Looks fine to me. I don’t see what wouldn’t be safe about them. It’s not any harder to stay on a chairlift than a stationary chair so it really doesn’t matter what sort of handles or bars are on them. Even “safety bars” are now usually called “comfort bars” because they don’t really keep you from falling off the chair or make the lift any safer unless they have something like KidStop on them; they’re just there to make you feel better. Even lifts with KidStop or Dopplemayr foot rests which go between legs don’t help as much as you might think because almost all falls happen right after loading or right before unloading when the bar is up.
This place was probably low budget back then. I don’t think people went to court over lift related injuries back then either. After all, what’s a restraint bar going to do to stop you without a footrest? The reason they put restraint bars on lifts is to appease insurance companies.
The armrest is there, it’s just hard to see. Again though, armrests don’t massively improve safety – there are plenty of old center pole lifts (Riblets especially) with really low arm rests which are at or below the pad level and those lifts don’t have a lot of people falling off/horrendous safety records.
It’s because it’s not ran by mountain scholar it’s now ran by repository of mines here the photo that was posted above also all of the photos that were on there are now on this site https://repository.mines.edu/handle/11124/9219
The SLI operated until it was replaced by the Skytrac E-Z Rider lift.
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If there is a B lift and a C lift, then why is there no A lift?
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There is an A lift, but it’s a rope tow.
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Here’s the old Stearns Rodger double:
https://mountainscholar.org/bitstream/handle/11124/9219/R1041.jpg?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
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Is it just me or did the chairs look unsafe?
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Looks fine to me. I don’t see what wouldn’t be safe about them. It’s not any harder to stay on a chairlift than a stationary chair so it really doesn’t matter what sort of handles or bars are on them. Even “safety bars” are now usually called “comfort bars” because they don’t really keep you from falling off the chair or make the lift any safer unless they have something like KidStop on them; they’re just there to make you feel better. Even lifts with KidStop or Dopplemayr foot rests which go between legs don’t help as much as you might think because almost all falls happen right after loading or right before unloading when the bar is up.
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This place was probably low budget back then. I don’t think people went to court over lift related injuries back then either. After all, what’s a restraint bar going to do to stop you without a footrest? The reason they put restraint bars on lifts is to appease insurance companies.
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Maybe it’s just the angle of the picture. From the picture it looks like the left armrest is missing but it is in reality very hard to see.
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The armrest is there, it’s just hard to see. Again though, armrests don’t massively improve safety – there are plenty of old center pole lifts (Riblets especially) with really low arm rests which are at or below the pad level and those lifts don’t have a lot of people falling off/horrendous safety records.
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I can’t see it 😭
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It’s because it’s not ran by mountain scholar it’s now ran by repository of mines here the photo that was posted above also all of the photos that were on there are now on this site https://repository.mines.edu/handle/11124/9219
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Here’s a little bit better of a picture of a chair

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Photos of the Stearns-Roger in operation:
https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1719130&q=pomerelle
https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1719131&q=pomerelle
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The poma that was here https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1719146&q=Ski+lift
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