Top terminal in new paint.View down the line.Lower lift line and the new Miner’s Camp lodge.View up the line.Leaving the bottom station.Arriving up top.Loading area.Side view of the top terminal.Upper lift line.Lower lift line.Side view of the bottom station.
Six packs really can only get up to 3600 pph. While many eight packs are installed below capacity, they can theoretically go up to 4800 pph if they need to be a monster people mover, which would be the purpose of the lift.
My idea would be to take one of the many fixed quads Vail should replace here, and run it from the bottom of Silverlode to the top of Crescent, which would provide a way out of this area and a way for beginners to do laps. Call it “Claimjumper” and run it right up to the Viking yurt.
Replacing Motherlode with a HSQ helped with the lines here a bunch, but they still need more capacity, especially now that the gondola ends here.
Many people, including myself, actively avoided the Motherlode lift area because it meant you were locked into a 13 minute ride up to the top. Now that we have the HSQ there, we can ski that area without feeling like the return trip takes too long. Thaynes double farther up never bothered me, perhaps because it ‘s a shorter lift with a faster (525FPM) speed.
Vail should add more chairs to this lift. Doppelmayr could fabricate more of them. The biggest set back I see is that this lift may already be at maximum capacity, as the towers are fairly far apart, and there aren’t tons of sheaves on each tower, reducing the amount of weight the line can safely carry. It’s too bad that the terrain is such that it leads to this choke point.
“My idea would be to take one of the many fixed quads Vail should replace here, and run it from the bottom of Silverlode to the top of Crescent, which would provide a way out of this area and a way for beginners to do laps. Call it “Claimjumper” and run it right up to the Viking yurt. ”
Come to think of it, the way I’d do it would be to relocate Pioneer to your proposed alignment, and put a high speed quad on the Pioneer lift line.
I am not sure if Vail is ready to pull the 8-pack trigger yet like Boyne, although this lift could definitely use an increase. If adding more chairs is possible, it should be done as a short term solution.
Would running a used detachable on an alignment to the right of Silverlode on the old Prospector alignment work? The area really needs a backup lift because King Con doesn’t really get you anywhere in that if you want to avoid Silverlode and get back up to the Summit area.
That might be just as doable to have an arrangement similar to Big White’s use of Ridge Rocket and Snow Ghost, or the way things were for the first year or so of the Prospector HSQ where it had Lost Prospector as a backup lift.
110% speculation but i wonder if they have considered a turn station for the Gondola at Miner’s Camp and an extension up to Summit House. That could help with the crowding on Silverlode.
Interestingly enough, if you draw a straight line from the current drive terminal in The Colony, you end up in the vicinity of the Summit House (between Motherlode and Thaynes). It’s probably not very practical of a line, due to length as well as going down and back up again over Thaynes Canyon, but it is still interesting nevertheless.
Park City isn’t limiting the number of people on the mountain. Their reservation system is making it look like they’re limiting the number of people, but they haven’t said anything recently about that. They have the tables spaced out at the lodges, but there was no attempt for any sort of distancing in the mazes as of yesterday.
I think it’s pretty difficult to maintain distancing in the lift mazes without the line bursting out of the ropes like here at Pucci…
Lift lines definitely look worse than they are with all the empty space. This took only 12 minutes to get through last weekend. pic.twitter.com/m3x68x4eBs
I think Park City is limiting the number of people on the mountain, but they may have been anticipating a larger number permitted at this point. The low snowfall has really hurt them in opening terrain and spreading people out. Also, Park City’s cap is really high due to the immense amount of terrain, lifts, restaurants, etc. at the resort that they may never reach it.
Silverlode in late morning is always mobbed on big days since it’s the only way to transit between a few different parts of the mountain and also serves the most popular intermediate terrain. The Motherlode HSQ helped but it was more than offset by the people coming off the gondola and adding PCMR to the Epic pass. Nothing to do with the reservation system. Start your day early or late.
I think I’m the only one who’s advocating replacing Dreamcatcher with a HSQ and reinstalling it as a beginner reliever to Silverlode, running up from the Miner’s Camp to the top of Crescent, a spot that can get you to Bonanza, Pioneer, McConkey’s, or back to Payday. Same idea as the Peak 7 infill lift at Breck or the Over and Out lift on the Canyons side. It’s not a very long alignment and an inexpensive way to get rid of the bottleneck.
Won’t be long now until it’s time to think about a replacement here. Silverlode is 25 years old this summer and the new gearboxes on all four CTEC six packs are turning 14. It’s the most essential lift at PCMR by quite a bit and it’s also the oldest detachable on either side (it replaced the Prospector Yan HSQ in 1996) and one of the oldest six packs anywhere. It feels a little beat up compared to the cushy new 2015 King Con next door. A very ugly day if Silverlode goes down since the only other way out of a third of their terrain is a southeast-facing catwalk down from King Con back to Payday. Vail Resorts still has a bunch of late 80s CLD-260s in the national fleet to get through but I would think this is next up.
If these reservation systems last beyond the next few months, Vail should consider separating reservations for the Canyons side and the PCMR side for where you can start your day.
I think Park City should boost the capacity to 3600 pph before they do anything else. McConkey’s has a little too much capacity for the terrain it services. Pulling some carriers from McConkey’s would help. If the lines are still not good after a year, then install the Miner’s Camp egress lift to the top of Crescent. If that isn’t enough, then build a 4000 pph 8 pack on Silverlode.
I do like the idea of replacing Dreamcatcher, but what about moving the old High Meadow lift to fill from the base of Silverlode to the top of Crescent. By chance do they still have the old lift stored somewhere? I think that it might be possible to see a mix of Dreamcatcher and High Meadow components on that connector lift.
In regards to Dreamcatcher, the future of that lift is interesting. I can see towers, sheave trains, and operator houses being re-used on a new high speed quad there. Some chairs (and maybe haul rope) could used on the connector lift as mentioned above. As for stations and spare chairs, I could see those being used for a Thaynes replacement. Maybe High Meadow’s towers go to the new Thaynes Quad, and new towers are fabricated for the Silverlode to Crescent Lift.
It shouldn’t. Those are quad-gauge and the overall loading stays roughly the same- detachable carriers are slightly heavier due to the grips, but they have roughly double the chair spacing of a fixed-grip. Unless the crossarms are built of lighter-gauge steel (which I can’t see in the picture, of course) they’re constructed the same on either type of lift.
Dreamcatcher would need tower heads because it looks like the lift has 13.5′ line gage tower heads, Doppelmayr and LPOA currently use a 4.8m or 15.75′ line gage for HSQ. The 13.5 line gage is still used by Skytrac and DoppelmayrUSA for FGQs.
A “Claimjumper” lift would be the most likely of solutions, since it can provide beginner egress as well. It would have to be a high speed quad in my eyes, as that is the only way to actually make a dent in the wait times at Miner’s Camp. If Silverlode has to bid farewell because of age, there is no reason why it cant be another six pack. An eight pack would be a logistical nightmare in my opinion, since loading and unloading 8 passengers per chair is not something that guests are accustomed to, and could potentially cause slows and stops, thereby affecting hourly capacity.
Bottom line: new high speed quad up to Crescent, and if need be, replace Silverlode with another six.
I do agree that a Miner’s Camp egress lift should be detachable, but I don’t see Vail replacing a six pack with a six pack. It’s not like Silverlode can’t have a capacity increase to 3600 pph with carriers from McConkey’s. 3000 pph just isn’t enough for Miner’s Camp and skiing down to King Con doesn’t really get you anywhere without a painful cat track back to Crescent. The alternative to the cat track is a mogul field that doesn’t have any snow during the late season. That Miner’s Camp egress should be at least 2400 pph.
I feel an alternate solution would be to revive Prospector as a high speed quad running from the bottom of King Con up to the Summit House, with a midstation at Miner’s Camp, then running parallel to Silverlode on the top part. But that might be a bit too long a lift for most people. So “high speed quad from Miner’s Camp to top of Crescent” is more realistic.
I don’t think Doppelmayr offers Uni G eight packs anymore so probably will be D-line. Also it probably won’t have all the fancy stuff Big Sky has because Vail dosent like the bells and whistles.
Utah Lost Ski Area ProjectSeptember 23, 2021 / 4:59 pm
“Doesn’t like?” More like “doesn’t want to pay for.” Vail is very much a “one step above” in terms of lift upgrades and if something is not necessarily needed, Vail won’t do it.
assuming Doppelmayr still makes uni-g 8 packs that’s probably what they’ll go for, pretty much the same as Village 8 at perisher, with no bubbles, heated seats, chair parking, etc
Yes, this will be the first six-pack removed in the US. This lift should still have a ton of life left, so I am sure it will be relocated or reused in some form. Just at Park City alone, there are plenty of relocation options. Town had permitting work filed for a detachable upgrade years ago under the name Treasure Express, Sunrise was pitched to be receiving an upgrade to real estate investors, White Pine Canyon will be building new lifts for new lots above Flat Iron in the next couple of years, and Dreamcatcher/Dreamscape/Pioneer could all use detachable upgrades.
Utah Lost Ski Area ProjectSeptember 23, 2021 / 5:05 pm
I wonder if parts from this lift could be used to make Payday’s midstation a full detachable midstation and use the chairs to add capacity to McConkey’s.
That might take a bit of work. Certainly it would be useful for Payday’s midstation to be a full-detachable so that it could be used in summer and winter.
I bet the new Eagle is all-new, or maybe a Red Buffalo lookalike with new grips and terminals but reusing some parts from Silverlode like chairs and tower tubes. They have big development plans for that base area and it doesn’t seem appropriate for heavily used first-generation-six-pack 26-year-old equipment that gets a lot of night use by the U.S. ski team training center. Six seems like way too much for Eagle today (since all of those people get fed into Silverlode and King Con) but it probably makes sense with the redevelopment plans for the lower parking lots.
Maybe the old Silverlode ends up being one of the Eastern six packs – potentially the Mount Snow one in a shorter and less heavy-duty alignment
I know Vail Resorts generally doesn’t go all out with their lifts, but I think they really ought to give Silverlode an LED board like the ones Big Sky has on their D-lines.
I feel it would be a useful tool on Silverlode, considering how those coming in from Quicksilver are likely to get straight on it when they arrive at Miner’s Camp (and the fact that you can directly access every lift on the Park City side from the Summit House with the exception of Jupiter).
I still dont know, is this lift getting replaced or not, I dont see it listed on new lifts for 2023 or 2024. Also considering its Vail they probably wont relocate it, they will probably just throw it out like they always do.
Lift Blog 
Could this end up being a 8 pack?
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Vail needs to replace it with a 8 pack. It was packed when I was where.
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Better option would be to put more chairs on. Most 8packs only have a capacity between 3000-4000 PPH, similar to what can be reached by a six pack.
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Six packs really can only get up to 3600 pph. While many eight packs are installed below capacity, they can theoretically go up to 4800 pph if they need to be a monster people mover, which would be the purpose of the lift.
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Does anyone have any pictures of the previous Yan HSQ?
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My idea would be to take one of the many fixed quads Vail should replace here, and run it from the bottom of Silverlode to the top of Crescent, which would provide a way out of this area and a way for beginners to do laps. Call it “Claimjumper” and run it right up to the Viking yurt.
Replacing Motherlode with a HSQ helped with the lines here a bunch, but they still need more capacity, especially now that the gondola ends here.
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They alleviated the lines somewhat by upgrading King Con to a six pack, and using the old King Con to upgrade Motherlode.
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Many people, including myself, actively avoided the Motherlode lift area because it meant you were locked into a 13 minute ride up to the top. Now that we have the HSQ there, we can ski that area without feeling like the return trip takes too long. Thaynes double farther up never bothered me, perhaps because it ‘s a shorter lift with a faster (525FPM) speed.
Vail should add more chairs to this lift. Doppelmayr could fabricate more of them. The biggest set back I see is that this lift may already be at maximum capacity, as the towers are fairly far apart, and there aren’t tons of sheaves on each tower, reducing the amount of weight the line can safely carry. It’s too bad that the terrain is such that it leads to this choke point.
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Doppelmayr could easily add more towers in order to allow for the necessary weight compensation of extra chairs.
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Good idea, except it would add more obstacles to what is already a busy ski run.
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“My idea would be to take one of the many fixed quads Vail should replace here, and run it from the bottom of Silverlode to the top of Crescent, which would provide a way out of this area and a way for beginners to do laps. Call it “Claimjumper” and run it right up to the Viking yurt. ”
Come to think of it, the way I’d do it would be to relocate Pioneer to your proposed alignment, and put a high speed quad on the Pioneer lift line.
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They need to do something with this area. It gets waaayyyy to busy. Long lines. Quicksilver feeds here and King Con.
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I am not sure if Vail is ready to pull the 8-pack trigger yet like Boyne, although this lift could definitely use an increase. If adding more chairs is possible, it should be done as a short term solution.
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Would running a used detachable on an alignment to the right of Silverlode on the old Prospector alignment work? The area really needs a backup lift because King Con doesn’t really get you anywhere in that if you want to avoid Silverlode and get back up to the Summit area.
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That might be just as doable to have an arrangement similar to Big White’s use of Ridge Rocket and Snow Ghost, or the way things were for the first year or so of the Prospector HSQ where it had Lost Prospector as a backup lift.
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110% speculation but i wonder if they have considered a turn station for the Gondola at Miner’s Camp and an extension up to Summit House. That could help with the crowding on Silverlode.
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That would likely be more expensive than a new 8-pack replacement for Silverlode.
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Interestingly enough, if you draw a straight line from the current drive terminal in The Colony, you end up in the vicinity of the Summit House (between Motherlode and Thaynes). It’s probably not very practical of a line, due to length as well as going down and back up again over Thaynes Canyon, but it is still interesting nevertheless.
I did a quick render in Google Earth: https://imgur.com/CqEUBsi
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Silverlode had really long lines on opening day this year and PC didnt do a very good job of social distancing people
Here is the video
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJpQ7MWn/
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Park City isn’t limiting the number of people on the mountain. Their reservation system is making it look like they’re limiting the number of people, but they haven’t said anything recently about that. They have the tables spaced out at the lodges, but there was no attempt for any sort of distancing in the mazes as of yesterday.
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I think it’s pretty difficult to maintain distancing in the lift mazes without the line bursting out of the ropes like here at Pucci…
…or a since deleted tweet of the line for the Eskimo Express.
Then again, the ski resorts are stuck in a position where they have to do this or they’ll have to worry about bad press and frivolous lawsuits.
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I think Park City is limiting the number of people on the mountain, but they may have been anticipating a larger number permitted at this point. The low snowfall has really hurt them in opening terrain and spreading people out. Also, Park City’s cap is really high due to the immense amount of terrain, lifts, restaurants, etc. at the resort that they may never reach it.
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Silverlode in late morning is always mobbed on big days since it’s the only way to transit between a few different parts of the mountain and also serves the most popular intermediate terrain. The Motherlode HSQ helped but it was more than offset by the people coming off the gondola and adding PCMR to the Epic pass. Nothing to do with the reservation system. Start your day early or late.
I think I’m the only one who’s advocating replacing Dreamcatcher with a HSQ and reinstalling it as a beginner reliever to Silverlode, running up from the Miner’s Camp to the top of Crescent, a spot that can get you to Bonanza, Pioneer, McConkey’s, or back to Payday. Same idea as the Peak 7 infill lift at Breck or the Over and Out lift on the Canyons side. It’s not a very long alignment and an inexpensive way to get rid of the bottleneck.
Won’t be long now until it’s time to think about a replacement here. Silverlode is 25 years old this summer and the new gearboxes on all four CTEC six packs are turning 14. It’s the most essential lift at PCMR by quite a bit and it’s also the oldest detachable on either side (it replaced the Prospector Yan HSQ in 1996) and one of the oldest six packs anywhere. It feels a little beat up compared to the cushy new 2015 King Con next door. A very ugly day if Silverlode goes down since the only other way out of a third of their terrain is a southeast-facing catwalk down from King Con back to Payday. Vail Resorts still has a bunch of late 80s CLD-260s in the national fleet to get through but I would think this is next up.
If these reservation systems last beyond the next few months, Vail should consider separating reservations for the Canyons side and the PCMR side for where you can start your day.
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They should do like what you said with Dreamcatcher but they could also make Silverlode an 8 pack.
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I think Park City should boost the capacity to 3600 pph before they do anything else. McConkey’s has a little too much capacity for the terrain it services. Pulling some carriers from McConkey’s would help. If the lines are still not good after a year, then install the Miner’s Camp egress lift to the top of Crescent. If that isn’t enough, then build a 4000 pph 8 pack on Silverlode.
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I do like the idea of replacing Dreamcatcher, but what about moving the old High Meadow lift to fill from the base of Silverlode to the top of Crescent. By chance do they still have the old lift stored somewhere? I think that it might be possible to see a mix of Dreamcatcher and High Meadow components on that connector lift.
In regards to Dreamcatcher, the future of that lift is interesting. I can see towers, sheave trains, and operator houses being re-used on a new high speed quad there. Some chairs (and maybe haul rope) could used on the connector lift as mentioned above. As for stations and spare chairs, I could see those being used for a Thaynes replacement. Maybe High Meadow’s towers go to the new Thaynes Quad, and new towers are fabricated for the Silverlode to Crescent Lift.
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Dreamcatcher will need new crossarms if it becomes a high speed quad.
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Out of curiosity, what is the reason behind that? I’m guessing the detachable chairs are heavier than the fixed grip chairs.
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It shouldn’t. Those are quad-gauge and the overall loading stays roughly the same- detachable carriers are slightly heavier due to the grips, but they have roughly double the chair spacing of a fixed-grip. Unless the crossarms are built of lighter-gauge steel (which I can’t see in the picture, of course) they’re constructed the same on either type of lift.
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Dreamcatcher would need tower heads because it looks like the lift has 13.5′ line gage tower heads, Doppelmayr and LPOA currently use a 4.8m or 15.75′ line gage for HSQ. The 13.5 line gage is still used by Skytrac and DoppelmayrUSA for FGQs.
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I think the reliever lift needs to be a high speed quad if it’s to have any effect in siphoning away traffic from Silverlode.
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A “Claimjumper” lift would be the most likely of solutions, since it can provide beginner egress as well. It would have to be a high speed quad in my eyes, as that is the only way to actually make a dent in the wait times at Miner’s Camp. If Silverlode has to bid farewell because of age, there is no reason why it cant be another six pack. An eight pack would be a logistical nightmare in my opinion, since loading and unloading 8 passengers per chair is not something that guests are accustomed to, and could potentially cause slows and stops, thereby affecting hourly capacity.
Bottom line: new high speed quad up to Crescent, and if need be, replace Silverlode with another six.
Just my two cents.
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I do agree that a Miner’s Camp egress lift should be detachable, but I don’t see Vail replacing a six pack with a six pack. It’s not like Silverlode can’t have a capacity increase to 3600 pph with carriers from McConkey’s. 3000 pph just isn’t enough for Miner’s Camp and skiing down to King Con doesn’t really get you anywhere without a painful cat track back to Crescent. The alternative to the cat track is a mogul field that doesn’t have any snow during the late season. That Miner’s Camp egress should be at least 2400 pph.
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I made a map for a Claimjumper infill lift
It would be a 2,400 pph HSQ going from Miners Camp to the top of Crescent Express.
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It would definitely need 90 degree unloading!
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I feel an alternate solution would be to revive Prospector as a high speed quad running from the bottom of King Con up to the Summit House, with a midstation at Miner’s Camp, then running parallel to Silverlode on the top part. But that might be a bit too long a lift for most people. So “high speed quad from Miner’s Camp to top of Crescent” is more realistic.
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Everyone who’s been wishing for more capacity along this lift line has finally gotten their wish!
Hopefully they go with a D-line, as it will sit next to two other flagship lifts + a flagship lodge (albeit all from 2015).
Also, hopefully they go 4000 pph, but even 36-3800 would probably be a big enough boost over the current lifts 3000 pph.
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I don’t think Doppelmayr offers Uni G eight packs anymore so probably will be D-line. Also it probably won’t have all the fancy stuff Big Sky has because Vail dosent like the bells and whistles.
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“Doesn’t like?” More like “doesn’t want to pay for.” Vail is very much a “one step above” in terms of lift upgrades and if something is not necessarily needed, Vail won’t do it.
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assuming Doppelmayr still makes uni-g 8 packs that’s probably what they’ll go for, pretty much the same as Village 8 at perisher, with no bubbles, heated seats, chair parking, etc
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Will this be the first six pack in the US to be removed when the eight goes in? Also will this lift be relocated?
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Yes, this will be the first six-pack removed in the US. This lift should still have a ton of life left, so I am sure it will be relocated or reused in some form. Just at Park City alone, there are plenty of relocation options. Town had permitting work filed for a detachable upgrade years ago under the name Treasure Express, Sunrise was pitched to be receiving an upgrade to real estate investors, White Pine Canyon will be building new lifts for new lots above Flat Iron in the next couple of years, and Dreamcatcher/Dreamscape/Pioneer could all use detachable upgrades.
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I could see them scrapping this, since it’s more likely Eagle will get an all-new lift rather than a hand-me-down.
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I wonder if parts from this lift could be used to make Payday’s midstation a full detachable midstation and use the chairs to add capacity to McConkey’s.
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That might take a bit of work. Certainly it would be useful for Payday’s midstation to be a full-detachable so that it could be used in summer and winter.
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What would be the advantage of having that midstation in the Winter?
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I bet the new Eagle is all-new, or maybe a Red Buffalo lookalike with new grips and terminals but reusing some parts from Silverlode like chairs and tower tubes. They have big development plans for that base area and it doesn’t seem appropriate for heavily used first-generation-six-pack 26-year-old equipment that gets a lot of night use by the U.S. ski team training center. Six seems like way too much for Eagle today (since all of those people get fed into Silverlode and King Con) but it probably makes sense with the redevelopment plans for the lower parking lots.
Maybe the old Silverlode ends up being one of the Eastern six packs – potentially the Mount Snow one in a shorter and less heavy-duty alignment
Exciting day of news!
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Very curious to see what happens with the components from this lift, and the other lifts that they are removing.
All of the lifts being removed at Park City might be able to have a new lease on life elsewhere.
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Eagle will be all brand new, park city confirmed on Instagram.
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I know Vail Resorts generally doesn’t go all out with their lifts, but I think they really ought to give Silverlode an LED board like the ones Big Sky has on their D-lines.
I feel it would be a useful tool on Silverlode, considering how those coming in from Quicksilver are likely to get straight on it when they arrive at Miner’s Camp (and the fact that you can directly access every lift on the Park City side from the Summit House with the exception of Jupiter).
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*And I mean this in the context of the future high speed eight pack.
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Will this lift be reused or scraped?
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We will take this thing as a hand me down at Eldora, Loveland, Sunlight, Monarch we could use it
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I still dont know, is this lift getting replaced or not, I dont see it listed on new lifts for 2023 or 2024. Also considering its Vail they probably wont relocate it, they will probably just throw it out like they always do.
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So is this lift still in operation?
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Yes, and will be for the foreseeable future. It got a fresh coat of paint at the top terminal this past summer
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found this old picture of the lift on Flickr must have been around its first season of operation
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