Snowdon Six - What's wrong with it?

[SPORE]

So Mikey / Killington - what is or what was wrong with the Snowdown Six over the weekend, the speed was reminiscent of the Snowdon quad.

[snoloco]

I can't ski due to a broken collarbone, but I was there yesterday for the Superstar closing party, and I did notice the Snowdon 6 running very slowly, like barely faster than a fixed grip. It seems to get slower and slower every year, even on non-windy days. The first few years, they ran it faster than 900 fpm a lot. Now, almost never. The slow speed of that lift, and the K1, have been disappointments in what has otherwise been an excellent season.

[newpylong1]

It wasn't the speed that was concerning it was the pulsing. Did you not hear it when loading or notice the slight rope speed deviations the whole way up?

[SPORE]

It wasn't the speed that was concerning it was the pulsing. Did you not hear it when loading or notice the slight rope speed deviations the whole way up?

Yup - noticed the pulsing sound in the load terminal the most and the slight surging of the chair up the line.

At the top terminal, you had to push yourself off the chair otherwise it would hit you.

Nothing to see here, everything is normal.

[snoloco]

That lift has has the pulsing issue since it was new. It is most pronounced at slower speeds. At 800 fpm or faster, it doesn't seem to be an issue.

[BoozeTan]

probably why they went Doppylemeyer for the Superstar six instead of Poma, That Bubble 6 has never been right

[hillbangin]

Worst lift ever!

[hillbangin]

They should have done this - Wilbere Chair at Snowbird

Loading Carpet on a Fixed Grip 4 -

Great improvement - Would be a great add to north fridge or south fridge or OL chair.

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/v ... tion=click

[4-mile]

Conveyor loading lifts are a joke. Unless it's advanced only terrain people struggle with the snow/conveyor transition, meaning they have to run the chair slower (closer to normal fixed grip speed) to avoid constant stoppages. This negates the reason for putting in a conveyor. They put one in at Snowshoe in WV and the chair has to run slower than the old fixed grip. Snowboarders especially struggle with it surprisingly. Almost everyone I talked to hates it.

[SPORE]

Conveyor loading lifts are a joke. Unless it's advanced only terrain people struggle with the snow/conveyor transition, meaning they have to run the chair slower (closer to normal fixed grip speed) to avoid constant stoppages. This negates the reason for putting in a conveyor. They put one in at Snowshoe in WV and the chair has to run slower than the old fixed grip. Snowboarders especially struggle with it surprisingly. Almost everyone I talked to hates it.

I'll disagree - was recently at Big Sky and all of their major lifts out of the base run on conveyors and not once over a busy Saturday / Sunday did I experience a stoppage and compared to Killington's "high speed" lifts - Big Sky's were flying.

These are 6 & 8 passenger chairs running smoothly.

[hillbangin]

Conveyor loading lifts are a joke. Unless it's advanced only terrain people struggle with the snow/conveyor transition, meaning they have to run the chair slower (closer to normal fixed grip speed) to avoid constant stoppages. This negates the reason for putting in a conveyor. They put one in at Snowshoe in WV and the chair has to run slower than the old fixed grip. Snowboarders especially struggle with it surprisingly. Almost everyone I talked to hates it.

I usually agree - but this was way better than the ones at Big Sky - easier - and the ones at Vail ( experts only )

Wilbere is a connector chair - lot's of novices.

It was really great ( and I'm not a casual promoter )

Wild part was there was no need for the lifty to bump the chair - and the conveyor was about 20 feet long so anybody had time to adjust before the chair picked you up.

[snoloco]

Conveyor loading lifts are a joke. Unless it's advanced only terrain people struggle with the snow/conveyor transition, meaning they have to run the chair slower (closer to normal fixed grip speed) to avoid constant stoppages. This negates the reason for putting in a conveyor. They put one in at Snowshoe in WV and the chair has to run slower than the old fixed grip. Snowboarders especially struggle with it surprisingly. Almost everyone I talked to hates it.

I'll disagree - was recently at Big Sky and all of their major lifts out of the base run on conveyors and not once over a busy Saturday / Sunday did I experience a stoppage and compared to Killington's "high speed" lifts - Big Sky's were flying.

These are 6 & 8 passenger chairs running smoothly.

It's hard to compare speed apples to apples, because it depends so much on chair spacing. Big Sky's newer lifts have relatively wide chair spacing, so they can always run at full speed without any loading or unloading issues. Most of Killington's detachables have the chairs spaced close together. In fact, some are spaced so close that the interval is intentionally too short for the lift to run at full speed during normal operations. I'll use the Skye Peak Express as an example. It has a theoretical capacity of 2600 per hour, at a top speed of 1000 fpm. This would result in an interval of about 5.5 seconds. That's far too fast, and if they tried to run it at full speed, it would just be stopping constantly. The fastest they typically run it is 900, which results in a capacity of 2340 per hour, with an interval of about 6.15 seconds. It can run like this without an excessive number of stops. This is a perfectly reasonable way to design a lift, as it allows the highest realistic capacity for any given lift, and the level of skier it typically gets, which you don't really know until the lift is in operation.

What I find disappointing is that they only run it this fast on Saturdays, and some Fridays and Sundays. On other days, it's running much slower, at 800 fpm or less. This feels like an obvious budget cut, as the higher speed is proven to work well, and I see no reason that it shouldn't be done every day. The same is true for other Killington lifts, like the Snowdon Six and K1, in that they run very slow on uncrowded days.

[daytripper]

What's the difference in ride time when run at 800 vs 900 fpm?

[newpylong1]

FYI it's not a budgetary thing whatsoever. Modern detachables with regen drives once up to speed cost peanuts going between 800 and 900 fpm. If they're running at reduced speeds it's for something else. Could be anything. Wear and tear concerns, limiting uphill capacity etc and so on.

[SPORE]

FYI it's not a budgetary thing whatsoever. Modern detachables with regen drives once up to speed cost peanuts going between 800 and 900 fpm. If they're running at reduced speeds it's for something else. Could be anything. Wear and tear concerns, limiting uphill capacity etc and so on.

Something in the lower terminal sounded like it needed to be greased - but regardless Mikey and his team won't ever admit if something was / is wrong.