Looking down the line.Top towers and terminal.Top terminal.Looking down the lift line.Another view down the line.Top station.View down the middle part of the line.Lower line.Big depression tower.Height adjustable return terminal.Side view of the bottom station.Loading/maze area.Riding up the line.View down at T6.Arriving at the drive.Lift overview from the Heather chair.
I found it interesting that despite having the chairs that succeeded the Falcon Chairs in 1998, when this lift was installed (I forget the name of the carriers), Mt. Hood Meadows still opted for TB-41 grips and Challenger Terminals. Like the chairs this lift has, which became available the year it was installed, the Omega Terminal and Omega T grips became an option too. I’m assuming 1998 was the last time ski resorts could still choose a Challenger Terminal and TB-41 grips for a detachable lift, and maybe Mt. Hood Meadows wanted to have the same parts, maintenance and operational training as their other detachables at the time. So Shooting Star Express has the modern carriers, but the past generation detachable grips and terminals for Poma.
The Omega chairs were introduced in 1996 on fixed grip lifts. In 1997 they made their debut on detachables. That year, all Poma high speed quads featured Challenger terminals, TB-41 grips, and Omega chairs. In 1998, the prototype Omega terminals and grips were built at Copper, but customers could still opt for the outgoing Challenger terminals and TB-41 grips but with Omega chairs. In 1999, the Challenger system was discontinued and all lifts used the new Omega terminals and grips.
Further clarification on my previous comment. Did some digging around and found out the carriers I was referring to are called Omega Carriers. So I imagine Shooting Star Express has a pretty rare combo of Omega Carriers and TB-41 grips, since the Omega T Grip and Omega Terminal became an option that year too, and no more Challenger Terminals or TB-41 detachable grip using lifts (That I’m aware of) appeared after 1998.
It’s not a really rare combination. There’s four high speed quads in Colorado that have the Omega chair + TB-41 combi, between the Beaver Run SuperChair (via retrofit), the Mercury SuperChair, Rocky Mountain SuperChair, and the Steamboat Sunshine Express. And there’s at least five of them in New England, between South Ridge at Okemo, Nitro at Mount Snow, Superstar at Killington, Sunapee Express at Sunapee, and Barker at Sunday River. And there are a few of them in California, Oregon, Washington, and parts of Canada.
The Access Express at Bear Mountain, Sunapee Express at Sunapee, and this lift are Challengers built in 1998. The rest of the lifts mentioned were from 1997. There aren’t any others on Peter’s database that were built in 1998.
The fact that Peter’s database only counts three Challengers in 1998 shows how quickly Poma transitioned over to the Omega grips. In fact, the same transition happened when Leitner-Poma changed from the Omega T-grip to the LPA grip. The first LPA detachable in the United States was built in 2010, and was the High Noon Express lift at Vail. In that same year, they also installed the Black Mountain Express at Arapahoe Basin and the Funnel Express at Craigleith, both of which still used the Omega T-grip. Then in 2011, there was still a transition, as more LPA grip detachables showed up like the Mid-Burke Express (Burke), Tiehack Express (Buttermilk), Bluebird Express (Mt. Snow) and Stadium Express (Mt. Hood Meadows); but there were still a few remaining Omega lifts, like Paradise Express at Marmot and Super Glide at Alpine Valley. Then in 2012, the LPA was the only grip and terminal being offered.
I’ve never seen this lift run at 1,200fpm, same with the Vista Express. But I have seen this lift as well as Vista Express run at 1,100fpm on peak days. Very cold with the wind!
Tower 4 is a holdover from the original CTEC- Poma didn’t brace their towers like that. It’s relatively common for areas to reuse tubes from different manufacturers by torching off the old towerhead flange and installing a new one. The rest could be new with the lift, as CTEC didn’t lean their towers like the last two on this lift.
How easy it is to do such tower reuse without it being obvious varies depending on the manufacturers involved. It’s pretty visible on 80s Doppelmayr triples that became high speed quads (MHX, Cinch Express, Strawberry Park Express, Sunshine Express), or on Doppelmayr six packs reusing towers from older HSQs (King Con, Avanti Express), to give examples.
Does anyone know what resort the old Shooting Star lift (a CTEC fixed quad, I believe) was sold to?
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Mt. Ashland. They never installed it so sold it to 49 Degrees North where it is the Sunrise Quad.
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IIRC, this lift was originally built with just 68 chairs. But it received about 20 or so more chairs around 2011?
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I found it interesting that despite having the chairs that succeeded the Falcon Chairs in 1998, when this lift was installed (I forget the name of the carriers), Mt. Hood Meadows still opted for TB-41 grips and Challenger Terminals. Like the chairs this lift has, which became available the year it was installed, the Omega Terminal and Omega T grips became an option too. I’m assuming 1998 was the last time ski resorts could still choose a Challenger Terminal and TB-41 grips for a detachable lift, and maybe Mt. Hood Meadows wanted to have the same parts, maintenance and operational training as their other detachables at the time. So Shooting Star Express has the modern carriers, but the past generation detachable grips and terminals for Poma.
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The Omega chairs were introduced in 1996 on fixed grip lifts. In 1997 they made their debut on detachables. That year, all Poma high speed quads featured Challenger terminals, TB-41 grips, and Omega chairs. In 1998, the prototype Omega terminals and grips were built at Copper, but customers could still opt for the outgoing Challenger terminals and TB-41 grips but with Omega chairs. In 1999, the Challenger system was discontinued and all lifts used the new Omega terminals and grips.
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Further clarification on my previous comment. Did some digging around and found out the carriers I was referring to are called Omega Carriers. So I imagine Shooting Star Express has a pretty rare combo of Omega Carriers and TB-41 grips, since the Omega T Grip and Omega Terminal became an option that year too, and no more Challenger Terminals or TB-41 detachable grip using lifts (That I’m aware of) appeared after 1998.
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It’s not a really rare combination. There’s four high speed quads in Colorado that have the Omega chair + TB-41 combi, between the Beaver Run SuperChair (via retrofit), the Mercury SuperChair, Rocky Mountain SuperChair, and the Steamboat Sunshine Express. And there’s at least five of them in New England, between South Ridge at Okemo, Nitro at Mount Snow, Superstar at Killington, Sunapee Express at Sunapee, and Barker at Sunday River. And there are a few of them in California, Oregon, Washington, and parts of Canada.
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Huh, I stand corrected then. Were all those installations in 1998?
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The Access Express at Bear Mountain, Sunapee Express at Sunapee, and this lift are Challengers built in 1998. The rest of the lifts mentioned were from 1997. There aren’t any others on Peter’s database that were built in 1998.
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The fact that Peter’s database only counts three Challengers in 1998 shows how quickly Poma transitioned over to the Omega grips. In fact, the same transition happened when Leitner-Poma changed from the Omega T-grip to the LPA grip. The first LPA detachable in the United States was built in 2010, and was the High Noon Express lift at Vail. In that same year, they also installed the Black Mountain Express at Arapahoe Basin and the Funnel Express at Craigleith, both of which still used the Omega T-grip. Then in 2011, there was still a transition, as more LPA grip detachables showed up like the Mid-Burke Express (Burke), Tiehack Express (Buttermilk), Bluebird Express (Mt. Snow) and Stadium Express (Mt. Hood Meadows); but there were still a few remaining Omega lifts, like Paradise Express at Marmot and Super Glide at Alpine Valley. Then in 2012, the LPA was the only grip and terminal being offered.
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uhh the removed falcon superchair has omega chairs too.
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this isnt the only one that runs 1200 fpm the vista the chilie express at angel fire and sheer bliss also go that speed.
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I’ve never seen this lift run at 1,200fpm, same with the Vista Express. But I have seen this lift as well as Vista Express run at 1,100fpm on peak days. Very cold with the wind!
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hmm, does this lift use the tower tubes of the old shooting star that came before it?
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edit: no it doesn’t i checked and the tower tubes match perfectly to the tower heads.
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Tower 4 is a holdover from the original CTEC- Poma didn’t brace their towers like that. It’s relatively common for areas to reuse tubes from different manufacturers by torching off the old towerhead flange and installing a new one. The rest could be new with the lift, as CTEC didn’t lean their towers like the last two on this lift.
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How easy it is to do such tower reuse without it being obvious varies depending on the manufacturers involved. It’s pretty visible on 80s Doppelmayr triples that became high speed quads (MHX, Cinch Express, Strawberry Park Express, Sunshine Express), or on Doppelmayr six packs reusing towers from older HSQs (King Con, Avanti Express), to give examples.
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