This is the only “merger-era” detachable at Northstar and the only one with DT grips, Uni-GS terminals and Garaventa chairs.Loading area and turnaround.Top station and operator house.Uni-GS terminal.View down the lift line.Tower 4.Lift overview.Another look up the line.T3.Bottom terminal next to the Big Springs Gondola.Arriving at the top terminal.View back down the very gradual pitch lift line.Doppelmayr Worldbook entry.
Reading the Doppelmayr Worldbook entry: How on earth did Echo, the fixed-grip triple this replaced in the same alignment, have 43 towers? Village Express only has 15, and it is not as though they are spaced absurdly far apart. I could see a lift here having around 20, perhaps 25 max, but 43 is insane.
Echo was a Riblet triple. Because Riblet built low tension lifts and the largest sheave assembly they made at the time was a 4 sheave it required more towers to support the load over the length of the lift. Hope this helps.
The triple actually lives on at Marquette Mountain in Upper Peninsula of Michigan as the Snowfield triple, went from 41 towers to 17, and I’m not sure how many chairs, monster lift from a certain point of view to a much smaller lift.
This lift and the gondola are seriously in need of an upgrade. I have seen lines of up to 1 hour on both this chair and the gondola. Maybe this chair could be replaced with a HS6 running to the top of The Woods to make it easier to lap and relieve the gondola
IMO, HS8 is unrealistic for a chairlift which only operates during the morning hours and especially since the it seems like the gondola is usually preferred over Village Express. The main problem with upgrading the gondola though is that it is build relatively recently although that does not completely rule out a replacement
They really should run this lift from 9-4. I really think that Northstar is up in the most crowded resorts in California, and it needs a huge makeover, especially in the midmountain and base areas.
Lift Blog 
This lift and Martis Camp are the only high speed quads on the mountain with footrests.
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Is the top the drive station?
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It is listed as a top drive in the lift database for Northstar.
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Reading the Doppelmayr Worldbook entry: How on earth did Echo, the fixed-grip triple this replaced in the same alignment, have 43 towers? Village Express only has 15, and it is not as though they are spaced absurdly far apart. I could see a lift here having around 20, perhaps 25 max, but 43 is insane.
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Judging by this pic, they were pretty tightly spaced
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Echo was a Riblet triple. Because Riblet built low tension lifts and the largest sheave assembly they made at the time was a 4 sheave it required more towers to support the load over the length of the lift. Hope this helps.
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The triple actually lives on at Marquette Mountain in Upper Peninsula of Michigan as the Snowfield triple, went from 41 towers to 17, and I’m not sure how many chairs, monster lift from a certain point of view to a much smaller lift.
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77 chairs. Will never forget that number because I used to bump chairs at Marquette. The lift is about 1,800 feet in length now.
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This lift and the gondola are seriously in need of an upgrade. I have seen lines of up to 1 hour on both this chair and the gondola. Maybe this chair could be replaced with a HS6 running to the top of The Woods to make it easier to lap and relieve the gondola
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Nah. It’s gonna take more than a HS6 to relieve these lines. Either replace this with a HS6 and upgrade the gondola to a 10, or upgrade this to an 8.
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IMO, HS8 is unrealistic for a chairlift which only operates during the morning hours and especially since the it seems like the gondola is usually preferred over Village Express. The main problem with upgrading the gondola though is that it is build relatively recently although that does not completely rule out a replacement
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They really should run this lift from 9-4. I really think that Northstar is up in the most crowded resorts in California, and it needs a huge makeover, especially in the midmountain and base areas.
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Is this lift a backup lift for the Big Springs express gondola?
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More of a reliever lift since the gondola is often extremely crowded in the morning. It runs pretty much every weekend during the season.
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