New Lifts?

[HowieT2]

bringing the base next to the bravo, would be ideal, but i think it would entail removing at least a portion of th valley house.

No question. And possibly a portion of the mtn ops bldg and/or the Mushroom as well. Not sure how that would work when the existing VH lodge/Mushroom are sorely needed on weekends and holidays. I don't know how that's going to play out in the future. They spent money repainting the VH two summers ago, so it's not going anywhere soon. I would imagine we won't have a clear read on that until they figure out what they're going to do with the next phase of LP Village development. My guess is they were anticipating that the new GH lodge and Timbers would eliminate the needs for VH lodge. That's clearly not the case. Maybe it's different this year with the two new buildings? I haven't been up to VH lodge to check.

agreed. its a good thing they didnt remove the vh. its capacity is needed even on none holiday weekends. i think the blazer program has grown so much that they can fill the gatehouse themselves during their lunch time. these are good problems to have. but the vh isnt going anywhere unless something is built to replace it.

[HowieT2]

bringing the base next to the bravo, would be ideal, but i think it would entail removing at least a portion of th valley house.

No question. And possibly a portion of the mtn ops bldg and/or the Mushroom as well. Not sure how that would work when the existing VH lodge/Mushroom are sorely needed on weekends and holidays. I don't know how that's going to play out in the future. They spent money repainting the VH two summers ago, so it's not going anywhere soon. I would imagine we won't have a clear read on that until they figure out what they're going to do with the next phase of LP Village development. My guess is they were anticipating that the new GH lodge and Timbers would eliminate the needs for VH lodge. That's clearly not the case. Maybe it's different this year with the two new buildings? I haven't been up to VH lodge to check.

agreed. its a good thing they didnt remove the vh. its capacity is needed even on none holiday weekends. i think the blazer program has grown so much that they can fill the gatehouse themselves during their lunch time. these are good problems to have. but the vh isnt going anywhere unless something is built to replace it.

[Hawk]

bringing the base next to the bravo, would be ideal, but i think it would entail removing at least a portion of th valley house.

No question. And possibly a portion of the mtn ops bldg and/or the Mushroom as well. Not sure how that would work when the existing VH lodge/Mushroom are sorely needed on weekends and holidays. I don't know how that's going to play out in the future. They spent money repainting the VH two summers ago, so it's not going anywhere soon. I would imagine we won't have a clear read on that until they figure out what they're going to do with the next phase of LP Village development. My guess is they were anticipating that the new GH lodge and Timbers would eliminate the needs for VH lodge. That's clearly not the case. Maybe it's different this year with the two new buildings? I haven't been up to VH lodge to check.

Funny, a couple of us were talk about this standing at the bottom waiting for people. We all agareed on the capacity part and fixing the top of the lift. A Fixed gip double or even a triple is the call. The top is an easy fix with just a little bit of clearing, pushing the lift back about 10-20 yards and reconfiguring the exit.

When the bottom came up we actually skied over and looked up at the alignment. When building a new lift you can do all kinds of things. With just a little adjustment of the lift line the lift could come down past the mushroom and land at the old base of the gondola. They would obviously have to remove the mainenence building but the mushroom and lodge could stay. The biggest problem would be traffic flow with the 2 lifts in close proximity. Dealing with the two lift lines and the people coming down gondolier to the skiers right to get in line the Bravo will be hard to manage.

[MntMan4Bush]

I like the VH Double and it's old antiquated towers. Brings a feeling of nostalgia. The only issue as has been pointed out is the off ramp. If riders had the option to exit to the left that might create a little less havoc, but of course might make making it to Steins a bit tougher if they didn't plan ahead.

As far as reliability though I can't remember seeing that chair ever go down. Orange tape across some chairs. Yes. But go down. No. If we're talking about replacing a chair why don't we look at Ole Faithful, the North Ridge Chair. I've watched that thing be maintained by a broom handle more times than makes me happy.

Or since we've got a little extra quid in our pockets evidently and want to spend on a lift let's bring up everyone's favorite subject. Expanding above Inverness.

[Localsmoker]

What about the 2 summit lifts? I don't mind VH as much as dealing with summit weather conditions while the lift barely crawls up the hill.

[HowieT2]

I like the VH Double and it's old antiquated towers. Brings a feeling of nostalgia. The only issue as has been pointed out is the off ramp. If riders had the option to exit to the left that might create a little less havoc, but of course might make making it to Steins a bit tougher if they didn't plan ahead.

As far as reliability though I can't remember seeing that chair ever go down. Orange tape across some chairs. Yes. But go down. No. If we're talking about replacing a chair why don't we look at Ole Faithful, the North Ridge Chair. I've watched that thing be maintained by a broom handle more times than makes me happy.

Or since we've got a little extra quid in our pockets evidently and want to spend on a lift let's bring up everyone's favorite subject. Expanding above Inverness.

I'm mostly at LP, but I thought the NRX has been better last year and this year????

[Hawk]

What about the 2 summit lifts? I don't mind VH as much as dealing with summit weather conditions while the lift barely crawls up the hill.

Funny you should say that. The very reason these lifts are fixed grip and not high speed is the weather. If the summit quad or the HG triple were anything else but fixed grip and a slow and steady speed, they would never be open when it snows. High speed lifts notoriously fail in wind and weather.

[Hawk]

Also could you imagine going up HG last weekend if it was a High Spped Quad? BRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

[Tin Woodsman]

Funny, a couple of us were talk about this standing at the bottom waiting for people. We all agareed on the capacity part and fixing the top of the lift. A Fixed gip double or even a triple is the call. The top is an easy fix with just a little bit of clearing, pushing the lift back about 10-20 yards and reconfiguring the exit.

I was thinking about that exit a bit last night. There is also the issue that you are going slowly on the flat VH Traverse, then you come around the turn and the grade steepens a bit, so people start slamming on the breaks, with predictable consequences for the snow surface there. I think you'd have a problem in that spot irrespective of whether the VH double was there, though having that pinch spot certainly doesn't help. As much as I hate to say it, I wonder if the ultimate solution will involve a lot of blasting to widen and re-grade that last 50 yards or so.

When the bottom came up we actually skied over and looked up at the alignment. When building a new lift you can do all kinds of things. With just a little adjustment of the lift line the lift could come down past the mushroom and land at the old base of the gondola. They would obviously have to remove the mainenence building but the mushroom and lodge could stay. The biggest problem would be traffic flow with the 2 lifts in close proximity. Dealing with the two lift lines and the people coming down gondolier to the skiers right to get in line the Bravo will be hard to manage.

Keep in mind though that for every person standing in line at the base of that new VH lift, that's almost one less person standing in line for Bravo. I think you'd see a modest overall increase in ridership on that side of the base area but the primary impact would be to redistribute traffic from Bravo to VH. Net/net, I don't think there would be too big of a space issue to deal with, especially if they do some re-grading in that area next to and below the VH lodge.

[Tin Woodsman]

What about the 2 summit lifts? I don't mind VH as much as dealing with summit weather conditions while the lift barely crawls up the hill.

Funny you should say that. The very reason these lifts are fixed grip and not high speed is the weather. If the summit quad or the HG triple were anything else but fixed grip and a slow and steady speed, they would never be open when it snows. High speed lifts notoriously fail in wind and weather.

QFT.

I'd also add that on both ME and LP, there isn't nearly enough trail capacity to handle the amount of people that a high speed quad would be able to discharge on their respective summits. Aren't Jester, OG and Rim Run enough of a junk show already by noon?

[Xskier]

bringing the base next to the bravo, would be ideal, but i think it would entail removing at least a portion of th valley house.

Just run the new Lift Over the Valley House. That would be kind of cool.

[Localsmoker]

What about the 2 summit lifts? I don't mind VH as much as dealing with summit weather conditions while the lift barely crawls up the hill.

Funny you should say that. The very reason these lifts are fixed grip and not high speed is the weather. If the summit quad or the HG triple were anything else but fixed grip and a slow and steady speed, they would never be open when it snows. High speed lifts notoriously fail in wind and weather.

MRG's single does 2000 vert in something like 12 minutes and it's pretty much never closed.

[Localsmoker]

How do you put those boxes around the post you're commenting on?

[Plowboy]

How about a lift from the bottom of Lower FIS to the Glen House or to the corner on Rim Run.

[Plowboy]

How do you put those boxes around the post you're commenting on?