Superstar chair

[newpylong1]

off topic but yeah don't envision a pico interconnect until well after the village is up & running if ever. the ROI will be minimal compared to infrastructure costs of 2 lifts, snowmaking, a new lodge, parking and upgrades to some of the other lifts which are all dinosaurs. other than shifting the entry or start point for some folks, don't see a massive influx of skiers who are finally gonna ski killington just because of the interconnect. it will barely move the needle on the number of skier days. plus the "commute" will be a bitch. imagine getting from pico to bear.

Funny…when we lived at Pico we skied over, went under the Ram’s tunnel, took the Snowshed chair to the Superstar chair and straight into Bear to meet friends there for lunch. Ironically the interconnect is there and usable in that direction. Gotta get the bus back from snowshed though.

if you start at the base of pico, you take the golden, the summit, then ski under the tunnel (quite a slog), then take snowshed (dealing w that liftline), superstar and you're finally at bear. if you want to ski the canyon, that's 4 lifts as well. coming back a similar thing. fine if you don't mind spending a good chunk of your day commuting. no thanks.

You also could take RH up and ski Caper/GN all the way down to K-1 and take that up and over. Still 4 lifts but no slog...

aware of that. just responding to the poster's suggestion. and even if you take caper over, that only gets you to the triple. there's still a bit of an uphill to get to the K1. just pointing out the user unfriendliness of the thing.

I would think Pico would get a new signature base to summit lift if the Interconnect goes through. Maybe? It would be one less seat at least. 8,000 feet long and 2K vert, beast.

[wtf021]

It’s funny how people forget that Skyship base is the same elevation as Okemo base.

[GSKI]

The grapevine told me it is going to be a bubble-6.

= Sent Mike Solimano an email and he plainly answered but it was more of a liklihood not a definite. Company undecided. Date of install or certainly undecided. lol.

[skiadikt]

Funny…when we lived at Pico we skied over, went under the Ram’s tunnel, took the Snowshed chair to the Superstar chair and straight into Bear to meet friends there for lunch. Ironically the interconnect is there and usable in that direction. Gotta get the bus back from snowshed though.

if you start at the base of pico, you take the golden, the summit, then ski under the tunnel (quite a slog), then take snowshed (dealing w that liftline), superstar and you're finally at bear. if you want to ski the canyon, that's 4 lifts as well. coming back a similar thing. fine if you don't mind spending a good chunk of your day commuting. no thanks.

You also could take RH up and ski Caper/GN all the way down to K-1 and take that up and over. Still 4 lifts but no slog...

aware of that. just responding to the poster's suggestion. and even if you take caper over, that only gets you to the triple. there's still a bit of an uphill to get to the K1. just pointing out the user unfriendliness of the thing.

I would think Pico would get a new signature base to summit lift if the Interconnect goes through. Maybe? It would be one less seat at least. 8,000 feet long and 2K vert, beast.

would have to be a 2-stage lift. the summit lift frequently goes on wind holds. what do you think a lift like that would cost?

[newpylong1]

Not necessarily because they would likely replace Golden as well. Both of those Yans are due... Of course, no bucks no buck rogers.

[Skivt2]

Not necessarily because they would likely replace Golden as well. Both of those Yans are due... Of course, no bucks no buck rogers.

Getting back to the original topic….what makes anyone think that there will be 3+ new lifts and all that snowmaking and cutting trees etc to make a connection to Pico when clearly staple lifts like Superstar, Needles, Rams head, Skyship and pipes like up in the Northridge area need so much attention? Let’s not even bring up Outpost’s 50+ year old chair and knomes knoll. How many years before the Pico ski club needs the LPT replaced? Do you build an addition to your house when the existing roof is leaking or do you fix the existing roof?

[newpylong1]

I certainly don't see it, with the current owner anyway. My comments were hypothetical what ifs (should the interconnect) ever be built.

[easyrider16]

So what happens to all those homes down off Stage I? "Sorry, we're pulling the lift, you'll have to try to buy a hypothetical house over closer to Pico?"

Is Killington contractually obligated to them in some way?

Also what about the loss of the access point coming from the East? That really is the second point of Skyeship - to have additional access and parking during the peak of winter. Now drive 20 more minutes and park either in a garage, or an already packed lot? No thanks.

They've replaced most of the pipe on GE below Bearly and they had no trouble getting it open this past winter. Its low elevation (for K) but let's not act like they toil away at it for a week like UEF in November or name your other trail. Stage I is not going anywhere, Interconnect or no Interconnect.

I'm sure you're right, at least for the next ten years or so. But as things change and it gets harder and harder to maintain snow, it's going to be about K's future survival. When that becomes the biggest concern, I'd bet things like convenient parking are going to go out the window.

[newpylong1]

Yes.

As wtf021 noted the bottom of Stage I is the same elevation as Okemo base, and many other areas. If no one is able to make snow at 1200 sea level for a few days by January in any given winter I think we'll have bigger problems than just Skyeship.

[jimmywilson69]

It can always just be used as a transfer lift. this is literally done at ski areas all over the world

[AntiSoCalSkier]

It can always just be used as a transfer lift. this is literally done at ski areas all over the world

The Skyeship can't be used as a transfer lift without a bunch of work. The midstation (which is where you'd want to board for downloading) doesn't have a platform on the download side (and I suspect that might require significant effort to add one). You'd also need to figure out how to get people over to that side of the terminal, so there'd be a bit of a regrade (probably a path from the Carpenter's trail entrance down).

[daytripper]

It can always just be used as a transfer lift. this is literally done at ski areas all over the world

The Skyeship can't be used as a transfer lift without a bunch of work. The midstation (which is where you'd want to board for downloading) doesn't have a platform on the download side (and I suspect that might require significant effort to add one). You'd also need to figure out how to get people over to that side of the terminal, so there'd be a bit of a regrade (probably a path from the Carpenter's trail entrance down).

In the overall scope of things, that isn't much work to do. Little work with an excavator and build decking. Certainly something they could do in house.

[jimmywilson69]

Agree adding the needed things to the Needles base to make this happen is akin to they types of things Killington's staff could do in a summer. I would think the bigger thing with Skyeship is it would need to be fully retrofitted or replaced to be able to accommodate downloading. I'm sure it can download some now, but if it was a full on transfer lift I'm certain that would have to be designed to handle up and downloading at all times. At least for Stage 1 since technically it operates as 2 lifts.

[Stormchaser]

It can always just be used as a transfer lift. this is literally done at ski areas all over the world

The Skyeship can't be used as a transfer lift without a bunch of work. The midstation (which is where you'd want to board for downloading) doesn't have a platform on the download side (and I suspect that might require significant effort to add one). You'd also need to figure out how to get people over to that side of the terminal, so there'd be a bit of a regrade (probably a path from the Carpenter's trail entrance down).

In the overall scope of things, that isn't much work to do. Little work with an excavator and build decking. Certainly something they could do in house.

Could always ride up from the mid-station and stay on...(even though it's not super user-friendly).

[Southside_Bobby]

This is a Superstar chair thread, right?