Peter, I think your numbers for Shirley Lake are incorrect – otherwise, it has the highest vertical feet per minute of any non-tram chairlift in North America, beating Teton and the others you mentioned.
Good eye, I just checked some maps and I think the vertical should be more like 720 feet instead of the listed 1109. Being listed with a higher vertical than Siberia just seemed wrong after thinking about it for half a second.
Your typical gondola cable is a single loop where it goes up and back down again. What makes a funitel special is that the rope goes up down up again and back down before finishing the loop, so it gives the illusion that the cabin is being held up by two different cables moving in parallel, but its actually the same cable. Think of them more as a super-gondola that is way more wind stable and can move a lot of people because of the bigger cabins, they’re not really the same style of lift as a tram.
Does anyone know where the high camp pulse gondola went? I was told by a lift mechanic that it was sold, along with the old Newport lift and the shell from the high camp ice rink, somewhere in the Philippines. I haven’t found anything online.
I’ve tried to figure that out myself, to no avail. I would love to see their (Pulse and Newport) current state they still exist. I agree, anyone have any idea?
The Pulse had terminals just outside (to the north) of the gondola terminal at the Gold Coast end and at the west side of the ice rink at the High Camp end. The turn was at the top of a little rise just north of the current line of Big Blue (above the upper-mountain boneyard).
I guess although I think that emigrant would also work since a granite chief upgrade was already rejected by the and most of the terrain is accesible off of emigrant
Yes plus it would improve access from everline
This is kinda useless since you can get to land bridge from silverado anyways and the chairlift rarely has a line
Pretty good i’d assume than that includes a mid station at the top of yellow
Not really worth it because of weird terrain + we still need terrain to hike to
Pretty nice actually think something similar was on the alpine master plan
Don’t really see what the point of this is, much more helpful to upgrade scott to hs4 since its not that hard to get to gentian gully from the existing alignment of scott
I googled it and it said “List and map of all 6137 ski resorts worldwide. Worldwide, you can look forward to 60,208 kilometers of slopes: the ski resorts are served by 24,290 ski lifts. Have lots of fun skiing worldwide!” (According to Skiresort.info) I don’t know if this number is completely accurate or up to date, but it was the best information could find.
I’ve been told by Hans Burkhart that (Squaw Valley founder) Alex Cushing somehow got wind of a couple of Hjorth lifts stored in a yard somewhere and sent a couple of his lift maintenance guys (Bob Gebhart and someone else) to go check them out. They looked at the lifts and reported to Cushing that they were not impressed with what they had seen, but Cushing bought the whole lot for $200,000 and had it all trucked to Olympic Valley. The story that I’ve heard was that they set up a transit, shot a line on Headwall and one of the lift guys marked a spot every 200′ or so. They dug footings at those locations and stood the towers – no engineering whatsoever, just totally by the seat of their pants. The same procedure was followed on Exhibition.
According to anecdotes from later lift maintenance guys, the Headwall installation worked pretty well, but Jan Kunczynski rebuilt and converted it to a Lift Engineering double chair on the same line within a few years. The “no engineering” Exhibition installation was not so successful – there were one or two towers where a full upline would cause the haul rope on the downline to ‘float’ above the sheaves. Hans rebuilt Exhibition in 1975 or ’76, converting it to Doppelmayr line machinery and grips with Ski Lift International chairs (presumably with engineering for the towers and line machinery, because I don’t recall the issue with the floating downline subsequent to that).
Mountain Meadow & learning areas in general being neglected doubles and triples is a total PITA and a liability for ski schoolers. If I’m wheeling a fivesome of tiny beginners around the mountain; they can’t ride the chair on their own, I need to sit at the bottom and wait for one, two, or three “appropriate companions” to take some of my group. Most learning lifts do not have an abundance of appropriate companions. Big blue is a total godsend, I can ride with up to 4 young ones per department policy, and there are tons of “appropriate companions” pretty much all the time.
Some resorts have “riders” on the payroll, which is nice. Not Alterra.
I won’t be doing this forever but I suspect not too many opinionated locals have considered my perspective on this matter.
The only reason why RCR bought it was that the gondola needed significant upgrades, and Palisades Tahoe sold it for almost nothing. At the time RCR was low on money, but the Yan detach at LL had to go…
Heard an interesting rumor yesterday that Palisades is trying to make Silverado zone more accessible by both summer work (boulder blasting to make it easier to put in a road every year) but also considering a new lift from the bottom of Trail 90 to the top of Broken Arrow. This new lift may be in the form of the former Red Dog triple which is currently in storage on the upper mountain.
I did wonder what will become of old red dog and the old Hot Wheels. I know Hot Wheels is in storage on Troy Caldwells property and has been for some time and he has plans to use it for something if that ever pans out. Red Dog I remember seeing dissasembled in parts in the parking lot seemingly to go to storage so I assumed it was being saved for future use, I guessed Alpine Bowl replacement or possibly Kanagroo replacement, but considering the Silverado terrain issues this would make sense.
Red Dog’s terminal is being stored at High Camp and the towers are under the flat stretch of Big Blue next to the old rope tow. (Regarding the rope tow, does anyone know when it was installed?)
Yes. It was originally the Shirley Lake chair prior to being moved to its current location in 1986 with the installation of the Shirley Lake high speed quad.
KT was never a triple. The towers currently installed on White Wolf property aren’t from Hot Wheels, true, but I was told the uninstalled equipment staged at the gondola midstation was the remains of that lift.
yes old hotwheels is stored on caldwells property but I think they mean the partially installed double chair that goes up to KT. It is clearly part Yan lift but the towers are CTEC. I was told previously that the old KT was a bit of a Yan/Riblet frankenlift so it could just be the KT chairs, drive and return
I love this resort, but it really sucks that high camp is so deserted now. The ice rink is gone, the pool is gone. It seems like such a waste of space, and really should be renovated. Maybe not with Cushing’s huge hotel plan, but renovated nonetheless. Also a question does anyone know what Solitude’s terminal is called? I don’t know much about Doppelmayr fixed grips from before Alpen Star and would like to know maybe a little of their history as well.
Lift Blog 
Peter, I think your numbers for Shirley Lake are incorrect – otherwise, it has the highest vertical feet per minute of any non-tram chairlift in North America, beating Teton and the others you mentioned.
LikeLike
Good eye, I just checked some maps and I think the vertical should be more like 720 feet instead of the listed 1109. Being listed with a higher vertical than Siberia just seemed wrong after thinking about it for half a second.
LikeLike
A six pack with a carrier interval of 6.75 sec. = 3200 pph.
LikeLike
What exactly is a Funitel? Like a mix between a Gondola and a Tram?
LikeLike
Your typical gondola cable is a single loop where it goes up and back down again. What makes a funitel special is that the rope goes up down up again and back down before finishing the loop, so it gives the illusion that the cabin is being held up by two different cables moving in parallel, but its actually the same cable. Think of them more as a super-gondola that is way more wind stable and can move a lot of people because of the bigger cabins, they’re not really the same style of lift as a tram.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funitel#/media/File:DLM_diagram.svg
LikeLike
According to this website, the old pulse gondola had a turn.
http://www.skilifts.org/old/images/resort_images/ca-squawvalley/pulse/pulse.htm
LikeLike
For anyone wondering about the history of Alpine Meadows infrastructure this wonderful article proves to be quite insightful
LikeLike
The Remontees mecaniques doc has some really good photos of the old heron double, pictures of the funitel under construction, original Siberia express, and the tram with the old cabins
https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/station-olympic-valley-ca-478.html
LikeLike
and they got some photos of the east Broadway triple, if anyone is interested:
https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/reportage-tsf3-east-broadway-yan-lift-engineering-3986.html
LikeLike
Does anyone know where the high camp pulse gondola went? I was told by a lift mechanic that it was sold, along with the old Newport lift and the shell from the high camp ice rink, somewhere in the Philippines. I haven’t found anything online.
LikeLike
I’ve tried to figure that out myself, to no avail. I would love to see their (Pulse and Newport) current state they still exist. I agree, anyone have any idea?
LikeLike
The Pulse had terminals just outside (to the north) of the gondola terminal at the Gold Coast end and at the west side of the ice rink at the High Camp end. The turn was at the top of a little rise just north of the current line of Big Blue (above the upper-mountain boneyard).
LikeLike
I was lucky when i went there a couple weeks ago, i got to ride Olympic lady, Silverado, and broken arrow.
LikeLike
The top terminal for the original Red dog Riblet is still standing
LikeLike
What era of Riblet would you say it’s from?
LikeLike
This would be my master plan for palisades Tahoe:
Replace solitude with a HSQ and make it easier to access from Shirley lake
Replace granite chief with a HSQ
Replace resort with a HSQ
Put a lift going from somewhere around the bottom of Silverado to the top of land bridge
Alpine meadows:
Replace alpine bowl and yellow with a HSQ
Put a lift going from the bottom of Sherwood to ward peak, with some regrading and grooming you could probably put some intermediate runs there
Put a lift from the top of kangaroo to the top of beaver bowl
Put a lift from the base to the top of gentian gully
LikeLike
With all your new lifts at Alpine, you won’t have to go to Squaw anymore to ski endless mogul fields.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLike
I just found out that the old Pulse Gondola had a turn! Bigger than the one in Supreme at Alta.
http://www.skilifts.org/old/images/resort_images/ca-squawvalley/pulse/turn.jpg
More pictures and info here: Skilifts.org
LikeLiked by 1 person
Anyone know just how many lifts there are total? Both removed and still operating.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I googled it and it said “List and map of all 6137 ski resorts worldwide. Worldwide, you can look forward to 60,208 kilometers of slopes: the ski resorts are served by 24,290 ski lifts. Have lots of fun skiing worldwide!” (According to Skiresort.info) I don’t know if this number is completely accurate or up to date, but it was the best information could find.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I still don’t know how many have been removed though. That is just the ones operating and standing today.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I believe that a couple removed lifts that are unknown companies are hjorth brothers lifts. Couple people told me but I have no concrete evidence
LikeLike
I’ve been told by Hans Burkhart that (Squaw Valley founder) Alex Cushing somehow got wind of a couple of Hjorth lifts stored in a yard somewhere and sent a couple of his lift maintenance guys (Bob Gebhart and someone else) to go check them out. They looked at the lifts and reported to Cushing that they were not impressed with what they had seen, but Cushing bought the whole lot for $200,000 and had it all trucked to Olympic Valley. The story that I’ve heard was that they set up a transit, shot a line on Headwall and one of the lift guys marked a spot every 200′ or so. They dug footings at those locations and stood the towers – no engineering whatsoever, just totally by the seat of their pants. The same procedure was followed on Exhibition.
According to anecdotes from later lift maintenance guys, the Headwall installation worked pretty well, but Jan Kunczynski rebuilt and converted it to a Lift Engineering double chair on the same line within a few years. The “no engineering” Exhibition installation was not so successful – there were one or two towers where a full upline would cause the haul rope on the downline to ‘float’ above the sheaves. Hans rebuilt Exhibition in 1975 or ’76, converting it to Doppelmayr line machinery and grips with Ski Lift International chairs (presumably with engineering for the towers and line machinery, because I don’t recall the issue with the floating downline subsequent to that).
LikeLike
Mountain Meadow & learning areas in general being neglected doubles and triples is a total PITA and a liability for ski schoolers. If I’m wheeling a fivesome of tiny beginners around the mountain; they can’t ride the chair on their own, I need to sit at the bottom and wait for one, two, or three “appropriate companions” to take some of my group. Most learning lifts do not have an abundance of appropriate companions. Big blue is a total godsend, I can ride with up to 4 young ones per department policy, and there are tons of “appropriate companions” pretty much all the time.
Some resorts have “riders” on the payroll, which is nice. Not Alterra.
I won’t be doing this forever but I suspect not too many opinionated locals have considered my perspective on this matter.
LikeLike
After looking at pictures on skilifts.org, it looks like Super gondola sat abandoned intill 2004 when LL bought it.
LikeLike
The only reason why RCR bought it was that the gondola needed significant upgrades, and Palisades Tahoe sold it for almost nothing. At the time RCR was low on money, but the Yan detach at LL had to go…
LikeLike
Heard an interesting rumor yesterday that Palisades is trying to make Silverado zone more accessible by both summer work (boulder blasting to make it easier to put in a road every year) but also considering a new lift from the bottom of Trail 90 to the top of Broken Arrow. This new lift may be in the form of the former Red Dog triple which is currently in storage on the upper mountain.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I did wonder what will become of old red dog and the old Hot Wheels. I know Hot Wheels is in storage on Troy Caldwells property and has been for some time and he has plans to use it for something if that ever pans out. Red Dog I remember seeing dissasembled in parts in the parking lot seemingly to go to storage so I assumed it was being saved for future use, I guessed Alpine Bowl replacement or possibly Kanagroo replacement, but considering the Silverado terrain issues this would make sense.
LikeLike
Red Dog’s terminal is being stored at High Camp and the towers are under the flat stretch of Big Blue next to the old rope tow. (Regarding the rope tow, does anyone know when it was installed?)
LikeLiked by 1 person
the rope tow was installed around 2011 I believe, when big blue and the other capital improvements went in at high camp
LikeLike
2012 installation, if I remember correctly. Rope tows serve a purpose in the flats around parks. Bring it back!
LikeLike
Is the rope tow still used? ive never seen it on before
LikeLike
It was used a couple times a few years ago, but the rope’s not even on there anymore.
LikeLike
Was broken arrow relocated from somewhere? The chairs seem to be an older generation than 1989.
LikeLike
Yes. It was originally the Shirley Lake chair prior to being moved to its current location in 1986 with the installation of the Shirley Lake high speed quad.
LikeLike
Have you heard anything else regarding that rumor?
LikeLike
Its interesting that Broken Arrow is a relocation yet it has the newer Yan “Y” lifting frames.
LikeLike
They resemble them, but they’re not. They were most likely fabricated in-house.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What used lift is the White Wolf lift?
LikeLike
I believe it was the old KT22 but it may have parts of the old Headwall as well as new CTEC tower heads which I have no idea where they came from.
LikeLike
It’s the old Hot Wheels lift from the Alpine side.
LikeLike
No, the white wolf lift is the old KT triple. It’s been around for years before hot wheels was taken out
LikeLike
KT was never a triple. The towers currently installed on White Wolf property aren’t from Hot Wheels, true, but I was told the uninstalled equipment staged at the gondola midstation was the remains of that lift.
LikeLike
yes old hotwheels is stored on caldwells property but I think they mean the partially installed double chair that goes up to KT. It is clearly part Yan lift but the towers are CTEC. I was told previously that the old KT was a bit of a Yan/Riblet frankenlift so it could just be the KT chairs, drive and return
LikeLike
Also correction, the towers on white wolf look to actually be Doppelmayer towers
LikeLike
One of the Poma Falcon HSQs at 12:35.
LikeLike
Plus the Super Gondola at 23:14.
LikeLike
3000 pph for Squaw One does not seem right considering it is a HSQ not a HS6
LikeLiked by 1 person
I got some photos of the 1960s Red Dog chair on my YouTube account: http://youtube.com/post/UgkxrQc8WVoW8_Japy-6G5oCC1h1ShxFj0IW?si=vYmhOjeE5Qhwcp0a
LikeLike
I got some photos of the 1960s Red Dog chair on my YouTube account: http://youtube.com/post/UgkxrQc8WVoW8_Japy-6G5oCC1h1ShxFj0IW?si=vYmhOjeE5Qhwcp0a
LikeLike
I got some photos of the 1960s Red Dog chair on my YouTube account: http://youtube.com/post/UgkxrQc8WVoW8_Japy-6G5oCC1h1ShxFj0IW?si=vYmhOjeE5Qhwcp0a
LikeLike
I love this resort, but it really sucks that high camp is so deserted now. The ice rink is gone, the pool is gone. It seems like such a waste of space, and really should be renovated. Maybe not with Cushing’s huge hotel plan, but renovated nonetheless. Also a question does anyone know what Solitude’s terminal is called? I don’t know much about Doppelmayr fixed grips from before Alpen Star and would like to know maybe a little of their history as well.
LikeLike