CTEC Enterprise model bottom station.Looking back at the base station.Crossing over Flying Yankee.Another view of the crossing.CTEC towers with early-model lifting frames.View down the very long lift line.Another look back down.Near the top.Top station.Fixed top bullwheel.
Eternally grateful that Vail bought this mountian. One of my favorites in the MWV. Ski here, Cranmore and Wildcat. Cannot wait for this lift to get replaced. Keep it HSQ to limit skiiers on a trail at a given time. Would like to see a lift similar to Fourrunner at Stowe, but I’d be fine if they got Kanc from Loon!
This is up there as one of the most needed lift replacements in New Hampshire and the most needed replacement in MWV. Unfortunately I don’t think Vail is going to do anything about it. If you think Peak Resorts ran this place into the ground, wait and see what it looks like after being a pawn in Vail’s corporate empire for a few years.
They won’t get Kanc from Loon; that’s already lined up to replace Seven Brothers.
If/when this lift is replaced, I think a 2400r/h detachable quad would be sufficient given its length and the amount of terrain it services.
Hm. Didn’t take them as long as I thought. Perhaps…They actually don’t want to lose money after all? I mean they fixed the Kachina and replaced the kids lift and honestly… I’M OKAY THEY DID THAT FIRST! Get the kids of not just the peak…But mid mountain too! (Though…That did mean putting up with he kids for one year this past year while the double double and Kachina… didn’t run…)
Kachina didn’t run once last year. If it ran the year before … barely. I’m not holding my breath for it to run again. Vail time after time says one thing and does another.
What are you talking about Kids lift? The Double-Doubles? That’s really the only lift Vail initially *wanted* to replace. They absolutely HATE duplicate lifts which is why Big Boulder is getting so many lift replacements despite younger lifts in good shape.
It’s all about the bottom line. Couple less people to pay.
I think Vail will replace it within the next 2 years with a HSQ. Its everyone’s biggest complaint about Attitash for the last 25 years. Just build it with wide chair spacing to keep the capacity down. Summit can then be relocated to replace the double doubles which are awful lifts for the beginner area at Attitash.
Correct…BECAUSE THEY’VE BEEN REPLACED! It’s gonna be GREAT to keep begginners in the learning area. And the new lift carries four people ON ONE CHAIR and like the Abenaki is NOT high speed but…
Instructors can ride with two kids, one one on either side, like their supposed to now!
Bretton woods did it. There’s some confusion. Crossing over another lift is allow with enough clearance. It just can’t share the same pope (Attitash is grandfathered in as an exception with the Triple, but the new lift won’t be able to)
I do not think Vail should simply replace the Summit Triple as it is. The alignment does not really work well for lapping the trails on the western slope.
I would put in a detachable quad in the old Top Notch Double alignment, as I think it better serves the eastern terrain for lapping. Then, I would build a new lift to the summit of Little Attitash Mountain from Stony Brook (preferably above Bear Notch Pass with new access trails from the Double Double quad replacement and Snow Dancer). Upper Saco would need to be extended uphill to the summit of Little Attitash Mountain to unite the new lift with the existing mountain. This would create an entirely new pod comprised of Northwest Passage, Wilfred’s Gawm, and several new trails that would be much easier to lap by avoiding the congested base area. All of the necessary terrain is also either already owned by Attitash or within their SUP. I know it is quite ambitious, but Vail has shown a willingness to be ambitious if necessary, a more ambitious proposal was put forth in the 90s that included a similar lift, and there are operational/skier flow benefits to having a pod that allows skiers to lap terrain uphill without returning to the base area.
Almost. Little Attitash Mountain’s summit is slightly uphill from the existing summit (roughly the spot on the map that is slightly south of the existing summit with fewer trees). I would also place the bottom terminal slightly uphill of the existing Bear Notch Pass trail (on the map, that would be basically due west of the existing Double Double top terminal).
I’ve had this same thought, almost! A high-speed quad makes more sense to me in the old Top Notch alignment than Summit. My only difference is that I’ve imagined a fixed-grip Summit access in that scenario would either be in the existing triple alignment starting from the base of Carrigan, or from the top of Upper Highway to the existing Summit terminal, roughly skier’s left of Northwest Passage.
Hadn’t thought of extending to the Little Attitash true summit, because it’s hard to picture that much cutting happening… honestly I can’t imagine the cutting necessary for that Northwest Passage idea would ever happen, either
I think the USFS would be okay. They approved plans in the past, so I think they would do it again. The harder sell would be for Vail. A direct lift replacement is pretty straightforward and requires little investment besides the money for a lift itself. A new pod, trail cutting, new liftline, etc. is a lot more work, with manhours up significantly, and that is where they might be hesitant.
They can’t cut new trails. It was hard enough to get approval to cut down a couple trees to make room for the new (now confirmed) HSQ as it is.
Vail DID replace the kids lift to get them off the peak, and they (FINALLY) put snowmaking on Wilfred’s, so now all 3 trails from the Peak will be open consistently! As for the lift…
I DO hope they space out the chairs. I think the reason for taking out the water slides to make room for storage like what they did at Wildcat (bought back why Peak took over) so they can control the number of chairs…
isn’t vail trying to get a detachable in here? I thik a 4 person would make sense, because there isn’t alot of downhill capacity. But vail might go for marketing and get a 6 person so they can compete with Loon, Cranmore, Waterville, Bretton Woods and even Cannon.
3 months after this comment a High Speed Quad was approved. They WOULDN’T approve a six pick because it would mean cutting EVEN MORE trees and bottom line…
They don’t need it. If it’s detachable, Vail can control the number of cars and space between them to control at the peak. The flying bear ALREADY has spaced out chairs (unlike the flying Yankee, a mid mountain lift) so less people hit the summit at a time.
Bottom line if they space it out right, it shouldn’t be an issue ESPECIALLY since this past year they FINALLY put snowmaking on Wilfred’s…So now ALL THREE routes off the peak are open instead of just 2…
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Eternally grateful that Vail bought this mountian. One of my favorites in the MWV. Ski here, Cranmore and Wildcat. Cannot wait for this lift to get replaced. Keep it HSQ to limit skiiers on a trail at a given time. Would like to see a lift similar to Fourrunner at Stowe, but I’d be fine if they got Kanc from Loon!
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This is up there as one of the most needed lift replacements in New Hampshire and the most needed replacement in MWV. Unfortunately I don’t think Vail is going to do anything about it. If you think Peak Resorts ran this place into the ground, wait and see what it looks like after being a pawn in Vail’s corporate empire for a few years.
They won’t get Kanc from Loon; that’s already lined up to replace Seven Brothers.
If/when this lift is replaced, I think a 2400r/h detachable quad would be sufficient given its length and the amount of terrain it services.
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Vail will replace it once it starts losing them too much money, which may not be too far down the line
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Hm. Didn’t take them as long as I thought. Perhaps…They actually don’t want to lose money after all? I mean they fixed the Kachina and replaced the kids lift and honestly… I’M OKAY THEY DID THAT FIRST! Get the kids of not just the peak…But mid mountain too! (Though…That did mean putting up with he kids for one year this past year while the double double and Kachina… didn’t run…)
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Kachina didn’t run once last year. If it ran the year before … barely. I’m not holding my breath for it to run again. Vail time after time says one thing and does another.
What are you talking about Kids lift? The Double-Doubles? That’s really the only lift Vail initially *wanted* to replace. They absolutely HATE duplicate lifts which is why Big Boulder is getting so many lift replacements despite younger lifts in good shape.
It’s all about the bottom line. Couple less people to pay.
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I think Vail will replace it within the next 2 years with a HSQ. Its everyone’s biggest complaint about Attitash for the last 25 years. Just build it with wide chair spacing to keep the capacity down. Summit can then be relocated to replace the double doubles which are awful lifts for the beginner area at Attitash.
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It’s taking 3, but it’s finally happening!
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What about the crossing? Wouldn´t that be trickier with a HSQ? But this should go to the double doubles anyway.
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Even with the low staffing, the fact that the Double Doubles have not run this year probably means Vail does not have a future for them.
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One of them is running almost every weekend…
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East has been running daily as Vail has decided to just use the mid station and not run the Learning Center Triple weekdays.
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Correct…BECAUSE THEY’VE BEEN REPLACED! It’s gonna be GREAT to keep begginners in the learning area. And the new lift carries four people ON ONE CHAIR and like the Abenaki is NOT high speed but…
Instructors can ride with two kids, one one on either side, like their supposed to now!
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They didn’t run last year because Vail decided to not maintain a lift they were going to take out.
They are the cheapest POS company out there.
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Bretton woods did it. There’s some confusion. Crossing over another lift is allow with enough clearance. It just can’t share the same pope (Attitash is grandfathered in as an exception with the Triple, but the new lift won’t be able to)
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I do not think Vail should simply replace the Summit Triple as it is. The alignment does not really work well for lapping the trails on the western slope.
I would put in a detachable quad in the old Top Notch Double alignment, as I think it better serves the eastern terrain for lapping. Then, I would build a new lift to the summit of Little Attitash Mountain from Stony Brook (preferably above Bear Notch Pass with new access trails from the Double Double quad replacement and Snow Dancer). Upper Saco would need to be extended uphill to the summit of Little Attitash Mountain to unite the new lift with the existing mountain. This would create an entirely new pod comprised of Northwest Passage, Wilfred’s Gawm, and several new trails that would be much easier to lap by avoiding the congested base area. All of the necessary terrain is also either already owned by Attitash or within their SUP. I know it is quite ambitious, but Vail has shown a willingness to be ambitious if necessary, a more ambitious proposal was put forth in the 90s that included a similar lift, and there are operational/skier flow benefits to having a pod that allows skiers to lap terrain uphill without returning to the base area.
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What you’re suggesting is something like this?
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Almost. Little Attitash Mountain’s summit is slightly uphill from the existing summit (roughly the spot on the map that is slightly south of the existing summit with fewer trees). I would also place the bottom terminal slightly uphill of the existing Bear Notch Pass trail (on the map, that would be basically due west of the existing Double Double top terminal).
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I’ve had this same thought, almost! A high-speed quad makes more sense to me in the old Top Notch alignment than Summit. My only difference is that I’ve imagined a fixed-grip Summit access in that scenario would either be in the existing triple alignment starting from the base of Carrigan, or from the top of Upper Highway to the existing Summit terminal, roughly skier’s left of Northwest Passage.
Hadn’t thought of extending to the Little Attitash true summit, because it’s hard to picture that much cutting happening… honestly I can’t imagine the cutting necessary for that Northwest Passage idea would ever happen, either
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I think the USFS would be okay. They approved plans in the past, so I think they would do it again. The harder sell would be for Vail. A direct lift replacement is pretty straightforward and requires little investment besides the money for a lift itself. A new pod, trail cutting, new liftline, etc. is a lot more work, with manhours up significantly, and that is where they might be hesitant.
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They can’t cut new trails. It was hard enough to get approval to cut down a couple trees to make room for the new (now confirmed) HSQ as it is.
Vail DID replace the kids lift to get them off the peak, and they (FINALLY) put snowmaking on Wilfred’s, so now all 3 trails from the Peak will be open consistently! As for the lift…
I DO hope they space out the chairs. I think the reason for taking out the water slides to make room for storage like what they did at Wildcat (bought back why Peak took over) so they can control the number of chairs…
Problem solved!
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> All 3 trails from the Peak will be open consistently!
Clearly you haven’t paid attention to Vails sluggish trail rollout over the past two seasons.
Pay a snowmaker less than what you can get at Dunks down this street and you don’t get enough labor.
Pay groomers less than what you get at Dunks down the street and they can’t keep up with the limited snowmakers leaving whales for weeks.
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More problems strike the Summit Triple.
Yesterday it broke and was closed for the remainder of the day with evac on aux power.
Today they stoped loading it for a bit. Now it’s loading every other chair at about 370 fpm (~9.75 seconds per chair).
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isn’t vail trying to get a detachable in here? I thik a 4 person would make sense, because there isn’t alot of downhill capacity. But vail might go for marketing and get a 6 person so they can compete with Loon, Cranmore, Waterville, Bretton Woods and even Cannon.
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3 months after this comment a High Speed Quad was approved. They WOULDN’T approve a six pick because it would mean cutting EVEN MORE trees and bottom line…
They don’t need it. If it’s detachable, Vail can control the number of cars and space between them to control at the peak. The flying bear ALREADY has spaced out chairs (unlike the flying Yankee, a mid mountain lift) so less people hit the summit at a time.
Bottom line if they space it out right, it shouldn’t be an issue ESPECIALLY since this past year they FINALLY put snowmaking on Wilfred’s…So now ALL THREE routes off the peak are open instead of just 2…
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The new lift will be a Leitner-Poma high speed quad, and will be known as the Mountaineer.
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Leitner-Poma? That’s the maker? I knew the rest. I was there for the name reveal.
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Watching a video of the ride, and yeah you can see why this is a lift line better suited to a high speed quad.
For the record, the new lift name of Mountaineer is in reference to the train operated by the Conway Scenic Railroad nearby.
https://www.visitwhitemountains.com/listing/conway-scenic-railroad/19/
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