Olympic Lady is extremely steep and serves as a reliever lift for KT-22.Breakover towers.Fixed and height-adjustable top bullwheel.Unload ramp.Another view of the top station.Looking down the line.Lower part of the line.View up the line.Loading area.Drive unit.Lift overview.
Does this lift ever run anymore? If it does I doubt it gets more than 20 hours open to the public a year. Bet it’s one of those where it’s used so rarely it logs more hours running for maintenance than to the public.
I believe they run it on weekend powder days when the upper mountain is closed. I’ve only seen it open 4-5 days a year. They should really utilize it more as KT22 lines can be overwhelming. I’ve always wanted to ride it, it has such an awesome lift line. I doubt they will remove it in the next few years. Maybe once the California express is built they will no longer need Olympic Lady as a KT22 reliever. It’s such a classic lift though it would be a shame.
I agree, they need to run this lift more. They should run it whenever the line KT-22 gets to a certain point, like maybe at least 30 minutes. It Dosent make sense not to run it. For example, one weekend earlier this year the whole upper mountain was closed and KT-22 and exhibition and red dog all had descent lines. OL really should’ve ran that day but it didn’t. I’m not a skier there (from the east), but I still like it when they run the lifts.
I think Olympic Lady racked up a whopping 4 days open to the public this year! Should be more.
New England Chairlifts & SkiingJanuary 27, 2020 / 11:11 am
Broken arrow does run, but only during high snow periods when it’s busy. Otherwise, there just isn’t enough demand for it as there is a quick hike from Malibu that is faster than skiing down to the lift (though it is useful if you’re coming from the other side of the mountain). Hasn’t run in several weeks now according to the report, but it has run a bunch of days earlier this year when they got an early season storm. Silverado on the other hand has not opened at all this year yet. There have been a handful of seasons when it didnt open at all. It was open for a while last year. Takes a crap-ton of snow to open it. Hopefully soon. I’ve never skied squaw, but based on researching the lifts this is what I understand.
Yes you are right the main reason Siverado is never open is that it needs lots of snow, however from what I have heard they are only a few feet from opening it.
Broken Arrow was running February 11&12, 2020 (Tuesday and Wednesday) The Mountain was deserted and the snow was hard as a rock all over. But the bumpy rocky areas below Broken Arrow seemed to soften up more in the sun than anywhere else due to elevation and aspect. Olympic Lady did not run either day.
Olympic Lady disappeared from trail maps between the removal of the old Red Dog chair in 1989 and the installation of Far East in 2000 during which the Papoose double chair ran in the current Far East alignment. Was this removed to serve as Papoose and then reinstalled in it’s original alignment?
I know Papoose is listed as being relocated from Super Squaw but that was a triple whereas Papoose was a double. I thought Super Squaw became Lost Lake and is now Silverado so the old Papoose chair would have coexisted with both of those chairs during the 90s.
Papoose was just a rope row when I was a kid and the first place I ever skied. Olympic Lady or the “womens downhill” later became a favorite spot to spend my day.
Those appear to be the steepest towers, and I’d be pretty uncomfortable lifting the rope to change sheaves with a standard rope jack from that era. Lifting the rope with a chain hoist off the gantry is much more secure.
Skied Women’s Downhill and other extremely steep areas with cliffs yesterday. The astounding thing is, Olympic Lady was open!!! I couldn’t believe it — normally the lift would only open when KT’s line is super long. No people at KT yesterday. Took the lift (Olympic Lady) thrice cause you never know if it’s even gonna open again.
Returned from Palisades a couple weeks ago — Just checked the lift statuses at Palisades’ website and there you have it again — Olympic Lady open. That’s honestly amazing, the snow up there must be great, haha. Line at KT-22 was 20 minutes long earlier… so I guess they had a good reason for opening up the reliever lift (Literally a 0-2 minute wait though, wonder if it’s cause it’s so steep that barely any people want to ride it, lol).
Lift Blog 
Does this lift ever run anymore? If it does I doubt it gets more than 20 hours open to the public a year. Bet it’s one of those where it’s used so rarely it logs more hours running for maintenance than to the public.
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I believe they run it on weekend powder days when the upper mountain is closed. I’ve only seen it open 4-5 days a year. They should really utilize it more as KT22 lines can be overwhelming. I’ve always wanted to ride it, it has such an awesome lift line. I doubt they will remove it in the next few years. Maybe once the California express is built they will no longer need Olympic Lady as a KT22 reliever. It’s such a classic lift though it would be a shame.
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I agree, they need to run this lift more. They should run it whenever the line KT-22 gets to a certain point, like maybe at least 30 minutes. It Dosent make sense not to run it. For example, one weekend earlier this year the whole upper mountain was closed and KT-22 and exhibition and red dog all had descent lines. OL really should’ve ran that day but it didn’t. I’m not a skier there (from the east), but I still like it when they run the lifts.
I think Olympic Lady racked up a whopping 4 days open to the public this year! Should be more.
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I would make that threshold more like “if the wait at KT-22 exceeds ten minutes”.
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It was running yesterday when there were operation issues with KT
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This was running on a slushy Saturday January 25, my first visit to Squaw. Several other old Yans were not running that day (Silverado, Broken Arrow).
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Silverado only runs a few days a year under the best possible conditions, and afaik broken arrow doesn’t really run at all.
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Broken arrow does run, but only during high snow periods when it’s busy. Otherwise, there just isn’t enough demand for it as there is a quick hike from Malibu that is faster than skiing down to the lift (though it is useful if you’re coming from the other side of the mountain). Hasn’t run in several weeks now according to the report, but it has run a bunch of days earlier this year when they got an early season storm. Silverado on the other hand has not opened at all this year yet. There have been a handful of seasons when it didnt open at all. It was open for a while last year. Takes a crap-ton of snow to open it. Hopefully soon. I’ve never skied squaw, but based on researching the lifts this is what I understand.
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Yes you are right the main reason Siverado is never open is that it needs lots of snow, however from what I have heard they are only a few feet from opening it.
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Broken Arrow was running February 11&12, 2020 (Tuesday and Wednesday) The Mountain was deserted and the snow was hard as a rock all over. But the bumpy rocky areas below Broken Arrow seemed to soften up more in the sun than anywhere else due to elevation and aspect. Olympic Lady did not run either day.
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This lift finally got some action in the last week, good to see it running again.
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It’s been good seeing old lifts like this get some use this season with the social distancing measures in place.
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Olympic Lady disappeared from trail maps between the removal of the old Red Dog chair in 1989 and the installation of Far East in 2000 during which the Papoose double chair ran in the current Far East alignment. Was this removed to serve as Papoose and then reinstalled in it’s original alignment?
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I know Papoose is listed as being relocated from Super Squaw but that was a triple whereas Papoose was a double. I thought Super Squaw became Lost Lake and is now Silverado so the old Papoose chair would have coexisted with both of those chairs during the 90s.
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Papoose was just a rope row when I was a kid and the first place I ever skied. Olympic Lady or the “womens downhill” later became a favorite spot to spend my day.
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At least they try to get silverodo running but Olympic lady and broken arrow could run 50-75 days a year
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Why do some of the towers have lifting frames and some don’t?
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Those appear to be the steepest towers, and I’d be pretty uncomfortable lifting the rope to change sheaves with a standard rope jack from that era. Lifting the rope with a chain hoist off the gantry is much more secure.
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Had a friend die on Olympic Lady way back on April 04, 2003
Maybe its terrain might be a reason to keep the lift closed?
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Skied Women’s Downhill and other extremely steep areas with cliffs yesterday. The astounding thing is, Olympic Lady was open!!! I couldn’t believe it — normally the lift would only open when KT’s line is super long. No people at KT yesterday. Took the lift (Olympic Lady) thrice cause you never know if it’s even gonna open again.
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always glad to see a reliever lift turning that rarely gets used.
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Returned from Palisades a couple weeks ago — Just checked the lift statuses at Palisades’ website and there you have it again — Olympic Lady open. That’s honestly amazing, the snow up there must be great, haha. Line at KT-22 was 20 minutes long earlier… so I guess they had a good reason for opening up the reliever lift (Literally a 0-2 minute wait though, wonder if it’s cause it’s so steep that barely any people want to ride it, lol).
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