Gore Mountain Adirondack Express Replacement.

snoloco wrote

The AE2 OPENS this Friday.

should be open to pass holders only

freeheeln wrote

should be open to pass holders only

And New York State taxpayers.

ml242 wrote

freeheeln wrote

should be open to pass holders only

And New York State taxpayers.

Who are old enough to drink

I had the chance to ride the new AE2 last Sunday 1/18.  To put this simply, I think the new lift is absolutely amazing.

When I got the tour of the construction in the fall, he said that the lift was designed for 1,100 fpm.  On this day, it felt like we were doing ever bit of that speed.  While riding the AE2, we were passing gondola cars like nobody's business and the gondola was moving pretty quick too.  I took note of one gondola car I passed about halfway up the lift on one ride.  When I was on Sunway and crossing under the gondola, I passed under this gondola car, so I was able to get fully up the lift, get off, start skiing, and make it down a bit lower before I saw it.  That is some serious speed there.

The unloading ramp is configured really well and is a major upgrade from the AE1.  Before there was a gooseneck turn right on the ramp which caused some crashes and stops on the lift.  With the AE2, the gooseneck turn is gone and so are the stops.  The lift hardly stopped at all today.

The chairs are super comfortable just like the Burnt Ridge Quad which is just the way I like it.

The AE2 is a major upgrade over the AE1 and was a great investment by ORDA.  Lapping Showcase, Twister, and the other front side cruisers are now even better because of it.  Some may say I have gone loco for praising a lift this much and saying that riding it was an experience in itself.  I say "you gotta get up if you want to ski down and if you gotta get up, you may as well do it fast and in style"  The AE2 does them both with a speed of 1,100 fpm and a cushy seat.  Look forward to lapping it many more times on future ski days at Gore.

snoloco wrote

I had the chance to ride the new AE2 last Sunday 1/18.  To put this simply, I think the new lift is absolutely amazing.

Geez, no tr?
I agree, the AE2 is great.  We've been watching the pace versus the gondi too, and it does indeed seem to be running faster.

Condor wrote

And every post since has been about a chairlift or Mountain Creek. Weird.

I have to admit, I'm with Loco on new fast lifts. I don't like sitting on a chair most of the day and if I'm in area I want to get the most vert for my time. Our chair is an old fixed triple and it goes 2k of vert. The last few thousand feet of skiing is on a flat trail. Maybe almost 3/4 a mile and man it's kind of a bummer when waiting on a long weekend line and sitting on a cold chair for 20 minutes. This is one of the reasons I have become so focussed on touring here.

I have a season pass here tho and it really only takes me about 8 days to pay it off. I can't imagine paying for day tickets and standing in line or riding a slow moving chair all day for the price. I especially can't imagine doing that when every run is on all man made snow, groomed, and crowded with hordes of weekend warriors from the big city. No thanks. It just isn't skiing or what I enjoy about skiing at that point.

This is where touring is just a better option sometimes. Even if it's 4 hours or even more of climbing for only three or four less than perfect runs it can be such a better experience. And it doesn't take a lift ticket to do that.

Contrary to what some of you have seen, the last two times I've been at Gore I've seen the AE2 running at the same speed as the gondola.

I think they should slow the AE2 down on certain days. If it's cold and the lines for the gondi are long with noone using the AE2 I think they should take it down by maybe 200 fpm.

Doesn't slowing the lift down cause more problems than it solves if it is cold?  Isn't it just going to sit you on a chair in the cold wind for even longer?  I'd much rather get through the windy spot faster than slower any day.  The reasons that lifts should run less than max speed are as follows:

1.  If weather conditions prohibit it operationally such as wind or ice.  The wind issue could have beed what Harvey witnessed on the AE2 where they might need to slow it down disrupt the chair swing rhythm so the chairs swing less.

2.  On beginner lifts where running at full speed would cause the lift to frequently stop and slow increasing ride time and reducing capacity.  An example of this would be the Ramshead lift at Killington where lots of beginners mean that it runs at 800fpm vs 1,100fpm to allow the lift to run with fewer slows and stops.

I think Sno is Lift King around here. He certainly knows his stuff when it comes to lifts.