Aging ski infrastructure

[raisingarizona13]

An engineer admiring efficiency might

Ah. That makes sense.

@pisteoff, the sober me would like to apologize for the drunk me. The sober me read my drunk post this morning and although the drunk me thought his post was light hearted and "cute" the sober me thinks I sounded like a complete ass hole. So, sorry man. I totally admire and respect the education and skills engineers have and I will now kindly stfu.

[Norseman]

This engineer had a tame defense of the term 'elegant' all drafted up, but decided to wait. No prob on the drunken post, man!

An elegant design is simple, effective, smart, efficient. As xxx-er says, anyone can recognize these traits.

----

Did Big Sky replace the stretched-out tram cable? I remember that being discussed here a while back.

[XXX-er]

I had 30 years of watching what I can only assume are very good engineers employed by IBM ... Fuck things up

You could look at a new product, some mechanical marvel and say yeah there will be a problem there and there

And eventually you get to talk to the engineer and listen to the excuses
"It can't do that"
"We didn't design the product to do that"
"Uh we didn't test it for that"

[Norseman]

Engineers are the ultimate source of fuckup, absolutely.

Back to aging infrastructure discussion.

[Buster Highmen]

what about aging engineers?

Chair 2 @ Alpental is an old riblet, the original lift.
As far as elegance goes, for me, an elegant solution is a simple solution. Things that are essentially complicated more often have a greater likelihood of breaking. That's why I'm cautious with some C++ constructs.

The detachable was a design that intended facilitating high speed lifts. There have been a bunch of complex designs, Yan among them.

I always wondered about the goal of putting more people on the slopes, essentially transferring the line density of the 60s & 70s to slope density.

I'm glad Crustal didn't install high speeds at 6, and even though I hate the Northway chair, at least it's not a high speed. Hopefully other ski area managers will consider that. I do remember ridiculous lines on the old chair 2 @ Crustal, the one replaced with the Rainier Express; those lines were well over an hour and motivated me to skin and tour.

[Benny Profane]

What about an aging clientele?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...economic-mess/

Face it, you're watching and will watch many ski areas die over the next few decades because the incoming revenue will not pay for new lifts. The boomers, who funded the growth, are dying, and the kids can't afford to ski. Fuck, they can't afford shit. They're living in the basement and not even buying cars.

[garyfromterrace]

Mad River Glen replaced an aging single chair with a new single chair. One of the directors of the hill said it would take a while to get tracked out after a dump and we wanted to keep it that way. Elegant as fuck.

[boltonoutlaw]

My ex-local has gone bankrupt three times since 1997 under the weight of new lift installation-driven debt. So, new owners installed yet another "new" lift (and a windmill) adding to that burden. Elegant

[raisingarizona13]

I had no idea that was engineer speak. I'm stealing that shit for sure.

Is there an engineering light bulb joke? I imagine there has to be.

[old goat]

Engineers are the ultimate source of fuckup, absolutely.

Back to aging infrastructure discussion.

Since engineers design everything, if anything is fucked up it was fucked up by an engineer. Also all the stuff that works.

I had no idea that was engineer speak. I'm stealing that shit for sure.

Is there an engineering light bulb joke? I imagine there has to be.

Not a light bulb joke but--An optimist sees the glass half full, the pessimist sees it half empty, the engineer sees that the glass is too big.

[XXX-er]

Not sure whom is worse the engineer or the guy who writes the software

But seriously I am pretty sure they have to send stuff out that isn't finished

[abraham]

Not sure whom is worse the engineer or the guy who writes the software

But seriously I am pretty sure they have to send stuff out that isn't finished

You're missing a few roles.

The accountant and the marketing and sales people should be in that too

[Harry]

Did Big Sky replace the stretched-out tram cable? I remember that being discussed here a while back.

Yeah, that happened 2 or 3 years ago. Issue is that the tram base is on a rock glacier and has moved something like 15 feet since it was built in the 90's.

[Bunion 2020]

Close but not quite.

The base of the tram has moved about the same distance as the cable stretch, believe it or not that was figured into the design by the engineers. (Talk about elegant).

Life span of a haul rope that diameter is 25+ years.

The problem (as explained to me) is that the back and forth nature of that lift caused unusual issues with twist in the haul rope and with the strands in the haul rope breaking.

[zartagen]

Ah. That makes sense.

@pisteoff, the sober me would like to apologize for the drunk me. The sober me read my drunk post this morning and although the drunk me thought his post was light hearted and "cute" the sober me thinks I sounded like a complete ass hole. So, sorry man. I totally admire and respect the education and skills engineers have and I will now kindly stfu.

You ended with xoxoxo at least. Elegant as fuck.

[snojones]

First rule of engineering.... If it ain't broke, it must need more features.

[Buster Highmen]

First rule of engineering.... If it ain't broke, it must need more features.

You're confused. That's marketing.

[TAFKALVS]

First rule of engineering.... If it ain't broke, it must need more features.

I thought engineers liked to remove features until an item didn't work?

Adding features is definitely sales. "Yeah, we could do that no problem, I'll talk to the people in engineering about it."

[raisingarizona13]

Close but not quite.

The base of the tram has moved about the same distance as the cable stretch, believe it or not that was figured into the design by the engineers. (Talk about elegant).

Life span of a haul rope that diameter is 25+ years.

The problem (as explained to me) is that the back and forth nature of that lift caused unusual issues with twist in the haul rope and with the strands in the haul rope breaking.

That doesn't sound safe to me at all. Cool, but sort of freaky.

The Agassiz chair at Snowbowl should probably be replaced. On mornings that the thing is caked in rime/ice it "slips" and then they only allow two to a chair every other chair. The solution doesn't put me at ease. Hopefully it's replaced soon. I think a big lawsuit could be a whole lot more expensive than a new chair lift.

[Ted Striker]

Ah. That makes sense.

@pisteoff, the sober me would like to apologize

Dude, no worries. I actually laughed when I read it.

[XXX-er]

No matter how much testing they do somebody does something they didn't test for

My favorite was an ATM that would not acknowledge envelopes when deposited because the sun shone down the slot confusing the photo cell but it only happened on sunny days in late fall when the sun was at the right angle in the sky and then the bug would go away till next year

[jetski]

ready to die

who else is

Some days are worth it... I'm in.
We have a cahir from 1974 that access the goods. Admittingly it freaks me out. My knees,back and joints hurt and I'm slightly younger than said chair.

[jetski]

What the hell are little hills supposed to do?

More T-bars!!! The gnarlier the better...Well thats what I would do if I ruled the world.

[Angle Parking]

More T-bars!!! The gnarlier the better...Well thats what I would do if I ruled the world.

Not a bad idea actually. Surely this things are cheaper ???, and if they break down you just ski away.

[Angle Parking]

^^^ but i guess even a cheaper surface lift is out of reach when you have zero money for new lifts or even replacement of older lifts.