This Doppelmayr Tristar quad replaced a Riblet triple for the 2023-24 season.The new bottom terminal location sits well below the old lift.Lift line seen from the Overlook Lodge area.Loading area and motor room.New skier bridge carrying skiers lower than the old lift.View riding up the lift line.Arriving at the top terminal.Side view of the upper station.Middle station not in use the inaugural season.Combination assemblies on tower 8.View down the lower lift line.Towers 1 and 2.The middle station with four towers.View riding through the mid station.Another view of the middle unload location.Hold down tower 15.Looking down the long lift line.Nearing the summit.Towers 18 and 19.Unloading area and top operator house.Return bullwheel.The mid station seen from below.Middle section of the lift line.Lower lift line.View up toward the intermediate station.Another view down the line.Lift line at the skier bridge.
My guess is that the deck was the responsibility of Belleayre, and they didn’t get it done. Doppelmayr finished their part on-schedule if not early. The lift was load tested in October.
I’m surpried they didn’t go detachable. Not because this needs to be detachable, but because ORDA is ORDA. I bet if Cuomo were still governor, this would have been a bubble 8-pack.
Sort of – ORDA manages 3 of NY’s largest resorts, Belleayre, Gore, and Whiteface, as well as all of the facilities used in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. As an entity of the NY State Government, there is little motivation to turn a profit, thus justifying expensive and sometimes unnecessary projects.
Looks like the midstation lift shack is held up by towers from the lower 2/3rds of the old Lift 7. All of Belleayre’s lift towers circa the 90s were painted according to the difficulty of the trail they stood on. The new Superchief lift has been all Pine Green since 2006 when it replaced its fixed grip predecessor; Tomahawk was repainted in the new “Belleayre Blue” and so was the double-double until it was replaced. 7 was the last lift with that color scheme till it went last summer. Here you can somewhat see Tomahawk’s blue towers below the midstation and black towers above it: http://www.chairlift.org/pics/bell/be22.jpg And here’s the lower mountain double-double (replaced by Lightning) with green towers: http://www.chairlift.org/pics/bell/be1.jpg
Lift Blog 
Are they just not using the midstation because they didn’t finish the unload decking in time?
LikeLike
My guess is that the deck was the responsibility of Belleayre, and they didn’t get it done. Doppelmayr finished their part on-schedule if not early. The lift was load tested in October.
LikeLike
I’m surpried they didn’t go detachable. Not because this needs to be detachable, but because ORDA is ORDA. I bet if Cuomo were still governor, this would have been a bubble 8-pack.
LikeLiked by 2 people
So wait building this lift was not the resort’s decision?
LikeLike
Sort of – ORDA manages 3 of NY’s largest resorts, Belleayre, Gore, and Whiteface, as well as all of the facilities used in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. As an entity of the NY State Government, there is little motivation to turn a profit, thus justifying expensive and sometimes unnecessary projects.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The fact that Belleayre’s mid-station deck wasn’t complete in time for the 2023-2024 season makes me think Gore won’t open it’s new lift by Christmas.
LikeLike
It’s open already. The snow report says “The Overlook quad does not have a midstation at this time. Riders will have to ride to the very top.”
LikeLike
Looks like the midstation lift shack is held up by towers from the lower 2/3rds of the old Lift 7. All of Belleayre’s lift towers circa the 90s were painted according to the difficulty of the trail they stood on. The new Superchief lift has been all Pine Green since 2006 when it replaced its fixed grip predecessor; Tomahawk was repainted in the new “Belleayre Blue” and so was the double-double until it was replaced. 7 was the last lift with that color scheme till it went last summer.
Here you can somewhat see Tomahawk’s blue towers below the midstation and black towers above it:
http://www.chairlift.org/pics/bell/be22.jpg
And here’s the lower mountain double-double (replaced by Lightning) with green towers:
http://www.chairlift.org/pics/bell/be1.jpg
LikeLike