Drive terminal and breakover towers from above.Garaventa CTEC Stealth terminal.This lift rarely runs and has fewer than 1,500 hours at age 20.Top station.T13-14.Lift line.Lower section of the line.2-part depression tower.Namesake rock formation behind perhaps the only CTEC high speed quad without safety bars.Tower 1-4.Upper lift line.Return terminal.Lift overview.Lift line view.Side view of the return.
Only one chair has a safety bar with footrest. The other ones have no safety bars. Only number 50 has a secret bar, and then a gap were a chair has been taken off. That is the one on the side by the control house.
skilifts.org shows that it was last updated in 2011. It could be that the restraint bars were removed. So we know that the skilifts.org pictures are at least 6 years old.
Look at the content of skilifts.org. It shows the High Noon Lift at Vail as a triple chairlift. I know for a fact that chairlift was upgraded several years ago. Their website is out of date.
This lift was controversial from the beginning as the new terrain that it accessed generally doesn’t get enough snow. The argument was that the new lift should have been placed as a main lift out of the base lodge area. The terrain that it now serves is classified as bonus terrain, and sometimes doesn’t open for years at a time. I was fortunate enough to ski it several years ago the day it opened and it added another great dimension to Red Lodge. The lift itself did not have restraining devices when I rode it and the resort was operating it below 3m/s.
Very cool to ride a lift that rarely opens though!
I’m a local here and I ski red lodge 30ish times a season. Id say that the lift opens slightly over 50% of years, and it is not uncommon to ride this lift in February or March.
I’m sure it would, but Montanans (and Westerners in general) have a vendetta against snowmaking. That also largely defeats the purpose of terrain serviced here. For that kind of investment, which Red Lodge can’t make right now, they’d get better use relocating the lift to the front side.
Out of every ski area I’ve ever skied, I can safely say that this lift is the biggest example of how ownership at the time of installation totally & completely missed the mark. Palisades is classified as bonus terrain and opens about 50% 0f the time, it just doesn’t make sense to install a multi-million dollar high speed quad if it’s serviced area is so rarely open. If this lift had replaced the Triple Chair and the Triple Chair been relocated here to Palisades, RL would have had a much more solid setup with this lift. At now 25 years old, the lift has barely 2,000 hours on it, compare that to the recently replaced out of base Swift Current at Big Sky that was installed the same year, & ran summers and winters (as out of base detachables often do) racked up an incredible 39,000 hours by the time of removal. If RL ever has the capital & capability to do so, swapping locations of Palisades & the Triple would not go amiss.
well apaparently they want another Garaventa/CTEC used detachable… So why not use their own, which might be the lowest hours of any detachable older than 2-3 seasons. And it’s almost 20 years old.
They could literally swap the lifts right now with pretty much no downside. You’d have an almost new detachable for the most important connection on the mountain. As a bonus, they’d then be looking to replace Palisades, and they would have a ton of options beyond just trading the lifts places.
Maybe they get real lucky and get another used HSQ. More realistically, they could find a newer but used fixed grip.They could Frankenstein a new triple out of their old one and other sourced retired or even new parts. A brand new fixed grip isn’t cheap, but it would still be cheaper and easier to actually aquire than a used detachable.
Idk why they wouldn’t do it now. Theyve had the time to try to make the terrain zone work and it won’t without a ton of snowmaking. Even in the years it’s open, it’s often off-and-on to match snow degradation outside of a few weeks. In a good year it might clock a month total. That usage would normally dictate a super cheap surface lift or even no lift at all as hike-out like the lower snow zones at Steamboat or Keystone, or as part of a snowcat operation.
And to the cost… If they had the money to buy and install Sunnyside, I can’t imagine it would have cost more to have movd their own existing lifts around. Even as a multi-million dollar sizeable project it would have been a million or 2 less than buying and moving a lift , even with a generous estimate. To me, that seems like an obvious choice.
Got the chance to ride this lift today, the Palisades area would greatly benefit from snowmaking as it would add a great step up from the Miami Beach/new Sunnyside area before going to the Triple. It adds a cool dimension to Red Lodge with two great groomed cruisers, and three blacks as well as some excellent gladed tree skiing. The area is very prone to high winds as it faces the direction the winds come from, which is also why I think man made snow would be very beneficial. Nonetheless, it’s a cool lift/area and was fun to ski, also every chair now has comfort bars with footrests and back pads.
Lift Blog 
This Lift has since got bars with footrests. In the bottom Station picture, note the one Chair with a bar on the heavy side.
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The ski lifts.org page for this Lift also has pictures of it with bars, so I wonder why there aren’t any except for the one in these pictures?
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hmmm maybe these pics are older? Duh
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Only one chair has a safety bar with footrest. The other ones have no safety bars. Only number 50 has a secret bar, and then a gap were a chair has been taken off. That is the one on the side by the control house.
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skilifts.org shows that it was last updated in 2011. It could be that the restraint bars were removed. So we know that the skilifts.org pictures are at least 6 years old.
Look at the content of skilifts.org. It shows the High Noon Lift at Vail as a triple chairlift. I know for a fact that chairlift was upgraded several years ago. Their website is out of date.
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The Skilifts.org pictures were taken in January 2005 and I took mine in June 2016.
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Yes, Skilifts.org is out of date, but with no FTP access to update the site, it’s currently a time capsule.
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Did the lift rarely ran due to lack of staff?
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This lift was controversial from the beginning as the new terrain that it accessed generally doesn’t get enough snow. The argument was that the new lift should have been placed as a main lift out of the base lodge area. The terrain that it now serves is classified as bonus terrain, and sometimes doesn’t open for years at a time. I was fortunate enough to ski it several years ago the day it opened and it added another great dimension to Red Lodge. The lift itself did not have restraining devices when I rode it and the resort was operating it below 3m/s.
Very cool to ride a lift that rarely opens though!
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I’m a local here and I ski red lodge 30ish times a season. Id say that the lift opens slightly over 50% of years, and it is not uncommon to ride this lift in February or March.
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I wonder if Palisades would benefit from snowmaking.
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I’m sure it would, but Montanans (and Westerners in general) have a vendetta against snowmaking. That also largely defeats the purpose of terrain serviced here. For that kind of investment, which Red Lodge can’t make right now, they’d get better use relocating the lift to the front side.
LikeLike
Out of every ski area I’ve ever skied, I can safely say that this lift is the biggest example of how ownership at the time of installation totally & completely missed the mark. Palisades is classified as bonus terrain and opens about 50% 0f the time, it just doesn’t make sense to install a multi-million dollar high speed quad if it’s serviced area is so rarely open. If this lift had replaced the Triple Chair and the Triple Chair been relocated here to Palisades, RL would have had a much more solid setup with this lift. At now 25 years old, the lift has barely 2,000 hours on it, compare that to the recently replaced out of base Swift Current at Big Sky that was installed the same year, & ran summers and winters (as out of base detachables often do) racked up an incredible 39,000 hours by the time of removal. If RL ever has the capital & capability to do so, swapping locations of Palisades & the Triple would not go amiss.
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well apaparently they want another Garaventa/CTEC used detachable… So why not use their own, which might be the lowest hours of any detachable older than 2-3 seasons. And it’s almost 20 years old.
They could literally swap the lifts right now with pretty much no downside. You’d have an almost new detachable for the most important connection on the mountain. As a bonus, they’d then be looking to replace Palisades, and they would have a ton of options beyond just trading the lifts places.
Maybe they get real lucky and get another used HSQ. More realistically, they could find a newer but used fixed grip.They could Frankenstein a new triple out of their old one and other sourced retired or even new parts. A brand new fixed grip isn’t cheap, but it would still be cheaper and easier to actually aquire than a used detachable.
Idk why they wouldn’t do it now. Theyve had the time to try to make the terrain zone work and it won’t without a ton of snowmaking. Even in the years it’s open, it’s often off-and-on to match snow degradation outside of a few weeks. In a good year it might clock a month total. That usage would normally dictate a super cheap surface lift or even no lift at all as hike-out like the lower snow zones at Steamboat or Keystone, or as part of a snowcat operation.
LikeLike
And to the cost… If they had the money to buy and install Sunnyside, I can’t imagine it would have cost more to have movd their own existing lifts around. Even as a multi-million dollar sizeable project it would have been a million or 2 less than buying and moving a lift , even with a generous estimate. To me, that seems like an obvious choice.
LikeLike
I think about 2 ways to make this chair more useful
1. Move to frontside and swap triple with this
2. Relocate to another ski resort who want a detachable chairlift
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2. I’d like a detachable chairlift :) My employer would never go for this lift, though, even with the ridiculously low reading on the hour meter
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Got the chance to ride this lift today, the Palisades area would greatly benefit from snowmaking as it would add a great step up from the Miami Beach/new Sunnyside area before going to the Triple. It adds a cool dimension to Red Lodge with two great groomed cruisers, and three blacks as well as some excellent gladed tree skiing. The area is very prone to high winds as it faces the direction the winds come from, which is also why I think man made snow would be very beneficial. Nonetheless, it’s a cool lift/area and was fun to ski, also every chair now has comfort bars with footrests and back pads.
LikeLiked by 1 person