The lift line from Albion base.Unique Yan carrier with Alta logo.Drive terminal and unique bullwheel.Return at Wildcat.Height-adjustable tower.Wildcat base area terminal and lift line.The drive terminal seen from below.The entire lift seen from the Albion base lodge.
its like any other rope tow. You just hold on to the rope thats lower to the ground. The cable on top top is on high tension which goes on the sheaves and bullwheels. The carriers suspend the rope you hold onto.
Based on what I could dig up, this is the newest un-modified Lift Engineering lift to still operate. Chair 27 at Mammoth was a 1994 installation, but is no longer there. There’s the jigback at Water World in Denver which is Yan, but that was relocated. The rest were all detach systems which have since been heavily retrofitted or replaced.
Interesting how this lift has mostly 70s-style Yan parts. It’s kind of fun to ride, if boring. This year the sheave assemblies were almost all the way up on the towers.
Can you get on and off at any point along the way? Any safety issues. How about skiing across the line particularly in low vis? Ropes could take your head off!
Yes, you are allowed to pick up the rope at any point along the way. They have signs discouraging skiing under the lift line, but I’ve seen people do it plenty of times. In low-vis I probably wouldn’t recommend it though.
It’s very convenient if you’re coming off High Rustler, Eagle’s Nest and the like. They spit out between the bases, and instead of hiking, you just slide onto this thing, and are shortly at Collins for another lap.
I seem to recall the rope tow that preceded this one required you to actually hold onto the haul rope and you had to let go before it went thru wheels/shivs (if you want to call them that) then when you passed the little tower, you grabbed onto the rope again and continued. Anyone else remember that? I skied here last around 1989.
I recently rode this and this is definitely one of the coolest lifts i have ever seen. It looks so surreal in the pictures and you have to see it to believe it.
Interestingly, conventional rope tows are the highest capacity form of ski lift, a fast moving one (~12-15mph) can have uphill capacities of nearly 10,000 pph assuming close spacing.
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How do you ride that thing? It seems there is nothing to ride on.
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its like any other rope tow. You just hold on to the rope thats lower to the ground. The cable on top top is on high tension which goes on the sheaves and bullwheels. The carriers suspend the rope you hold onto.
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Based on what I could dig up, this is the newest un-modified Lift Engineering lift to still operate. Chair 27 at Mammoth was a 1994 installation, but is no longer there. There’s the jigback at Water World in Denver which is Yan, but that was relocated. The rest were all detach systems which have since been heavily retrofitted or replaced.
Interesting how this lift has mostly 70s-style Yan parts. It’s kind of fun to ride, if boring. This year the sheave assemblies were almost all the way up on the towers.
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Can you get on and off at any point along the way? Any safety issues. How about skiing across the line particularly in low vis? Ropes could take your head off!
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Yes, you are allowed to pick up the rope at any point along the way. They have signs discouraging skiing under the lift line, but I’ve seen people do it plenty of times. In low-vis I probably wouldn’t recommend it though.
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It’s very convenient if you’re coming off High Rustler, Eagle’s Nest and the like. They spit out between the bases, and instead of hiking, you just slide onto this thing, and are shortly at Collins for another lap.
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I seem to recall the rope tow that preceded this one required you to actually hold onto the haul rope and you had to let go before it went thru wheels/shivs (if you want to call them that) then when you passed the little tower, you grabbed onto the rope again and continued. Anyone else remember that? I skied here last around 1989.
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It was also significantly slower.
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sometimes this thing is fast enough where if you dont get momentum it feels like it will pull through your gloves.
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Correct!
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Here’s something similar:
https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/reportage-telecorde-de-l-ouillette-montaval-2524.html
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Another similar lift existed at Park City.
https://mountainscholar.org/bitstream/handle/11124/8393/R1785.jpg?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
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Silver King JBar? Perthaps one at PC was converted?
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I recently rode this and this is definitely one of the coolest lifts i have ever seen. It looks so surreal in the pictures and you have to see it to believe it.
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i also find it funny how much capacity it has. This think has more capacity than Sunnyside did
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Interestingly, conventional rope tows are the highest capacity form of ski lift, a fast moving one (~12-15mph) can have uphill capacities of nearly 10,000 pph assuming close spacing.
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Another yan surface lift in chile: https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/reportage-tke-parva-chica-yan-lift-engineering-1251.html
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Here is a Yan platter in California:
https://liftblog.com/platter-marine-corps-mountain-warfare-training-center-ca/
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