Doppelmayr

Building Solitude’s Summit Express

Peter Landsman1 Comment

It felt like spring at Solitude Mountain Resort, not because of the weather but because the Summit lift replacement project is really just getting underway.  The new Doppelmayr detachable quad is in an entirely new alignment that is extremely rugged.  There was obviously a ton of blasting and dirt work just to get to this point.  Once the Summit Express is complete, Solitude will have four high speed quads and only three fixed-grip lifts left.

Looking down from tower 15.
Looking down from tower 15.

Highlander Lift Services is in charge of this project rather than crews from Doppelmayr or Solitude.  Most of the tower forms are in but I did not see any concrete in the ground.  The top terminal is just a hole and the bottom isn’t much further along.  The lift is going to have around 20 towers and only the crossarms and lifting frames have arrived so far.  Unfortunately it looks like these guys are going to be building a lift in the snow.

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Some tower cages are still in the parking lot.
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This is all the parts for the new lift that have been delivered.

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Three New 3S Gondolas Coming Soon

Peter Landsman8 Comments

The 3S Gondola is today’s finest lift technology with large, comfortable cabins quickly moving thousands of people per hour over virtually any terrain.   Doppelmayr and VonRoll pioneered the technology with Poma and Leitner developing their own versions in recent years.  Thirteen of these systems operate worldwide with at least three more in development in settings as diverse as the Swiss Alps and islands of Vietnam.  Here is a summary:

3S Bahn – Zermatt Bergbahnen AG

Klein Matterhorn's first 3S will be the second built by Leitner Ropeways.
Klein Matterhorn’s first 3S will be the second built by Leitner Ropeways.

The world’s highest elevation 3S will open on the Matterhorn in Zermatt for 2018.  It will feature Leitner’s DirectDrive technology and new Sigma Symphony cabins designed by the famous Italian firm Pininfarina.  Its 25 28-passenger cabins will move 2,000 skiers per hour at 7.5 meters per second.  The lift will cover almost 13,000 feet laterally and 3,000 feet vertically in nine minutes.  Zermatt will be the first non-urban 3S gondola for Leitner or Poma. Construction begins next summer.

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News Roundup: Pardatschgratbahn

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  • Its been six weeks since the Berry family, owners of Saddleback, Maine, said they would close the resort if they could not find financing to order a new lift by August 1st.  Regardless of the outcome, this has been a PR disaster with a desperate announcement and then silence.  Not a good sign when the general manager refuses to talk to the state’s largest newspaper.  My take: despite the bluff they will find a way to open.
  • Ligonier Construction awarded $4.6 million contract to re-build the State of Pennsylvania’s Laurel Mountain Ski Area.  The project includes a new quad chairlift but I could not find a lift manufacturer identified in the bid documents.  Nearby Seven Springs Mountain Resort will operate the ski area on behalf of the state.
  • Snow Summit proves again that snowmaking systems can save lifts and buildings from wildfires.
  • What if Aspen had a gondola from Ajax to Buttermilk and Snowmass?
  • Not one but four 15-passenger gondolas proposed to link a cruise terminal with George Town in the Caribbean’s Cayman Islands.  I’m thinking even that won’t be enough when Royal Caribbean’s newest ship shows up with 6,000 passengers tired of being on a ship with 6,000 passengers.
  • “No one has contributed more to the task of transporting skiers and snowboarders up the ski mountains of the United States than Jan Leonard,” said the President of the NSAA in the Salt Lake Tribune’s obituary.  Services will be held tomorrow.

Flying Gondola Towers in Park City

Peter Landsman1 Comment

Doppelmayr flew towers for the Quicksilver Gondola in Park City yesterday and today.  I wasn’t able to make it but Instagram has us covered!  Quicksilver has 27 towers but a few had already been set by crane.  Check back next week for more updates from America’s largest ski resort.

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Teton Lift Home Stretch

Peter Landsman6 Comments

The crew from Doppelmayr is flying through work on the Teton lift with 110 days until opening.  Jackson Hole’s fourth high speed quad now has a complete top terminal with the bottom not far behind.  The Uni-G model terminals are mostly gray with white ends.  The 8,500′ haul rope, which was manufactured in Canada, was brought up the mountain earlier this week.  Eighty DT-104 Agamatic grips also arrived in crates last week. The bottom lift shack is the only large component not in already in place besides the haul rope.  At this rate I would not be surprised to see a load test by October 1st.

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Bottom terminal and haul rope.
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Those are windows on the roof.

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Jan Leonard, 1946-2015

Peter Landsman3 Comments

Jan Leonard, founder of CTEC and a 40-year veteran of the lift-building business, died unexpectedly this morning at the age of 69.  Most recently, he was Director of Sales for SkyTrac Lifts in Salt Lake City and previously was President of Doppelmayr USA.

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Jan Leonard at SkyTrac earlier this year. Photo credit: Ski Area Management.

After graduating from Penn State in 1968, Jan went to work for American Bridge in Pittsburgh before meeting the manager of Killington on a ski trip and getting into the lift business. He went to work for Vic Hall in Watertown, New York in 1971 before moving to Logan, Utah in 1973 to join Thiokol Ski Lifts.  When Thiokol wanted out of the business a few years later, Leonard and Mark Ballantyne bought the company’s designs and started CTEC (Cable Transportation Engineering Corporation) in 1977.  CTEC built its first complete lift in 1981 and by 1992 was the largest lift manufacturer in North America with 450 employees.  CTEC built 144 lifts as a privately owned American company.

Leonard and Ballantyne sold CTEC to Garaventa of Switzerland in 1993.  Doppelmayr merged with Garaventa in 2002 to form today’s Doppelmayr/Garaventa Group, which ironically included Hall, where Jan Leonard started his career decades earlier.  Leonard stayed on as the President of Doppelmayr USA until 2007, when he left to be an independent ropeway consultant.   He was was off a lift company’s payroll for less than three years before joining SkyTrac in 2010 as director of sales.  “I don’t like losing.  The thrill of getting the sale is phenomenal,” he told SAM earlier this year.

Checking Out Vail’s New Lift 2

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New towers with old tower tubes.

Vail Resorts is in the midst of a major program at its four Colorado resorts to replace first-generation detachable quads with new six packs and gondolas.  Up for a refresh this summer is Chair 2 at Vail, the Avanti Express.  The 1989 detachable quad is being replaced with a Doppelmayr six-pack.  This follows the replacement of the Vista Bahn with a Leitner-Poma 10-passenger gondola and the Mountaintop Express with a Doppelmayr six-pack last summer.  Vail has been saving parts from these lifts to keep others of the same vintage going.  Lifts 7, 8, 11 and 21 are the only 1980s detachables left at Vail and will likely be replaced in the next few years.  Northwoods and Game Creek are the oldest two lifts of any kind left at Vail, dating back to 1985.

The bottom terminal will have a loading carpet.
The bottom terminal will have a loading carpet.

The new 2 is in the same alignment as the old and re-uses its tower tubes.  New, wider crossarms were flown into place a few weeks ago with the exception of towers 24 and 25 at the summit.  Concrete work for both terminals is finished except for the loading carpet pit at the bottom terminal.  Steel for the terminals has been delivered.  New chairs are staged at the summit and the haul rope spool sits at tower 9.

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Middle portion of the line with the haul rope ready to go.

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Is This Doppelmayr’s New Detachable Terminal?

Peter Landsman5 Comments
Doppelmayr prototype unfinished in November 2014. Photo credit: Michael Simons
Doppelmayr prototype unfinished in November 2014. Photo credit: Michael Simons

Back in November, Seilbahntechnik.net posted some interesting pictures of a prototype lift being built at Doppelmayr’s headquarters in Wolfurt, Austria.  The lift is detachable with at least one six-pack bubble chair and 8-passenger gondola cabin on the line.  More interesting are the terminals, which are different from any production model I have ever seen.  They look similar to the Uni-G (the current standard terminal used worldwide) but are definitely different.  Doppelmayr has been rumored to be working on a more economical detachable lift and this could be it.

Prototype detachable terminal at Doppelmayr in Wolfurt. Photo credit: Michael Simons
Prototype detachable terminal at Doppelmayr in Wolfurt. Photo credit: Michael Simons

Remember Doppelmayr CTEC tried using a less-expensive detachable terminal in North America called the Uni-GS from 2003-2010.  It was discontinued it in favor of the Wolfurt-designed Uni-G, which made its North American debut in 2000.  The terminal model used before that, what I call the “Spacejet,” lasted from 1995-2001, so the Uni-G may be due for a refresh.

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Teton Lift Gets a Drive Terminal

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Bullwheel at the drive terminal of Jackson Hole's new Teton detachable quad.
Bullwheel at the drive terminal of Jackson Hole’s new Teton detachable quad.

Workers from Doppelmayr began assembling the top terminal of the Teton lift by crane this week.  Once the top is finished, crews will move to the bottom return terminal 1,800 feet below.  The lift is on schedule to be load tested by mid-October.  A new ski patrol station is also taking shape and grading continues on the new Kemmerer, Ridge and Wide Open runs.  Weather permitting, the entire expansion will open December 19th.

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Crane setting the last tire section for the drive terminal of Teton.

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News Roundup: Hilltrac Funicular

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Hilltrac funicular in The Colony at Park City Mountain Resort.
A Hilltrac funicular railway in The Colony at Park City Mountain Resort.
  • When I was hiking around Park City last week I discovered a large new funicular railway in The Colony development near the new gondola.  It was built by Hilltrac, sister company to lift-maker SkyTrac.  The funicular serves an entire neighborhood unlike others at Deer Valley that serve only one house.  One section is completed with the possibility to add another section later.
  • The City Council of Casper, Wyoming, which owns of Hogadon Ski Area, declares one of two Riblet doubles there as surplus property to be sold.  Apparently it has not spun in years and parts were cannibalized last season to keep the other lift running.
  • Chris Farmer, Saddleback’s Marketing Director says on Facebook that there is no news to announce re: new lift or closure.  In case you don’t have Facebook, here is the statement: “Saddleback friends: I know that everyone is eagerly awaiting an announcement on our situation and recognize we are beyond the initial deadline. We remain heads down on finding a solution. As soon as we have news we will announce it. Until then, our full attention is on solving the issue. You are all important and I recognize you all want answers. I fully expect decisions will be made some time this week. Thank you for your consideration and continued support. Please do not be offended by my inability to respond to each of you individually. I hope you understand.”
  • Aspen Skiing Company remains committed to building the new Burnt Mountain lift at Snowmass but still has no timeline for it.
  • Protesting lifties shut down Chile’s Cerro Catedral, demanding a 30% wage increase.  Meanwhile, most of Argentina and Chile’s ski resorts have been getting tons of snow.
  • Echo Mountain, the closest ski area to Denver, will reopen to the public  this season after failing to make it as a racer-only training mountain.  The area formerly known as Squaw Pass has just one lift currently, a Yan triple chair.
  • South America solidifies itself as the worldwide leader in urban ropeways with the capital of Peru getting not one but two gondolas by 2017.  There are already a dozen gondolas operating in Bolivian, Venezuelan, Colombian and Brazilian cities.
  • Vermont lift construction update, thanks to NewEnglandSkiIndustry.com.
  • Doppelmayr wins a $21 million contract to build two ropeways in Georgia (the country, not the state, although there is a large Doppelmayr tram in the State of Georgia too.)
  • The Teton quad at Jackson Hole is on schedule to be load tested by mid-October.  All the large components for the top terminal were installed earlier today by crane.