This Hall double chair was retrofitted with Doppelmayr chairs and a CTEC drive station.Fixed top terminal and breakover towers.Unloading ramp.Towers 18-21.View down the lift line.Lift overview.Enterprise terminal at the base.Depress sheaves integrated into the bottom terminal.Another view of the line.
The hanger arms ARE the original Hall hanger arms. They just cut and re-welded part of it to be at an angle and added the attachment points to the Doppelmayr chairs. I think the modification was done either in-house, by Doppelmayr, or a contractor either could have hired.
The original base configuration of this lift was really weird. It used to go all the way to the bottom. It actually crossed over the original C-Lift just after the load point. I believe the point where it crossed was the load point for the original C-Lift so it didn’t have to be super high up. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of this on the internet, though you can see where everything was on the historical imagery on Google Earth. When imagining how much of a mess that was, it’s pretty easy to see why it got shortened. This happened sometime between 1999 and 2003 according to Skimap.org.
At some point (I think in the 80’s), a mid-station was built (at where the current drive terminal is), and for a number of years, the lift loaded only at mid-station, even though the chairs would go all the way down to the base (and cross over C-lift). After many years of mid-station loading, the lift was shortened to its current configuration. I may be wrong, but I think that the trail map reflected the lift not existing below midstation for some time before it was shortened.
It runs up Wheelchair, a steep double diamond that almost always is heavily bumped from top to bottom. While riding the double up, it is common to see people fall into extend slides down the trail. Not easy to ski / snowboard, hence the name Wheelchair (you might need one if you attempt to ski it). I always thought it was a great name in keeping with the “W” theme.
In the mid-nineties, my uncle who is an accomplished skier with many years of experience out West and all of New England, jumped off the lift at one of the low points up top after seeing his son fly off the side of the trail while skiing. True story!
This lift has had many chairs removed in the past 5 years and operators now skip chairs (usually 1 in 4) when loading in some weather conditions. I would not be surprised to see it replaced in the next few years, possibly with a new alignment that gets the towers out of the middle of the run which is considerably busier now that the adjacent Wedel has been largely given over to racing.
I have a few questions regarding this Franken-lift:
1. After further research, I found through the Wayback Machine and Ski Magazine that the Garaventa CTEC lower drive terminal was installed in 2001, the last year before the merger with Doppelmayr. Garaventa CTEC had the Sprint drive terminal available since at least 1990, but occasionally still used the Enterprise design as late as 1999 for original installations, so it’s possible this could still be first install for this terminal. Was this terminal original, or was it moved from somewhere else?
2. Why would Windham replace the original Hall carriers with the Doppelmayr plastic slat carriers? While Halls tend to be a bit narrow, they still had decent seat comfort unless they were the curved wooden slat option. Are the Dopps that comfortable from that era? That also seems early to move away from Hall, since service parts are still available. Plus, that would have been a fair amount of custom work to create the new hanger arms and mounting plates from the original Hall hanger arms/grips.
3. Does anybody know the origin of these carriers, and when they were first used on Baker (Wheelchair)? They appear to have been used on the old Whistler double chair, which originally had Carlevaro and Savio bail carriers with bubbles. That means the earliest usage here would have been 1993 when it was replaced. Could they be from Wachusett? It appears they quickly converted two Doppelmayr lifts from doubles to triples in the mid-1980s.
Its hard to say about any of this for sure but the enterprise terminal was last made in 2005 or 2006. along with that this lift had a midstation until 2004(which was removed and where the current bottom terminal sits). The dopplymyre chairs have been on this lift since at least 1999. but as of for the chairs I don’t have a clue on where they might of come from.
This lift actually has an even more involved history. It was originally installed in 1971 with its bottom drive terminal where it is originally located now and had bubble chairs. At the time, Windham was a private ski club. Windham became public in 1981 and was purchased by Snow Time. Around that time, the bubble chairs (which were in poor condition by this point) on both this lift and the Whistler double (A-Lift) were replaced with matching Doppelmayr chairs and this lift was extended to the bottom. The lower section of this lift even had Doppelmayr towers, rather than Hall towers. I assume that this was done as a band-aid to increase out of base capacity when the ski area became public and possibly Doppelmayr was able to make the modifications in time for the following ski season while Hall was not. After the Whistler Triple (F-Lift) was installed in 1983, loading was moved to the mid-station located at the current/original drive location and the lift was finally shortened in 2001, when it received the Enterprise terminal. If you look closely at the depression sheaves integrated into the Enterprise terminal they are Doppelmayr rather than CTEC or Hall. This lift also had a mid unload around tower 13 for a brief time in the late 70s.
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Were the custom-made hanger arms made after the Hall-CTEC merger, or did Hall make them themselves?
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The hanger arms ARE the original Hall hanger arms. They just cut and re-welded part of it to be at an angle and added the attachment points to the Doppelmayr chairs. I think the modification was done either in-house, by Doppelmayr, or a contractor either could have hired.
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The original base configuration of this lift was really weird. It used to go all the way to the bottom. It actually crossed over the original C-Lift just after the load point. I believe the point where it crossed was the load point for the original C-Lift so it didn’t have to be super high up. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of this on the internet, though you can see where everything was on the historical imagery on Google Earth. When imagining how much of a mess that was, it’s pretty easy to see why it got shortened. This happened sometime between 1999 and 2003 according to Skimap.org.
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At some point (I think in the 80’s), a mid-station was built (at where the current drive terminal is), and for a number of years, the lift loaded only at mid-station, even though the chairs would go all the way down to the base (and cross over C-lift). After many years of mid-station loading, the lift was shortened to its current configuration. I may be wrong, but I think that the trail map reflected the lift not existing below midstation for some time before it was shortened.
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Wheelchair was a laughably bad lift name. Imagine someone naming a lift “Catheter.”
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It runs up Wheelchair, a steep double diamond that almost always is heavily bumped from top to bottom. While riding the double up, it is common to see people fall into extend slides down the trail. Not easy to ski / snowboard, hence the name Wheelchair (you might need one if you attempt to ski it). I always thought it was a great name in keeping with the “W” theme.
In the mid-nineties, my uncle who is an accomplished skier with many years of experience out West and all of New England, jumped off the lift at one of the low points up top after seeing his son fly off the side of the trail while skiing. True story!
LikeLike
This lift has had many chairs removed in the past 5 years and operators now skip chairs (usually 1 in 4) when loading in some weather conditions. I would not be surprised to see it replaced in the next few years, possibly with a new alignment that gets the towers out of the middle of the run which is considerably busier now that the adjacent Wedel has been largely given over to racing.
LikeLike
I have a few questions regarding this Franken-lift:
1. After further research, I found through the Wayback Machine and Ski Magazine that the Garaventa CTEC lower drive terminal was installed in 2001, the last year before the merger with Doppelmayr. Garaventa CTEC had the Sprint drive terminal available since at least 1990, but occasionally still used the Enterprise design as late as 1999 for original installations, so it’s possible this could still be first install for this terminal. Was this terminal original, or was it moved from somewhere else?
2. Why would Windham replace the original Hall carriers with the Doppelmayr plastic slat carriers? While Halls tend to be a bit narrow, they still had decent seat comfort unless they were the curved wooden slat option. Are the Dopps that comfortable from that era? That also seems early to move away from Hall, since service parts are still available. Plus, that would have been a fair amount of custom work to create the new hanger arms and mounting plates from the original Hall hanger arms/grips.
3. Does anybody know the origin of these carriers, and when they were first used on Baker (Wheelchair)? They appear to have been used on the old Whistler double chair, which originally had Carlevaro and Savio bail carriers with bubbles. That means the earliest usage here would have been 1993 when it was replaced. Could they be from Wachusett? It appears they quickly converted two Doppelmayr lifts from doubles to triples in the mid-1980s.
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Its hard to say about any of this for sure but the enterprise terminal was last made in 2005 or 2006. along with that this lift had a midstation until 2004(which was removed and where the current bottom terminal sits). The dopplymyre chairs have been on this lift since at least 1999. but as of for the chairs I don’t have a clue on where they might of come from.
LikeLike
This lift actually has an even more involved history. It was originally installed in 1971 with its bottom drive terminal where it is originally located now and had bubble chairs. At the time, Windham was a private ski club. Windham became public in 1981 and was purchased by Snow Time. Around that time, the bubble chairs (which were in poor condition by this point) on both this lift and the Whistler double (A-Lift) were replaced with matching Doppelmayr chairs and this lift was extended to the bottom. The lower section of this lift even had Doppelmayr towers, rather than Hall towers. I assume that this was done as a band-aid to increase out of base capacity when the ski area became public and possibly Doppelmayr was able to make the modifications in time for the following ski season while Hall was not. After the Whistler Triple (F-Lift) was installed in 1983, loading was moved to the mid-station located at the current/original drive location and the lift was finally shortened in 2001, when it received the Enterprise terminal. If you look closely at the depression sheaves integrated into the Enterprise terminal they are Doppelmayr rather than CTEC or Hall. This lift also had a mid unload around tower 13 for a brief time in the late 70s.
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