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.
Doppelmayr
Teton Lift Home Stretch
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.
Jan Leonard, 1946-2015
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.
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
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 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.
Is This Doppelmayr’s New Detachable Terminal?
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.
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.
Teton Lift Gets a Drive Terminal
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.
News Roundup: Hilltrac Funicular
- 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.
Park City’s King Con Express Taking Shape
The same K-Max from Timberline Helicopters that I watched in Jackson Hole a few weeks ago flew the tower heads for the new King Con Express at Park City the same week. 14 of King Con’s 15 tower tubes were re-used from the previous CTEC detachable quad. Most of the new six pack towers have short extensions to make them taller.
Not much has changed at the bottom terminal except a pit was poured for the loading carpet. Windows are being installed at the top drive terminal. The haul rope spool was delivered to the flats between towers 4 and 5. The six-person chairs are still down in Park City’s main parking lot. King Con Express and Motherlode Express are both further along than the Quicksilver Gondola, which still needs towers and a mid-station. Still, an impressive amount of work has taken place and I have no doubt Vail Resorts will have everything ready by November for Park City’s first season as America’s largest resort.
Park City Quicksilver Gondola August Update
Construction on Park City’s new lifts has noticeably shifted towards the new Quicksilver Gondola since my last update a few weeks ago. Steel for the drive and return terminals is going up and there is only one tower left to pour concrete for. The angle station is the least far along with just holes in the ground at this point.
The return terminal is going up next to the new Miners Camp lodge and Silverlode lift. A cabin parking facility will be here and it appears it will be big enough for all the cabins, unlike the small maintenance bays at the Red Pine Gondola and Orange Bubble Express. It looks like for the first year it will just have rails and no roof. I’m guessing a building will be built over the whole thing another year.
Quicksilver will have 27 towers numbered from the drive terminal in White Pine Canyon. There are only four towers in what used to be Park City Ski Area. I did not realize until now that there will be a massive span over Thaynes Canyon that will rival the existing Red Pine Gondola with cabins at least 200 feet in the air. Evidently Park City traded lower wind tolerance and a difficult evacuation scenario for fewer towers and a shorter lift.
Did Northstar California Build a New Gondola in Three Months?
It appears Northstar California replaced most of its Big Springs Gondola in just three months between the end of last winter and the start of this summer. The bottom terminal of this 1985 Doppelmayr 6-passenger gondola was previously relocated in 2004. From the below pictures on Instagram, it appears Doppelmayr installed brand new terminal equipment inside of the existing terminal buildings along with new Agamatic grips, hangars and line gear. The first-generation CWA cabins were previously refurbished in 2013. Maybe Vail Resorts got a ‘buy eight get two free’ deal on Uni-G terminals from Doppelmayr this summer.
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