When Sunshine opened, it was the longest detachable quad in the world. Now surpassed by the Slide Brook Express at Sugarbush and Chile Express at Angel Fire.Return station up top from below.Once a lift to nowhere, Sunshine now serves as one of two routes to the Prospect Bowl expansion.View down the line.It goes on and on.Doppelmayr early 80s chairs and towers.Drive station.Loading and unloading at the base.Drive shaft and bullwheel.Leaving the bottom.Riding up.Middle part of the line.Upper line.View back down.Arriving at Ute Park.Return bullwheel.
This lift was put in primarily to serve almost 1,000 acres of ski in/ski out properties. It does that quite well. But it also serves one of country’s best beginner terrain pods. Miles of north facing beginner and low intermediate terrain, separated from more advanced environments.
Definitely should get a gondola. Many beginner skiers down-load this lift after skiing at the beginner area above it. This results in the lifties having to stop it every few minutes, which makes the already long 10 minute ride into more like a 15 minute ride.
If they did install a gondola however, it would have to have a low amount of cabins and probably be a smaller size maybe even a pulse gondola to cut costs. Ive never experienced this chair having too many people on it quite simply because its an extremely long chair and would rather ski in the time frame taking the main chairs to gold hill/ revelation.
I do agree with the idea of it being a chondola for the benefit of those who do laps on the trails in this area, with “three or four chairs per cabin” ratio.
I was the chair assembler for this lift in 1986-87ish,as i was employed by dopplemyre. As i lived in vail as an instructor for VAIL ASSOCIATES. SUMMER work here. Goid times
This lift being a bottom drive lift is, in many ways, a small indicator of when this pod was self-contained and not yet a secondary route to the Prospect Bowl expansion.
Are there any plans to replace this sometime soon? It’s getting pretty old and i was suppose telluride would be planning a replacement in the coming years.
I assume you’re talking about the terminal. It doesn’t really have a name. Many folks refer to it as the CLD-260 (ChairLift, Detachable, 260-horsepower) but that’s obviously not going to match up with a larger lift.
If you’re talking about the lift’s actual drive unit, in this vintage it could be anything- a Brown Boveri, an ASEA, a Sabina….
Most all the lifts at Vail have this style terminal enclosure. I always imagined it was because they were second or third in line in the country for detachable lifts, and it just eventually became a part of their brand.
Does anyone know when they are planning to replace Sunshine, village, and lift 7? They have been talking about it for a while now and nothing has happened so far except the plunge.
Lift Blog 
Why was this lift built if it didn’t use to go anywhere?
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This lift was put in primarily to serve almost 1,000 acres of ski in/ski out properties. It does that quite well. But it also serves one of country’s best beginner terrain pods. Miles of north facing beginner and low intermediate terrain, separated from more advanced environments.
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Only once Ute Park went in in 2001 did it gain the second purpose of providing a secondary route to Prospect Bowl and Gold Hill.
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This lift is getting up there in age and probably needs to be replaced at some point.
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They should get a six pack or a gondola.
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Definitely should get a gondola. Many beginner skiers down-load this lift after skiing at the beginner area above it. This results in the lifties having to stop it every few minutes, which makes the already long 10 minute ride into more like a 15 minute ride.
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If they did install a gondola however, it would have to have a low amount of cabins and probably be a smaller size maybe even a pulse gondola to cut costs. Ive never experienced this chair having too many people on it quite simply because its an extremely long chair and would rather ski in the time frame taking the main chairs to gold hill/ revelation.
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It could also be another chondola a la Centennial Express.
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I do agree with the idea of it being a chondola for the benefit of those who do laps on the trails in this area, with “three or four chairs per cabin” ratio.
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I was the one who assembled ALL the chairs on that lift! What a pain in th A_ _! That was my job for dopplmayr. Took me 4 months.i was 22 yrs old.
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So have you heard if the ski company has found the new parts needed because they shipped the borrowed parts back to Vail?
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I was the chair assembler for this lift in 1986-87ish,as i was employed by dopplemyre. As i lived in vail as an instructor for VAIL ASSOCIATES. SUMMER work here. Goid times
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The good old days, back before Vail ruined everything they touched.
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It looks like the work carrier is a modified Doppelmayr centerpost chair.
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This lift being a bottom drive lift is, in many ways, a small indicator of when this pod was self-contained and not yet a secondary route to the Prospect Bowl expansion.
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Are there any plans to replace this sometime soon? It’s getting pretty old and i was suppose telluride would be planning a replacement in the coming years.
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What is the name of this drive?
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I assume you’re talking about the terminal. It doesn’t really have a name. Many folks refer to it as the CLD-260 (ChairLift, Detachable, 260-horsepower) but that’s obviously not going to match up with a larger lift.
If you’re talking about the lift’s actual drive unit, in this vintage it could be anything- a Brown Boveri, an ASEA, a Sabina….
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Most all the lifts at Vail have this style terminal enclosure. I always imagined it was because they were second or third in line in the country for detachable lifts, and it just eventually became a part of their brand.
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It’s a CLD-260
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Does anyone know when they are planning to replace Sunshine, village, and lift 7? They have been talking about it for a while now and nothing has happened so far except the plunge.
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I don’t think they’ll be happening for a while, especially with the arguments over replacing the Mountain Village Gondola.
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Check out this! It’s a Nippon cable CLD 260 High speed Triple, With DT style grips!
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Also, a recording of Sunshine:
Full speed drive terminal clips on my channel.
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Your ski lift videos have a lot more quality than most others. What do you record on?
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iPhone 13, at 1080p60. I just got an insta360 ace pro 2, so will record at 4k60 on my next summer trip in a few weeks. Thanks!
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The lift in its old paint scheme:
https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/reportage-tsd4-sunshine-express-doppelmayr-5320.html
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