Whistler/Vail North 2020/2021

[The AD]

Is the current gondola a six person?

[t.odd]

Is the current gondola a six person?

correct

[paulster2626]

...kind of a tight 6, at that.

I guess once this is done the next big problem to fix would be up in Horstman? Is a lift even feasible up there? 7th is such a logjam - maybe that'll be a 6-pack soon too.

[Zaeius]

I wonder what this means for biking in the summer. Are they just adding 8 person cabins to the existing infrastructure or do they need to add new stations/towers/sheaves?

I know every year there are pictures of crazy lines over the bridge but assuming they are running each cabin at capacity it isn't too bad if you show up before 8. If you show up at 9am on a weekend pow day you're going to have a a bad time.

This might make lower insanity pow laps more palatable though. Havent done one of those in a while

[Dee Hubbs]

I guess once this is done the next big problem to fix would be up in Horstman? Is a lift even feasible up there? 7th is such a logjam - maybe that'll be a 6-pack soon too.

Horstman is a really tough problem. The glacier is receding and the moraine is slowly falling away as the supporting glacier moves downhill. The Horstman Hut restaurant and top of Horstman T-Bar are situated on this crumbling ground, and is not stable.
They use to drive a snowcat (2 passes wide) between the Horstman Hut Resturant and the Horstman Glacier.

And the glacier has gotten so low that the final pitch of the t-bar line is too steep to operate the lift. There is not enough room to terminate a chair lift up there (and not stable enough), and the t-bar is the only type of lift that they can put on surface of the glacier (the lift bases are not on solid ground, they are fluid and move with the glacier).
The glacier only has maybe 10 years left before its completely gone, and then the'll blast out an opening/slot like the saddle and put in a permanent surface lift.

[gramboh]

I wonder what this means for biking in the summer. Are they just adding 8 person cabins to the existing infrastructure or do they need to add new stations/towers/sheaves?

I know every year there are pictures of crazy lines over the bridge but assuming they are running each cabin at capacity it isn't too bad if you show up before 8. If you show up at 9am on a weekend pow day you're going to have a a bad time.

This might make lower insanity pow laps more palatable though. Havent done one of those in a while

Creekside is pretty old would think new infrastructure… then again when they upgraded Whistler Village gondola to 8 person cabins it was same towers (maybe new power unit? Cables?) but I am just guessing.

Likely means no Creekside for bike park next summer. That sucks but long term it’s good on all fronts.

[eldereldo]

As long as they don’t replace it with the same design as the one they put on Blackcomb, or lines will be worse, not better when it stops running every day.

[The AD]

As long as they don’t replace it with the same design as the one they put on Blackcomb, or lines will be worse, not better when it stops running every day.

Why'd you have to go and jinx it like this?

[Dee Hubbs]

As long as they don’t replace it with the same design as the one they put on Blackcomb, or lines will be worse, not better when it stops running every day.

More like they think they can run their lifts with a maintenance team of $20/hour millwrights who don't have more than 2-3 years experience. All the old boys who know how to fix shit have been pushed out.

[gramboh]

More like they think they can run their lifts with a maintenance team of $20/hour millwrights who don't have more than 2-3 years experience. All the old boys who know how to fix shit have been pushed out.

Is that the problem? I thought it was that the line the Blackcomb gondola takes exposes it to more wind, but that doesn't explain some of the stoppages. Not much wind for Creekside. And upgrading Red to a six makes a lot more sense that putting in a midstation and running the gondola to Roundhouse area as well.

[t.odd]

was my understanding that there was a persistent cabin spacing issue with the mid station that would keep getting triggered and stopping things...but that's second/third hand info. Thankfully they shelved the terrible mid station idea for creekside/red which apparently was under consideration, although, again, second hand info.

[The AD]

Thankfully they shelved the terrible mid station idea for creekside/red which apparently was under consideration, although, again, second hand info.

Yeah, that wouldn't have been a good idea at all. Not just from a logistical perspective, but an aesthetic one as well. I love riding Red in the morning on a bluebird day.

[eldereldo]

Can’t just be maintenance or Creekside would have been the Gondi with the most stops since it was the oldest. Yet it seemed to be pretty reliable. And a mid station would have been stupid and make those quick early laps of Red on powder days before the hordes arrived a thing of the past.