First-generation Spacejet return terminal.Bottom station in Sun Peaks Village.Riding up.Breakover towers.Drive station with maintenance rail.Underskin of the top station.View up the line.Lower section of the line.Lower terminal and operator house.View down the upper line.Middle section of the line.The entire line seen from Mt. Morrisey.
Most of these towers appear to have been reused from the fixed grip quad. (Kinda odd that they put a fixed grip quad in in 1993 only to replace it two years later)
They wanted to build a new lift two years later because burfield needed a new lift, So they just took the drive station from this, then replaced it with a detachable
I’d hazard a guess that this chair will be replaced by a high-speed 6- or even 8-pack chair; it’s constantly congested and services two massive attractions: the beginner-intermediate section on Sundance Mountain itself, and the massive, somewhat-renowned terrain park. This means lines are almost always massive. Either this, or my guess is a dedicated park chair might be installed. Regardless, both this and the Sunburst lifts are showing their age, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a major initiative replaces them both with higher-capacity lifts.
They even attempted to increase the capacity by altering the spacing of the chairs (moving them closer together) and adding an additional 60-80 chairs (I cannot remember the exact number). The Sundance is now running at maximum chair capacity, but the efforts seem to have been in vain; nothing has appeared to have changed.
I think the way to go would be to install a high speed six pack on Sundance, and use the current high speed quad to build a lift running from the bottom of the Morrisey Platter to the top of Mount Morrisey (allowing the north-facing trails on Mount Morrisey to be lapped without a ski-back to the Morrisey lift).
I’d say that’s plausible; the West Morrisey lift has been nagging on anyone who attempts to lap the “laundry” runs (North-facing trails) since their inception. It is frustrating to have to cut your run short to return via Static Cling when on that pod. However, my guess is that if they installed a chair there, it would be one of, if not the least-ridden chair on the mountain. Keep in mind, it’s only advanced and Expert runs on that side (and Back in Time). For this reason, I believe that the current Crystal quad will be transported to West Morrisey, as it’s a fixed-grip, cheap to operate. Sun Peaks knows that in the near future Crystal will become congested if they leave that slow old quad, so my best guess is that the current Sundance Express will be moved to the Crystal to provide a massive capacity increase and express access. In turn, the Sundance Express will be replaced by a 6- or even 8- person to accommodate the congestion there.
I mean, West Morrissey is really (other than the benefit of the laundry runs) something to service a whole bunch of ski-out/short walk properties that you have to shuttle or drive to get on the mountain now.
However, they seem to have sold and developed almost all of those lots by now so the local joke is that it was a dangling carrot that they don’t actually have to build any more to sell properties.
they are showing its age because Sundance’s motor broke because of the arctic tempertures and the chair spacing which caused a small fire and because of this, they had to run it on diesel power for the season. Motor might get fixed this summer, or might be on diesel power until they get a motor fix or a new motor
I was in Sun Peaks and this lift shut down for 5 days this past week. Due to the extreme cold there was an issue with the chair spacing and it caused a small fire in the top terminal. They just got it running again after several days of maintenance.
Its been running on its diesel motor for the past weeks ever since it got it running again, just like GMX at Sugarbush and Electrical Problem lifts like SuperQuad
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Most of these towers appear to have been reused from the fixed grip quad. (Kinda odd that they put a fixed grip quad in in 1993 only to replace it two years later)
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They wanted to build a new lift two years later because burfield needed a new lift, So they just took the drive station from this, then replaced it with a detachable
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Is there pictures of the old sundance quad the fixed grip version?
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I’d hazard a guess that this chair will be replaced by a high-speed 6- or even 8-pack chair; it’s constantly congested and services two massive attractions: the beginner-intermediate section on Sundance Mountain itself, and the massive, somewhat-renowned terrain park. This means lines are almost always massive. Either this, or my guess is a dedicated park chair might be installed. Regardless, both this and the Sunburst lifts are showing their age, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a major initiative replaces them both with higher-capacity lifts.
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They even attempted to increase the capacity by altering the spacing of the chairs (moving them closer together) and adding an additional 60-80 chairs (I cannot remember the exact number). The Sundance is now running at maximum chair capacity, but the efforts seem to have been in vain; nothing has appeared to have changed.
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The lift had 112 chairs when it was built. At present, the lift has 146 chairs.
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I think the way to go would be to install a high speed six pack on Sundance, and use the current high speed quad to build a lift running from the bottom of the Morrisey Platter to the top of Mount Morrisey (allowing the north-facing trails on Mount Morrisey to be lapped without a ski-back to the Morrisey lift).
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I’d say that’s plausible; the West Morrisey lift has been nagging on anyone who attempts to lap the “laundry” runs (North-facing trails) since their inception. It is frustrating to have to cut your run short to return via Static Cling when on that pod. However, my guess is that if they installed a chair there, it would be one of, if not the least-ridden chair on the mountain. Keep in mind, it’s only advanced and Expert runs on that side (and Back in Time). For this reason, I believe that the current Crystal quad will be transported to West Morrisey, as it’s a fixed-grip, cheap to operate. Sun Peaks knows that in the near future Crystal will become congested if they leave that slow old quad, so my best guess is that the current Sundance Express will be moved to the Crystal to provide a massive capacity increase and express access. In turn, the Sundance Express will be replaced by a 6- or even 8- person to accommodate the congestion there.
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It looks like the West Morrisey lift line already exists, and just needs a little widening to put a quad in.
As for what becomes of Sundance, I think it’s more likely it just goes to a six pack with 3,200 pph capacity.
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Imagine a 8 Pack D-Line at Sun Peaks, that’s Sun Peaks In 2036 for ya
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I mean, West Morrissey is really (other than the benefit of the laundry runs) something to service a whole bunch of ski-out/short walk properties that you have to shuttle or drive to get on the mountain now.
However, they seem to have sold and developed almost all of those lots by now so the local joke is that it was a dangling carrot that they don’t actually have to build any more to sell properties.
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they are showing its age because Sundance’s motor broke because of the arctic tempertures and the chair spacing which caused a small fire and because of this, they had to run it on diesel power for the season. Motor might get fixed this summer, or might be on diesel power until they get a motor fix or a new motor
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This lift is longer than the fixed grip quad it replaced. The original lift only ran as high as tower 15. Its replacement is 2,610 feet longer.
Before:
After:
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I was in Sun Peaks and this lift shut down for 5 days this past week. Due to the extreme cold there was an issue with the chair spacing and it caused a small fire in the top terminal. They just got it running again after several days of maintenance.
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Its been running on its diesel motor for the past weeks ever since it got it running again, just like GMX at Sugarbush and Electrical Problem lifts like SuperQuad
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