Occurred to me today that the Skyship

[KingsFourMan]

is already older than the lift that it replaced. Doesn't seem possible. Hope it gets the same type of overhaul the K1 received in the next few years. Someone on here accurately stated that it is now the most unreliable lift on the mountain. I haven't experienced any issues with it but have heard of quite a few others that have.

[newpylong1]

I start my day at Skyeship and it was loading on time, with no stops every visit last year, but that only roughly once per week.

[Snowboardgod]

I also start my days at skyeship typically... especially when we used to live down the road from it. If you’re there enough, it sure does have issues and often. Busy weekends especially. Some of the delayed openings etc can be attributed to staffing etc, however speaking to employees that have worked w that lift they will tell you it has a lot of need to fix issues. Lots and lots of stoppages... I personally got a voucher more then once last season for it being stopped for 20+ mins. Being out there 100+ days I don’t really care, plenty of other lifts to choose from... but no doubt it’s due for an overhaul.

[iRock]

That lift's reliability has decreased exponentially in the past 3-5 years it seems. I've never gotten stuck for extended periods of time, but random 5-10 minute waits are now the norm. If it's windy forget about it it'll start and stop and start and stop. My non-mechanical eye would say it's just bad sensors and wiring rather than stuff like the gearbox/motor or terminal equipment. After 25 years of service I'm sure you're likely to get a lot of false "fault" messages. Employees in the terminal always just restart the thing like there's nothing wrong.

I'd say it's time to consider a refurbishment or replacement, but that would probably be the most expensive lift install in the northeast. 30+ towers, 13,000 feet of line, 100+ cabins, and three terminals. All for a lift that runs December 15-April 15. Zero summer ROI. Most of the year it's just sitting and depreciating. A lift of that caliber of expense at any other resort would be the workhorse, summer/winter ops, and always making the resort money. Not at K tho...for better or for worse, it's what we got.

[Highway Star]

is already older than the lift that it replaced. Doesn't seem possible. Hope it gets the same type of overhaul the K1 received in the next few years. Someone on here accurately stated that it is now the most unreliable lift on the mountain. I haven't experienced any issues with it but have heard of quite a few others that have.

I went on a impending infrastructure collapse rant a few years ago, as you may recall. Skyeship is now 25 years old (1994), as you said about as old or older than the OG gondi. However, the Stowe Gondi (1991) and Stratton Gondi (1988) are older, both have had extensive refurbishments and likely much higher hours as they run during the summer. The K-1 which was just refurbished also has much higher hours as it runs almost every day (80-90%?) year round. I'd say it's highly likely they'll refurbish it some time in the next 5 years or so, before or after some massive disaster, but I doubt it's on the top of the list. No way they'll tear it out, probably try to get 50+ years out of it as gondi's are crazy expensive.

[fdskier56]

I’ve experienced and seen a bunch of shut downs the last 1-2 years.
Some 10 minutes and some extended where the ambassadors stand at the last turn off to Bear and warn you dont commit unless your car is parked down there..

[snoloco]

Skyeship might be old, but it's still the fastest lift on the mountain by far. It isn't the most reliable, but the K1 before the overhaul was worse. I don't see them replacing it anytime soon, but a new haulrope/cabins/electronics overhaul should happen soon to ensure reliability for years to come. Regardless of what happens, I just hope the lift continues to be as fast as it is now.

[Highway Star]

In a summer they could probably strip and rebuild almost everything on it, replace the drives, rope and cabins. Probably cost like $3-5M.

[Mistergiff]

They also need to consider doing something to Skyeship's cabin storage facility which being the original Northbrook Station for the first gondola is 50 years old at this point. Not sure if it has structural issues but it just looks terrible and poorly maintained.

[Highway Star]

They also need to consider doing something to Skyeship's cabin storage facility which being the original Northbrook Station for the first gondola is 50 years old at this point. Not sure if it has structural issues but it just looks terrible and poorly maintained.

They should get a horror movie filmed in it and burn it to the ground.

[skixc2]

I wouldn't be surprised if Killington choose to just abandon this lift when it reaches the end of its usable life. I could see them replacing it with some type of chairlift from Needles base up to it's current top, and simply abandoning all trails an infrastructure below Needles and Bear. As stated here, the expense for what it provides might just not be worth it. (Kinda like the original sunrise area). Let's be clear, I DO NOT want that to happen, or even think it's a good idea, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did it...

[Highway Star]

I wouldn't be surprised if Killington choose to just abandon this lift when it reaches the end of its usable life. I could see them replacing it with some type of chairlift from Needles base up to it's current top, and simply abandoning all trails an infrastructure below Needles and Bear. As stated here, the expense for what it provides might just not be worth it. (Kinda like the original sunrise area). Let's be clear, I DO NOT want that to happen, or even think it's a good idea, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did it...

Hopefully in the next 25 years global cooling will have kicked in enough for lower Skyeship to operate on natural snow for 4-5 months out of the year.

[madhatter]

I wouldn't be surprised if Killington choose to just abandon this lift when it reaches the end of its usable life. I could see them replacing it with some type of chairlift from Needles base up to it's current top, and simply abandoning all trails an infrastructure below Needles and Bear. As stated here, the expense for what it provides might just not be worth it. (Kinda like the original sunrise area). Let's be clear, I DO NOT want that to happen, or even think it's a good idea, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did it...

Hopefully in the next 25 years global cooling will have kicked in enough for lower Skyeship to operate on natural snow for 4-5 months out of the year.

doesn't the mountain have some sort of obligation to trailside homes down there?

[iRock]

I wouldn't be surprised if Killington choose to just abandon this lift when it reaches the end of its usable life. I could see them replacing it with some type of chairlift from Needles base up to it's current top, and simply abandoning all trails an infrastructure below Needles and Bear. As stated here, the expense for what it provides might just not be worth it. (Kinda like the original sunrise area). Let's be clear, I DO NOT want that to happen, or even think it's a good idea, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did it...

Hopefully in the next 25 years global cooling will have kicked in enough for lower Skyeship to operate on natural snow for 4-5 months out of the year.

doesn't the mountain have some sort of obligation to trailside homes down there?

I believe they do not own that land or make money from the trailside homes. For the average skier Skysehip provides convenience as it is nice the shave 5 minutes off the drive home on a Sunday, and the base lodge is quiet and the run down there is nice at the end of the day. For the mountain it's purely a marketing tool to have 3,000 vertical and a good chunk of trail mileage and acreage. Is that worth the expense of the gondola, lodge, and making snow below 2,000 feet? That's not my call...but I can assume it is not worth it with labor rates and diesel prices much greater than 15 years ago.

I see no segment of the killington customer that would stop skiing killington if there was no Skyeship stage 1. Other than a few dozen homeowners who are drops in the 10,000 gallon bucket.

[daytripper]

Killington ain't shutting down skyeship. Stats don't sound so great when one of them is 1500 ft vertical.