SAM Coverage
Lifts
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Quality Assurance
Over the next three to six years there will almost inevitably be major changes in the way ski lifts are designed, manufactured, marketed, installed,…
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Lifts 1992
No surprises, but oh, what a bummer of a year for new lift construction! The 36 new lifts represent the lowest total since SAM…
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Lifted…By A Magic Carpet
Learning to go uphill on skis can be more challenging than learning to go downhill … and it’s not nearly as much fun. Vail…
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Ittab Explores Colorado Resorts
Colorado was the scene in August of the first-ever meeting in North America of the international organization of cableway supervisory authorities, known as ITTAB…
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Back To The Future
I find it intriguing that the American continent’s only native surface lift, the rope tow—arguably also the most efficient, highest capacity and most cost-effective…
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The Wherefores Of Wire Rope
Wire rope installation is a topic that provokes a wide range of opinions and brings about differing responses from lift manufacturers, wire rope manufacturers…
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Old Lift Gets High Think
Skiers visiting Winter Park this winter will find a new lift — well, it’s actually rather an old lift, and one with quite a…
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Lift Specialists Gather At Steamboat Symposium
The Fifth OITAF/NACS Symposium, August 30 to September 2, at Steamboat, Colo., was widely viewed as one of the most successful ever held, with…
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Top Or Bottom Drive
Understanding the physical differences between installing a top drive versus a bottom drive of a lift helps in evaluating the actual cost differences and…
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Highlights Of A Skimpy Expansion Year
The construction index for North American ski areas has not exactly been at a fever pitch this offseason. Lift construction did receive a slight…
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Designing And Analyzing Lift Parts For Metal Fatigue
President, Pol-X West, Inc. Fatigue failure analysis combines engineering and science: science is attempting to tell us why the fatigue failures happen, while engineering…
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Memo from the Publisher
My place of work is wherever my business travels take me — at least that is the line I will insist on if the…
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More Than Just A Parking Garage
The decision-making that led to the construction of North America’s largest and most complex underground gondola structure stems from Keystone Resort’s decision to build…
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The Six-Seater Has Arrived
Another chapter of state-of-the-art engineering entered the annals of ski industry history this winter with the unveiling of the world’s first six-passenger Doppelmayr detachable…
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Ski Reports
Town-to-summit gondola sought at Heavenly Valley Heavenly Valley, the giant South Lake Tahoe resort astride the California/Nevada border, is updating its old (1966) master…
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Constructive Destruction
Destroying a working chairlift could be considered an affront to modern tramway technology. Old chairlifts never die, but are usually rebuilt at another location.…
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99 Rooms With A View
Overlooking the St. Lawrence River and historic Quebec City, the new 8-passenger gondola at Mont Ste. Anne has been described as “99 rooms with…