Cool stuff!
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The person who shot the Northwest chair off the line was Greg Stafford, the Mt. Rose Mountain Manager at the time. I apologize for the error.
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Some photos of the Ringer chairlifts:
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