Lower terminal and lift line during summer operations.Riding up in August!Reinforced tripod tower.This midstation is only used during late summer.Top terminal built into Mt. Hood.Re-enforced towers that are buried all winter.The summer midstation.Another view of the mid-load station that is buried all winter.Bottom terminal.Entering the top terminal building.Uni terminal inside the building.Chair parking area.Looking down line.Lift line from the base.Looking up the line.Doppelmayr Worldbook entry.
As far as I know, the chairs are taken off, the tension is partially removed from the haul rope, and the plywood sides of the mid-station (on the loading side) are removed. From there, the haul rope is removed from inside the mid-station, possibly with a snow cat. Everything beyond here is more or less speculation, but I would imagine a pulley or snatch block attached somehow to the towers above the mid-station could be used to pull the haul rope up to the upper sheaves. Might use a winch on a cat for this, too.
In the winter, as Palmer doesn’t usually run/is partially buried, the haul rope used to be dropped onto sets of two sheaves mounted directly on the tower tubes. They’re visible in this old image from skilifts.org (http://skilifts.org/old/images/resort_images/or-timberline/palmer/midstation.jpg). I would imagine they used a similar process to do this as well.
Many weird things happen at this ski resort. The hotel was built during the Great Depression, a world famous horror movie was filmed in it, and the weirdest one, the founder of Riblet got drunk on the original single chair… (Mt Hood Museum)
I had the pleasure of helping out Randy Henry Doppelmayr Installation director on this project The building for both top and bottom terminals were already there and all of the line towers were re used The mid station was all new The crew started building the foundations for the drive while the summer double lift was still in operation I went to help out pulling the haul rope Had to go back twice because the weather there in the fall changes so rapidly You should see the pictures in the maintenance garage of the ice build up Even with all the chairs in the park garage on the Lower Poma detach and the haul rope turning they had 12 sheave jam leading to the liners being cut in half
CRAZY PLACE Hats of to the lift mechanics who work there
Yes and I forgot to mentioned that the crew were building the drive foundations under the floor of the loading area while the summer operations were still going on While pulling the haul rope the 5/8 ” cable went to about 11/2 ” in about 30 minutes when a low pressure system moved in from the ocean Really crazy place for weather
I skied Timberline since the mid to late 80’s and rode the old Magic Mile and Palmer Riblet Doubles for years. I can say that the snow sheds on both Magic Mile and Palmer weren’t built until the lifts were replaced with the HSQ’s. The lower Palmer shed was built on top of the foundation/vault of the old Palmer Riblet. The Palmer Riblet had overhead drive and tensioning at the bottom terminal. There was a midstation on the old Riblet and they reused the deck and operator shack at the midstation on the HSQ. The old Riblet Palmer ran with the heavy side running on the right where the current version the heavy side is the left. There is a picture on the P & C Construction website https://builtbypandc.com/projects/palmer-chair-lift showing them digging out the side of the mountain for the Palmer top terminal snow shed with the top of the old Riblet still in service a little further away (first of the three pictures on the page). The second picture is building the top snowshed for the Magic Mile HSQ. If you look at http://www.mountainscholar.org website you can also see various pictures of the Palmer Riblet including the lower and upper terminals.
The Magic Mile Riblet Double was just east of the current Magic Mile Poma HSQ (this lift was completely new build and moved a little west of the old double, did not reuse anything from the old lift). There is a building just to the east of the current Magic Mile that was the old drive room for the Riblet Double. It is the only thing that I think exists today from that lift. It had a ramp to get up to the lower terminal to load and it was the same height at the roof of the drive room. It had the drive at the bottom and tensioning at the top with a large ramp. There was a midstation unload deck and a separate midstation load deck. These were also elevated and had to climb to load on the chair. There are some pictures of the Riblet Double on http://www.mountainscholar.org.
I saw a comment on Timberline’s Facebook page about this from one of their managers. Sounds like the haul rope has to be replaced as well. It was a brutal winter on Hood from a rime ice standpoint, Cascade at Meadows was closed for a month because of ice damage as well.
When they shutdown for the winter they lift the haul rope off the sheave assemblies and lower it on to sets of shelves attached to the towers because they had towers collapse towards the west side due to the frost buildup They have pictures in the maintenance garage with easily 4 ft of build up on the west side and nothing on the east side CRAZY PLACE
Rime builds up on the windward side of the object to which is is bonding. Most riming events in the Cascades are during a strong westerly-southwesterly flow. Not crazy at all, just physics. The argument can still be made that Wy’East is a crazy place, though. All volcanoes are.
Having worked on over 40 ski lift projects and been in operation for 30+ years Timberline is a CRAZY place We know the physics that cause this..
Obviously you have never been a lift mechanic. When you can’t look up because your goggles are covering in ice in two seconds that’s a CRAZY place
They couldn’t figure out how to get the clip in and out of the rope fast enough which is basically not knowing how to slow and speed up the chairs while safety in disattaching/reattaching in and out of the terminal fast enough in some context.
Great post..
Now if the guys at Timberline could get some shots of the top terminal in DEC-FEB then your guest will appreciate the crazy job that a lift mechanic is
There’s a few shots of it on Timberline’s instagram profile, it’s definitely a crazy high alpine place. Side note, this lift has probably one of the best sounding motors I’ve ever heard on a detachable.
Just back from my daughter having a week long race camp on Palmer. I skied the last day and noticed for most of the way up the lift line there is an old (?) haul rope just lying on the ground. Is this just an old haul rope? Or is it actively used for something (e.g. winterizing)?
Never seen so much ice one day working. Clear ski and then all of a sudden the chairs had 2 inches ice all-around. We had two patrollers on the line and the call was to get the chairs off the line fast. So all mechanics on deck. The chair started to unload running backwards. But there was so much ice the were getting stuck as soon as the chair entered the machine. So two guys had to bash them as they came into the machine . The two patrollers were out in that ice storm for about 45 minutes. We got it all done and the next morning I got to the top and bashed off almost 3 inches of clear ice off of each chair … That mountain is crazy
I live in Mont Tremblant I have put and taken the rope out of the mid station here I will take the time to go get some pictures and will give you all an explanation later
For the question that the fellow asked about compression sheave assembly’s that might also have sheaves below The answer for this is that the load is probably fairly light so that if you have sudden E stop you might get the cable going slack and “whipping “
With the lower sheaves there is no danger of the cable de railing once the back and forth of the chairs settles down You can see these types of set ups on new installations today We use to call them BySexual sheave assemblies The go both ways!!!
I live in Mont Tremblant I have put and taken the rope out of the mid station here I will take the time to go get some pictures and will give you all an explanation later
For the question that the fellow asked about compression sheave assembly’s that might also have sheaves below The answer for this is that the load is probably fairly light so that if you have sudden E stop you might get the cable going slack and “whipping “
With the lower sheaves there is no danger of the cable de railing once the back and forth of the chairs settles down You can see these types of set ups on new installations today We use to call them BySexual sheave assemblies The go both ways!!!
The drive at the mid station does that just take rotation from the haul rope and use gearing to push the chairs along with tires. I cant see it in the video above. The speed seems kind of erratic does it us the momentum of the chair and just re-attach but that dosent make alot of sence
Lift Blog 
What is the process of inserting and taking out the haul rope from the mid station?
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I don’t know if we have anyone who’s done the same process on Flying Mile’s summer midstation at Tremblant here….
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As far as I know, the chairs are taken off, the tension is partially removed from the haul rope, and the plywood sides of the mid-station (on the loading side) are removed. From there, the haul rope is removed from inside the mid-station, possibly with a snow cat. Everything beyond here is more or less speculation, but I would imagine a pulley or snatch block attached somehow to the towers above the mid-station could be used to pull the haul rope up to the upper sheaves. Might use a winch on a cat for this, too.
In the winter, as Palmer doesn’t usually run/is partially buried, the haul rope used to be dropped onto sets of two sheaves mounted directly on the tower tubes. They’re visible in this old image from skilifts.org (http://skilifts.org/old/images/resort_images/or-timberline/palmer/midstation.jpg). I would imagine they used a similar process to do this as well.
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How in the world did they install this lift in one summer?
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Many weird things happen at this ski resort. The hotel was built during the Great Depression, a world famous horror movie was filmed in it, and the weirdest one, the founder of Riblet got drunk on the original single chair… (Mt Hood Museum)
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That world famous horror movie is the shining
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The Shining wasn’t filmed at Timberline, it was filmed on a constructed set. Timberline is just used for exterior establishing shots. ;)
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I had the pleasure of helping out Randy Henry Doppelmayr Installation director on this project The building for both top and bottom terminals were already there and all of the line towers were re used The mid station was all new The crew started building the foundations for the drive while the summer double lift was still in operation I went to help out pulling the haul rope Had to go back twice because the weather there in the fall changes so rapidly You should see the pictures in the maintenance garage of the ice build up Even with all the chairs in the park garage on the Lower Poma detach and the haul rope turning they had 12 sheave jam leading to the liners being cut in half
CRAZY PLACE Hats of to the lift mechanics who work there
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Wow I had no idea they reused the buildings!
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Yes and I forgot to mentioned that the crew were building the drive foundations under the floor of the loading area while the summer operations were still going on While pulling the haul rope the 5/8 ” cable went to about 11/2 ” in about 30 minutes when a low pressure system moved in from the ocean Really crazy place for weather
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I skied Timberline since the mid to late 80’s and rode the old Magic Mile and Palmer Riblet Doubles for years. I can say that the snow sheds on both Magic Mile and Palmer weren’t built until the lifts were replaced with the HSQ’s. The lower Palmer shed was built on top of the foundation/vault of the old Palmer Riblet. The Palmer Riblet had overhead drive and tensioning at the bottom terminal. There was a midstation on the old Riblet and they reused the deck and operator shack at the midstation on the HSQ. The old Riblet Palmer ran with the heavy side running on the right where the current version the heavy side is the left. There is a picture on the P & C Construction website https://builtbypandc.com/projects/palmer-chair-lift showing them digging out the side of the mountain for the Palmer top terminal snow shed with the top of the old Riblet still in service a little further away (first of the three pictures on the page). The second picture is building the top snowshed for the Magic Mile HSQ. If you look at http://www.mountainscholar.org website you can also see various pictures of the Palmer Riblet including the lower and upper terminals.
The Magic Mile Riblet Double was just east of the current Magic Mile Poma HSQ (this lift was completely new build and moved a little west of the old double, did not reuse anything from the old lift). There is a building just to the east of the current Magic Mile that was the old drive room for the Riblet Double. It is the only thing that I think exists today from that lift. It had a ramp to get up to the lower terminal to load and it was the same height at the roof of the drive room. It had the drive at the bottom and tensioning at the top with a large ramp. There was a midstation unload deck and a separate midstation load deck. These were also elevated and had to climb to load on the chair. There are some pictures of the Riblet Double on http://www.mountainscholar.org.
To find the pictures look at: https://mountainscholar.org/discover?rpp=10&etal=0&query=mt.+Hood&scope=/&group_by=none&page=1&filtertype_0=subject&filter_relational_operator_0=equals&filter_0=Ropeway
Palmer Riblet Double pictures are: Page 1: Pictures 3 – 6, 9; Page 2: 3 and 4
Magic Mile Riblet Double pictures: Page 1: Picture 1 (midstation sheaves), 6 – 7 and 10; Page 2: Picture 2 (Top Terminal)
Texas (Mt. Hood Meadows) Riblet Double pictures: Page 1: Pictures 2 and 8; Page 2: 1 and 6.
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Palmer:
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Two tower heads were severely damaged in February and were replaced on May 7th.
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I saw a comment on Timberline’s Facebook page about this from one of their managers. Sounds like the haul rope has to be replaced as well. It was a brutal winter on Hood from a rime ice standpoint, Cascade at Meadows was closed for a month because of ice damage as well.
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When they shutdown for the winter they lift the haul rope off the sheave assemblies and lower it on to sets of shelves attached to the towers because they had towers collapse towards the west side due to the frost buildup They have pictures in the maintenance garage with easily 4 ft of build up on the west side and nothing on the east side CRAZY PLACE
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Rime builds up on the windward side of the object to which is is bonding. Most riming events in the Cascades are during a strong westerly-southwesterly flow. Not crazy at all, just physics. The argument can still be made that Wy’East is a crazy place, though. All volcanoes are.
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Having worked on over 40 ski lift projects and been in operation for 30+ years Timberline is a CRAZY place We know the physics that cause this..
Obviously you have never been a lift mechanic. When you can’t look up because your goggles are covering in ice in two seconds that’s a CRAZY place
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Interesting fact: the original Palmer lift was supposed to be Riblet’s first detachable chairlift, but they were not able to develop the grip for it.
https://skytraclifts.com/bill-bretts-view-from-the-tower/
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They couldn’t figure out how to get the clip in and out of the rope fast enough which is basically not knowing how to slow and speed up the chairs while safety in disattaching/reattaching in and out of the terminal fast enough in some context.
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Great post..
Now if the guys at Timberline could get some shots of the top terminal in DEC-FEB then your guest will appreciate the crazy job that a lift mechanic is
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There’s a few shots of it on Timberline’s instagram profile, it’s definitely a crazy high alpine place. Side note, this lift has probably one of the best sounding motors I’ve ever heard on a detachable.
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Just back from my daughter having a week long race camp on Palmer. I skied the last day and noticed for most of the way up the lift line there is an old (?) haul rope just lying on the ground. Is this just an old haul rope? Or is it actively used for something (e.g. winterizing)?
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The haul rope was severely damaged and had to be replaced in 2020. I’d assume that’s just the old one chilling.
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Original Palmer:
https://mountainscholar.org/bitstream/handle/11124/5736/R1280.jpg?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
https://mountainscholar.org/bitstream/handle/11124/5737/R1281.jpg?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
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How would the top terminal work without the snow shed?
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Never seen so much ice one day working. Clear ski and then all of a sudden the chairs had 2 inches ice all-around. We had two patrollers on the line and the call was to get the chairs off the line fast. So all mechanics on deck. The chair started to unload running backwards. But there was so much ice the were getting stuck as soon as the chair entered the machine. So two guys had to bash them as they came into the machine . The two patrollers were out in that ice storm for about 45 minutes. We got it all done and the next morning I got to the top and bashed off almost 3 inches of clear ice off of each chair … That mountain is crazy
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It’s interesting how the top sheaves on the hold-down tower have the covers to protect from ice, but the bottom sheaves do not.
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I’m confused by this comment. Hold down towers don’t have top and bottom sheaves. Is there a photo you can reference- counting from the top down?
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I was talking about the old Palmer lift from skier72’s comment:
https://mountainscholar.org/bitstream/handle/11124/5736/R1280.jpg?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
https://mountainscholar.org/bitstream/handle/11124/5737/R1281.jpg?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
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Gotcha, thanks.
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I live in Mont Tremblant I have put and taken the rope out of the mid station here I will take the time to go get some pictures and will give you all an explanation later
For the question that the fellow asked about compression sheave assembly’s that might also have sheaves below The answer for this is that the load is probably fairly light so that if you have sudden E stop you might get the cable going slack and “whipping “
With the lower sheaves there is no danger of the cable de railing once the back and forth of the chairs settles down You can see these types of set ups on new installations today We use to call them BySexual sheave assemblies The go both ways!!!
LikeLike
I live in Mont Tremblant I have put and taken the rope out of the mid station here I will take the time to go get some pictures and will give you all an explanation later
For the question that the fellow asked about compression sheave assembly’s that might also have sheaves below The answer for this is that the load is probably fairly light so that if you have sudden E stop you might get the cable going slack and “whipping “
With the lower sheaves there is no danger of the cable de railing once the back and forth of the chairs settles down You can see these types of set ups on new installations today We use to call them BySexual sheave assemblies The go both ways!!!
LikeLike
The drive at the mid station does that just take rotation from the haul rope and use gearing to push the chairs along with tires. I cant see it in the video above. The speed seems kind of erratic does it us the momentum of the chair and just re-attach but that dosent make alot of sence
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The haul rope speed drives the tires in the mid station just like it does in both the top return and the bottom drive terminals
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