Arriving at the top before the chair parking facility was completed.Bottom station in summer.View up from the base.Return station.Chair parking building.Top terminal in summer.Towers 29-30.Looking up at the top station.Upper section’s lift line.Mid-unload station.Lower lift line.Looking up from near the bottom terminal.Upper section lift line.Mid-station.Tower 7 looking up.Entering the mid-station.Bottom station.
Someone told me on a discord server that this lift got bubbles because PC didnt want people falling in the snowmaking pond that the lift goes over. Like a extra safety bar.
So you’re saying that the bubbles on this lift were to motivate riders to put the bar/bubble down? If that’s the case than that’s an ingenious solution to the problem of people not putting the bar down, especially considering the snowmaking lake it goes over. Then there are the clowns that ride with it up anyways…
Yes. There are signs on the towers saying put bar and bubble down. Before you go over the snowmaking pond. Yes there are people who dont care and just ride over it without not bar/bubble. Who get yelled by the lift operators at the top (Usually). Note that the top station and the snowmaking pond are somewhat close together.
That comment of mine was uncalled for. There are signs on the towers before the pond lower bar and bubble. I seen people get yelled at but usually you get lucky if you decide to ride with everything raised over the pond. Note that the pond is VERY COLD and it wont take long if you somehow fall into the pond. As I said above someone told me on discord that the lift has bubbles because of the pond.
If they wanted so bad for people to put the bar down they should have used an automatic system, takes the choice away from the rider and ensures safety.
Why am I a clown for not riding with the bar down? As a snowboarder I find the bars to be very uncomfortable as they are not very accommodating for the way a board hangs from my leg when sitting on the chair. And after 40+ years of riding chairlifts, I’ve never fallen off of one nor has anyone on my chair. so please explain to me why after numerous decades of chairlifts operating without bars why they’re necessary to use?
Why am I a clown for wearing a seat belt? As someone who chooses to wear jackets with big shoulder pads from the 80s, I find using seat belts to be uncomfortable and restricts my movement in the car. So please explain to me why I have to use one since I’ve been driving thousands of miles/year for over 20 years and I’ve never been in an accident.
Revisiting this three-and-a-half year later- why are people ‘clowns’ for not putting the comfort bar down? Aside from some x-model/beta test lifts in Europe there aren’t any carriers with a true ‘safety bar’. Nothing on the market, nor anything currently operating, is going to keep you in a chair if you decide to leave it. They aren’t seatbelts.
I know this is a late comment but just saw this. I live in Park City and mostly ski the Canyons side. I rarely see people put that bubble down unless they are like huge tourists and are curious or it is super snowy. I personally never put it down either it is just a pain to worry about when getting in stations. Especially if you are with a random person who may get off at the mid-station.
Does this unnamed Discord person work at the Canyons? This seems like a fairly thin rationale for putting bubbles on a lift. Perhaps the Canyons merely wanted a signature lift. If a person really wanted to fall/jump into the snowmaking pond they’d find it relatively easy to do so, even with the bubble down.
I know this is kinda old but I thought I’d comment. I live in Park City and know many of the local employees at park city. Orange bubble express was mainly built to open up the sun peak area and super condor. There is also access to the top of the gondola from this lift. This makes it more convenient. It gets very cold at the top of this lift due to its altitude and there is a lot of snow made in the area for the nearby terrain park. Because of these factors park city added a bubble and heated seats. Also the bubble chairs are getting more popular almost everywhere. Lots of Doppelmayr’s new lifts include the bubbles and heated seats.
This has six-pack line gauge width, maybe to accomodate the midstation? Count the front vertical rails on the towerheads here vs. Iron Mountain, built the same year. Four across instead of three.
but the number of windows on the ends of the terminals is the same as other quads at four while most six places have 5. also visually the tower heads look narrower than 6 place ones. I doubt they are that wide, possibly slightly wider than a normal quad.
Powder Seeker at Big Sky has the 6.1 meter line gauge which will result in the terminals having 5 windows. Most non-bubble 6 packs have 4 windows with the outer two being wider than the inner two (Wildcat Express @ Snowbasin). High speed quads can have one of two line gauges with the wider one having all 4 windows the same (Facelift @ Whiteface) and the narrower one with the outer two windows narrower than the inner two (Lowell Thomas Express @ Tremblant). Some low capacity gondolas were built with the wider quad gauge (Sweetwater @ Jackson Hole).
I rode 3 bubble chairs. Wizard and solar coaster at whistler and this chairlift. Too bad wizard and coaster are no longer there. But the new gondola is way better.
It is automatic. They don’t garage because of how much time it wastes. Bad storms don’t happen very often in Park City. This means lifts don’t get caked in ice. And if there was a bad storm forecasted they are garaged.
Does anyone know what the name of the design of the mid station is? It doesn’t seem like a Dopplemayr CTEC design, and is very minimalistic. The Quicksilver gondola seems to have a similar angle station, at least as far as the outer aesthetic goes.
With regards to it not being very prevalent in North America, it seems like new lifts these days infrequently have mid stations. In the case of this lift, the mid station allowed for the removal of the Golden Eagle lift, but if you ride all the way to the top, you can get down to Red Pine Lodge easy. I can’t wait for Sunrise Express, as this lift, along with the gondola can get backed up during the morning rush.
They built the extension for the purpose of making this an alternate to the Gondola, as without the extension, the only way to Red Pine Lodge is to take Sun Peak.
It’s often called the Tunnel-style Uni-G (I’m not sure if that’s its official name). Mechanically it is the same as any other Uni-G, but the enclosure as you said is minimalistic. The only others that I can think of in North America are Quicksilver and the mid-station on Millard at Le Massif, Quebec. There are probably more. They are much more common in Europe.
The first generation UNI design on turn of the 1990s Doppelmayr high speed quads is also very minimalist on its return stations, and also has the “tunnel style” to a degree. Examples being the Crest Express at Brighton, Peru Express and Outback Express at Keystone, Comstock Express at Northstar, Bullet Express and Ridge Rocket Express at Big White, etc.
Funny thing… during the planning process, this lift was going to be named Lookout Express. The name change to OBX was very last minute. All of the manuals and controls still say Lookout.
It was admittedly a bit of a mistake for Canyons to be building this in the same year as the Iron Mountain expansion, as having both the Gondola and Orange Bubble unavailable for uphill travel forced them to delay the opening day in 2010 until close to Christmas.
They run it sometimes during the summer for weddings and special events that need to access the lookout restaurant. As far as the terminal doors being open, they may have just been left open from when they where running it.
We run our terminal doors and windows open most days, unless snow’s blowing in and/or it’s ridiculously cold out. You’d be surprised how much heat a drive terminal generates.
The stopping distance on this lift is pretty long. I have personally failled to get off this lift and the operator presses that stop button, and 20 seconds later, the lift slows to a stop. Guessing the chair weight
20 seconds would be enough time for several chairs to move through the station making it a safety issue. There’s no way that would pass a safety inspection so I guarantee it doesn’t really take 20 seconds to stop. What most likely happened was one of two scenarios (and probably a combination of both): the operator slowed down the lift to give you extra time to clear but you thought he was stopping it, then after 20 seconds when you still weren’t clear he completely stopped it; or it wasn’t anywhere close to 20 seconds but it just seemed like a long time when you were lying there as people unload.
Quick question for anybody that has worked on this lift or a bubble lift of any kind. Is it difficult to assist small kids loading onto bubble chairs? It is typical at some resorts for the operator to walk behind the chair and pull small children up onto the seat, which seems like it would be impossible with the large bubble blocking the chair from behind.(Ramcharger 8, with its height-adjustable load carpet, is the notable exception here.)
I meant to put this in my other comment, but it is definitely possible that the chairs were originally centre pole, and then upgraded to bail chairs at some point.
There’s also this YT video showing a segment of the lift.
Lift Blog 
Are there any charging rails in the mid station?
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I believe so!
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Someone told me on a discord server that this lift got bubbles because PC didnt want people falling in the snowmaking pond that the lift goes over. Like a extra safety bar.
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So you’re saying that the bubbles on this lift were to motivate riders to put the bar/bubble down? If that’s the case than that’s an ingenious solution to the problem of people not putting the bar down, especially considering the snowmaking lake it goes over. Then there are the clowns that ride with it up anyways…
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Yes. There are signs on the towers saying put bar and bubble down. Before you go over the snowmaking pond. Yes there are people who dont care and just ride over it without not bar/bubble. Who get yelled by the lift operators at the top (Usually). Note that the top station and the snowmaking pond are somewhat close together.
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What about just pulling the bar down and not the bubble? Will you still get yelled at?
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That comment of mine was uncalled for. There are signs on the towers before the pond lower bar and bubble. I seen people get yelled at but usually you get lucky if you decide to ride with everything raised over the pond. Note that the pond is VERY COLD and it wont take long if you somehow fall into the pond. As I said above someone told me on discord that the lift has bubbles because of the pond.
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If they wanted so bad for people to put the bar down they should have used an automatic system, takes the choice away from the rider and ensures safety.
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The lift is 14 years old, that tech didn’t exist yet
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Goated- it definitely did. It’s nothing fancy. It’s actually the same basic system that automatic gondola cabin doors have had for decades.
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Why am I a clown for not riding with the bar down? As a snowboarder I find the bars to be very uncomfortable as they are not very accommodating for the way a board hangs from my leg when sitting on the chair. And after 40+ years of riding chairlifts, I’ve never fallen off of one nor has anyone on my chair. so please explain to me why after numerous decades of chairlifts operating without bars why they’re necessary to use?
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Why am I a clown for wearing a seat belt? As someone who chooses to wear jackets with big shoulder pads from the 80s, I find using seat belts to be uncomfortable and restricts my movement in the car. So please explain to me why I have to use one since I’ve been driving thousands of miles/year for over 20 years and I’ve never been in an accident.
The logic is sooooo compelling.
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Good one Mike B
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What makes you a clown for riding with the bar up?
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Revisiting this three-and-a-half year later- why are people ‘clowns’ for not putting the comfort bar down? Aside from some x-model/beta test lifts in Europe there aren’t any carriers with a true ‘safety bar’. Nothing on the market, nor anything currently operating, is going to keep you in a chair if you decide to leave it. They aren’t seatbelts.
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I know this is a late comment but just saw this. I live in Park City and mostly ski the Canyons side. I rarely see people put that bubble down unless they are like huge tourists and are curious or it is super snowy. I personally never put it down either it is just a pain to worry about when getting in stations. Especially if you are with a random person who may get off at the mid-station.
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Does this unnamed Discord person work at the Canyons? This seems like a fairly thin rationale for putting bubbles on a lift. Perhaps the Canyons merely wanted a signature lift. If a person really wanted to fall/jump into the snowmaking pond they’d find it relatively easy to do so, even with the bubble down.
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I know this is kinda old but I thought I’d comment. I live in Park City and know many of the local employees at park city. Orange bubble express was mainly built to open up the sun peak area and super condor. There is also access to the top of the gondola from this lift. This makes it more convenient. It gets very cold at the top of this lift due to its altitude and there is a lot of snow made in the area for the nearby terrain park. Because of these factors park city added a bubble and heated seats. Also the bubble chairs are getting more popular almost everywhere. Lots of Doppelmayr’s new lifts include the bubbles and heated seats.
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Anybody know the cost of this lift?
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I seem to remember it costing around $14,000,000.
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Will they make it red?
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I hope they leave it orange and grey. Red would look a bit ridiculous with orange windows. OBX deserves its own color scheme…
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This has six-pack line gauge width, maybe to accomodate the midstation? Count the front vertical rails on the towerheads here vs. Iron Mountain, built the same year. Four across instead of three.
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but the number of windows on the ends of the terminals is the same as other quads at four while most six places have 5. also visually the tower heads look narrower than 6 place ones. I doubt they are that wide, possibly slightly wider than a normal quad.
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Powder Seeker at Big Sky has the 6.1 meter line gauge which will result in the terminals having 5 windows. Most non-bubble 6 packs have 4 windows with the outer two being wider than the inner two (Wildcat Express @ Snowbasin). High speed quads can have one of two line gauges with the wider one having all 4 windows the same (Facelift @ Whiteface) and the narrower one with the outer two windows narrower than the inner two (Lowell Thomas Express @ Tremblant). Some low capacity gondolas were built with the wider quad gauge (Sweetwater @ Jackson Hole).
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The old lift use to go up to the mid station and then that was the top
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Which lift? Slaughterhouse?
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Golden Eagle
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Bubble chairs are so cool. I’ve only been able to ride 2 of them. American Flyer at Copper Mountain, and Teepee Town LX at Sunshine Village.
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I rode 3 bubble chairs. Wizard and solar coaster at whistler and this chairlift. Too bad wizard and coaster are no longer there. But the new gondola is way better.
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I find it interesting that they leave the chairs on the line during the summer and rarely use the parking barn.
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is it manual or automatic? if it is manual than it would take alot of labor to park all those chairs
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I believe it is automatic parking.
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It is automatic. They don’t garage because of how much time it wastes. Bad storms don’t happen very often in Park City. This means lifts don’t get caked in ice. And if there was a bad storm forecasted they are garaged.
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Does anyone know what the name of the design of the mid station is? It doesn’t seem like a Dopplemayr CTEC design, and is very minimalistic. The Quicksilver gondola seems to have a similar angle station, at least as far as the outer aesthetic goes.
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I think it is an Agamatic (Italian) design.
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Thank you both! “Tunnel Style” is certainly a great way to describe it. Agamatic would certainly make sense, as it doesn’t seem like Doppelmayr design language. If you look at this Agamatic lift in Italy, it looks at least vaguely similar. https://www.skiresort.info/ski-resort/sulden-am-ortler-solda-allortles/ski-lifts/l89512/
With regards to it not being very prevalent in North America, it seems like new lifts these days infrequently have mid stations. In the case of this lift, the mid station allowed for the removal of the Golden Eagle lift, but if you ride all the way to the top, you can get down to Red Pine Lodge easy. I can’t wait for Sunrise Express, as this lift, along with the gondola can get backed up during the morning rush.
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They built the extension for the purpose of making this an alternate to the Gondola, as without the extension, the only way to Red Pine Lodge is to take Sun Peak.
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It’s often called the Tunnel-style Uni-G (I’m not sure if that’s its official name). Mechanically it is the same as any other Uni-G, but the enclosure as you said is minimalistic. The only others that I can think of in North America are Quicksilver and the mid-station on Millard at Le Massif, Quebec. There are probably more. They are much more common in Europe.
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The first generation UNI design on turn of the 1990s Doppelmayr high speed quads is also very minimalist on its return stations, and also has the “tunnel style” to a degree. Examples being the Crest Express at Brighton, Peru Express and Outback Express at Keystone, Comstock Express at Northstar, Bullet Express and Ridge Rocket Express at Big White, etc.
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Funny thing… during the planning process, this lift was going to be named Lookout Express. The name change to OBX was very last minute. All of the manuals and controls still say Lookout.
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I honestly would prefer the Lookout name.
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Does this lift have heated seats?
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yes
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Are you sure? I have only felt seat heat once riding this lift. Is it common for the seat heater to fail?
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You can see the seat wiring and electrical charging contacts in some of the pictures.
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It was admittedly a bit of a mistake for Canyons to be building this in the same year as the Iron Mountain expansion, as having both the Gondola and Orange Bubble unavailable for uphill travel forced them to delay the opening day in 2010 until close to Christmas.
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Does this lift run during the summer? The reason I ask is because in one of the pictures above the top terminals doors are open for cooling.
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They run it sometimes during the summer for weddings and special events that need to access the lookout restaurant. As far as the terminal doors being open, they may have just been left open from when they where running it.
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We run our terminal doors and windows open most days, unless snow’s blowing in and/or it’s ridiculously cold out. You’d be surprised how much heat a drive terminal generates.
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The stopping distance on this lift is pretty long. I have personally failled to get off this lift and the operator presses that stop button, and 20 seconds later, the lift slows to a stop. Guessing the chair weight
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20 seconds would be enough time for several chairs to move through the station making it a safety issue. There’s no way that would pass a safety inspection so I guarantee it doesn’t really take 20 seconds to stop. What most likely happened was one of two scenarios (and probably a combination of both): the operator slowed down the lift to give you extra time to clear but you thought he was stopping it, then after 20 seconds when you still weren’t clear he completely stopped it; or it wasn’t anywhere close to 20 seconds but it just seemed like a long time when you were lying there as people unload.
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Quick question for anybody that has worked on this lift or a bubble lift of any kind. Is it difficult to assist small kids loading onto bubble chairs? It is typical at some resorts for the operator to walk behind the chair and pull small children up onto the seat, which seems like it would be impossible with the large bubble blocking the chair from behind.(Ramcharger 8, with its height-adjustable load carpet, is the notable exception here.)
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I work at a resort with 2 bubbles and generally we let the caregivers assist small children as it would require us to go in front of the chair.
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no more 90 degree loading it’s now inline
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Inline loading as of 2019-2020:
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There are a few scenes showing the old Golden Eagle chair in this video:
What a different world Park City/Canyons is today.
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Golden Eagle had bail style chairs? I wonder why they went with center pole chairs for Ironhorse and Greenhorn and bail chairs for Golden Eagle.
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I don’t remember anything but bail chairs, however, I’m not that old and really only skied at The Canyons a few times in the mid to late 2000s.
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I meant to put this in my other comment, but it is definitely possible that the chairs were originally centre pole, and then upgraded to bail chairs at some point.
There’s also this YT video showing a segment of the lift.
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When the lift was “Tomahawk” at Park West in 1990, it had center pole chairs on it.
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30 seconds in you also see the old cable tow that had handles. Replaced by rip cord
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Let’s not trace back to 2012
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At least that’s why the lift has bubbles! It was invented for that reason!
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To be fair though the bubbles make wind holds more likely and the lift may not have been on hold if the bubbles weren’t there.
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Really seems like they gave up while naming this lift. Orange bubble express, real clever.
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It has a real nice ring to it.
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It was originally planned to be called Lookout Express, I believe the change was last minute.
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Interesting! I wonder why.
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eventually they’ll get rid of those bubbles and will have to rename the lift something else.
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They are in good shape, so the bubbles will not get removed.
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