Superstar chair

[Captain Hafski]

As for the alignment, I see no need to change it, other than moving the top terminal higher, and moving it back a little to make the unload bigger. They shouldn't be cutting more trees if they are required to give back acreage to do it. They had no choice with South Ridge, but it isn't necessary for Superstar.

I think Dipper is the best choice for an alternate spring trail. It seems to hold snow the best of the Canyon trails, and is easy to make a lot of snow on. Probably wouldn't make June, but could make it deep into May.

Doing a 2 year install should not be considered, because it means the lift will then be at least 39 years old by the time it is retired. Again, every year it's not replaced is taking a chance at losing the entire spring season due to a mechanical failure. I cannot stress enough that this is uncharted territory for detachable lifts. Especially ones that were built by a manufacturer that's out of business.

The Snowshed Express and Golden should also be replaced, but it isn't as pressing of a need because they don't have the hours that Superstar does, and they have redundancy. Snowshed has the double for backup, and Pico has two other lifts at the base that will get you to the upper mountain. Superstar has zero redundancy for the entire month of May. What other resort relies on one of their oldest and least reliable lifts for an entire month of the season, and repeatedly puts off replacement?

I believe Downdraft holds snow better than Double Dip.

Better exposure [NE] as well as narrower so less wind.

[Skid Mark]

How long does it typically take to install a new lift? Does anyone know how long it took to install Stowe's Sunrise lift?

[Downdraft]

How long does it typically take to install a new lift? Does anyone know how long it took to install Stowe's Sunrise lift?

6 months if all goes well.

[Skid Mark]

How long does it typically take to install a new lift? Does anyone know how long it took to install Stowe's Sunrise lift?

6 months if all goes well.

Could they move the World Cup to Highline?

[newpylong1]

As for the alignment, I see no need to change it, other than moving the top terminal higher, and moving it back a little to make the unload bigger. They shouldn't be cutting more trees if they are required to give back acreage to do it. They had no choice with South Ridge, but it isn't necessary for Superstar.

I think Dipper is the best choice for an alternate spring trail. It seems to hold snow the best of the Canyon trails, and is easy to make a lot of snow on. Probably wouldn't make June, but could make it deep into May.

Doing a 2 year install should not be considered, because it means the lift will then be at least 39 years old by the time it is retired. Again, every year it's not replaced is taking a chance at losing the entire spring season due to a mechanical failure. I cannot stress enough that this is uncharted territory for detachable lifts. Especially ones that were built by a manufacturer that's out of business.

The Snowshed Express and Golden should also be replaced, but it isn't as pressing of a need because they don't have the hours that Superstar does, and they have redundancy. Snowshed has the double for backup, and Pico has two other lifts at the base that will get you to the upper mountain. Superstar has zero redundancy for the entire month of May. What other resort relies on one of their oldest and least reliable lifts for an entire month of the season, and repeatedly puts off replacement?

They will not need to give back acreage because they have sufficient acreage already banked for abandoning Juggernaut. This is what was done in tandem with the bubble, SR quad, and GN trail work so that other terrain did not need to be returned to nature.

Dipper would work for a 1 year spring venue. Since space is constricted on the runout, as winter comes to a close they could close the Cascade to Spillway section and burry that with snow to be able to blade downhill towards the base as it melts out.

I think they have a handle on the maintenance requirements and risks of continuing to run SS.

[newpylong1]

How long does it typically take to install a new lift? Does anyone know how long it took to install Stowe's Sunrise lift?

6 months if all goes well.

Could they move the World Cup to Highline?

Only the slalom if anything.

[newpylong1]

As for the alignment, I see no need to change it, other than moving the top terminal higher, and moving it back a little to make the unload bigger. They shouldn't be cutting more trees if they are required to give back acreage to do it. They had no choice with South Ridge, but it isn't necessary for Superstar.

I think Dipper is the best choice for an alternate spring trail. It seems to hold snow the best of the Canyon trails, and is easy to make a lot of snow on. Probably wouldn't make June, but could make it deep into May.

Doing a 2 year install should not be considered, because it means the lift will then be at least 39 years old by the time it is retired. Again, every year it's not replaced is taking a chance at losing the entire spring season due to a mechanical failure. I cannot stress enough that this is uncharted territory for detachable lifts. Especially ones that were built by a manufacturer that's out of business.

The Snowshed Express and Golden should also be replaced, but it isn't as pressing of a need because they don't have the hours that Superstar does, and they have redundancy. Snowshed has the double for backup, and Pico has two other lifts at the base that will get you to the upper mountain. Superstar has zero redundancy for the entire month of May. What other resort relies on one of their oldest and least reliable lifts for an entire month of the season, and repeatedly puts off replacement?

I believe Downdraft holds snow better than Double Dip.

Better exposure [NE] as well as narrower so less wind.

It does but far too narrow for all the Joeys and no fixed guns. They may be able to do both though...

[Southside_Bobby]

Still processing the notion that a major ski resort would base the timing of overdue infrastructure investment on whether or not they had a bad Christmas week.

[G-smashed]

How long does it typically take to install a new lift? Does anyone know how long it took to install Stowe's Sunrise lift?

6 months if all goes well.

When Hunter replaced the original Sunlite Express they refurbished it, updated the terminals, and moved it to the west side. I think that was done in 1 summer and included replacing the HSQ with the current 6 pack.

Could they move the World Cup to Highline?

It is called Highline Racing Trail. I don't think it has the vertical to hold a GS race. They did move the mogul challenge there one year and it was too far from the party to compare to the real thing.

[ozzy]

Pico has two other lifts at the base that will get you to the upper mountain.

It does? Where? I mean in the 80's it did.

The LPT, a 1980 Hall triple will get you to the base of the summit chair. That is true.

The knomes koll triple, a 1971 Hall will get you to the base of a 1969 Carlevaro-Savio double with a uphill capacity of around 1100 pph. Keep in mind most of this lower elevational terrain is natural snow only.
From there you can access a 1988 yan retrofitted to poma detached summit chair.

Go ride these antique lifts, which I love by the way, then go ride killington lifts. It's like stepping into a new modern era.
One reason why Pico is only open around 90 days per season is that their lift structure cannot support full time use. It does seem that like killington, Pico definitely has gotten more traffic the past cple yrs. I know we'll never see numbers, but as an observation, this has been the busiest Pico season in a long time.
I hope I'm wrong, but I cannot see a new lift at Pico until after the village is on its way.

[G-smashed]

I missed the most obvious example of a quick lift replacement - the K1. It was started in the middle of the summer (1998?) after the interconnect fell through and was running that Thanksgiving. That also included removing the old K double.

[heiusa]

""Still processing the notion that a major ski resort would base the timing of overdue infrastructure investment on whether or not they had a bad Christmas week.""

Agreed!

[Skivt2]

Pico has two other lifts at the base that will get you to the upper mountain.

It does? Where? I mean in the 80's it did.

The LPT, a 1980 Hall triple will get you to the base of the summit chair. That is true.

The knomes koll triple, a 1971 Hall will get you to the base of a 1969 Carlevaro-Savio double with a uphill capacity of around 1100 pph. Keep in mind most of this lower elevational terrain is natural snow only.
From there you can access a 1988 yan retrofitted to poma detached summit chair.

Go ride these antique lifts, which I love by the way, then go ride killington lifts. It's like stepping into a new modern era.
One reason why Pico is only open around 90 days per season is that their lift structure cannot support full time use. It does seem that like killington, Pico definitely has gotten more traffic the past cple yrs. I know we'll never see numbers, but as an observation, this has been the busiest Pico season in a long time.
I hope I'm wrong, but I cannot see a new lift at Pico until after the village is on its way.

Yup. And not to once again I am reminded of how unlikely I am to see a Pico interconnect in my lifetime. Not only is it not viable for a million other reasons, the existing infrastructure at Pico does not support it.

[rh29]

I'll preface this by saying that these days, I only make it to K 2-3 days a season most years. None this year. My observations are based on a small sample size.

The lift issues have been the main blemish on my last couple years of visits to K. When I went in 2022, Snowshed broke down while I was in line, and I skated over to Ramshead and proceeded to sprain my wrist in rather amusing fashion. In May of that season, Snowdon 6 was running at limited speed on diesel power. In '23, I got stuck on Skyeship for over 20 minutes and watched a chair pileup in the Snowshed base. Then of course all the issues with Needle's Eye and Supe this year.

IMO the Yans need to go and Skyeship badly needs a renovation. Put sixes on Superstar and at Snowshed (although snowshed slope often looks very crowded as it is). Replace at least the Golden Express at Pico with a 6. That's four major lift projects, each probably commanding $10m or more. Then move onto Ramshead, Needles, and Pico's other lifts. All of this while maintaining an expansive and rundown snowmaking network as well.

Long and short of this post is that any talk of an Interconnect should be about 20th on Killington's list of priorities even if the Village is built out, and I have my doubts about that too. Focus on getting the mountain into a state of good repair first.

[heiusa]

Its kind of scary how many lifts at Killington + Pico need to be replaced, not to mention the snow making system. I hope Mike is buying lottery tickets!