Height adjustable towers in the loading area.Return bullwheel and counterweight.Summer line view.Bottom bullwheel.Loading area and lift line.View down the line.Top terminal.Another view of the top.View down the line.
All of the Butte’s lifts have comfort bars because they’re almost all-late model lifts with the exception of Peachtree and the Poma triples on the east side. Those always had the option of adding bars (as we did on our Lumberjack lift) but Peachtree would require modifications.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens at the former Peak Resorts owned ski areas. A few of the mid-west ones do not have bars on some of their lifts. If Vail doesn’t end up putting bars on those lifts, then it really will be the end of that era.
I don’t think insurance companies require comfort bars. If they did we’d have to add them to all of our older lifts as well. I imagine VR likes consistency with their newer lifts.
This lift (along with Jupiter) has Skytrac controls/electronics. Additionally, this has to be one of the smoothest lifts I’ve ridden while passing over the support sheaves.
Vail also added safety bars to the four older CTEC triples at PCMR in 2015 that didn’t already have them all of which already had brackets to install them already. The bars are two different designs on random chairs onTown Lift and Pioneer. Silver Star got them as well that year. I believe Eaglet never had bars installed. Eagle definitely did receive bars then.
Pioneer actually had bars prior to Vail’s takeover, and Town LIft had bars on ~1/2 of the chairs during the summer. Eagle, Eaglet, Silver Star, and Town Lift all received new bars as part of Vail’s acquisition of the resort. I’m not sure what happened to the bars that used to be used during the summer on Town Lift, but they were a slightly different design than the new ones fabricated in 2015.
What about replacing Dreamscape with a high speed quad and moving Dreamscape to replace this lift? This is a bottleneck on the PC side of the mountain as its the only way to get to Jupiter, it’s used to get to McConkey’s Express and services its own pod of trails. The lift is also getting pretty old as well. Thoughts?
I’m not sure this lift is really a bottleneck. You have Pioneer to get to Jupiter, McConkey’s and Pioneer are both accessible from the top of bonanza/motherlode/silverlode.
I’d say to leave it alone replacement would mean demolishing old mining ruins witch I’m against considering you should save some history of how you got to were you got but also a good idea is to replace town with dreamscape high speed quad and move town here, move thaynes double over to make a backup for Jupiter or a double-double “solution”.
Thaynes is far down my list of replacement needs at PCMR, as is Jupiter. Thaynes is very short and doesn’t really get backed up. It received new Skytrac controls a few years ago, so they’ve put some money into it. I’d much rather see them build a reliever lift for Silverlode (maybe one of those fixed quads they should upgrade at the Canyons that would run up to the top of Crescent as another way out of that pod).
Pioneer is the biggest need on the PCMR side, and it would be great if it started a bit lower down to take pressure of Bonanza.
On my list ahead of Thaynes and Jupiter are:
– Pioneer
– Dreamcatcher
– The expansion area above the Quicksilver gondola on the Canyons side
– Some infill lift on the Canyons side, maybe up to the top of Peak 5 from the bottom of Dreamcatcher
– (no chance) Town Lift gondola jointly operated by PCMR and DV
– a Peak 5 chair that went higher up the ridge and served more interesting terrain rather than homeowner trails
– By then the PCMR six packs will likely need upgrades after 30+ years. Then circle back and look at Thaynes and Jupiter.
Do you have a source on that? This lift usually doesn’t get crowds and isn’t long enough to warrant an upgrade. It would surprise me if Thaynes were replaced before Pioneer and Dreamcatcher, which are in choke points.
That being said, this lift has amassed quite a few hours as it serves intermediate to advanced terrain that is open most of the season long. With no snowmaking on Thaynes, some years it can take longer to open (as was the case in 20-21), but overall it is typically open the majority of the season.
From just purely an age of equipment standpoint, I wouldn’t be surprised if Thaynes, Pioneer, Jupiter, and/or Day Break went away in the next 5 years. That being said, Vail Resorts has a lot of aging lifts, and these may not necessarily be the highest priority lifts to replace. Even though it is also older and open during the summer, Town Lift is lower priority than the lifts I mentioned above as they recently (2019-ish) overhauled the drive equipment and electronics.
As always, it will be interesting to see what Vail’s next move is. Park City has averaged about a new lift a year, maybe once other projects that were postponed due to COVID are caught up on, we’ll see some new action out of PCMR.
This lift unfortunately hasn’t operated at all this season so far. The runs underneath it haven’t been groomed either. Still great skiing just inconvenient to lap.
The tower tops on this lift are a little unusual and different from those on Jupiter. The ones on Thaynes appear to be welded onto a bracket that has unused holes for a bolted connection. Were they replaced at some point long ago?
Lift Blog 
This and Jupiter had safety bars fabricated and added by Vail Resorts in 2015, probably as required by their insurance company
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Vail Resorts puts safety bars on all of their lifts by default.
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I’m not sure that’s the case anymore. They have not added them at Stevens Pass or Crested Butte to date.
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The only lift at CBMR to not have bars is Peachtree. And Stevens Pass, well…they only just came into Vail ownership so that might be a few years off.
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All of the Butte’s lifts have comfort bars because they’re almost all-late model lifts with the exception of Peachtree and the Poma triples on the east side. Those always had the option of adding bars (as we did on our Lumberjack lift) but Peachtree would require modifications.
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It’ll be interesting to see what happens at the former Peak Resorts owned ski areas. A few of the mid-west ones do not have bars on some of their lifts. If Vail doesn’t end up putting bars on those lifts, then it really will be the end of that era.
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I don’t think insurance companies require comfort bars. If they did we’d have to add them to all of our older lifts as well. I imagine VR likes consistency with their newer lifts.
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If Vail requires safety bars, they’ll probably add them to Seven Springs within a few seasons. Many lifts there lack them
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This lift (along with Jupiter) has Skytrac controls/electronics. Additionally, this has to be one of the smoothest lifts I’ve ridden while passing over the support sheaves.
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Vail also added safety bars to the four older CTEC triples at PCMR in 2015 that didn’t already have them all of which already had brackets to install them already. The bars are two different designs on random chairs onTown Lift and Pioneer. Silver Star got them as well that year. I believe Eaglet never had bars installed. Eagle definitely did receive bars then.
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Pioneer actually had bars prior to Vail’s takeover, and Town LIft had bars on ~1/2 of the chairs during the summer. Eagle, Eaglet, Silver Star, and Town Lift all received new bars as part of Vail’s acquisition of the resort. I’m not sure what happened to the bars that used to be used during the summer on Town Lift, but they were a slightly different design than the new ones fabricated in 2015.
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What about replacing Dreamscape with a high speed quad and moving Dreamscape to replace this lift? This is a bottleneck on the PC side of the mountain as its the only way to get to Jupiter, it’s used to get to McConkey’s Express and services its own pod of trails. The lift is also getting pretty old as well. Thoughts?
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I’m pretty sure these people have Motherlode as a means of detachable egress from this part of the mountain.
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I’m not sure this lift is really a bottleneck. You have Pioneer to get to Jupiter, McConkey’s and Pioneer are both accessible from the top of bonanza/motherlode/silverlode.
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I do think a fixed quad would be the best idea for a eventual replacement of this lift when it reaches the end of its useful life.
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That’s if Pioneer isn’t used to replace it.
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I’d say to leave it alone replacement would mean demolishing old mining ruins witch I’m against considering you should save some history of how you got to were you got but also a good idea is to replace town with dreamscape high speed quad and move town here, move thaynes double over to make a backup for Jupiter or a double-double “solution”.
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I think it’s more likely to leave Thaynes and Jupiter as is, and upgrade Pioneer to a high speed quad.
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If Pioneer gets replaced, it should be used to replace this lift, replace Jupiter, or run from Miners Camp to Crescent.
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Thaynes is far down my list of replacement needs at PCMR, as is Jupiter. Thaynes is very short and doesn’t really get backed up. It received new Skytrac controls a few years ago, so they’ve put some money into it. I’d much rather see them build a reliever lift for Silverlode (maybe one of those fixed quads they should upgrade at the Canyons that would run up to the top of Crescent as another way out of that pod).
Pioneer is the biggest need on the PCMR side, and it would be great if it started a bit lower down to take pressure of Bonanza.
On my list ahead of Thaynes and Jupiter are:
– Pioneer
– Dreamcatcher
– The expansion area above the Quicksilver gondola on the Canyons side
– Some infill lift on the Canyons side, maybe up to the top of Peak 5 from the bottom of Dreamcatcher
– (no chance) Town Lift gondola jointly operated by PCMR and DV
– a Peak 5 chair that went higher up the ridge and served more interesting terrain rather than homeowner trails
– By then the PCMR six packs will likely need upgrades after 30+ years. Then circle back and look at Thaynes and Jupiter.
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This lift is looking like its gonna get removed.
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Do you have a source on that? This lift usually doesn’t get crowds and isn’t long enough to warrant an upgrade. It would surprise me if Thaynes were replaced before Pioneer and Dreamcatcher, which are in choke points.
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If anything, I could see Pioneer becoming a high speed quad while the existing triple is used to replace Thaynes.
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I haven’t heard anything to that effect.
That being said, this lift has amassed quite a few hours as it serves intermediate to advanced terrain that is open most of the season long. With no snowmaking on Thaynes, some years it can take longer to open (as was the case in 20-21), but overall it is typically open the majority of the season.
From just purely an age of equipment standpoint, I wouldn’t be surprised if Thaynes, Pioneer, Jupiter, and/or Day Break went away in the next 5 years. That being said, Vail Resorts has a lot of aging lifts, and these may not necessarily be the highest priority lifts to replace. Even though it is also older and open during the summer, Town Lift is lower priority than the lifts I mentioned above as they recently (2019-ish) overhauled the drive equipment and electronics.
As always, it will be interesting to see what Vail’s next move is. Park City has averaged about a new lift a year, maybe once other projects that were postponed due to COVID are caught up on, we’ll see some new action out of PCMR.
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This lift unfortunately hasn’t operated at all this season so far. The runs underneath it haven’t been groomed either. Still great skiing just inconvenient to lap.
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The tower tops on this lift are a little unusual and different from those on Jupiter. The ones on Thaynes appear to be welded onto a bracket that has unused holes for a bolted connection. Were they replaced at some point long ago?
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They’re Stearns-Roger tower tubes from the older double with Yan crossarms welded on top. Jupiter has Yan tower tubes.
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