Killington to Replace North Ridge (Glades) Triple Chair

skiur said:

Bite your tongue! We already lost pipe dream and great bear to snowmaking this year. There aren't many intermediate natural snow trails left at K. If we lost west glade then vagabond is really all thats left for people to learn how to ski natural bumps.

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You've got the intermediate tree runs over on Ramshead.

skiur said:

Even with fresh snow they dont ski the same with a man made base under them unless it dumps over a foot, and how often does that happen?

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And natural snow trails always are more interesting because snow making fills in most of the irregularities in the topography so the the trail becomes more bland.

Top-drive is more efficient, but isn't very common because it's usually a lot easier to run power to the bottom of a lift than the top, not to mention having to get the drive system up there. Since North Ridge was top-drive, power is already there, and it's an upper-mountain lift so the bottom isn't particularly more accessible for construction than the top. Tension, on the other hand, is less efficient at the top, because the tension system has to pull uphill. Nobody makes separate drive and tension terminals anymore, as hydraulic tensioning means you need power for that too, so today top-drive means top-tension as well. When K had to replace the top drive terminal on the Snowdon quad, they installed a Poma Alpha drive/tension terminal and welded the bottom tension carriage in place. (And yes, the Alpha terminal has been around forever; I've always thought it was ugly.)

ceo said:

Nobody makes separate drive and tension terminals anymore, as hydraulic tensioning means you need power for that too, so today top-drive means top-tension as well.

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Incorrect, at least with HS lifts. Nearly all HS lifts built these days have drive on one end and tension on the other.