It was a single and then Heron updated the chair in 1953. When Disney was replaced with a detach in 2000, I ended up with Chair 54 that proudly sits in my family room.
Reliability has nothing to do with it. Bottom Drive/ Bottom tension lifts are a little less efficient than a Top Drive bottom tension lift. They require more tension which usually means a bigger haulrope and cost a little more. The main reason in Sugar Bowls case is the cost of bringing a power line to the top of the lift, that’s super expensive!!
Hiking up from the nearby Oakland Ski Club I stumbled into the parking lot side terminal of the Village Lift. Didn’t cross any “do not enter” signs so I checked it out. I love how Sugar Bowl has left parts of old chairs as memories of the past.
Thoughts on replacing Mt. Judah Express + Summit with a chair that has an angled midstation like Treeline Cirque at Alpine meadows to reliably run that terrain more?
Anyone know where they got what appears to be a Yan HSQ liftshack from?
Its underneath the Mt Judah express, and when I asked a ski patroller, and he said that they just use it as a terrain park storage building. They call it the “Vader Shack”
Lift Blog 
Any photos of the Silverbelt Yan quad?
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Note the an SLI drive station in the background
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Any chance we can get some stats on Summit? Looks like an interesting little lift.
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Why did the Heron gondola have such a low capacity? Was it a pulse gondola, or did it not have many cabins?
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It was a bicable gondola that only had 12 cabins:
It was upgraded in 1957 (not 1958) with 36 cabins:
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from pictures i have seen, i do believe there was a single chair here at one point
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A 1939 Riblet. One tower still stands.
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I think that was one of the Heron doubles, not a Riblet single. The first pic shows it near a lift that replaced a Heron double.
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It was a single and then Heron updated the chair in 1953. When Disney was replaced with a detach in 2000, I ended up with Chair 54 that proudly sits in my family room.
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Why would a resort want to opt for mostly Bottom Drive/Top Tension lifts? Aren’t they the least reliable lifts?
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Reliability has nothing to do with it. Bottom Drive/ Bottom tension lifts are a little less efficient than a Top Drive bottom tension lift. They require more tension which usually means a bigger haulrope and cost a little more. The main reason in Sugar Bowls case is the cost of bringing a power line to the top of the lift, that’s super expensive!!
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Why was the Meadow Double removed without replacement?
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It appears to have been replaced with a carpet lift.
Click to access 1574138451.pdf
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Hiking up from the nearby Oakland Ski Club I stumbled into the parking lot side terminal of the Village Lift. Didn’t cross any “do not enter” signs so I checked it out. I love how Sugar Bowl has left parts of old chairs as memories of the past.
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One of the old riblet doubles that was here https://mountainscholar.org/bitstream/handle/11124/9541/R1241.jpg?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
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Good photo of one of the old doubles (with SLI chairs):
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Thoughts on replacing Mt. Judah Express + Summit with a chair that has an angled midstation like Treeline Cirque at Alpine meadows to reliably run that terrain more?
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I think the setup is fine as is, having to go all the way down to the base area to lap the terrain would be pretty annoying
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Anyone know where they got what appears to be a Yan HSQ liftshack from?
Its underneath the Mt Judah express, and when I asked a ski patroller, and he said that they just use it as a terrain park storage building. They call it the “Vader Shack”
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