Section two of Wild Blue runs from Greenhorn Ranch to Sunshine Peak and opened one year after section one.The first three towers above the mid-station.The lift can be split into two or run as a complete circuit with both sections.Towers 11 and 12.The upper section is very long with high spans and a variety of topography.Middle station with maintenance facility.Side view of the large angle station.Generators for both sections and outside parking rail.Mid loading area for uphill traffic only open after 10:30 am.The summit unloading area.Short maintenance rail at the summit.All three stations have sections which move too fast for loading and unloading and are blocked off.Side view of the Sunshine Peak terminal.Tower 37 and the upper station.Breakover towers at the summit.Tower 33.The top line runs with 103 cabins if independent of the bottom.View down at tower 30.T29, one of numerous combo towers on both sections of this lift.Sunset trail crossing, one of multiple very high points.A low point on the line.Upper lift line.The middle section of the line crosses over Burgess Creek and the Burgess Creek chairlift.T20.Side view of a multi section combo tower.View along the highest point above ground.Cabins with Storm Peak in the background.Gondola passing over Burgess Creek, one of three lift crossings Wild Blue was designed for.View up the very long alignment.A simple support tower.Tower 22.The first big breakover on section two along Vagabond trail.Tower 19.Lift line above Greenhorn Ranch.Tower 17.Another view of 17.Crossing over Thunderhead Express.At both lift crossings on section two, the gondola goes over the chairlift.Another view of the Thunderhead crossing.Gondolas flying over the Greenhorn Ranch Express.Tower 13.Hold down towers at the mid-station.View up from the mid.Riding over Buzzard run.One of the tallest towers on the line.View back down toward Burgess Creek.Riding over Sunset.The top unloading area.D-Line end cap. Note the two lift operator houses.Long D-Line return station with tensioning.Tower 37.Tower 32.Lift line overview.A short combination tower.View up at tower 30.Cabins over the Yampa Valley.Cabins passing a ridgetop support tower.Tower 28.Flat middle section of the line.Near the Burgess Creek chair crossing.Extremely high cabins.View of the upper line from Burgess Creek chair.A tall support tower near Thunderhead.Aerial view of the mid.Crossing the Distraction ski run.Lift line after crossing Thunderhead Express.Side view of an Omega V cabin.A cabin and two splice tucks.Extra large combination assemblies.Another view of a 10 passenger Omega cabin.View up the line from the top of Greenhorn Ranch Express.Gondola view from Thunderhead.The second section is more than 12,000 feet long.Second section overview.Operator controls for both segments.Low voltage control cabinets.Operator station.The parking and maintenance is two levels down from the lift station.Grip maintenance bay.Work carriers for each section.Drive cabinets.More drive cabinets.A cabin in maintenance.One generator can power the bottom section at full speed but all three are required for the upper section.View from the parking facility.This lift doesn’t have full parking but a chunk of cabins can be removed from the upper part of the mountain during a storm.A cabin arriving at the mid.World’s largest direct drive.Relatively small hydrostatic evacuation engine.The direct drive is six segments and sits just a few dozen yards from the two segment direct drive for the lower section.Inside the long mid-station.The lift can be split apart with cabins turning around in about 15 minutes.Where the two sections meet.Outdoor cabin storage.Separate loading and unloading areas in each direction.Entrance to Greenhorn Ranch learning center.The upper section seen from town.Completely new lift alignment on the mountain.
The downhill descent into the upper terminal way up on Sunshine Peak is visibly to provide clearance for cabins to cross over skiers using the cutoff to access Storm Peak.
I’ll digress that even with this gondola open, I think there’s some merit in continuing to stick to the slower chairlift route to get from the base to the top of Sunshine Peak. Which involves using the Christie Peak Express, Thunderhead Express and Sundown Express. (Wild Blue II certainly took a lot of pressure off bot the Thunderhead Express and Steamboat Gondola. Before it opened, you had to go through Thunderhead to get to the upper mountain. Now with Wild Blue II, you can bypass Thunderhead entirely.)
But what if you’re trying to get to the top of Sunshine Peak as early as possible? Riding the Wild Blue in this case doesn’t make sense, even though it’s one, relatively quick, combined ride straight to the peak, because it doesn’t start loading until after 10am (i think that’s correct).
So, if you’re racing to the top on a powder day morning, isn’t the original gondola faster even with the extra ski and lift ride times? Or, I’ve read of getting a head start by having someone drive and drop you off at the base of the Thunderhead lift, which should start running just after 8:30?
Wild Blue loads from the bottom at 9:00 and mid from 10:30. Pretty silly they won’t even load singles on empty cabins at the mid before 10:30. I tried on a quiet weekday but lifties made me ski to the bottom every time. Funny because I thought the point of this lift was to reduce base congestion. Apparently if you say you dropped someone off at ski school you can get on. Definitely someone in an office came up with the policy, not someone who spends time at the lift.
Are you allowed to ride straight from the bottom to the top as long as you don’t get off at the midload? Or do you have to get off at the midload if you get on before 10:30?
Interesting they ran the tower numbers right through. For us that is 2 separate lifts with new numbering for each section. Also the big top section being bottom drive adds to the size of everything.
What an absolute monster, such a cool machine. The midstation is pretty unique in that it is noticeably lopsided toward the upper section to account for the different line speeds of both sections.
This goes to show how Alterra is starting to be competitive with their lift technology (D-Lines, Direct Drives). Im hoping to see more of these big projects from them in the future.
The map is a little deceptive regarding where the gondola’s line is.
The map gives the impression that when crossing Storm Peak’s south trails, the gondola crosses over the junction where Rainbow and Skyline meet. When in reality, the line actually is a bit north of that, running up Pressure Drop / skier’s left side of Hurricane at that point:
The most deceptive part is Bashor. According to that map, you’d be forgiven for assuming Bashor loads nearly a half mile downhill from the mid-station. But from the photos, Bashor loads literally a stone’s throw from the structure.
In general, the Steamboat trail map wildly distorts relative sizes. Christy Peak looks tiny, and the green and blue lower mountain terrain looks huge compared to the actually massive amount of acreage above it. This was all presumably a marketing decision.
How come looking at the pictures it shows Bashor lift being right at the midstation of the wild blue but on the trail map it shows it way farther down?
I’ll give you two answers here. The first is that the trail maps are intended to ease navigation, accuracy is less important than knowing how to navigate the mountain. The second is that the current Steamboat trail map is not a Niehues, Brown, or Smith creation, so it’s not as good as maps that are.
Yes. The conveyor speed at the beginning of the upper section increases a bit from that of the lower section, so it spaces the cabins a bit further apart as they accelerate to rope speed.
That massive motor is actually 6 separate motors, and if the same as the other smaller DD motors, each one of these is divided into three “motors” as well. (six rings with three separate windings each). All the cabinets contain the AC drives that convert 60Hz utility/generator power to variable frequency AC so the speed can be controlled. If you have a failure in a drive or one segment of the motor you can turn it off and run on the remaining ones.
Nice! Does that mean it’s using permanent synchronous magnetic motors? I see direct drive washing machines and electric cars often use that when precise speed control is important (rather than a DC motor).
These drives are actually a little cooler than just that. About half of the cabinets are dedicated to converting incoming AC (usually 480VAC) into DC (usually just under 700VDC), while roughly the other half are converting that DC back into AC at various frequencies to control the speed of the motor. There’s also a few more bays that are dedicated to the controller for all of the drives, a power filter, and brake chopper for running on generator power. This arrangement allows the drive to take an incredibly large amount of energy from the motor and put it back onto the electrical grid, for both regular stopping or when you have a large downloading load.
These large drives use multiple smaller modules to do those AC/DC or DC/AC conversions, so you can run with some of them disabled (either on the input side or the output side) albeit with limited capacity.
@Muni, yes, these are permanent magnet synchronous motors.
it’s something. But also heard there is some sort of forest service use permit restriction in place not allowing full summer activities up at the top for right now? Not sure how accurate that is. I would think that Steamboat would be happy to offer full service up to the top if they could?
Lift Blog 
Beautiful monster of a lift!
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The downhill descent into the upper terminal way up on Sunshine Peak is visibly to provide clearance for cabins to cross over skiers using the cutoff to access Storm Peak.
I’ll digress that even with this gondola open, I think there’s some merit in continuing to stick to the slower chairlift route to get from the base to the top of Sunshine Peak. Which involves using the Christie Peak Express, Thunderhead Express and Sundown Express. (Wild Blue II certainly took a lot of pressure off bot the Thunderhead Express and Steamboat Gondola. Before it opened, you had to go through Thunderhead to get to the upper mountain. Now with Wild Blue II, you can bypass Thunderhead entirely.)
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But what if you’re trying to get to the top of Sunshine Peak as early as possible? Riding the Wild Blue in this case doesn’t make sense, even though it’s one, relatively quick, combined ride straight to the peak, because it doesn’t start loading until after 10am (i think that’s correct).
So, if you’re racing to the top on a powder day morning, isn’t the original gondola faster even with the extra ski and lift ride times? Or, I’ve read of getting a head start by having someone drive and drop you off at the base of the Thunderhead lift, which should start running just after 8:30?
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Wild Blue loads from the bottom at 9:00 and mid from 10:30. Pretty silly they won’t even load singles on empty cabins at the mid before 10:30. I tried on a quiet weekday but lifties made me ski to the bottom every time. Funny because I thought the point of this lift was to reduce base congestion. Apparently if you say you dropped someone off at ski school you can get on. Definitely someone in an office came up with the policy, not someone who spends time at the lift.
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Are you allowed to ride straight from the bottom to the top as long as you don’t get off at the midload? Or do you have to get off at the midload if you get on before 10:30?
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Interesting they ran the tower numbers right through. For us that is 2 separate lifts with new numbering for each section. Also the big top section being bottom drive adds to the size of everything.
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What an absolute monster, such a cool machine. The midstation is pretty unique in that it is noticeably lopsided toward the upper section to account for the different line speeds of both sections.
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This goes to show how Alterra is starting to be competitive with their lift technology (D-Lines, Direct Drives). Im hoping to see more of these big projects from them in the future.
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What great photos! This thing is a monster! Beautiful engineering and beautiful in general!
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The map is a little deceptive regarding where the gondola’s line is.
The map gives the impression that when crossing Storm Peak’s south trails, the gondola crosses over the junction where Rainbow and Skyline meet. When in reality, the line actually is a bit north of that, running up Pressure Drop / skier’s left side of Hurricane at that point:
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The most deceptive part is Bashor. According to that map, you’d be forgiven for assuming Bashor loads nearly a half mile downhill from the mid-station. But from the photos, Bashor loads literally a stone’s throw from the structure.
In general, the Steamboat trail map wildly distorts relative sizes. Christy Peak looks tiny, and the green and blue lower mountain terrain looks huge compared to the actually massive amount of acreage above it. This was all presumably a marketing decision.
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A YouTube Short of the whole ride down, for perspective:
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How come looking at the pictures it shows Bashor lift being right at the midstation of the wild blue but on the trail map it shows it way farther down?
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I’ll give you two answers here. The first is that the trail maps are intended to ease navigation, accuracy is less important than knowing how to navigate the mountain. The second is that the current Steamboat trail map is not a Niehues, Brown, or Smith creation, so it’s not as good as maps that are.
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Mammoth, take notes.
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How does it work to have the upper section running faster than the lower? Wider carrier spacing?
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Yes. The conveyor speed at the beginning of the upper section increases a bit from that of the lower section, so it spaces the cabins a bit further apart as they accelerate to rope speed.
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Why did Steamboat build a colossal direct drive for the upper section of the Wild Blue Gondola?
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You don’t need a massive vault drive gearbox for it for openers. My Doppelmayr spies tell me that motor weighs 33 tons.
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What’s in all those drive cabinets? Batteries or capacitors or something? Is it needed for normal opps?
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Actually, I’d like to take a guess: it’s converting AC current from the grid into DC current for the (massive!) drive solenoid.
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That massive motor is actually 6 separate motors, and if the same as the other smaller DD motors, each one of these is divided into three “motors” as well. (six rings with three separate windings each). All the cabinets contain the AC drives that convert 60Hz utility/generator power to variable frequency AC so the speed can be controlled. If you have a failure in a drive or one segment of the motor you can turn it off and run on the remaining ones.
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Nice! Does that mean it’s using permanent synchronous magnetic motors? I see direct drive washing machines and electric cars often use that when precise speed control is important (rather than a DC motor).
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These drives are actually a little cooler than just that. About half of the cabinets are dedicated to converting incoming AC (usually 480VAC) into DC (usually just under 700VDC), while roughly the other half are converting that DC back into AC at various frequencies to control the speed of the motor. There’s also a few more bays that are dedicated to the controller for all of the drives, a power filter, and brake chopper for running on generator power. This arrangement allows the drive to take an incredibly large amount of energy from the motor and put it back onto the electrical grid, for both regular stopping or when you have a large downloading load.
These large drives use multiple smaller modules to do those AC/DC or DC/AC conversions, so you can run with some of them disabled (either on the input side or the output side) albeit with limited capacity.
@Muni, yes, these are permanent magnet synchronous motors.
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So why exactly are there two operator house at the top terminal?
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Just a guess, but since that’s an upload and download lift, there’s one for each crew?
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I would like to know how many watts this machine draws when fully loaded and running at design speed.
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A POV of the full ride from the base area to the summit of Sunshine Peak:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u91Rzpc6Ws
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Do they run this lift in the summer?
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No they don’t, or at least they did not in the summer of 2024.
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Starting this year, they’ll be running WBG to the 2nd station, so not all the way to the top. Will start around June 13th.
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Well, what is the point?
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it’s something. But also heard there is some sort of forest service use permit restriction in place not allowing full summer activities up at the top for right now? Not sure how accurate that is. I would think that Steamboat would be happy to offer full service up to the top if they could?
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@Ryan G I’ve heard that Steamboat is planning to build a new lodge at the top of Sunshine Peak. Can anyone confirm?
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A new lodge at the top of Sunshine Peak is still planned. I have no idea what the timeline looks like.
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I came up here in the summer of 2023 and you could see the towers being flown in from the top of the other gondola!
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We were there at the same time then- I was teaching a class up there and the students were pretty stoked to see the helicopter ops.
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