Building Solitude’s Summit Express

Peter Landsman1 Comment

It felt like spring at Solitude Mountain Resort, not because of the weather but because the Summit lift replacement project is really just getting underway.  The new Doppelmayr detachable quad is in an entirely new alignment that is extremely rugged.  There was obviously a ton of blasting and dirt work just to get to this point.  Once the Summit Express is complete, Solitude will have four high speed quads and only three fixed-grip lifts left.

Looking down from tower 15.
Looking down from tower 15.

Highlander Lift Services is in charge of this project rather than crews from Doppelmayr or Solitude.  Most of the tower forms are in but I did not see any concrete in the ground.  The top terminal is just a hole and the bottom isn’t much further along.  The lift is going to have around 20 towers and only the crossarms and lifting frames have arrived so far.  Unfortunately it looks like these guys are going to be building a lift in the snow.

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Some tower cages are still in the parking lot.
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This is all the parts for the new lift that have been delivered.

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Three New 3S Gondolas Coming Soon

Peter Landsman8 Comments

The 3S Gondola is today’s finest lift technology with large, comfortable cabins quickly moving thousands of people per hour over virtually any terrain.   Doppelmayr and VonRoll pioneered the technology with Poma and Leitner developing their own versions in recent years.  Thirteen of these systems operate worldwide with at least three more in development in settings as diverse as the Swiss Alps and islands of Vietnam.  Here is a summary:

3S Bahn – Zermatt Bergbahnen AG

Klein Matterhorn's first 3S will be the second built by Leitner Ropeways.
Klein Matterhorn’s first 3S will be the second built by Leitner Ropeways.

The world’s highest elevation 3S will open on the Matterhorn in Zermatt for 2018.  It will feature Leitner’s DirectDrive technology and new Sigma Symphony cabins designed by the famous Italian firm Pininfarina.  Its 25 28-passenger cabins will move 2,000 skiers per hour at 7.5 meters per second.  The lift will cover almost 13,000 feet laterally and 3,000 feet vertically in nine minutes.  Zermatt will be the first non-urban 3S gondola for Leitner or Poma. Construction begins next summer.

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News Roundup: The Future in Ankara

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  • Sugarloaf Mountain Resort announces a new director of lifts to oversee maintenance and operations after two high-profile lift accidents.  He’s not exactly a Boyne Resorts outsider.
  • Finally some news from Saddleback; the owners are in negotiations with four potential buyers and this season may or may not happen.  Talk about bad press.
  • Group hoping to reopen the Antelope Butte ski area near Sheridan, Wyoming will make a down payment to the Forest Service within two weeks.  The area has two Riblet double chairs that last operated in 2004.
  • Switzerland sets the maximum blood-alcohol content for a person operating a cable car at 0.05% (the same limit as for drunk driving there.)
  • A national park in South Korea may be getting a $39 million 10-passenger gondola, the country’s 155th ropeway.  South Korea will also be hosting the next Winter Olympics.
  • Parts for the new Ptarmigan lift are on site at Loveland, CO.
  • Mont Cascades in Quebec makes solid progress on replacing their TC double chair with a Doppelmayr quad.

The Ten Shortest Detachable Lifts in North America

Peter Landsman24 Comments

I”ve written a few times about the longest lifts of different types but what about the shortest? The considerable expense of a detachable lift is usually justified for long profiles where speed makes sense.  The average detachable lift in this part of the world is over 5,200 feet long while the average fixed grip lift is under 2,800 feet.  However, the slow loading speed of a high-speed lift also make sense for beginners and foot passengers regardless of the length of the line.  Hence there are plenty of very short detachable lifts that cost millions and take less than two minutes to ride.  Below are the ten shortest ones in the US and Canada.

Beaver Creek's Buckaroo Gondola is among the shortest detachable lifts but makes for a perfect beginner lift.
Beaver Creek’s Buckaroo Gondola is among the shortest detachable lifts but makes for a perfect beginner lift.
  1. Cabriolet – Mont Tremblant, QC – 1994 Doppelmayr detachable 6-passenger cabriolet

Slope length: 1,100 feet, ride time 1.4 minutes.

  1. Easy Rider Express – Sierra-at-Tahoe, CA – 1996 Doppelmayr detachable quad

Slope length: 1,165 feet, ride time 1.3 minutes

  1. Chair 3 – Horseshoe Resort, ON – 1989 Doppelmayr detachable quad

Slope length: 1,400 feet, ride time 1.6 minutes

  1. Super Glide – Alpine Valley Resort, WI – 2011 Leitner-Poma detachable quad

Slope length: 1,421 feet, ride time 1.4 minutes

  1. Valley Flyer – Alpine Valley Resort, WI – 1999 Poma detachable quad

Slope length: 1,426 feet, ride time 1.6 minutes

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A Chondola for Gatlinburg, Tennessee?

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anakeesta

Gatlinburg, Tennessee is the surprising home to a half dozen aerial lifts including the Gatlinburg Sky Lift and Ober Gatlinburg ski resort with a 120-passenger VonRoll aerial tramway.  This town of less than 4,000 may now be adding a Leitner-Poma chondola to the mix.  A new mixed-use development called Anakeesta includes the AerialQuest Adventure Park and a new hotel with a chondola connecting the two.  The project’s website is unclear on exactly what type of system is coming, but apparently it will take 12 minutes each way and have between four and eight passenger cabins (the photoshopped cabins on the website are Gangloff, not Sigma.)  The site calls it a chondola and Telemix although its not clear the person who wrote the copy actually knows what those terms mean.  Websites are cheap, gondolas are not so we will see if this one really opens in the Spring of 2017.

Site plan with the chondola connecting hotel to adventure park.
Site plan with the ‘chondola’ connecting hotel to adventure park.

News Roundup: Pardatschgratbahn

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  • Its been six weeks since the Berry family, owners of Saddleback, Maine, said they would close the resort if they could not find financing to order a new lift by August 1st.  Regardless of the outcome, this has been a PR disaster with a desperate announcement and then silence.  Not a good sign when the general manager refuses to talk to the state’s largest newspaper.  My take: despite the bluff they will find a way to open.
  • Ligonier Construction awarded $4.6 million contract to re-build the State of Pennsylvania’s Laurel Mountain Ski Area.  The project includes a new quad chairlift but I could not find a lift manufacturer identified in the bid documents.  Nearby Seven Springs Mountain Resort will operate the ski area on behalf of the state.
  • Snow Summit proves again that snowmaking systems can save lifts and buildings from wildfires.
  • What if Aspen had a gondola from Ajax to Buttermilk and Snowmass?
  • Not one but four 15-passenger gondolas proposed to link a cruise terminal with George Town in the Caribbean’s Cayman Islands.  I’m thinking even that won’t be enough when Royal Caribbean’s newest ship shows up with 6,000 passengers tired of being on a ship with 6,000 passengers.
  • “No one has contributed more to the task of transporting skiers and snowboarders up the ski mountains of the United States than Jan Leonard,” said the President of the NSAA in the Salt Lake Tribune’s obituary.  Services will be held tomorrow.

Flying Gondola Towers in Park City

Peter Landsman1 Comment

Doppelmayr flew towers for the Quicksilver Gondola in Park City yesterday and today.  I wasn’t able to make it but Instagram has us covered!  Quicksilver has 27 towers but a few had already been set by crane.  Check back next week for more updates from America’s largest ski resort.

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Teton Lift Home Stretch

Peter Landsman6 Comments

The crew from Doppelmayr is flying through work on the Teton lift with 110 days until opening.  Jackson Hole’s fourth high speed quad now has a complete top terminal with the bottom not far behind.  The Uni-G model terminals are mostly gray with white ends.  The 8,500′ haul rope, which was manufactured in Canada, was brought up the mountain earlier this week.  Eighty DT-104 Agamatic grips also arrived in crates last week. The bottom lift shack is the only large component not in already in place besides the haul rope.  At this rate I would not be surprised to see a load test by October 1st.

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Bottom terminal and haul rope.
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Those are windows on the roof.

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Lift Profile: Vail’s Gondola One

Peter Landsman17 Comments
Riding Gondola One to Vail Village.
Riding Gondola One to Vail Village.

When Vail opened the 10-passenger Gondola One in 2012, it marked the return of gondola service to Vail Village for the first time since 1976.  Gondola One is named after the original Bell gondola at Vail, which opened fifty years earlier in 1962.  After a de-ropement on that gondola the Lionshead gondola that killed four, various chairlifts served Vail Village for the next thirty years.  Gondola One replaced the Vista Bahn, one of Vail’s original detachable quads from 1985.  The Vista Bahn was a beast of a lift – over 9,000 feet long with 216 bubble quad chairs that could move 2,650 skiers per hour to the heart of Vail Mountain.  By 2011, the Vista Bahn had reached the end of its useful life and needed replacement.

The bottom terminal is located in the heart of Vail Village and has a spacious loading area.
The bottom terminal is located in the heart of Vail Village and has a spacious loading area.
The Mid-Vail station houses the drive and cabin parking.
The Mid-Vail station houses the drive and cabin parking.

Gondola One is an impressive upgrade, full of modern features and an example of how the gondola is staging a comeback.  Built by Leitner-Poma, it has 120 10-passenger Sigma Diamond cabins with heated seats, LED lighting and Wi-Fi.  Cabin 50 is painted gold to celebrate Vail’s 50th anniversary which was celebrated the year it opened.  Exterior ski racks on the cabins have space for ten pairs of skis or six snowboards and bikes can fit inside the cabins in the summer.

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