Gore Mountain Adirondack Express Replacement.

As I was going up the gondola on my second run today an employee on the gondola with me said that this year was the last year for the Adirondack Express and that this summer it would be replaced with a quad just like the one on Burnt Ridge.  Is this really true?  Hopefully with the new lift they will either make it a bubble lift or realign it so that the windy spot at the top is no more.

just like there is no wind on Burnt Ridge...but it is an incredibly comfortable chair.  I hope it is true

I had not heard a peep about this. I will ask management.

The new lift will also be higher up than the current one which is said to allow for better snowmaking on showcase.

http://nyskiblog.com/gore-capital-improvements-next-steps/

This has been a goal for several years. Nothing is definite, yet.

Read some of the comments under the piece linked above. Amazing how much grief we got for "raising false hopes" by publishing it.

I was just on it yesterday, It amazes me how smoothly it still runs, and is basically as fast as the Gondola. Not bad for a 1984 HSDL

I'll take the Express any day but I would agree on some days when you get close to the saddle the wind can get brutal.

We were reminiscing about the old days at Gore, yesterday...Remember the line coming out of the Gondola building and waiting on that line for an hour...Look at the crowds today and I complain when I have to wait ten minutes.  In the old days I would go up top and ski the Summit Lift ( longer version of the High Peaks chair) until the snow was spent  then go home.  Now I can move all over the mountain (yes including the Ski Bowl and burnt Ridge) in no time and can avoid liftlines, while finding something I will enjoy skiing on almost all faces.  Everybody has an opinion on what is needed and what they don't like...even more so in a horrible snow year like last year...but if you look back to how it was, all of the improvements at Gore over the years have made the skiing experience better and I am sure the improvements that will be approved and made in future years will continue to make our skiing and riding experience better.  Instead of a bubble on the proposed new Arctic Express chair, lets find those old blankets they used to throw over you at the bottom...remember those

I don't think this would be the best use of limited capital. Most weekends so far have had a few lifts ( including new ones) closed due to lack of snow. Increased snowmaking would allow gore to run the lifts they already have. More snow will also increase early season visits. Plus i think the express has character.

Tom

I have always been a gondola person so I usually avoid the Adirondack Express, it is actually noticably slower than the gondola.  It runs at 825 fpm while the gondola runs at 1110 fpm.  Whenever I'm on it usualy about 4 or 5 gondola cabins pass me and the spacing on the gondola is I think a couple hundred feet so the speeds above I think are pretty close.

I understand that at some point it makes more sense to replace old lifts with new ones that require less mantice. I would hate to see it go. The lift reminds me of an erector set. As far as the speed of the lift I think it's as fast and smooth as any new lift.

1. The Ad Express is almost 30 years old. It needs to be replaced. HS lifts  from the 1980s have a shelf life.
2. I have never seen the gondola run at 1100 ft/min. It runs at roughly the same speed as the HS3. I have checked at various times over the years.

I am not sure when that lift will be replaced - as I said earlier, I will ask. It is a nice lift but requires a lot of work. When it is going to ice or they are making snow overnight on showcase all the chairs have to come off and they run the cable all night to keep everything from freezing up. I also suspect that parts are hard to come by, probably requires custom fabrication in some cases. Gore has give that lift a lot of TLC over the years to keep it going. For sentimental reasons it will be tough to see it go, but in the end, it's just a machine.

Yes - the ride can be harsh in the wind tunnel on a cold morning but so is TR3 and BRQ as well as a thousand other lifts around the country. I have ridden in bubble lifts, hate them - after a few years the plastic gets all scratch cracked and broken, a royal PITA for the mountain.

x10003q wrote

1. The Ad Express is almost 30 years old. It needs to be replaced. HS lifts  from the 1980s have a shelf life.
2. I have never seen the gondola run at 1100 ft/min. It runs at roughly the same speed as the HS3. I have checked at various times over the years.

 I hear you on that, Its def not running at 1100ft/min even though thats what its rated for. Its pretty slow compared to the cloud splitter at whiteface. Im not sure why its never running at its potential. A few friends of mine have commented (who havent been to gore before) how slow it seems to be moving.

It sucks when they run on desiel mid week sometimes to burn down the fuel tank.

evantful wrote

x10003q wrote

1. The Ad Express is almost 30 years old. It needs to be replaced. HS lifts  from the 1980s have a shelf life.
2. I have never seen the gondola run at 1100 ft/min. It runs at roughly the same speed as the HS3. I have checked at various times over the years.

 I hear you on that, Its def not running at 1100ft/min even though thats what its rated for. Its pretty slow compared to the cloud splitter at whiteface. Im not sure why its never running at its potential. A few friends of mine have commented (who havent been to gore before) how slow it seems to be moving.

It sucks when they run on desiel mid week sometimes to burn down the fuel tank.

Money.

They had an sign crowing about the 1100 ft/min speed when they installed it. I never saw that sign after the first season. I also never passed an Adirondack Express chair while riding the gondola.

Highly unlikely for this year. The High Peaks chair will be replaced (and maybe lengthened) before the AE. There really is no place to extend this lift to either. They could pull a typical Gore and extend it to unload on lower Cloud, but even Gore wouldn't do this.

I spoke to Mtn Mgmt, the RFP for bids on the replacement for the ADK express are going out soon with a completion date of somewhere near the end of Oct 2013. This seems ambitious but I have no idea how much time it takes to design a lift, manufacture the parts and install it. The HP chair will be a few years out.

Yeah it is what it is. Its a redundant lift that they can get away with only running on the weekends for crowd control or in the event the gondola is down. Im sure they pray they never have an issue with the gondola on the weekends or they play russian roulette with the ADKE. I feel like replacing it is really about insurance more than anything, if the gondola ever went down then they can have a reliable lift to handle what basically acts as the sole gateway to the rest of the resort.

It sucks they have to spend the money on that, but what other choice do they have given the resort layout

Actually you bring up an interesting thought. Will the new lift go to the same place or take the same route. It may not.
That is another question to ask.

If they could arrange it so it would be easier to get to the high peaks chair then up, that would be great.   Hell, I would love a way to get to the top without taking off my skis... over the last few years that has annoyed me more and more.