Wachusett New Lift progress?

[The Sneak]

Was there the other day. From a far the lift looked to be nearly done, no chairs on line. There were men on the roof working on a big parking barn for the chairs. That’s something Superstar doesn’t have. To be honest, they didn’t make much progress on the parking barn while I was skiing.

My experience as well last wknd

 

[machski]

The parking barn should not interfere with the balance of the lift. Big Sky has added those a season after new lifts have opened. Makes me wonder if Wachusett tried to go cheap on the install or standard and K bought up to get expedited install.

 

[drjeff]

The parking barn should not interfere with the balance of the lift. Big Sky has added those a season after new lifts have opened. Makes me wonder if Wachusett tried to go cheap on the install or standard and K bought up to get expedited install.

Kind of doubt the Crowley family "went cheap" on the lift. They definitely don't appear to scrimp on anything the way they run their mountain

 

[thetrailboss]

The parking barn should not interfere with the balance of the lift. Big Sky has added those a season after new lifts have opened. Makes me wonder if Wachusett tried to go cheap on the install or standard and K bought up to get expedited install.

I heard the price and I would not call it "cheap" by any means. From what I have been seeing and hearing, I would expect that Leitner Poma would have bid lower, but ask Alta how Sunnyside went.....Alta lost a ton of ski school revenue due to the 2-month+ delay in completion of the lift. Poma did not have enough help to get the job done and Alta literally had their staff putting things together. That's pretty bad.

 

[machski]

Kind of doubt the Crowley family "went cheap" on the lift. They definitely don't appear to scrimp on anything the way they run their mountain

Well, they were offered a sweetheart deal by Dopp during the COVID year to replace that lift with the 6 now going in. Bet they wish they had pulled the trigger back then, guessing the tag doubled at least since then. Doubt they cheaped out on the lift, but if there was an price differential for priority install, betting they didn't pay for that. Not sure there is, but K's machine got done pretty fast and not like Dopp was swapping out a Dopp machine already in that line.

 

[Zand]

I see chairs on the line on the webcam this morning! 12 days to Christmas week, so this is a promising sign to make that goal I would think.

 

[Mum skier]

It was very nice conditions at Wachusett this morning. I opted to snowboard as it is hardly worth skiing on half the mountain, I’m a rubbish snowboarder so those pretend blue runs off minuteman are perfect for me on a board. And as someone else noted despite being in my mid 50s I think I was the youngest person out there! Well mostly……
Almost some lines today on a Thursday with people heading out before the rain. And without the main lift.

 

[doublediamond]

The website has been quietly changed again. They previously announced 1/8 as official opening day with ribbon cutting. Now it says "Date to be announced soon"

Further timeline slippage?

 

[Zand]

Snow report says it will open Christmas Week...

Either they are just having the "ribbon cutting" in January or they're gonna have to update that snow report.

 

[drjeff]

I wouldn't even want to imagine what Wachusett, during Christmas week, without their Summit lift, would be like. Especially if a snowstorm happens to hit and drives up their already busy daily demand!!

 

[Zand]

Totally not suspicious that the webcam pointed at the new lift hasn't been working for a few days now.

They have been cranking out the snow up top though so once this thing gets open they'll be at 100%. Every other trail is now open.

 

[doublediamond]

OPSI folks on mountain and approval of the Polar Express is on 12/23's RTB agenda. Blue 55 gallon barrels are arriving.

 

[LuckyStrike]

The lift was running with chairs on last night. It was going faster than they could ever hope to load it but it was nice to see it run so fast.

 

[Zand]

Load test currently in progress...apparently Doppelmayr will be on site overnight to get everything done as soon as possible.