High-tech lifts cut lines

Detachable chairs, computer monitoring give skiers more runs

Roger Fillion, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 15, 2007 at midnight

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Ski resorts are turning to technology to deliver skiers up the slopes more quickly, a move industry officials say has cut lift lines.

In recent years, resorts in Colorado and elsewhere in the United States have been installing high-speed "detachable" chairlifts that whisk skiers up the mountain twice as quickly as older "fixed-grip" lifts.

Clyde Wiessner, Vail's director of lift maintenance, called the detachable technology "the biggest change" in lift technology in the past 25 to 30 years.

The new lifts, which are easier for skiers to get on and off, are considered the industry standard and are commonplace at most resorts.

Ski resort employees also can monitor the lifts while sitting comfortably before a computer in a warm room at the base of the slopes. A lift-company technician, seated hundreds of miles away, can, in some cases, troubleshoot problems if something goes amiss.

Ski industry officials said the high-speed lifts - which travel about 1,000 feet a minute - allow skiers to pack in more runs.

That frees up time for other activities - be it soaking in a hot tub or getting an early jump on I-70 traffic.

The lifts also have reduced lines to anywhere from seven to 10 minutes during peak hours from. 30 to 45 minutes about 25 years ago, officials say.

"People get to ski and snowboard much more in a shorter period of time," said Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association in Lakewood.

"It's changed the way people move around the mountain and changed the time they come off the mountain."

Among Colorado resorts installing detachable chairlifts this year are Winter Park, Vail and Steamboat.

Like the older fixed-grip lifts, the detachable chairs are attached to a cable, or haul rope, that moves the chairs up and down the mountain.

Unlike the older lifts, however, the chairlift decouples from the cable at the loading and unloading terminals through the use of a spring-loaded cable grip. That allows the individual chair - instead of the whole line of chairs - to slow down to a more manageable speed of about 200 feet a minute.

That permits skiers to get on and off the lift more easily, while the other chairs on the line are continuing up the mountain at 1,000 feet a minute. The fixed-grip lifts don't have that individualized capability, and as a result, the whole line has to slow down.

"They're much more efficient," Doug Allen, Steamboat's vice president of mountain operations, said of the detachable lifts. "You have many fewer slows and stops."

Said Mike Beeley, vice president of the U.S. subsidiary of Austrian lift manufacturer Doppelmayr: "They're easier for beginners and lower intermediates to get on and off because they slow down and then speed up out on the line."

Breckenridge was the first ski resort in the world to install a detachable chairlift in 1981, deploying a four-person, or "quad," chair on Peak 9.

Winter Park is spending $8 million to install what it bills as the highest six-person, or six-pack, detachable chairlift in North America.

The lift - manufactured by Leitner-Poma of America Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of a French-Italian company - will travel to an elevation of 12,060 feet.

The Panoramic Express, located at Winter Park's Mary Jane Mountain, is designed to transport 3,200 people per hour. The ride time will quicken to 7.2 minutes vs. 11 minutes on the lift being replaced. The new lift will travel a distance of 7,231 feet.

What's more, Leitner-Poma can perform remote diagnostic work on the lift from its Grand Junction offices - thanks to a fiber network at Winter Park that hooks up that and other lifts with a central computer.

An engineer seated before a computer in Grand Junction can determine what might be wrong with the lift if there's a problem.

"We can go in and look at what the lift is doing," said Tom Clink, North American sales manager for Leitner-Poma, adding the engineer can suggest a repair or even perform one electronically via computer.

Clink said about 10 of the 400 chairlifts and gondolas the company has installed in North America since 1981 have that remote diagnostic capability. The first was a gondola installed at Glenwood Caverns in Glenwood Springs in 2002.

At the same time, Winter Park employees can keep a remote eye on the lift, as well as others at the ski area, thanks to the resort's fiber network.

Seated at a computer, a worker can monitor braking information, lift speed and other data. That allows the employee to spot problems immediately and dispatch a technician, or even fix a lift, from the computer.

"It gives us a lot of valuable information real time to understand what's going on up the hill," said CALane, Winter Park's assistant general manager.

Speeding up the slopes

Steamboat, Vail and Winter Park are among the Colorado ski resorts installing detachable chairlifts this year.

• STEAMBOAT

Christie Peak Express

Manufacturer: Leitner-Poma of America

Type: High-speed, detachable six-passenger chairlift

Capacity: 3,200 people/hour

Length: 4,700 feet

Travel time new vs. old: 4.8 minutes vs. 15 minutes

• VAIL

Sourdough Lift

Manufacturer: Leitner-Poma of America