Bretton Woods to install Gondola

[2planks2coasts]

my main gripe about the godola at stratton is it's on wind hold 1/2 the time.

Seems like more than half!!

Back to BW, while any day skiing is better than a day not skiing, I've never understood the appeal of the place when so much better skiing is so close. Much better wedding and event venue than ski area, and the new gondola should help further that status.

 

[thetrailboss]

The MWH probably books up for the season and this just adds another venue for events.

With how busy the MWV is in summer I bet that Gondola attracts a decent crowd

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+ 1. Makes complete sense.

 

[SkiMom80]

Back to BW, while any day skiing is better than a day not skiing, I've never understood the appeal of the place when so much better skiing is so close. Much better wedding and event venue than ski area, and the new gondola should help further that status.

For us, it's about variety and glades. As a family with young kids, BW is very accessible to any intermediate skier. The glades there are also a great into to tree skiing, as it has some great trails with less dense trees than Cannon. Also, their grooming is top notch, so an icy day (or windy day, for that matter) at Cannon can still be a great day at BW.

 

[thetrailboss]

Seems like more than half!!

Back to BW, while any day skiing is better than a day not skiing, I've never understood the appeal of the place when so much better skiing is so close. Much better wedding and event venue than ski area, and the new gondola should help further that status.

It appeals to a certain market and does it quite well. In fact, it is the same market that goes to Okemo and has disposable $$$. Sure, it isn't a hardcore mountain at all, but they don't try to be. Their aim is to be the Deer Valley of the east and they've done a good job with that.

 

[SnoDevil97]

Seems like more than half!!

Back to BW, while any day skiing is better than a day not skiing, I've never understood the appeal of the place when so much better skiing is so close. Much better wedding and event venue than ski area, and the new gondola should help further that status.

I'll echo what SkiMom80 said - sometimes I just want some no-fuss groomers with my family. Yeah I know it's not the most exciting terrain, but the place is huge and you can always count on the slopes being in great shape. I've spent several days regretting a decision to ski Cannon in what turned out to be utter ice-fests.

 

[SIKSKIER]

BW has its place.Of course us Cannon skiers sometimes berate it for its mellow terrain but BW does a great job with what it has.It certainly is large acreage wise being the largest in Nh and has great groomed terrain.There are a huge number of retired Cannon locals that have the combo pass.They will mostly only ski Cannon midweek but spend many days at BW.I think the Gondi will be well used in off season.Those views of Mt Washington with the hotel in the foreground are incredible there.

 

[VTKilarney]

I have always been able to have fun at Bretton Woods. It may not be the steepest mountain, but if you know where to look, you will still have a great time.

Just like Mad River Glen, Bretton Woods does a great job at serving who it sets out to serve.

 

[xlr8r]

The thing that does not make sense to me is that they plan to install the gondola while keeping the Bethlehem and Fabyans chairs in place.

It would make the most sense to me to replace the Fabyans chair with the gondola in the same alignment extended down to the base. This would place the bottom station right in between the Bethlehem and Zephyr chairs. It would require minimum tree removal and trail layout changes, and the Fabyans chair is old and used only on busy days anyway.

Having the gondola cross the Bethlehem quad, and shortening Fabayans seems over complicated, and will require more tree removal and trail changes by now having crossing lift lines instead of parallel ones. Also as discussed already the gondola will be low capacity as extra capacity is not really needed considering there are 3 quads a triple and a double serving this terrain. Why not replace one of the lifts with the gondola and make the gondola full capacity.

They also could keep Fabyans as is and replace Bethlehem with the gondola extended up to the summit ridge in its current alignment. Bethlehem is getting old for a detach and will probably need to be replace soon anyway.

 

[SkiMom80]

The thing that does not make sense to me is that they plan to install the gondola while keeping the Bethlehem and Fabyans chairs in place.

It would make the most sense to me to replace the Fabyans chair with the gondola in the same alignment extended down to the base. This would place the bottom station right in between the Bethlehem and Zephyr chairs. It would require minimum tree removal and trail layout changes, and the Fabyans chair is old and used only on busy days anyway.

Having the gondola cross the Bethlehem quad, and shortening Fabayans seems over complicated, and will require more tree removal and trail changes by now having crossing lift lines instead of parallel ones. Also as discussed already the gondola will be low capacity as extra capacity is not really needed considering there are 3 quads a triple and a double serving this terrain. Why not replace one of the lifts with the gondola and make the gondola full capacity.

They also could keep Fabyans as is and replace Bethlehem with the gondola extended up to the summit ridge in its current alignment. Bethlehem is getting old for a detach and will probably need to be replace soon anyway.

The other problem with shortening Fabyans is that you'll now have to hike up the mountain to get to any trail BESIDES Fabyans! You can now head over toward West Mountain and take any trail between there and Crawfords if you want to stay on the Fabyans lift, or you can head over to Upper Swoop or Zealand to take the Rosebrook. Moving the end point down the mountain really just turns it into a slow, and mostly useless chair.

 

[Edd]

Replacing an HSQ with a gondola would get two thumbs down from me. No, a thousand times, no. A gondola should not be thought of as a useful ski lift.


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[Jully]

They also could keep Fabyans as is and replace Bethlehem with the gondola extended up to the summit ridge in its current alignment. Bethlehem is getting old for a detach and will probably need to be replace soon anyway.

Replacing an HSQ with a gondola would get two thumbs down from me. No, a thousand times, no. A gondola should not be thought of as a useful ski lift.


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I think this is why they don't use it to replace the Bethlehem. That lift is a one of the major workhorse lifts for the resort. The gondola's uphill capacity is peanuts compared to it, relatively speaking.

As for replacing the triple... I'm wondering if they want it to be right in front of the lodge? Or simply that it would cost more money to remove the whole lift rather than move it 150 feet and cut down some trees.

 

[skifastinvt]

Chondola??

I'm surprised they didn't choose to install a chondola for this application. You get the comfort of a gondola and the skiers ease of use with the chairs. When Sunday River first installed theirs I thought it was kind of dumb, but I really liked being able to choose the chair line and not have to take off my skis. I think this type of lift would work well for the loon gondola replacement as well.

 

[xlr8r]

I think this is why they don't use it to replace the Bethlehem. That lift is a one of the major workhorse lifts for the resort. The gondola's uphill capacity is peanuts compared to it, relatively speaking.

As for replacing the triple... I'm wondering if they want it to be right in front of the lodge? Or simply that it would cost more money to remove the whole lift rather than move it 150 feet and cut down some trees.

Make it a chondola then.

 

[machski]

This new lift will be their windhold darling. Crossing OVER the Bethlehem Express, that thing will be so high it will surely be down quite often.

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[Jully]

This new lift will be their windhold darling. Crossing OVER the Bethlehem Express, that thing will be so high it will surely be down quite often.

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The triple at Attitash is super high where it crosses over the Yankee and that was a designed crossover. The best views will be from that tower!

In other news I hear BW is looking into cabins with 100s of golfball sized holes in them to improve functionality in the wind.

 

[thetrailboss]

I'm surprised they didn't choose to install a chondola for this application. You get the comfort of a gondola and the skiers ease of use with the chairs. When Sunday River first installed theirs I thought it was kind of dumb, but I really liked being able to choose the chair line and not have to take off my skis. I think this type of lift would work well for the loon gondola replacement as well.

+ 1. The Bethlehem Express is getting old. IIRC it is now 30 years old or so. Seems silly to spend a lot of $$$$ on a new gondola to cross over an older HSQ than to just make it one lift.

 

[snoseek]

As far as skiing goes that mountain is way too short Vert for a gondola as a ski lift imo.

 

[MEtoVTSkier]

As far as skiing goes that mountain is way too short Vert for a gondola as a ski lift imo.

K-1 is only 1642ft vert. I'd say it's more about all-weather access to the upper mountain Lodges, year-round.

 

[drjeff]

One has to remember that many resorts these days are looking at their operations not just as from a skiing/boarding winter base, to how to maximize the use of their resort year round. This lift and summit lodge is a great example of this.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if over the next decade or so, we see an increasing number of lift and/or summit lodge/ and or non snow season based installations by resorts, moves that if one is thinking from just a "ski/riding season only" perspective won't make very much sense. Ski area management and operations these days for many resorts is much more of a year round (or at least 9 to 10 months the year) entity than the more traditional 6 months or less model for most ski areas that many of us grew up accustomed too....

 

[Mapnut]

As far as skiing goes that mountain is way too short Vert for a gondola as a ski lift imo.

BW's gondola will have about 100 feet more than the new gondola at Belleayre.

http://www.belleayre.com/the-mountain/webcam-feed