Lift line seen from Lookout Vista.Garaventa CTEC drive-tension station.Maze and loading area.The bottom terminal is just uphill of where the previous Yan lift loaded.Many of the tower tubes were reused from the Yan lift as there is no road access above the bottom station.View up the very long lift line.Open middle section.Garaventa CTEC tower head.Upper line.View down from near the summit.Breakover towers.The top terminal side view.View down from the summit.Height adjustable top bullwheel.Unloading area at the return.Another view of the middle section. The top of the Lookout Vista T-Bar is in the background.View up at the mid point.Tower 9.Side view of the drive-tension combo station.
It wouldn’t make sense for them to upgrade Chair 5 to a HSQ with Chair 6 as an HSQ right next door. Kirk is right in that I seriously doubt Vail will spend anything at Kirkwood with Northstar (AKA Vail West) and Heavenly generating more skier traffic.
As nice as it would be, I don’t see it happening anytime in the near future. Being installed in 1998, this is the 3rd newest chairlift at Kirkwood behind only the HSQ’s at 6 and 7. To echo previous comments, a HSQ back here would mean the Iron Horse double chair needs a capacity upgrade as well to handle that many people. This would make it a very expensive upgrade and Vail has shown no interest in any lift upgrades at any of their California resorts and when they have (i.e. Galaxy at Heavenly), they have gone as cheap as possible. Even if they opted not to upgrade Iron Horse, there is no service road past the first few towers so much of the construction of the new chair would likely rely on helicopters, thus driving the cost up even higher.
If they did upgrade this to a HSQ, it would require riding 2 fixed grips to access. I know HSQ’s only accessible via a single fixed grip lift is already rare as it is, but are there any HSQ’s that require riding 2 fixed grips?
Chair 4 operational note: The typical weekend skier/riders somewhat trickle back to chair 4, so the two fixed grips kind of work for that. On a nice day people will stay back there and loop the lift for several hours. On a crappy day it’s one ride and then out of there.
The lift may only see 400 hours or so of operation a season due to low snow or to much snow and wind. A typical front side Kirkwood fixed grip see over a 1000 hours a season.
A lift from the bottom of chair 1 to the top of chair 2 has been surveyed as early as the late eighty’s. A restaurant was also in the plan.
Don’t see any of this happening.
Please Vail…replace old chairlift #3 Ironhorse. Hard to get on & off. I’ve been thrown to the ground at the top. The lip of the landing hill is way too narrow, less than 10 inches, covered with ice…no secure footing. Fix this please. It’s dangerous to have such a narrow place to stand & steep descent when trying to get off this old lift.
Lift Blog 
Does anyone know what the thing is on the line in the 5th picture?
LikeLike
Looks like it’s just the maintenance chair.
LikeLike
It is the rescue/maintenance cart.
LikeLike
Pretty sure this is the only lift on Kirkwood with footrests.
LikeLiked by 1 person
…if any lift at Kirkwood needed to be detachable it’s this one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was thinking the same thing.
I think the egress lift would have to become a fixed grip quad if that happened.
LikeLike
I would be super surprised to see Vail spend 1 Penney on lift replacements in CA. especially at Kirkwood.
LikeLike
ive heard they plan to upgrade 5 to a HSQ and move the current 4 to the place of 3 and make 4 a HSQ as well, the 4/3 upgrade is after the 5 upgrade
LikeLike
It wouldn’t make sense for them to upgrade Chair 5 to a HSQ with Chair 6 as an HSQ right next door. Kirk is right in that I seriously doubt Vail will spend anything at Kirkwood with Northstar (AKA Vail West) and Heavenly generating more skier traffic.
LikeLike
As nice as it would be, I don’t see it happening anytime in the near future. Being installed in 1998, this is the 3rd newest chairlift at Kirkwood behind only the HSQ’s at 6 and 7. To echo previous comments, a HSQ back here would mean the Iron Horse double chair needs a capacity upgrade as well to handle that many people. This would make it a very expensive upgrade and Vail has shown no interest in any lift upgrades at any of their California resorts and when they have (i.e. Galaxy at Heavenly), they have gone as cheap as possible. Even if they opted not to upgrade Iron Horse, there is no service road past the first few towers so much of the construction of the new chair would likely rely on helicopters, thus driving the cost up even higher.
If they did upgrade this to a HSQ, it would require riding 2 fixed grips to access. I know HSQ’s only accessible via a single fixed grip lift is already rare as it is, but are there any HSQ’s that require riding 2 fixed grips?
LikeLike
They could also build a HSQ from the bottom of snow Kirk to the top of Caples crest and replace iron horse with a fixed grip quad.
LikeLike
That was talked about 20+ years ago with a restaurant at the top of Caples crest.
Any new lifts at Kirkwood not likely anytime soon.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Chair 4 operational note: The typical weekend skier/riders somewhat trickle back to chair 4, so the two fixed grips kind of work for that. On a nice day people will stay back there and loop the lift for several hours. On a crappy day it’s one ride and then out of there.
The lift may only see 400 hours or so of operation a season due to low snow or to much snow and wind. A typical front side Kirkwood fixed grip see over a 1000 hours a season.
A lift from the bottom of chair 1 to the top of chair 2 has been surveyed as early as the late eighty’s. A restaurant was also in the plan.
Don’t see any of this happening.
LikeLike
Just a heads up, the return terminal is not height adjustable.
LikeLike
Agreed. Our counterparts appear to have installed a bullwheel removal beam.
LikeLike
Please Vail…replace old chairlift #3 Ironhorse. Hard to get on & off. I’ve been thrown to the ground at the top. The lip of the landing hill is way too narrow, less than 10 inches, covered with ice…no secure footing. Fix this please. It’s dangerous to have such a narrow place to stand & steep descent when trying to get off this old lift.
LikeLike
Respectfully, massive skill issue. It really isn’t that hard
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think there use to be a rope tow going to the top of Covered Wagon. Anyone have any information about this rope tow or why it was removed?
LikeLike
Portable platters. Peak Ranking had an article on that
https://www.peakrankings.com/content/a-lift-mystery-solved-kirkwoods-covered-wagon-lift-disappearance
LikeLiked by 1 person