Fixed return an the Highlands base.Leaving the bottom.Middle part of the line.View down the lift line. It’s steep!Nearing the summit.Top station Poma Alpha with drive and tension.Looking up at the drive.Lift line overview.Lower part of the line.
The original Thunderbowl lift only ran to about where Five Trees ends. This replacement runs to the top of Golden Horn, making it a replacement for the platter that used to run up Golden Horn, and indirectly a replacement for the Exhibition I lift that had been removed when the Exhibition high speed quad was built.
For its first year, the Thunderbowl triple and Exhibition II double actually functioned in tandem as a secondary way up to the Merry-Go-Round if Exhibition went down. This obviously didn’t last long as the last of Highlands’ old doubles were removed the year after Thunder Bowl went in, with Cloud Nine being replaced with a high speed quad while Olympic and Exhibition II were removed.
(Admittedly I’m one to think that Cloud Nine should’ve been made to start at the bottom of Exhibition II, instead of at the Merry-Go-Round, to provide ample overlap in the mid-mountain area and to make it accessible from Thunderbowl.)
They shouldn’t have removed Exhibition II. If Exhibition breaks, there is no way to get to the upper mountain. When ASC bought Aspen Highlands, they removed all of the lift redundancies.
Hard to disagree with this. However, Aspen’s lift maintenance team is very very good and Exhibition only went down for about an hour total last season; they understand how vital the lift is and put in plenty of work to keep it in good shape.
Highlands’ master plan does show a new Exhibition II lift to be installed in the former alignment, but I’m of the opinion that Cloud 9 should have been built to start down at quarterway (Exhibition II’s former bottom station) instead of in the middle of a random run as it is now.
Lift Blog 
Any replacements up for this lift yet?
LikeLike
Your wording is vague, but I assume you mean ‘does Highlands mean to replace this lift?’
LikeLike
The original Thunderbowl lift only ran to about where Five Trees ends. This replacement runs to the top of Golden Horn, making it a replacement for the platter that used to run up Golden Horn, and indirectly a replacement for the Exhibition I lift that had been removed when the Exhibition high speed quad was built.
For its first year, the Thunderbowl triple and Exhibition II double actually functioned in tandem as a secondary way up to the Merry-Go-Round if Exhibition went down. This obviously didn’t last long as the last of Highlands’ old doubles were removed the year after Thunder Bowl went in, with Cloud Nine being replaced with a high speed quad while Olympic and Exhibition II were removed.
(Admittedly I’m one to think that Cloud Nine should’ve been made to start at the bottom of Exhibition II, instead of at the Merry-Go-Round, to provide ample overlap in the mid-mountain area and to make it accessible from Thunderbowl.)
LikeLike
They shouldn’t have removed Exhibition II. If Exhibition breaks, there is no way to get to the upper mountain. When ASC bought Aspen Highlands, they removed all of the lift redundancies.
LikeLike
Hard to disagree with this. However, Aspen’s lift maintenance team is very very good and Exhibition only went down for about an hour total last season; they understand how vital the lift is and put in plenty of work to keep it in good shape.
Highlands’ master plan does show a new Exhibition II lift to be installed in the former alignment, but I’m of the opinion that Cloud 9 should have been built to start down at quarterway (Exhibition II’s former bottom station) instead of in the middle of a random run as it is now.
LikeLike
Yeah I do think Cloud Nine starting where Exhibition II did would’ve created a bit more redundancy in the lift system (not unlike Mount Ellen).
LikeLike