Bottom tension station.
Looking up from the loading area.This lift is not opened regularly but is pre-oped daily in case it needs to sub in for the Great Escape quad.View up the line at tower 2.Vault drive up top, the last of nine such lifts at Schweitzer.Upper station on the Great Divide.Breakover towers up top.View down the line.Chair with insert clip.Middle section of the line.View up the middle part of the line.Return bullwheel and counterweight.Upper station overview.Unloading area.Bottom station seen from above.
It is generally a backup for if great escape goes down, I’ve also seen it run on peak weekends and race weekends. It’s a pretty sketchy to ride, and it scared the crap out of me as a kid. Of course its solid, just rickety old double.
Re: the “warning” sign at the lift load, any idea what the original wording was before they taped over and substituted “beginners”
“It was built in the 1960’s. People were tougher and had more skills back then. This chair is not for so have your act together….”
it was always my favorite growing up because it was always empty. When chair 1 and 6 were also Riblet doubles, it wasn’t as strange for it to be run regularly, even after great escape.
it was just long and steep enough to be fun on a pow day, but it never held snow as well as jumping over the ridge to Stella or chair 6.
Riblet, Heron and Yan made bubbles for some fixed-grip lifts as a “specialty” item, but did not have them in service for very long as customers hated them. It didn’t help that these bubbles were in the early days of development, and were just prototypes.
Wildcat and Copper had some of these bubble prototypes. Wildcat had bubbles on the upper mountain Catupult double chair (Riblet), and Copper had them on the B and E chairs (Heron & Yan). There’s a couple more areas (including Schweitzer) that had fixed grip bubbles but in the end, they just didn’t catch on – at least for fixed grip chairlifts.
Are there any photos of the bubbles that were on B and E at Copper? I was under the impression that F was the only Heron at Copper with bubbles until the prototypes on Flyer. I recall seeing photos of the Yan lift E with typical 1980s Yan triple chairs.
The first link is B Chair, and the second one is a Riblet bubble from another mountain. When looking on Copper’s spreadsheet, it didn’t occur to me at all that Riblet never made a double at Copper, so that’s a mistake on my part. I couldn’t find any photos of the old E chair, but it would be pretty cool to see.
We never had bubbles on B or E (both Herons, by the way; double-E was replaced by a Yan triple in 1984 but it didn’t have bubbles either). Perhaps you’re thinking of old F-lift.
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Off all my times skiing Schweitzer, I’ve never seen this lift run. I guess it’s only a backup for if the Great Escape goes down.
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It is generally a backup for if great escape goes down, I’ve also seen it run on peak weekends and race weekends. It’s a pretty sketchy to ride, and it scared the crap out of me as a kid. Of course its solid, just rickety old double.
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It’s generally open on Saturdays and Sundays during peak season-–it’s primarily a race training lift.
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Re: the “warning” sign at the lift load, any idea what the original wording was before they taped over and substituted “beginners”
“It was built in the 1960’s. People were tougher and had more skills back then. This chair is not for so have your act together….”
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I’d love to know the answer to this.
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I hated this thing all growing up. Had some major loading failures on it. It’s due to be replaced next, IMO.
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it was always my favorite growing up because it was always empty. When chair 1 and 6 were also Riblet doubles, it wasn’t as strange for it to be run regularly, even after great escape.
it was just long and steep enough to be fun on a pow day, but it never held snow as well as jumping over the ridge to Stella or chair 6.
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Before the installation of Great Escape in 1990, this chair was the only access to what is now outback bowl.
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This chair used to have bubbles in the 1970s! Cool photo here:
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Bubbles on a Riblet? Incredible… How many fixed grips out there had/have bubbles? Obviously they removed them at some point.
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Riblet, Heron and Yan made bubbles for some fixed-grip lifts as a “specialty” item, but did not have them in service for very long as customers hated them. It didn’t help that these bubbles were in the early days of development, and were just prototypes.
Wildcat and Copper had some of these bubble prototypes. Wildcat had bubbles on the upper mountain Catupult double chair (Riblet), and Copper had them on the B and E chairs (Heron & Yan). There’s a couple more areas (including Schweitzer) that had fixed grip bubbles but in the end, they just didn’t catch on – at least for fixed grip chairlifts.
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Are there any photos of the bubbles that were on B and E at Copper? I was under the impression that F was the only Heron at Copper with bubbles until the prototypes on Flyer. I recall seeing photos of the Yan lift E with typical 1980s Yan triple chairs.
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https://pasteboard.co/ye0rD7Hz4PMJ.webp
https://pasteboard.co/iNcvzAnKo9zC.jpg
The first link is B Chair, and the second one is a Riblet bubble from another mountain. When looking on Copper’s spreadsheet, it didn’t occur to me at all that Riblet never made a double at Copper, so that’s a mistake on my part. I couldn’t find any photos of the old E chair, but it would be pretty cool to see.
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We never had bubbles on B or E (both Herons, by the way; double-E was replaced by a Yan triple in 1984 but it didn’t have bubbles either). Perhaps you’re thinking of old F-lift.
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Closeup of a Riblet “bubble” from the NSAA convention:
Unique for sure.
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