Alta’s 7-Year Old Supreme HSQ Lift Already Needs Replacing

[thetrailboss]

(Lift geek alert.)

LiftBlog reports that “the Bend” has take its toll on the carriers, grips, and other equipment. Several chairs have major fatigue cracking in the seats. I can’t imagine spending millions on a lift to have it need major work in less than seven years…

Alta Plans to Rebuild Supreme Lift

The experiment to build a detachable quad with an eight degree turn and no angle station may be coming to an end. This week Alta Ski Area General Manager Mike Maughan revealed the Supreme lift is s…

liftblog.com

Poma is not off to a good start in Utah. They were severely delayed on Sunnyside. And apparently not helpful with Alta. Poma/Skytrac just built a new facility here in Utah.

 

[BodeMiller1]

What we want and what we need has been confused. Not getting cheaper to ski there any time soon.

 

[BodeMiller1]

K south side triple had a severe turn. It was a fun chair and a fixed grip. Add some kind of damper and restring.

 

[Newpylong]

The South Ridge triple had an angle station consisting of bullwheels. The lift Alta built just used the sheaves to defect the haul rope. It doesn't surprise me that there are issues. Poma doesn't score high in my book for coming up with that solution.

 

[Zand]

They should go back to having two lifts anyway. That runout to the base of the current Supreme is brutal whether it's on a powder day or in spring snow.

 

[machski]

Looks like right now Alta is leaning on a complete reinstall of the lift minus the angle sheave sets/towers on a new straight shot line. NFS seems willing to sign off on that. The other, even more expensive option for reinstall and future maintenance is a full angle station.

When Alta wanted this type of set-up, Dopp declined to bid on it. Have a feeling they understood the metal fatigue issues then and wanted nothing to do with that.

 

[ss20]

I've heard they really want the straightened alignment. My speculation here but an angle station build would be a big eyesore in that area. The Collins angle has always been a nightmare operationally, also possibly adding to an aversion towards an angle.

I hope Poma foots the bill. What a disaster between this and Sunnyside being delayed 2 months.

 

[thetrailboss]

I hope Poma foots the bill. What a disaster between this and Sunnyside being delayed 2 months.

This.

Although I’m not holding my breath. Many folks at Alta in the know have told me that Poma’s response to the lengthy and very costly delay on S6 was at most a shrug and a “meh”. For a company looking to get more of a piece of Utah’s lift market this is pretty dumb. We’re not talking about a lift at little Nordic Valley. We’re talking about two main lifts (one a gateway lift) at the preeminent powder skiing destination in the U.S. if not the world. The construction that I saw of S6 in 2022 was probably the laziest and most half-assed project that I’ve ever seen.

I used to really like Poma because they have such a big presence in Vermont. But they’ve crashed and burned here. And Brighton’s Crest6 (a Dopp) KICKS SERIOUS ASS in terms of quality and ride compared to S6.

 

[SkiingInABlueDream]

Yikes. Love the lift geekery, sorry to read that it's having problems. Baldy chair has IIRC one tower where it angle/turns verry slightly (so slightly you might not even notice it). (I remember creating a thread about it some years ago.) Hopefully/presumably that chair is doing fine.

 

[urungus]

Are there currently any angled lifts in the northeast, only one I can think of is the old South Ridge chair at Killington, as mentioned by @Newpylong

 

[djd66]

Are there currently any angled lifts in the northeast, only one I can think of is the old South Ridge chair at Killington, as mentioned by @Newpylong

the killington gondola is multi staged, not sure if the lift changes angles though

 

[Quietman]

New Notch lift at whiteface also has a mid-turn station. Other western lifts with sheave turns discussed HERE on Liftblog.

 

[jimmywilson69]

its Skyeship at Killington and it does angle, but is in actuality 2 separate lifts and often operates as such.

 

[thetrailboss]

This video is going to be a thing of the past....

 

[4aprice]

They should go back to having two lifts anyway. That runout to the base of the current Supreme is brutal whether it's on a powder day or in spring snow.

Winter Park had a similar situation with the Vasquez Ridge lift with a run out that is way worse then Supreme. Solved by putting a new lift with a loading station at the top of the run out.

 

[Zand]

Winter Park had a similar situation with the Vasquez Ridge lift with a run out that is way worse then Supreme. Solved by putting a new lift with a loading station at the top of the run out.

I remember my one trip to Winter Park...I went over to Vazquez on a powder morning thinking it would have lots of untouched snow and no people since it's so out of the way. I was correct with that assessment, and I also gave up after one run because I spent waaaay too much time getting back to the lift.

 

[thetrailboss]

If anyone wants to listen to Mike Maughan discuss the lift issues and other issues at Alta, you can watch here (Mike starts at 45:00 into the hearing):

June 20, 2024 Alta Town Council Meeting and Public Hearings

www.youtube.com

Some other points that Mike covered:

• Season Pass sales across the industry are flat if not down. He believes that this is because consumers are at the max in terms of price;
• Accordingly, Vail has reported a 5% decrease in sales of Epic to date, Alterra is flat in terms of IKON sales;
• Alta is flat in terms of season pass sales, but there is a slight increase in "cheaper product" sales.

 

[thetrailboss]

‘Accelerated metal fatigue’ has Alta Ski Area rethinking its Supreme Lift

Less than 10 years after installing the Supreme Lift, which replaced the Supreme and Cecret lifts, Alta Ski Area will need to replace it due to "accelerated metal fatigue" caused by an unusual bend in its path.

www.sltrib.com

 

[x10003q]

‘Accelerated metal fatigue’ has Alta Ski Area rethinking its Supreme Lift

Less than 10 years after installing the Supreme Lift, which replaced the Supreme and Cecret lifts, Alta Ski Area will need to replace it due to "accelerated metal fatigue" caused by an unusual bend in its path.

www.sltrib.com

"Alta opted for the bend in 2017 over two more conventional options: installing an angle station, which would have been more costly, or setting a new alignment, which would have resulted in more deforestation and soil this time around. If it goes with the realignment, which Maughan indicated is Alta’s preference, he said all towers and footings would have to be replaced. However most of the equipment, including the chairs, could be reused, he said."

Maybe next time they will remember that Alta is a ski area already and not some pristine, old growth forest. In addition to the massive loss of money on the first lift and the new massive spending on the new revised lift, they will have to chop some trees down and move some soil anyway. This is what they should have done in the first place.

 

[SkiingInABlueDream]

Here's another option. Keep the lift as is, replace all the parts that are fatigued and then just run it at like half speed