High Peaks replacement?

I heard a rumor that ORDA has begun dismantling the High Peaks chair, but I can't verify it. Has anyone been up there to actually see that?

If it's true, I'm really surprised. For one thing, I thought there was an RFP back in February to replace it in the summer of 2021. I don't think they would plan to operate a year without it, but ORDA should expect massive budget cuts, and for construction delays related to supplier problems. What if they can't replace it in time to open the season? What if the gondola is restricted, or not usable at all? Is AE2>Twister>BRQ the new social distancing plan?

FWIW if I were running ORDA, I'd be thinking about running quad chairs on the gondola lines for a couple of years.

Where's Snoloco when you need him?

mm

I heard $300 a chair.

I sometimes like it when they run the North Chair, but not the Darkside chair because, while it sucks to have to take Wood Out & 3 lift rides to get back to the top, it preserves the snow and reminds me a bit of skiing out west (skiing a thing, then having a journey to get back to where you were). Obviously, I'd still prefer to have the lift, particularly on weekends.

Not running it means you can hire less lifties, which is probably attractive to all the budget sticklers that run ORDA now.

I'm not worried about the Gondola.

My only request is that the new lift go to the top of Rumor like it used to.

Not happening this year. No major projects at Gore.

MC2 5678F589 wrote

I sometimes like it when they run the North Chair, but not the Darkside chair because, while it sucks to have to take Wood Out & 3 lift rides to get back to the top...

The best day I had at Gore this year was the day the gondola didn't run, and we hit High Peaks before the line backed all the way up Wood Out.  We skied Straightbrook with no crowds at all.  When the gondola doesn't run, which is often, HP is the most important lift on the mountain, and it won't take much of a virus outbreak to close the gondola.

Does anyone know of the HP replacement is really happening this year?

mm

Milo Maltbie wrote

MC2 5678F589 wrote

I sometimes like it when they run the North Chair, but not the Darkside chair because, while it sucks to have to take Wood Out & 3 lift rides to get back to the top...

The best day I had at Gore this year was the day the gondola didn't run, and we hit High Peaks before the line backed all the way up Wood Out.  We skied Straightbrook with no crowds at all.  When the gondola doesn't run, which is often, HP is the most important lift on the mountain, and it won't take much of a virus outbreak to close the gondola.

Does anyone know of the HP replacement is really happening this year?

mm

See above

MC2 5678F589 wrote

I sometimes like it when they run the North Chair, but not the Darkside chair because, while it sucks to have to take Wood Out & 3 lift rides to get back to the top, it preserves the snow and reminds me a bit of skiing out west (skiing a thing, then having a journey to get back to where you were). Obviously, I'd still prefer to have the lift, particularly on weekends.

Not running it means you can hire less lifties, which is probably attractive to all the budget sticklers that run ORDA now.

I'm not worried about the Gondola.

My only request is that the new lift go to the top of Rumor like it used to.

The plan is to bring HP back to the top again.

x10003q wrote

The plan is to bring HP back to the top again.

Sweet.

I don't think they should extend HP to the summit. Going to the top leaves you more exposed to the wind. You might also find that the traffic at the top will make the skate across Cloud harder, but you will still need to do it just as often. All it adds is Rumor and Upper Steilhang. No one is gonna skate across to ski Hawkeye or Chatiemac from that lift. You can't lap Rumor from there either. Upper Steilhang should be abandoned so that trails can be added to skiers' left of the Topridge lift without violating the trail limit.

Bottom of the North Quad to the Summit is an even worse idea. It would be worse for novices, and you would need to clearcut Darkside glade and probably regrade it too. Nobody wants that.

mm

But what if the plan in the future is to cut off the backside?

Darkside Shaman wrote

Not happening this year. No major projects at Gore.

There was an RFP in February to replace the Sunway chair this summer. I hope they go ahead with it. They should build everything they can this summer. With all the recent lift cancellations, they might even be able to add or replace more lifts.

Before you say they can't do it because the economy, remember that the Boulder Dam, Grand Coulee Dam, the TVA and almost the entire copper-wire telephone and modern electric  systems were built during the Great Depression. You need to spend your way out of a recession,and government is the only thing big enough to do it.

mm

Milo Maltbie wrote

I don't think they should extend HP to the summit. Going to the top leaves you more exposed to the wind. You might also find that the traffic at the top will make the skate across Cloud harder, but you will still need to do it just as often. All it adds is Rumor and Upper Steilhang. No one is gonna skate across to ski Hawkeye or Chatiemac from that lift. You can't lap Rumor from there either. Upper Steilhang should be abandoned so that trails can be added to skiers' left of the Topridge lift without violating the trail limit.

Bottom of the North Quad to the Summit is an even worse idea. It would be worse for novices, and you would need to clearcut Darkside glade and probably regrade it too. Nobody wants that.

mm

The HP chair went to the top for about 30 years until roughly 1994. Wind and traffic flow at the top were non-issues. The mountain actually works better for traffic flow with the HP chair going to the top as it give skiers more trail and glade options rather than the existing ending point. Everybody who did not want to spend 30 minutes in line/riding the old red gondola skated across the top from the HP chair to Hawkeye and now Rumor is another, closer choice. Why do you think there is a trail below the Straightbrook Lodge? It is for Hawkeye access coming from the HP chair. It is the smart move to put the HP back to the top.

I touched base with Sno on running chairs on a Gondi line
He says the chair arm heights are wrong to run chairs on a Gondi line and terminals would have to be reworked to get the heights correct. Says it never has been done

If I was running a lift company and had little prospects for new lift sales I’d have my engineers working around the clock on designs to retrofit gondi with chairs.  Could be the only thing to keep these companies in business for the next year.

It's a good idea.

Some of those chairs will be pretty high up!  Whiteface!

Z wrote

I touched base with Sno on running chairs on a Gondi line
He says the chair arm heights are wrong to run chairs on a Gondi line and terminals would have to be reworked to get the heights correct.

The chair height can be corrected by building wooden platforms over the concrete pads in the loading/unloading zones, or even adding a moving carpet like they have at the 8 pack at Big Sky. The attachments seem like a more difficult problem. I think if they could run unmodified AE2 or BRQ chairs they would do it.

Steamboat is in worse shape. Without the gondola, it has only Christie Peak, which is only about the size of Windham. I'll bet they are looking at running chairs or removing windows from the cabins there.

I'm still not buying that extending HP improves the Gore experience much.

mm

I don’t think I would pursue putting putting chairs on a gondola line. I can’t imagine finding an existing chair that would be able to be swapped in so it would most likely require Lots of design work and new chairs to be manufactured and, of course, the terminals would have to be extensively redesigned. Sounds expensive and sketchy to me. I don’t see why the gondolas can’t be run normally if you just eliminate the singles line and don’t force groups to load together. Maybe pin the windows open so there’s lots of airflow.

When I listened to the most recent ORDA board of directors meeting video, I don't recall discussion of modifications to Gore's lifts.
Hopefully they'll provide an updated video of their next meeting.
If ya have questions-suggestions email them.

You can get up to thunder and beyond without the gondola but it’s a pia.

Or maybe with a ticket you get 2 gondi rides a day or something.  Family only.

If you can't use the gondi then Gore's pretty well forced to update the High Peaks chair.

Imagine a whole season of accessing the top via Wood In.  

Could even start to get more crowded down lower god forbid.

They could throw a t-bar up Fairview as backup for the HP if there is no gondola this season.