Snowbird
To avoid cutting an access road and thereby limit environmental impacts and save some money, Snowbird, Utah, staff and Garaventa CTEC engineers pooled their expertise to find new ways of hauling the terminals and drive for a new Garaventa detachable quad into Mineral Basin, an undeveloped area on the backside of Hidden Peak. One half of the project entailed using the Snowbird tram to carry pieces of the top terminal to the summit while the other meant building an industrial-sized sled to haul the bottom pieces over spring snowpack with snow cats. Already a source of great debate with environmental groups, the plan for the new detachable prodded engineers into modifying the Snowbird tram into an airborne pack mule and using the protective layer of snow on the mountain at the end of the season to move the sled.
In May, the modules of the bottom terminal were individually loaded onto a sled devised from a LMC 3700 grooming vehicle’s frame and tracks. The sled was then towed and pushed by snow cats from its loading point at neighboring Alta Ski Area’s base up and over Sugarloaf Pass to the bottom of Mineral Basin. When steep grades in Mineral Basin were encountered, a winch cat was used to lower the sled into position. The terminal pieces were then supported by cribbing from ground level before the sled was pulled out from underneath. Once the snows melted, crews had their terminal pieces waiting for them when they arrived in 4X4s and an all-terrain crane.
The top terminal posed a different challenge. Although there is a road stretching to Hidden Peak, it is a long route and towing each of the five modular top terminal pieces to the top would have cost too much in time and resources. Instead, engineers decided to tie the pieces to the bottom of the tram and use the tram to carry them up the mountain. They designed and mounted a picking beam to the tram bottom and then attached four winches to the beam near the tram’s corners. Once a piece of terminal was hoisted into place, it was rigged directly to the tram and the winches were backed off to eliminate the possibility of one letting go during transport. The pieces were then unloaded near the top of the tram where a large excavator carried them to the construction site.
The new quad will be up and running by this season, replacing the snow cat that served the 400 acres of skiing in Mineral Basin for the last two seasons. The lift will be 3,187 feet long with a vertical rise of 1,429 feet. It will have an initial capacity of 1,800 pph for a VTFH of 2,572.2 and will also have a design capacity of 2,200 pph.
Bretton Woods
A new Garaventa CTEC fixed-grip quad being constructed at Bretton Woods, N.H., means the resort will open its West Mountain expansion this season (coinciding with the winter opening of the Mount Washington Hotel) to give skiers an additional 24 trails and glades. The 13 towers for the lift were reportedly placed in 1 hour and 20 minutes as workers walked down the hill to the next footing as a helicopter brought in each successive tower. The new lift will travel 3,650 linear feet and climb 1,250 vertical feet. Its capacity of 1,800 pph gives it a VTFH of 2,250. The quad will access a variety of terrain that will be covered by expanded snowmaking and, so skiers and snowboarders can warm up before taking to the new slopes, Bretton Woods will be hauling a Mount Washington Cog Railway passenger car to the summit. The expansion onto West Mountain is just part of a six-year plan that includes a new detachable quad and development of Mount Stickney, to the east of Bretton Woods’ developed property.
Jiminy Peak
Jiminy Peak, Mass., was about to bulldoze a nearby building called the Hendricks House to make way for condominiums when co-owner Brian Fairbank had a brainstorm: Haul the building to the top of the mountain. Workers chiseled through the foundation and supported the house on steel I-beams that were then fitted with wheels. While workers prepared the house, others cut a $25,000 road to the summit—giving Jiminy a new slope—and poured footings for the lodge. A team of bulldozers then pulled the 2,400-square-foot house more than two miles and 1,200 vertical feet to its new site. Now the resort has a 125-seat summit lodge (the only summit lodge in the region) with a fireplace. It’ll be refurbished with a rustic, log-cabin look in time to offer guests food and drink this season.
Sugar Bowl
A new Garaventa CTEC fixed-grip quad is going in on Mt. Judah at Sugar Bowl, Calif., for beginners as part of the resort’s planned $4 million in improvements for the 1999-2000 season. The lift will be 740 feet long and have a vertical rise of 180 feet for a VTFH of 144. It will have a capacity of 800 pph and will access an expanded teaching area as well as four new beginner trails. Two new intermediate trails from the top of the existing Mt. Judah Express Quad will also be opened this season. To help keep it covered in snow, an additional 20 acres of snowmaking is going in on the Mt. Judah side. Sugar Bowl is also putting in a Garaventa CTEC high-speed detachable quad in place of the Mt. Disney double originally built in 1939. The new quad will load in front of the Village Lodge and stretch 3,324 feet to the summit. It will have a vertical rise of 948 feet with a capacity of 2,600 pph for a VTFH of 2,464.8. The resort is also building a new sundeck at the top of Mt. Disney to be attached to a small food and beverage hut and will be adding a Bombardier winch cat to its fleet of grooming vehicles.
Hermon Mountain
Hermon Mountain, Maine, is finishing up construction of its first chairlift. The Poma fixed-grip double’s drive and terminals were purchased from Shawnee Peak, Me., and will be outfitted with towers from Berkshire East, Mass. Cable and chairs were purchased from Waterville Valley, N.H. The chair, which will replace one of two T-bars at the community ski area, will extend 1,800 feet with a vertical rise of 350 feet. It will have a capacity of 1,200 pph for a VTFH of 420. The former T-bar’s route will become a new trail to bring the total to 19 at the suburban Bangor area. Construction on the chairlift was begun last fall but had to be postponed until this summer because the small staff at Hermon Mountain was busy making snow at both ends of a poor-snow season.
