Doppelmayr

Flying Concrete for the Teton Lift

Peter LandsmanLeave a comment
Brian Jorgenson from Timberline Helicopters flies concrete for the new Teton Lift earlier this week.
Brian Jorgenson from Timberline Helicopters flies concrete for the new Teton Lift earlier this week.

It’s mid-July and construction is ramping up on the north side of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. A K-Max helicopter from Timberline Helicopters was on-site Sunday to fly concrete for the towers that couldn’t be accessed by road.  The rest of the tower footings were already finished and back filled.  Concrete work is also complete at the top terminal and steel will be going up shortly. The bottom terminal is a few weeks behind.  Down in the parking lot, towers are mostly assembled and terminal components will be headed up the hill soon.

Tower heads are complete except the sheaves. If a K-Max helicopter is used, sheaves will be flown separately.
Tower heads are just missing sheaves.  If a K-Max helicopter is used, sheave trains will be flown separately.
Bottom terminal is still just a hole.
Bottom terminal is still just a hole and tower one’s rebar cage is to the left.

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Saddleback Needs $3 Million for New Lift to Avoid Closure

Peter Landsman5 Comments

Maine’s third largest ski resort is in trouble.  We knew something was up earlier this summer when Saddleback put their main out-of-base lift up for sale on Resort Boneyard for $350,000.  Today the Berry family definitively announced the 52-year old Rangeley lift will not spin again.  The lift has upgraded Doppelmayr terminals but aging towers, line equipment and chairs.  $3 million is needed by August 1st to build a new Doppelmayr fixed-grip quad or the ski area will close.

The 4,550' Rangeley double has reached the end of its useful life and needs to be replaced.
The 4,550′ Rangeley double has reached the end of its useful life and needs to be replaced.

Saddleback’s story includes decades of ups and downs like many mid-sized New England ski resorts.  A bank foreclosed on the entire property in 1975 but it remained open.  In 2002, the previous owners announced Saddleback would close.  Local skier Bill Berry stepped in and bought the mountain for $8 million in 2003.  After their first season of ownership, the Berry family invested heavily in lifts, installing the South Branch quad and replacing both of Rangeley’s terminals with new Doppelmayr CTEC ones in 2004.  A new James Niehues trail map was commissioned that at one point showed six new lifts to be built.  The Kennebago T-Bar was replaced with a Doppelmayr CTEC quad in 2008 but no other lifts ever got completed.

Saddleback needs $3 million for a new Doppelmayr quad to match Kennebago, seen here.
Saddleback needs $3 million for a new Doppelmayr quad to match Kennebago, seen here.

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Solitude Construction Update

Peter Landsman2 Comments
Looking up from the base of Solitude's future Summit Express.
Looking up from the base of Solitude’s future Summit Express.

Deer Valley closed on its purchase of Solitude Mountain Resort in May and announced they would replace the Summit double with a new Doppelmayr detachable quad.  The new Summit will be in a new, longer alignment that is easier to access from Apex Express.  I checked out the progress last week.

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The old lift is completely removed and stored in the Moonbeam parking lot.  It looks like the Thiokol double will be used elsewhere (the last lift Solitude removed ended up at Canyons Resort.)  Trees are gone from the new lift line and a lot of earth work has been done although nothing has been built yet.  Highlander Ski Lift Services appears to be building the new quad.  With 13 new lifts projects and counting, Doppelmayr is stretched pretty thin.  I did not see any parts for the new lift but I am sure they will be arriving soon.

These two Doppelmayr CTEC towers must be extra from when Moonbeam was moved to Powderhorn.
These two Doppelmayr CTEC towers must be extra from when Moonbeam was moved to Powderhorn.

Lift Profile: Centennial Chondola at Beaver Creek

Peter Landsman3 Comments
Centennial is the world's only 6/10 chondola lift.
Centennial is the world’s only 6/10 chondola lift.

Beaver Creek Resort faced a unique challenge last year when they needed to replace their aging workhorse lift.  The original Centennial Express was one of Doppelmayr’s first high speed quads, built in 1986.  Vail Resorts wanted the new lift to serve skiers as well as private events at the Spruce Saddle Lodge while at the same time achieving a high hourly capacity.  Originally announced as a regular six pack, Vail and Doppelmayr later decided to build the world’s only chondola with six passenger chairs and ten passenger gondola cabins.

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This is the longest Uni-G terminal I have ever seen.
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During summer operation the loading carpet is covered but queuing gates remain.

The result is an impressive lift nearly 8,000 foot long that moves 3,400 passengers an hour.  25 10-passenger CWA Omega gondola cabins alternate with 125 chairs in a 5:1 ratio.  The old lift had 195 quad chairs but moved 35 percent fewer people.  The new Centennial rises over 2,000 vertical feet in 7.9 minutes at 1,000 fpm.  It has 25 towers, five fewer than the original.

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Park City’s New King Con Six

Peter Landsman1 Comment
The new Motherlode under construction July 14, 2015.
The new Motherlode under construction July 14, 2015.

In addition to the new Pinecone Gondola, Vail Resorts is doing a major lift shuffle at Park City Mountain this summer.  The King Con high speed quad (1993 CTEC) is being replaced with a brand new Doppelmayr six pack.  King Con is being refurbished and relocated to replace Motherlode higher up on the hill.  More on that in an upcoming post.

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Both terminals for the new King Con are largely complete as of this week.  The Uni-G model terminals will be dark red and silver to match the new Park City Mountain logo and brand which will be unveiled on July 29th.  Rumors are that the word resort will be removed from the PCMR name and the new logo will be a dark red version of the Canyons infinity logo.  Most of the existing detachable lifts at Park City have already been painted in the new color scheme.

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King Con Six will re-use the CTEC tower tubes from the old high speed quad.  New tower heads are being assembled in the base area parking lot.  The bottom terminal will have a loading carpet as is standard with all new detachable lifts at Vail Resorts these days.  The lift is a top-drive, bottom-tension configuration.  Doppelmayr EJ six passenger chairs are already on-site.  All three of Park City’s new lifts will have Redaelli haul ropes which have also been delivered.

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Park City’s New Pinecone Gondola

Peter Landsman3 Comments
It's not hard to figure out where the new gondola goes. This is looking down from the top of Crescent.
It’s not hard to figure out where the new gondola goes. This is looking down from the top of Crescent.

I found myself near Park City this week and had to check out all the construction creating Utah’s largest ski resort.  It’s one thing to read Vail Resorts’ press releases touting $50 million in improvements but it is quite another to see hundreds of workers scrambling to complete a long list of projects spread over 7,300 acres.  This post will focus on what is perhaps the most exciting part – the new Pinecone Gondola that will link Park City to Canyons.

PCMR terminal and Snow Hut Lodge under construction.
PCMR terminal and Snow Hut Lodge under construction.

The 8,200′ long gondola starts adjacent to Park City’s Silverlode six-pack where a new Snow Hut lodge is also being built.  The terminal and first two tower footings have already been poured.  From this point, the line crosses over a modest ridge and descends before beginning the climb to Canyons in earnest.  There is a break halfway up Pinecone Ridge where the liftline moderates before a steep section to the summit.  Most of the holes for the towers in this portion have been dug including the two breakover towers just before the ridge-top mid-station. I was surprised at how sharp the midstation’s angle will be – around 30 degrees.

Looking up the lift line from tower 4.
Looking up the lift line from tower 4.

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News Roundup: Planned Openings

Peter LandsmanLeave a comment
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A sea of lift parts converge from St. Jerome, Salt Lake City and Wolfurt in Jackson Hole’s parking lot.

A Lost Ski Area with a 3S Gondola

Peter Landsman3 Comments
Abandoned towers for a Doppelmayr detachable quad at the Vall Fosca Mountain Resort in Spain. Photo Credit: Alfonso Pedrero Muñoz on Panoramio.
Abandoned towers for a Doppelmayr detachable quad at the Vall Fosca Mountain Resort in Spain. Photo Credit: Alfonso Pedrero Muñoz on Panoramio.

There are closed ski resorts with old, abandoned lifts rotting away all over the world.  But a remote mountain in Spain takes the lost ski area to a new level with tens of millions of dollars of half-completed lifts (including a 3S gondola) that never opened.  Doppelmayr partially built three lifts at the Vall Fosca Mountain Resort and abandoned them after the developer went bankrupt at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.  It’s a fascinating story of boom and bust all too common in the ski industry.

An abandoned 3S gondola terminal on the side of the road at the Vall Fosca Mountain Resort in Spain. Photo source: http://monaxmontagne.blogspot.fr/2012/08/du-tourmalet-la-vall-fosca.html
An abandoned 3S gondola terminal on the side of a road at the Vall Fosca Mountain Resort in Spain. Photo credit.

Construction began back in 2006 and the resort was scheduled to open for the 2008-09 ski season.  The plan included a €230 million pedestrian village with 965 homes at 4,000 feet.  A 3S gondola was to connect the village to a new ski resort with four chairlifts.  At the time, only Val d’Isere and Kitzbuhel had Doppelmayr’s tri-cable gondola technology and Vall Fosca was destined to have the first 3S outside of the Alps.  That title ended up going to Whistler-Blackcomb.

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Snow King’s New Lift Opens This Weekend

Peter Landsman2 Comments
Snow King Mountain is a busy place.
Snow King Mountain is a busy place with crews simultaneously building a chairlift, mountain coaster, base lodge and alpine slide.

Snow King Mountain and Doppelmayr load tested the new Rafferty quad chairlift last week.  It will open along with a revamped alpine slide this weekend.  The opening is about 15 days behind schedule – not bad considering the scope of Snow King’s transformation.  This marks the debut of Doppelmayr’s new Alpen Star drive-tension terminal and their new, simplified control system.  The lift has mid-station unloading and will operate year-round.  A mountain coaster and treetop adventure park will follow in August with a new base lodge debuting this winter.  Meanwhile, the Doppelmayr crew has moved across the valley to build the new Teton Lift.

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