Snowdon Six - What's wrong with it?

[newpylong1]

As I mentioned cost is the least benefit of running a regen detach at reduced speed.

The largest factor is wear and tear. If uphill capacity is not an issue they can run the lift at reduced speed but not significantly affect the ride time, it's a win.

Not mentioning any lifts or any mountain here, but this is the deal in general.

[snoloco]

The lifts are for the paying customers, not the paid maintenance staff, and should not be babied, especially given how expensive tickets and passes are. On weekdays, most resorts run fewer lifts, which makes some areas less convenient to lap. I don't think running the lifts that are open at a decent speed is too much to ask.

[newpylong1]

600-700 FPM (that the S6 was likely running this weekend) would fall outside of my previous comment about not significantly effecting ride time. Obviously with a decent crowd that is not an ideal speed any way you look at it for a signature lift. That lift is f*cked.

About your maintenance comment, that is asinine and shows just how little you know about ski areas and business in general. They're going to pass the increased maintenance cost on to the customer somewhere. I'd sit on a detach for another minute a ride on a mid-week day vs seeing jacked prices get jacked more.

[snoloco]

Then what's the minimum? Any decrease in speed lengthens the ride time, and thus limits your run count.

[asher2789]

As I mentioned cost is the least benefit of running a regen detach at reduced speed.

The largest factor is wear and tear. If uphill capacity is not an issue they can run the lift at reduced speed but not significantly affect the ride time, it's a win.

Not mentioning any lifts or any mountain here, but this is the deal in general.

wear and tear is long term cost :)

[asher2789]

Then what's the minimum? Any decrease in speed lengthens the ride time, and thus limits your run count.

the only people who care about run count are the nerds that track every little thing about their skiing instead of just... skiing. theyre the nerds who talk about going 50 mph!!!! and doing a black! 20,000 vertical feet! f*** nerds. that kind of gamification of skiing is what encourages people to ski like sh*t and out of control. theyre also the same nerds who will flip the f*** out if prices go up or services go down.

meanwhile, one of my favorite runs of all time on K it took me two hours to go from the peak to bear.

[Southside_Bobby]

Then what's the minimum? Any decrease in speed lengthens the ride time, and thus limits your run count.

the only people who care about run count are the nerds that track every little thing about their skiing instead of just... skiing. theyre the nerds who talk about going 50 mph!!!! and doing a black! 20,000 vertical feet! f*** nerds. that kind of gamification of skiing is what encourages people to ski like sh*t and out of control. theyre also the same nerds who will flip the f*** out if prices go up or services go down.

meanwhile, one of my favorite runs of all time on K it took me two hours to go from the peak to bear.

100%. If someone is always complaining about lift speeds or how efficiently lifties are loading, the odds are high they are a vertical chaser. They are usually the worst skiers, the most dangerous people on the hill, and quite often the most obnoxious. In short, they are losers.

The last thing the mountain should be doing is encouraging people to track their vertical with the mountain's app. They may use their own apps anyway, but the resort shouldn't be endorsing the habit.

[Stormchaser]

Then what's the minimum? Any decrease in speed lengthens the ride time, and thus limits your run count.

the only people who care about run count are the nerds that track every little thing about their skiing instead of just... skiing. theyre the nerds who talk about going 50 mph!!!! and doing a black! 20,000 vertical feet! f*** nerds. that kind of gamification of skiing is what encourages people to ski like sh*t and out of control. theyre also the same nerds who will flip the f*** out if prices go up or services go down.

meanwhile, one of my favorite runs of all time on K it took me two hours to go from the peak to bear.

100%. If someone is always complaining about lift speeds or how efficiently lifties are loading, the odds are high they are a vertical chaser. They are usually the worst skiers, the most dangerous people on the hill, and quite often the most obnoxious. In short, they are losers.

The last thing the mountain should be doing is encouraging people to track their vertical with the mountain's app. They may use their own apps anyway, but the resort shouldn't be endorsing the habit.

I could care less about daily vert but standing in a giant corral full of people with a lift running slow and chairs going up half empty is maddening. Especially on a powder morning. It's operational failure and the mountain should be working hard to improve it.

[asher2789]

Then what's the minimum? Any decrease in speed lengthens the ride time, and thus limits your run count.

the only people who care about run count are the nerds that track every little thing about their skiing instead of just... skiing. theyre the nerds who talk about going 50 mph!!!! and doing a black! 20,000 vertical feet! f*** nerds. that kind of gamification of skiing is what encourages people to ski like sh*t and out of control. theyre also the same nerds who will flip the f*** out if prices go up or services go down.

meanwhile, one of my favorite runs of all time on K it took me two hours to go from the peak to bear.

100%. If someone is always complaining about lift speeds or how efficiently lifties are loading, the odds are high they are a vertical chaser. They are usually the worst skiers, the most dangerous people on the hill, and quite often the most obnoxious. In short, they are losers.

The last thing the mountain should be doing is encouraging people to track their vertical with the mountain's app. They may use their own apps anyway, but the resort shouldn't be endorsing the habit.

[snoloco]

My comments about run count have nothing to do with chasing vertical. It's more about did I get to ski all the trails that I wanted to ski in a given day. Better lift operations make that easier to accomplish. I rarely ski the same run twice, and ski as many glades and natural trails as I can whenever they are open. That hardly fits the definition of chasing vertical. Stating that Killington's lift operations leave a lot to be desired does not imply anyone's skiing ability or style.

[hillbangin]

I could care less about daily vert but standing in a giant corral full of people with a lift running slow and chairs going up half empty is maddening. Especially on a powder morning. It's operational failure and the mountain should be working hard to improve it.

[thebigo]

shocking thing to me is how poorly those poma bubble lifts have aged compared to dopp. remember thinking on opening day for the Kanc 8, this is a nice lift but it is going to be destroyed in a month. thing still looks new several years later, bubbles in good shape, no stickers/gouges or graffiti, no holes in the seat fabric and it hauls ass. plus they run it daily all summer, not exactly low hours. snowdon six in contrast feels like it is 20 years old. K made the right choice going with dopp for SS6.

[skiadikt]

regarding the snowdon six run speed - on my rides today it ran at 7.9 mph. yesterday 8.5 mph. a few days ago it was a bit slower at 7.5-7.6 mph. 20 ski days ago - as far back as my app lets me go (don't use the K app), it was running at 8.5-8.6 mph. don't know how that translates to fpm. however it seems "in line" w other lifts at K. today K1 8.3 mph, recently SPQ 8.5 mph, needles 7.6 mph, supe 7.2 mph. last time i rode rams it said 8.8 mph. the range on the fixeds is 4-4.5 mph.

however compared to my lift rides at beaver creek, the K ride times are much slower. the grouse, birds of prey and larkspur lifts were averaging 10-10.5 mph. other lifts there were in the 8.5-9 mpg range.

for me whether it's 7.6 or 8.6 is insignificant. as long as a lift doesn't stop and gets me to the top of the hill in a "reasonable" time, i'm fine. however the late starts and breakdowns of the six is certainly troubling. maybe the poma lifts are dogs.

[DrJeff]

shocking thing to me is how poorly those poma bubble lifts have aged compared to dopp. remember thinking on opening day for the Kanc 8, this is a nice lift but it is going to be destroyed in a month. thing still looks new several years later, bubbles in good shape, no stickers/gouges or graffiti, no holes in the seat fabric and it hauls ass. plus they run it daily all summer, not exactly low hours. snowdon six in contrast feels like it is 20 years old. K made the right choice going with dopp for SS6.

I think that the day to day work/maintenance on a Bubble to keep it looking good is important thing as well. Within the last 2 weeks, I have ridden the now 13 seasons old Bluebird at Mount Snow and the I am guessing 10ish season year old Sunburst 6 at Okemo. Both run Summer and Fall schedules as well as being a primary lift all Winter long. While I see an isolated sticker or a bubble scractch or some graffiti with a sharpie on occasion, lift ops tends to be on the case of removing the stickers/grafitit and buffing out many scratches in the bubbles and the condition of the seats seems to be holding up well given how much use they both get. Unfortunately you're going to have a$$holes riding them on occassion who feel it's fine to deface the lift a bit, but if the lift ops team is empowered to maintain them, they can hold up well from what I have seen from the other, much older L/P Bubble 6's in the East

[Big Bob]

shocking thing to me is how poorly those poma bubble lifts have aged compared to dopp. remember thinking on opening day for the Kanc 8, this is a nice lift but it is going to be destroyed in a month. thing still looks new several years later, bubbles in good shape, no stickers/gouges or graffiti, no holes in the seat fabric and it hauls ass. plus they run it daily all summer, not exactly low hours. snowdon six in contrast feels like it is 20 years old. K made the right choice going with dopp for SS6.

I was at the opening of the Kanc 8 also and they loaded about 3 chairs, and it stopped for about 5 minutes. Big crowd waiting and the GM on the microphone had to keep us entertained for a bit.They got it going again, but early on it stopped a lot. turns out an engineer screwed up and miscalculated the load on the grid at startup. It has since been resolved. It is a direct drive DC motor, so it runs pretty quiet without a gearbox.