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Stenger and Quiros Ousted from Management of Jay Peak and Burke

deadheadskier

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The Jay Tram only has an uphill capacity of 360 skiers per hour. Compare that with the 2400 capacity of the Flyer. You would not notice much of a difference in lift lines at the other lifts at all if the Tram closed.
 

River19

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Naive question......but with $4.15M to fix the tram, what would a new quad cost to install by comparison?
 

Not Sure

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It sounds like the ratio of the cost of maintaining it compared to the number of skiers it carries is pretty poor.

But as much as I am not a fan of the tram, it is truly an iconic lift for Jay Peak. It's hard to imagine Jay Peak without it.

I've ridden the Tram at Cannon in summertime and speaking with the operator the Tram gets more traffic outside of ski season . So it generates revenue not just in ski season .

Does Jay run the Tram off season ?
 

LONGBOARDR

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IMO they should put a fixed grip lift from Northway tonthe summit and ditch the tram.

It was called the Skyline double and was taken down after the tram was completed I believe. coupled with the old poma off the top of now Ullrs it was a nice combo for upper elevation skiing back in the day
Walter Foeger knew what the hell he was doing IMO
 

DJAK

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Governor going to be at Jay this morning to meet with some staff and say Governor-y stuff. It was kept off his schedule till midnight, likely to keep the media circus under control. I'm told it'll be positive news about funding etc. I might get some shreds of details while it's underway. Tend to get them out via @WintryMixCast or @SkiTheEast when that happens.
 

VTKilarney

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The tram is also run in the off season for foliage viewing, general tourist sightseeing, and (here's the big one) summit weddings. It gets quite a bit of traffic, not as much as ski season but I think it earns its keep in novelty factor as well.

I wonder what the schedule will be like this summer since work has to be done on the tram.
 

drjeff

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I wonder what the schedule will be like this summer since work has to be done on the tram.

I'm guessing with a maintenance project like this, the mtn ops folks at Jay knew this would be coming for a year or 2, and likely coordinated with the marketing/wedding planning folks long ago saying that the Tram will be down for #X number of weeks for planned maintenance, so don't book/schedule any events where the Tram would be needed during that time.

It's like out at Snowbird right now, they're doing some planned major planned maintenance on their tram, where they know that the Tram is going to be out of service for if I recall off the top of my head, 6 weeks or so, and were able to plan around it.

"Major" maintenance is far different often than the "oh sh$t" something just broke maintenance that can't be planned for, and as lonf as the mtn ops folks have a decent line of communication with the marketing/event planning folks AND the folks from the lift manufacturers and mtn ops folks are able to complete the planned maintenance on time, things typically go off without any additional pre-planned downtime for the lift
 

drjeff

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This questions has been asked often. The north ridge is just too windy. In addition, they've mentioned that bubbles on a detachable makes it even more susceptible to wind.

Having witnessed 1st hand how bubbles handle the for the last 5 seasons now, that statement just isn't completely true at all. Sure, there are winds that a bubble can't run in (just like any other lift), however, with the bubble down, the sheer mass of the chair (a bubble 6 pack weighs about 1400lbs before you even put a person on the lift) vs. a non bubble chair allows them to handle winds that non bubble chairs can't safely operate in.

On windy days, the bubble NEEDS to be down, and from what I experience at Mount Snow, the lift ops folks are quite clear and adamant about having to put the bubble down on a windy day for the safe operation of the lift. I've been on many bubble rides, on days where it's gusting over 50, that the bubble is running (not at full speed, but is operating) when multiple high speed and fixed grips lifts can't.

So to say that bubbles are more susceptible to the wind, just hasn't been my experience over the last 5 seasons, totaling over 200 days, when Mount Snow has been running their bubble
 
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fbrissette

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Having witnessed 1st hand how bubbles handle the for the last 5 seasons now, that statement just isn't completely true at all. Sure, there are winds that a bubble can't run in (just like any other lift), however, with the bubble down, the sheer mass of the chair (a bubble 6 pack weighs about 1400lbs before you even put a person on the lift) vs. a non bubble chair allows them to handle winds that non bubble chairs can't safely operate in.

On windy days, the bubble NEEDS to be down, and from what I experience at Mount Snow, the lift ops folks are quite clear and adamant about having to put the bubble down on a windy day for the safe operation of the lift. I've been on many bubble rides, on days where it's gusting over 50, that the bubble is running (not at full speed, but is operating) when multiple high speed and fixed grips lifts can't.

So to say that bubbles are more susceptible to the wind, just hasn't been my experience over the last 5 seasons, totaling over 200 days, when Mount Snow has been running there bubble

The problem with bubbles is when they are open. They can act as a sail especially in cross-winds. I does not matter how much it weighs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtcFa2lB1lc


The Freezer is Jay Peak most important lift, and it has already has 10-15% downtime due to wind. Any additional downtime would be critical. It is very exposed to severe cross winds.
 

drjeff

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The problem with bubbles is when they are open. They can act as a sail especially in cross-winds. I does not matter how much it weighs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtcFa2lB1lc


The Freezer is Jay Peak most important lift, and it has already has 10-15% downtime due to wind. Any additional downtime would be critical. It is very exposed to severe cross winds.

No disagreement from me whatsoever about what can happen on a very windy day with a bubble, or any chair for that matter.

That video if I recall correctly, was from over in Europe, where the wind gusts at that time were over 75 mph, and if you notice on the scan around of the video, all other lifts near that summit location weren't operating at that time. I witnessed 1st hand during the 1st season Mount Snow had their bubble a windy day, where all of the "bugs" hadn't been worked out of the lift yet, and the feature that is supposed to close a bubble if nobody is on it, wasn't working at a bubble with nobody on it, with the bubble up that was 4 or 5 chairs in front of the 1 I was riding on, crested a ridge line and was blasted by some strong winds that had that empty chair rocking 30+ degrees to each side pendulum style. They shut the lift down soon there after for safety reasons that day.

I am in no way saying that a bubble can operate in any winds, they can't!! What I am saying, is that I have seen on many occasions over the last 5 seasons instances where a bubble can safely operate in winds that other fixed grip or highspeed lifts can't safely operate in. More often than not, with any chairlift though it might not be the wind velocity that presents the safety issue as it is the angle that the wind is coming from and how that effects the chairs either on the haul rope as they pass through the sheave trains on the lift towers or more likely as the chairs pass through the top terminal

What i have experienced personally at Mount Snow is that before the bubble was installed, summit lift operations were effected on something not too far off than that 10-15% figure you mention for the Freezer. Since the bubble has been in at Mount Snow, that figure has been I'd day cut in half. There are just some days in and around a storm, that the winds across the Northeast are going to blow at a velocity and wind angle that won't allow for safe operation regardless of the type of lift
 

VTKilarney

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I really like the concept of the Chondola at Mt. Orford. I'm not convinced that it would work at Jay Peak, but I really like the idea of being able to choose whether I want to ride a chair or in a gondola depending on the weather conditions.
 

River19

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No idea, but if you're just going off recent projects at other resorts, probably something like $4 to $5.5M I'd guess.

Reason why I was asking is that while iconic, if I were a buyer of this mess, and I had $4.5M in capital to spend on this issue, I might consider the option of a new Quad altogether if the tram could remain in place until such time as I wanted to repair it.

That isn't a likely scenario but.....I was just throwing around ideas
 
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