Waterville Valley Announces New Six-Pack Bubble

[thetrailboss]

Waterville Valley has contracted with MND Ropeways to build a new six-pack with bubbles (specially designed by Porsche Design Studio) to replace the aging White Peaks Express. MND is completely new to the U.S. market. Read more here: https://liftblog.com/2021/04/19/mnd-ropeways-to-build-first-us-detachable-at-waterville-valley/

The lift will have a 845 hp drive and a $9 million pricetag. It will be one of the "largest bubble lifts" in the East. It is set to be constructed next summer.

Hopefully it looks nicer than this terrible photoshop job.

 

[Slidebrook87]

It will definitely be interesting to see how this plays out. I have never skied at Waterville, but White Peaks was an extremely rare model made by Poma for only one year (1988). Older detachables are becoming a rare breed because of how difficult they are to maintain nowadays. I expect this new lift to have some problems as well since it is the first of its kind from a manufacturer that is not very well established. A LST Detachable was built in Europe as the first of its kind and was plagued with issues. I expect this lift to be similar... On another note, I wonder if the current lift will see more life with a relocation. It could easily receive tire driven contours and technology upgrades to make it more reliable and easier to maintain. It probably won’t happen since the relocation was so recent, but it would be good to see on Green Peak. Sunnyside? Who knows.

 

[deadheadskier]

Sunnyside is quite short. Only about 3000 feet. Would be a pretty large waste of money to throw a detachable there. Green Peak would make much more sense

 

[crystalmountainskier]

It will definitely be interesting to see how this plays out. I have never skied at Waterville, but White Peaks was an extremely rare model made by Poma for only one year (1988). Older detachables are becoming a rare breed because of how difficult they are to maintain nowadays. I expect this new lift to have some problems as well since it is the first of its kind from a manufacturer that is not very well established. A LST Detachable was built in Europe as the first of its kind and was plagued with issues. I expect this lift to be similar... On another note, I wonder if the current lift will see more life with a relocation. It could easily receive tire driven contours and technology upgrades to make it more reliable and easier to maintain. It probably won’t happen since the relocation was so recent, but it would be good to see on Green Peak. Sunnyside? Who knows.

They are using Bartholet's design rather than the LST design. There are more than 30 Bartholet detachables in operation in a bunch of countries (Austria, France, Switzerland, Italy, China, South Korea.)

 

[thetrailboss]

So I, too, am also interested to see how this goes because it is a first-of-a-kind from a new company.

I'd also be interested to see where it goes. I expect it to be reused somewhere.

 

[machski]

It will definitely be interesting to see how this plays out. I have never skied at Waterville, but White Peaks was an extremely rare model made by Poma for only one year (1988). Older detachables are becoming a rare breed because of how difficult they are to maintain nowadays. I expect this new lift to have some problems as well since it is the first of its kind from a manufacturer that is not very well established. A LST Detachable was built in Europe as the first of its kind and was plagued with issues. I expect this lift to be similar... On another note, I wonder if the current lift will see more life with a relocation. It could easily receive tire driven contours and technology upgrades to make it more reliable and easier to maintain. It probably won’t happen since the relocation was so recent, but it would be good to see on Green Peak. Sunnyside? Who knows.

White Peaks is far too old and will be scrapped when the new 6 is complete. It is a 2 year project because of construction time limits thanks to Bicknell's Thrush habitat. MND has built several detaches in Europe to date, this is not a brand new design (just new to North America). Cool to see WV move forward on their 10 year plan.

 

[Tin Woodsman]

Sunnyside is quite short. Only about 3000 feet. Would be a pretty large waste of money to throw a detachable there. Green Peak would make much more sense

I would generally agree, but Waterville mgmt places high value on having a fixed-grip back up plan for each key detachable lift. As such, I don't see them shifting Green Peak to a detach, though perhaps it will get a fixed quad upgrade once they go ahead with the new expansion and that lift becomes a critical transfer point from one base to another.

 

[thetrailboss]

White Peaks is far too old and will be scrapped when the new 6 is complete.

OK. And is that what they did with the old Fourrunner at Stowe?

 

[crystalmountainskier]

OK. And is that what they did with the old Fourrunner at Stowe?

That was sold to Mohawk Mountain but it became a fixed grip.

 

[thetrailboss]

That was sold to Mohawk Mountain but it became a fixed grip.

Very interesting. I just saw the pictures on LiftBlog. Since it was a standard drive that moved the haul rope attached to the chair derailer portion (or whatever it is called), it makes sense that the drive was still good while the detachable components were probably way too obsolete. Any ideas where the carriers went?

 

[machski]

Sunnyside is quite short. Only about 3000 feet. Would be a pretty large waste of money to throw a detachable there. Green Peak would make much more sense

Sunnyside is to be replaced with a FGQ, possibly with a load carpet. Northside Double chair is suppose o be removed without replacement. Not sure if that will happen next summer when the 6 is completed or they will wait for the Sunnyside Upgrade first to do that. Sunnyside is likely to be a two year build as well.

 

[thetrailboss]

Any talk as to the Sununu Family selling?

 

[ne_skier]

Very interesting. I just saw the pictures on LiftBlog. Since it was a standard drive that moved the haul rope attached to the chair derailer portion (or whatever it is called), it makes sense that the drive was still good while the detachable components were probably way too obsolete. Any ideas where the carriers went?

Carriers were likely scrapped as they weren't compatible with other lift types. Arrowhead's carriers came from Wachusett and the return came from the Oh No Double at Haystack.

 

[Smellytele]

I like hiding out on the north side when it gets crowded and skiing the bumps under the lift.

 

[Mum skier]

Interesting.......never skied there but walked down the runs after hiking Tecumush. Although there were several lifts they all looked pretty dated and other than the Green peak area all just got you to the same place. But a lift upgrade would be interesting, probably the closest area to our vacation house in Plymouth (come on Tenney mountain you can open next year.....). Maybe check out with Indy pass next year. I guess a new lift doesn’t make it a bigger area unless there is other expansion planned. Is there?

 

[Smellytele]

Interesting.......never skied there but walked down the runs after hiking Tecumush. Although there were several lifts they all looked pretty dated and other than the Green peak area all just got you to the same place. But a lift upgrade would be interesting, probably the closest area to our vacation house in Plymouth (come on Tenney mountain you can open next year.....). Maybe check out with Indy pass next year. I guess a new lift doesn’t make it a bigger area unless there is other expansion planned. Is there?

Their other plan is to have a gondola from the village.
The best skiing there is off sunnyside - steep and true grit can have some really good bumps.
with that said I really don’t like the place. Not enough tree skiing for me.

 

[deadheadskier]

It's interesting that WV still lags so far behind the competition on tree skiing. I wonder if it's because of Forest service permitting or they just don't see an ROI as they don't get an abundance of natural snow. But, the latter hasn't stopped Ragged.

 

[machski]

It's interesting that WV still lags so far behind the competition on tree skiing. I wonder if it's because of Forest service permitting or they just don't see an ROI as they don't get an abundance of natural snow. But, the latter hasn't stopped Ragged.

I think a lot of it has to do with their elevation and the damn Bicknell's Thrush habitat. There really isn't a ton of good tree skiing space within the confines of the primary trail network anyway. The way they made it sound, if the Green Peak expansion happens with the lift link into town center, that will have some decent glading on it.

As to the White Peaks replacement, no there is no new terrain associated with that. It is just a lift replacement project and it will not be complete until 22-23 ski season (so still the current HSQ next season).

 

[thebigo]

Rough approximation of their full build out attached. Appears to be good potential for lower elevation trees.

 

[thetrailboss]

It's interesting that WV still lags so far behind the competition on tree skiing. I wonder if it's because of Forest service permitting or they just don't see an ROI as they don't get an abundance of natural snow. But, the latter hasn't stopped Ragged.

I would think that it is permitting concerns.