Towers 1-2 at the base.View down the lower portion of the line.Another look back down the line.Side view of the bottom station in the Wildcat base area.The cuts in the side of the terminal are for a gondola door closer. This lift operates as a 4-passenger chairlift in the winter and a 4-passenger gondola in the summer.Doppelmayr Spacejet top terminal with some panels removed.Tower 17.Depression tower #11.Looking up from tower 7.Lower portion of the line.Bottom maze area.View down from tower 21.Breakover towers 23-24 and the top station.Doppelmayr Worldbook entry.
They are way easier to load for non-skiing passengers. Also much more accessible to people in wheelchairs, with strollers or that have problems walking, sitting down and getting up. This means a lift having chairs has to run very slow and stop often unlike a gondola that can run full speed. There are a lot of lifts that operate as chondolas in winter, but only with cabins in summer.
The summer gondola rides may be a casualty of the Vail ownership. They are not advertising them this year, only scenic ‘chairlift’ rides. On the website, the picture shows people riding the triple, although the text say it’s the ‘high speed quad’…..
Wildcat auctioned off 50 or so of the chairs from this lift recently. The chair I bought has its seat bolted to the frame of the chair so the chairs can’t be flipped up at night. I thought this was strange and have never seen a chair with this sort of setup before.
Vails is trying to eliminate the need and ability for seats to flip up. Seats that do still have the ability to flip up are checked daily as part of a seat clip inspection. This is standard at all vail resorts.
Yes, and probably (my guess only) to eliminate the possibility of lift operators flipping them up on their own. Remember Vail had a fatality a few years back because of a seat that was flipped up. This is a way to eliminate at least one uncertainty in that regard.
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Why don’t they run the gondola cabins in the winter?
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With those terminal lengths, they’d have to run the lift at a slower speed.
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Also, this mountain can get some gnarly wind.
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My question is why run cabins in the summer? I like being outside, not in a smelly box.
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I think non-skiers feel a bit more secure in a box (speaking from experience – of non-skiing family members)….
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They are way easier to load for non-skiing passengers. Also much more accessible to people in wheelchairs, with strollers or that have problems walking, sitting down and getting up. This means a lift having chairs has to run very slow and stop often unlike a gondola that can run full speed. There are a lot of lifts that operate as chondolas in winter, but only with cabins in summer.
LikeLike
The summer gondola rides may be a casualty of the Vail ownership. They are not advertising them this year, only scenic ‘chairlift’ rides. On the website, the picture shows people riding the triple, although the text say it’s the ‘high speed quad’…..
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In a reply to an Instagram comment today, Wildcat did say that they plan to run the summer gondola cabins “in future seasons”…
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Wildcat auctioned off 50 or so of the chairs from this lift recently. The chair I bought has its seat bolted to the frame of the chair so the chairs can’t be flipped up at night. I thought this was strange and have never seen a chair with this sort of setup before.
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Vails is trying to eliminate the need and ability for seats to flip up. Seats that do still have the ability to flip up are checked daily as part of a seat clip inspection. This is standard at all vail resorts.
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Is this due to wind flipping them up when returning downhill? Is that why they are doing that?
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Yes, and probably (my guess only) to eliminate the possibility of lift operators flipping them up on their own. Remember Vail had a fatality a few years back because of a seat that was flipped up. This is a way to eliminate at least one uncertainty in that regard.
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What do the new chairs look like?
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What is the summer capacity and speed with the gondola cabins on the line?
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