Lower lift line in the town of Park City.Top drive-tension station.Bullwheel loading.Bottom terminal on Main Street.Riding up.Looking back down the line.Crossing over Payday Express.Looking back at the upper lift line.Arriving at the top terminal.Another view of the drive station.
In the summer, this lift operates somewhat like a pulse lift. They slow the entire lift down to load/unload passengers, then speed it back up to 500FPM. There is an optical gate at the top and bottom arrival sides that automatically slows the lift down. Prior to Vail installing restraint bars on every chair, Powdr would install restraint bars on ~30% of the chairs during the summer, and they also had bike carry hooks on some other chairs.
Recently this lift got new drive control electronics. I believe it’s Skytrac, but I’m not entirely sure. The CTEC control pedestals are still there, I didn’t see any Skytrac branded controls, but I didn’t look inside the lift shacks either. A lift maintenance tech said “It’s like a whole new lift, just in time to get replaced!”. From a rider’s perspective, the acceleration from 200FPM to 500FPM is quite a lot faster than it used to be.
This lift really should go detachable due to its length and year round usage. If they are already operating it like a pulse in the summer, it shows they could really use the slow load/unload speed that comes with a detachable. Also think this lift should end next to Payday so it can better access the Payday area trails while still providing access to Bonanza.
A high speed quad would certainly suffice, although to realign it to end at the top of Payday might mean having to worry about getting close to existing private property. (The old lattice towers from the gondola would have to go)
Honestly I would prefer a gondola that goes to a mid station at the very top of that mountain, kind of where Payday lets off, then continues on to Summit House.
The reason it ends where it does is to allow downloading from the side of the runs ending towards Bonanza without making downloaders ride up Payday. You can already access the bottom half of the Payday runs from the Drift cattrack that begins at the top of Town lift. Having it end where it does there makes it much more useful in a low snow year when the (intermediate) runs down into Main Street are closed, and Payday isn’t crowded after the early morning.
No chance they take out the historic tram towers – the visual impact of Town lift from Main Street is already debated. It made the front page of the Park Record when Vail painted the towers visible from town from black to silver a few years ago.
I’m still holding onto the dream of a city-financed gondola that would run on the existing Town line, with a midstation at the current top, and then a left turn over to somewhere at Deer Valley. I think I’m the only one who thinks that.
I know there was a filing sometime ago (pre-Vail I believe) to replace the lift with a detachable one ending at Payday’s summit, and the tram towers were able to remain in place, but nothing has happened yet so who knows if Vail actually plans to do anything.
From what I have read, Park City residents have been lukewarm at best to the idea of any city-financed gondola. Deer Valley talked about building a gondola from either the Old Town Transit Center or somewhere on the southern half of Main Street up to Silver Lake Village about five years ago, but they ran into property issues and other problems. They are still open to the idea should public/private support swing in their direction and the opportunity present itself, and that is probably the best chance Park City has at a gondola from Main Street to Deer Valley. The best chance at a Deer Valley-PCMR connection is for the two resorts to either debut a joint-ticket (like the Alta-Bird or Sol-Bright tickets in the Cottonwoods) or just station scanners at a gate at the top of Empire to make sure people transferring back and forth have season passes at both resorts. Either one of those two scenarios is unlikely under their current respective ownerships unless the rest of One Wasatch is completed and it becomes the last missing link.
Left angle station to deer valley? Deer valley is owned by the Altera ski group, and wont merge with vail, as they are competitors. Deer valley only allows skiers meaning about half of park city is snowboarders. The upper end of that gondola would be almost useless.
Park City is my favorite ski resort. I have gone to many and Park City has GREAT snow, awesome lifts and fun terrain. This is one of my favorite lifts in the world because it has a great view of the town and has a long ride. (I like long chairlifts) So… ya.
I recently learned there was a deal in place to replace this lift with a detachable quad when the Treasure Mountain Resort was under development. However, it was cancelled when the resort was cancelled by Park City.
They are going to replace it within the next 5-10 years. They are still debating on if it will be a HSQ, HSS, or Gondola, or Chondola. That’s the rumor at this point. But with the recently upgraded electronics and drive components, they are not in a big hurry yet. They have some aging HSQs that will need more attention vs this one.
It’s almost a 100% real estate lift. Provides access for old town condo/homeowners/guests. There is no true trail pod that it serves. It’s open pretty much the entire season these days(was not always the case). The community it serves HATES change. It’s very unlikely it will be anything other than what it is today…..not a big deal if you ask me, it serves it’s purpose just fine as is.
We will see, most of the land it goes over is now public property (owned by the city as conservation land)…….Vail not likely to spend any money under those terms. It’s literally, one of the longest lifts in the nation, original built by a second rate ski town with Olympic dreams. Guess what, that dream came true and the NIMBY crowd now owning most of the surrounding property wants nothing to do with anything new. A new lift will take an act of god in a town like this these days. I agree, should be at least a low capacity gondola, but hold your breath……
Lift Blog 
Town Lift used to have a mid-loading station just across the road from the bottom terminal, which was removed when the Town Bridge opened around 2000
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In the summer, this lift operates somewhat like a pulse lift. They slow the entire lift down to load/unload passengers, then speed it back up to 500FPM. There is an optical gate at the top and bottom arrival sides that automatically slows the lift down. Prior to Vail installing restraint bars on every chair, Powdr would install restraint bars on ~30% of the chairs during the summer, and they also had bike carry hooks on some other chairs.
Recently this lift got new drive control electronics. I believe it’s Skytrac, but I’m not entirely sure. The CTEC control pedestals are still there, I didn’t see any Skytrac branded controls, but I didn’t look inside the lift shacks either. A lift maintenance tech said “It’s like a whole new lift, just in time to get replaced!”. From a rider’s perspective, the acceleration from 200FPM to 500FPM is quite a lot faster than it used to be.
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This lift really should go detachable due to its length and year round usage. If they are already operating it like a pulse in the summer, it shows they could really use the slow load/unload speed that comes with a detachable. Also think this lift should end next to Payday so it can better access the Payday area trails while still providing access to Bonanza.
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A high speed quad would certainly suffice, although to realign it to end at the top of Payday might mean having to worry about getting close to existing private property. (The old lattice towers from the gondola would have to go)
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Honestly I would prefer a gondola that goes to a mid station at the very top of that mountain, kind of where Payday lets off, then continues on to Summit House.
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True, a gondola might be more practical given the downhill descent at the upper end of the line .
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The reason it ends where it does is to allow downloading from the side of the runs ending towards Bonanza without making downloaders ride up Payday. You can already access the bottom half of the Payday runs from the Drift cattrack that begins at the top of Town lift. Having it end where it does there makes it much more useful in a low snow year when the (intermediate) runs down into Main Street are closed, and Payday isn’t crowded after the early morning.
No chance they take out the historic tram towers – the visual impact of Town lift from Main Street is already debated. It made the front page of the Park Record when Vail painted the towers visible from town from black to silver a few years ago.
I’m still holding onto the dream of a city-financed gondola that would run on the existing Town line, with a midstation at the current top, and then a left turn over to somewhere at Deer Valley. I think I’m the only one who thinks that.
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That’ll be decades away.
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I know there was a filing sometime ago (pre-Vail I believe) to replace the lift with a detachable one ending at Payday’s summit, and the tram towers were able to remain in place, but nothing has happened yet so who knows if Vail actually plans to do anything.
From what I have read, Park City residents have been lukewarm at best to the idea of any city-financed gondola. Deer Valley talked about building a gondola from either the Old Town Transit Center or somewhere on the southern half of Main Street up to Silver Lake Village about five years ago, but they ran into property issues and other problems. They are still open to the idea should public/private support swing in their direction and the opportunity present itself, and that is probably the best chance Park City has at a gondola from Main Street to Deer Valley. The best chance at a Deer Valley-PCMR connection is for the two resorts to either debut a joint-ticket (like the Alta-Bird or Sol-Bright tickets in the Cottonwoods) or just station scanners at a gate at the top of Empire to make sure people transferring back and forth have season passes at both resorts. Either one of those two scenarios is unlikely under their current respective ownerships unless the rest of One Wasatch is completed and it becomes the last missing link.
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McConkey’s and Empire aren’t really connected. It’s a bit of a hike from McConkey’s to Empire, along with going under a rope.
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Left angle station to deer valley? Deer valley is owned by the Altera ski group, and wont merge with vail, as they are competitors. Deer valley only allows skiers meaning about half of park city is snowboarders. The upper end of that gondola would be almost useless.
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Park City is my favorite ski resort. I have gone to many and Park City has GREAT snow, awesome lifts and fun terrain. This is one of my favorite lifts in the world because it has a great view of the town and has a long ride. (I like long chairlifts) So… ya.
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I recently learned there was a deal in place to replace this lift with a detachable quad when the Treasure Mountain Resort was under development. However, it was cancelled when the resort was cancelled by Park City.
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Yeah. It was going to be called “Treasure Express”
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They are going to replace it within the next 5-10 years. They are still debating on if it will be a HSQ, HSS, or Gondola, or Chondola. That’s the rumor at this point. But with the recently upgraded electronics and drive components, they are not in a big hurry yet. They have some aging HSQs that will need more attention vs this one.
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It’s almost a 100% real estate lift. Provides access for old town condo/homeowners/guests. There is no true trail pod that it serves. It’s open pretty much the entire season these days(was not always the case). The community it serves HATES change. It’s very unlikely it will be anything other than what it is today…..not a big deal if you ask me, it serves it’s purpose just fine as is.
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There are pretty big lines in the morning rush. Epic Lift Lines posted a photo of a particularly long one here a couple of days ago.
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Will it get upgraded to handle rush crowds?
We will see, most of the land it goes over is now public property (owned by the city as conservation land)…….Vail not likely to spend any money under those terms. It’s literally, one of the longest lifts in the nation, original built by a second rate ski town with Olympic dreams. Guess what, that dream came true and the NIMBY crowd now owning most of the surrounding property wants nothing to do with anything new. A new lift will take an act of god in a town like this these days. I agree, should be at least a low capacity gondola, but hold your breath……
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Some drama on the old town lift.
https://www.ksl.com/article/50554075/florida-man-charged-with-assault-on-utah-chairlift-after-video-is-posted-online
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It was actually on Saddleback Express on the Canyons side.
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I just learned that those massive towers are not gondola towers, but old mining tram towers from the early 1900’s. Here is an article about it: https://www.parkcitymag.com/arts-and-culture/2018/05/aerial-tram-towers
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