Loading area and maintenance rail at the bottom.Bottom station and lift line.Another view of the base.Lift line during bubble chair conversion.This lift opened as the Jackson Gore Express in 2002 and was re-branded as Quantum Four with new bubble chairs in 2015.Leitner-Poma Omega return terminal.Upper section of the lift line with new chairs.View down from the summit.Last tower and the top terminal.Bubble chairs.Another view of the top station.Lift line seen from the Jackson Gore base area.Loading area.An extensive parking areas was added along with the bubble chairs.Lower station vicinity.Looking up the lift line.View down on the drive station.Looking up at T4.90 degree loading.Another angle of the bottom terminal.Added bubble opening rail.
I assume Leitner Poma took them when they did the conversion. They’ll either show up on a fixed grip somewhere, or if another mountain with the same chairs decides to add chairs to an existing lift. I believe some could have ended up on one of Revelstoke’s lifts that they added chairs to and has the same exact chair design with the Omega chairs and the older Poma foot rests.
Quantum Four is now rated at 1000fpm after the bubble conversion. It used to be 1100fpm, but now the sign says max rope speed during loading is 1000fpm
South Face has the same sign, but the design speeds of both are still 1100. They run Quantum much slower now than before the bubble conversion because the 90 degree load sucks. Lines are now much longer than before and I kind of wish they just left it as a regular high speed quad.
why they thought it was a good idea to switch to 90 degree loading is baffling to me, they should have tried to reconfigure the parking structure so they could keep regular loading. You need a special kind of turnaround for 90 degree loading to work but this lift wasn’t designed for that, not a smart move from that perspective. Bubbles are nice though.
All Leitner-Poma bubble chairs have 90 degree loading. The 6-packs that were installed new with bubbles all have the special turnarounds that give more space for loading. This was a conversion obviously and I also think they didn’t have enough space to put both the bubble open/close rail and a loading ramp. Hopefully Big Sky’s future bubble conversion of Six Shooter will work better assuming it’s still on the plan.
Same, they used to run the Jackson Gore Express so much faster. But I’ve been to Okemo over 5 times this year and the quantum four sign says 1000fpm and south face still says 1100FPM. The Jackson gore sign used to be 1100fpm so maybe in addition to the 90-degree loading, the added weight of the bubbles might not even allow for the lift to reach its full speed ever. They do occasionally run Quantum Four between 900-1000fpm but it is very rare. When it runs at 1000fpm I love riding it though. Southface, however, still occasionally runs 1100fpm. When I was at Okemo over President’s day weekend they were running Southface at around 1100fpm at the end of the day, but at the end of the season they turn it down a lot but vail might do something different once they get settled in at Okemo. The one thing I do like about Vail at Okemo is that they seem to be running Sunburst six at its design speed way more often. In fact, I was there this weekend and it was running at 1000fpm. The weird thing was that there was nobody there this past weekend so I have yet to figure out why Okemo would run Sunburst six at its max speed but turn southface down when there are no crowds. Another weird thing is that at the end of the season they also speed up the Coleman brook express. Here’s a list of what I believe Okemo runs lifts at what speed.
Sunburst six-runs 1000fpm on most weekends and between 800-900fpm on weekdays
Southface-Runs 800-900fpm at the end of the season or whenever it isn’t crowded and around 1100fpm at the end of the day and on some crowded days
Solitude-Rarely goes 1000fpm but only when it’s super crowded but it mostly runs between 800-900fpm
Quantum Four-Cannot run at 1100fpm because of the bubble conversion and very rarely runs at 1000fpm. Usually, between 800-900fpm and much to everyone’s dismay, it sometimes runs between 700-800fpm
Coleman Brook-Design speed of 1000fpm but since it’s a beginner lift it usually runs at 800fpm. At the end of the season, day, or whenever it’s not crowded they turn it up to 900-1000fpm. I have yet to see it run at 1000fpm
I do believe that Vail will run Okemo’s lifts faster more often because 1) they have the money to spend on electricity and 2) because unlike at Stowe, Vail is willing to replace lifts at Okemo. If anyone wants to see videos of the lifts at Okemo, please feel free to check out my youtube channel. Here are videos of Southface running at what I believe to be 1100fpm and sunburst running at what I believe to be 1000fpm:
Also, I hope vail replaces sachem and glades peak with a high-speed lift one day but I do think the first lift that they should upgrade to high speed is either the AB quads or the green ridge triple. What do you guys think?
I think the first upgrade Vail is going to make at Okemo is replace one of the South Ridge quads with a six pack. Probably the B quad gets replaced as it is older and has the problematic unload carpet, and the A quad remains as a backup. Then I want Sachem replaced with a detachable quad, glades peak can remain as is IMO. The Sachem pod is underutilized because of the long slow ride, also too many people go down Countdown to get to the sachem trails by riding Sunburst or to get to Glades Peak or South Face instead of riding Sachem. As odd as it may sound I would remove Green Ridge and not directly replace it. I would put a new lift that starts at Jackson Gore Junction and ends where Green Ridge currently does. This I hope would remove a lot of traffic off of Mountain Road where it crosses the Solitude trails. You cannot get to Green Ridge from Mountain Road
That would be cool to do a high speed eight, although it sounds a little unlikely for vail to do that. I think vail likes to stick with high-speed sixes. I feel that other than the ab quads, the green ridge would be the best to replace with a high speed six because it would significantly reduce the crowd on sunburst six. Also, since it is the only triple on the mountain, it does not have very good capacity. The green ridge has very low capacity and it services every trail on the summit so upgrading it would provide for another way to access the summit. After that, I think that vail should either replace glades peak with a high-speed lift or replace sachem and glades peak with a high-speed lift with a mid-station. I think the worst decision vail could make is replace a current high-speed quad with a six-pack. Since the majority of skiers don’t lap the AB quad, I believe that vail would be smart to increase summit capacity. Would you rather ride up a high speed ab lift once or twice and wait in long lines for sunburst six or ride the slow ab lift once or twice and enjoy the shorter lines on sunburst six and the faster ride time on green ridge or sachem/glades peak? I choose the latter. I think the name of the game for vail is to replace higher lifts on the mountain with high speed lifts then move to the lower ones because the lower ones are lapped way less.
It’ll be very interesting to see what vail does to Okemo’s system. Green Ridge, Sachem, And Glades Peak could all use replacements sometime. They could definitely be re-used somewhere. One of them could become the new South Face village lift, and another maybe could become a new Beginner Lift At Jackson Gore Okemo has been planning for several years now.
Also, I have a clip of the South Face Express Running close to if not full speed (1100 FPM) This was taken on a Saturday, so it’s bound to be busy and it should run like this all the time. How rare is it for it to run at this speed based on your observations?
I’ve noticed that the southface express consistently runs at more or less full speed on saturdays in january and february, but I’m pretty sure their criteria is if it’s crowded and it’s safe to do so, run the lift fast. They know that the experienced skiers come to southface so they dpn’t have to worry about ppl stopping the lift. When it’s not crowded, they run it slow. They also turn the lift down for good in the late season. I’ve never been to okemo before christmas so I’m not sure about their lift ops then but I’m willing to bet southface runs slower then as well
With the bubbles now on this lift, it gets much longer lines than it used too, partly because of the slower speed, but mostly because everyone at Okemo wants to ride the bubble lifts. This has made the Solitude and especially the South Face lifts much less crowded.
You’re right about that. It made no sense to reduce the capacity while trying to increase ridership at the lift. The non-bubble version had a capacity of 2640/hr and now it’s 2400 assuming full speed. They ran the non-bubble version at 1000 typically, but the bubble version now runs at about 800 feet per minute. Basically the actual capacity went down from 2400 to 1920.
Nowadays many customers staying at the Inn literally never leave JG. In the first year of Sunburst a lot of them would just go over there to ski for a couple hours or so. Solitude has always been a pass-through area and not really one to lap ever since JG was built. The terrain isn’t all that good in my opinion and the whole thing is bisected by Mountain Road which is annoying. Instead of doing the bubble-conversion, if they really wanted a bubble at JG, they should’ve just built another bubble-6 and relocated the quad to replace Green Ridge or something at Sunapee or Crested Butte.
New England Chairlifts & SkiingDecember 9, 2019 / 3:13 pm
UPDATE: This Lift is now being replaced with a new Six Pack, and this will be relocated to replace the Green Ridge Triple. I think this is a great idea, because it will cut lines by a long shot and it will definitely run faster.
oh my bad. sunshine’s bubble was in an area where they didn’t want capacity, it was the last lift that wasn’t updated technology, and they wanted the marketing and being canada’s first with heated seats. That’s why they put in a really low capacity bubble quad.
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Does anyone know where the old non bubbled chairs went?
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I assume Leitner Poma took them when they did the conversion. They’ll either show up on a fixed grip somewhere, or if another mountain with the same chairs decides to add chairs to an existing lift. I believe some could have ended up on one of Revelstoke’s lifts that they added chairs to and has the same exact chair design with the Omega chairs and the older Poma foot rests.
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That would probably be The Stoke, since Ripper has the newer footrest design.
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Quantum Four is now rated at 1000fpm after the bubble conversion. It used to be 1100fpm, but now the sign says max rope speed during loading is 1000fpm
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South Face has the same sign, but the design speeds of both are still 1100. They run Quantum much slower now than before the bubble conversion because the 90 degree load sucks. Lines are now much longer than before and I kind of wish they just left it as a regular high speed quad.
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why they thought it was a good idea to switch to 90 degree loading is baffling to me, they should have tried to reconfigure the parking structure so they could keep regular loading. You need a special kind of turnaround for 90 degree loading to work but this lift wasn’t designed for that, not a smart move from that perspective. Bubbles are nice though.
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All Leitner-Poma bubble chairs have 90 degree loading. The 6-packs that were installed new with bubbles all have the special turnarounds that give more space for loading. This was a conversion obviously and I also think they didn’t have enough space to put both the bubble open/close rail and a loading ramp. Hopefully Big Sky’s future bubble conversion of Six Shooter will work better assuming it’s still on the plan.
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Same, they used to run the Jackson Gore Express so much faster. But I’ve been to Okemo over 5 times this year and the quantum four sign says 1000fpm and south face still says 1100FPM. The Jackson gore sign used to be 1100fpm so maybe in addition to the 90-degree loading, the added weight of the bubbles might not even allow for the lift to reach its full speed ever. They do occasionally run Quantum Four between 900-1000fpm but it is very rare. When it runs at 1000fpm I love riding it though. Southface, however, still occasionally runs 1100fpm. When I was at Okemo over President’s day weekend they were running Southface at around 1100fpm at the end of the day, but at the end of the season they turn it down a lot but vail might do something different once they get settled in at Okemo. The one thing I do like about Vail at Okemo is that they seem to be running Sunburst six at its design speed way more often. In fact, I was there this weekend and it was running at 1000fpm. The weird thing was that there was nobody there this past weekend so I have yet to figure out why Okemo would run Sunburst six at its max speed but turn southface down when there are no crowds. Another weird thing is that at the end of the season they also speed up the Coleman brook express. Here’s a list of what I believe Okemo runs lifts at what speed.
Sunburst six-runs 1000fpm on most weekends and between 800-900fpm on weekdays
Southface-Runs 800-900fpm at the end of the season or whenever it isn’t crowded and around 1100fpm at the end of the day and on some crowded days
Solitude-Rarely goes 1000fpm but only when it’s super crowded but it mostly runs between 800-900fpm
Quantum Four-Cannot run at 1100fpm because of the bubble conversion and very rarely runs at 1000fpm. Usually, between 800-900fpm and much to everyone’s dismay, it sometimes runs between 700-800fpm
Coleman Brook-Design speed of 1000fpm but since it’s a beginner lift it usually runs at 800fpm. At the end of the season, day, or whenever it’s not crowded they turn it up to 900-1000fpm. I have yet to see it run at 1000fpm
I do believe that Vail will run Okemo’s lifts faster more often because 1) they have the money to spend on electricity and 2) because unlike at Stowe, Vail is willing to replace lifts at Okemo. If anyone wants to see videos of the lifts at Okemo, please feel free to check out my youtube channel. Here are videos of Southface running at what I believe to be 1100fpm and sunburst running at what I believe to be 1000fpm:
Also, I hope vail replaces sachem and glades peak with a high-speed lift one day but I do think the first lift that they should upgrade to high speed is either the AB quads or the green ridge triple. What do you guys think?
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It would be fantastic if they replaced AB with the first high speed eight chair on the east coast.
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I think the first upgrade Vail is going to make at Okemo is replace one of the South Ridge quads with a six pack. Probably the B quad gets replaced as it is older and has the problematic unload carpet, and the A quad remains as a backup. Then I want Sachem replaced with a detachable quad, glades peak can remain as is IMO. The Sachem pod is underutilized because of the long slow ride, also too many people go down Countdown to get to the sachem trails by riding Sunburst or to get to Glades Peak or South Face instead of riding Sachem. As odd as it may sound I would remove Green Ridge and not directly replace it. I would put a new lift that starts at Jackson Gore Junction and ends where Green Ridge currently does. This I hope would remove a lot of traffic off of Mountain Road where it crosses the Solitude trails. You cannot get to Green Ridge from Mountain Road
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That would be cool to do a high speed eight, although it sounds a little unlikely for vail to do that. I think vail likes to stick with high-speed sixes. I feel that other than the ab quads, the green ridge would be the best to replace with a high speed six because it would significantly reduce the crowd on sunburst six. Also, since it is the only triple on the mountain, it does not have very good capacity. The green ridge has very low capacity and it services every trail on the summit so upgrading it would provide for another way to access the summit. After that, I think that vail should either replace glades peak with a high-speed lift or replace sachem and glades peak with a high-speed lift with a mid-station. I think the worst decision vail could make is replace a current high-speed quad with a six-pack. Since the majority of skiers don’t lap the AB quad, I believe that vail would be smart to increase summit capacity. Would you rather ride up a high speed ab lift once or twice and wait in long lines for sunburst six or ride the slow ab lift once or twice and enjoy the shorter lines on sunburst six and the faster ride time on green ridge or sachem/glades peak? I choose the latter. I think the name of the game for vail is to replace higher lifts on the mountain with high speed lifts then move to the lower ones because the lower ones are lapped way less.
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It’ll be very interesting to see what vail does to Okemo’s system. Green Ridge, Sachem, And Glades Peak could all use replacements sometime. They could definitely be re-used somewhere. One of them could become the new South Face village lift, and another maybe could become a new Beginner Lift At Jackson Gore Okemo has been planning for several years now.
Also, I have a clip of the South Face Express Running close to if not full speed (1100 FPM) This was taken on a Saturday, so it’s bound to be busy and it should run like this all the time. How rare is it for it to run at this speed based on your observations?
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I’ve noticed that the southface express consistently runs at more or less full speed on saturdays in january and february, but I’m pretty sure their criteria is if it’s crowded and it’s safe to do so, run the lift fast. They know that the experienced skiers come to southface so they dpn’t have to worry about ppl stopping the lift. When it’s not crowded, they run it slow. They also turn the lift down for good in the late season. I’ve never been to okemo before christmas so I’m not sure about their lift ops then but I’m willing to bet southface runs slower then as well
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With the bubbles now on this lift, it gets much longer lines than it used too, partly because of the slower speed, but mostly because everyone at Okemo wants to ride the bubble lifts. This has made the Solitude and especially the South Face lifts much less crowded.
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You’re right about that. It made no sense to reduce the capacity while trying to increase ridership at the lift. The non-bubble version had a capacity of 2640/hr and now it’s 2400 assuming full speed. They ran the non-bubble version at 1000 typically, but the bubble version now runs at about 800 feet per minute. Basically the actual capacity went down from 2400 to 1920.
Nowadays many customers staying at the Inn literally never leave JG. In the first year of Sunburst a lot of them would just go over there to ski for a couple hours or so. Solitude has always been a pass-through area and not really one to lap ever since JG was built. The terrain isn’t all that good in my opinion and the whole thing is bisected by Mountain Road which is annoying. Instead of doing the bubble-conversion, if they really wanted a bubble at JG, they should’ve just built another bubble-6 and relocated the quad to replace Green Ridge or something at Sunapee or Crested Butte.
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Does this lift have heated seats?
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No.
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UPDATE: This Lift is now being replaced with a new Six Pack, and this will be relocated to replace the Green Ridge Triple. I think this is a great idea, because it will cut lines by a long shot and it will definitely run faster.
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Is this the only Leitner-Poma 4 person bubble chair? The only other ones I can think of are sixes.
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Probably yes, this is the only Leitner-Poma 4 person bubble chair in U.S. (Probably because no one wants 4 seater Bubbles due to capacity reasons.)
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Sunshine Village in Alberta wanted a bubble quad though…
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Their bubble quad is doppelmayr, not lp.
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@Kaden K I am aware of that. I was more responding to the line “Probably because no one wants 4 seater Bubbles due to capacity reasons”.
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oh my bad. sunshine’s bubble was in an area where they didn’t want capacity, it was the last lift that wasn’t updated technology, and they wanted the marketing and being canada’s first with heated seats. That’s why they put in a really low capacity bubble quad.
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They’ll almost certainly reuse all the towers in the realignment from Quantum Four to Green Ridge, with maybe a few extras added on as necessary.
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And add a new terminal because this one is terrible due short interval for the lever that opens the bubble/bars.
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That will necessitate replacing the grips as well.
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