I would say if it did I would say it would of come from a defunct ski area called evergreen in Colorado it had 7 riblet ordered but they never were put up
That’s really interesting… And it makes sense too, this lift seems to be rather dated Riblet tech for a 1983 installation. I’m not too keen on the time frames of Riblet’s many designs over the years, but I feel like if this was truly a new installation, it wouldn’t have a vault drive or center pole carriers, but instead bail carriers. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong though.
This is about the point when Riblet started changing up their designs.
Check out the two doublelifts that are still standing at Cuchara, Colorado. Built around the same time and similar designs. They do have bail carriers, but Riblet had been offering those since 1948. Cuchara’s triple, which was built two years later, has catwalks, lifting frames, and a new chair design. This looks to be right at that changeover, especially since some of the towers have lifting frames on them.
I will say that the vault drive is pretty weird though.
The drive setup appears to mimic a Heron, in that the bullwheel is built on a Cat planetary hub. Riblet did that with their overhead drives starting in the early 70s but I hadn’t seen this ‘upside-down’ arrangement before. I skied here as a kid though, so I wouldn’t have noticed the difference.
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I’ve heard from multiple people that this lift was bought used from another ski area.
No one knows exactly where, though a few seemed to think it was from somewhere in Colorado.
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I would say if it did I would say it would of come from a defunct ski area called evergreen in Colorado it had 7 riblet ordered but they never were put up
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That’s really interesting… And it makes sense too, this lift seems to be rather dated Riblet tech for a 1983 installation. I’m not too keen on the time frames of Riblet’s many designs over the years, but I feel like if this was truly a new installation, it wouldn’t have a vault drive or center pole carriers, but instead bail carriers. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong though.
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This is about the point when Riblet started changing up their designs.
Check out the two doublelifts that are still standing at Cuchara, Colorado. Built around the same time and similar designs. They do have bail carriers, but Riblet had been offering those since 1948. Cuchara’s triple, which was built two years later, has catwalks, lifting frames, and a new chair design. This looks to be right at that changeover, especially since some of the towers have lifting frames on them.
I will say that the vault drive is pretty weird though.
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The drive setup appears to mimic a Heron, in that the bullwheel is built on a Cat planetary hub. Riblet did that with their overhead drives starting in the early 70s but I hadn’t seen this ‘upside-down’ arrangement before. I skied here as a kid though, so I wouldn’t have noticed the difference.
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