Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, WY
In July, Kevin Soller of All Mountain Construction brought a Menzi Muck walking excavator to dig, then backfill many of the tower locations, some of which sat above 100-foot cliffs. Tower 8, in partic- ular, sat between two rock bands above a 733-foot unsupported span. Soller had to tiptoe his excava- tor sideways both into and out of the site to avoid sheer rock faces. On Sept. 25, Timberline Helicopters flew 14 towers split among 49 trips due to the high elevation and large tower sizes. The next day, Timberline pulled pilot lines and communication lines from the top of the lift down, a task normally done by foot or vehicle. The new Sublette switches both drive direction (from counterclockwise to clockwise) and drive location (from bottom to top) compared to the old lift. JHMR installed 500 feet of new electric line and a new switch gear to service the top station. To reduce wind exposure, the top terminal came down in grade roughly 30 feet from the old lift, accom- plished through 18,000 cubic yards of earth moving by JHMR’s in-house equipment operators. Coupled with 72 of LPOA’s most premium (and heavy) Euro- pean chairs, the lower profile will hopefully mean fewer wind holds as skiers ascend 1,595 vertical
The iconic Sublette chairlift on the upper reaches of Rendezvous Mountain was retired this summer to make way for a new Leitner-Poma detachable quad. JHMR worked with Leitner-Poma of America (LPOA) to design and align the new lift to minimize closures on a part of the mountain that can see triple-digit wind speeds. Mountain crews began removing the old Sublette lift the day the resort closed in April. LPOA subcon- tracted much of the electrical work to Lucey Elec- tric and construction/installation to Alpine Cable & Construction, who arrived May 1. Workers could only access the top and bottom terminal locations and one other spot along the steep, rocky lift line (average grade 43.5 per- cent) by road. Both Timberline Helicopters and Mountain West Helicopters made frequent visits throughout the summer, hauling supplies, set- ting forms, and delivering concrete. Three differ- ent tower locations required blasting; one tower foundation was re-used from the previous lift, and another was drilled and anchored on top of an old foundation.
feet in four minutes. To further minimize wind holds and reduce the likelihood of a rope evacua- tion above cliffs, the resort chose a ring and pinion drive setup, necessitating a wider-than-normal for a detachable quad 5.6-meter line gauge. As of late September, the project was on track for a Nov. 6 load test.
Hunter Mountain, NY
September, the six-pack was on track for an Oct. 11 load test.
Hunter Mountain undertook the largest capital project within the Vail Resorts network this year, replacing two key chairlifts and automating much of its snowmaking system. Leitner-Poma of America (LPOA) began removing the Broadway Limited quad shortly after the sea- son ended to make way for a new six-pack called Broadway Express. The 2,966-foot-long lift will increase capacity on this part of the mountain by 70 percent. Broadway Express now runs up the Gun Hill Road trail rather than Kennedy Drive, freeing the latter of mid-trail lift towers. Gun Hill Road was widened and graded in sections to accommodate the lift corridor. With relatively easy access from the main base area and a lower angle lift line, the main challenge with this project was the amount of utility reloca- tion required. Drainage also proved a challenge at times during wet periods. Lift terminal elements arrived in July and were installed by crane. As of
Rather than disposing of the old Broadway lift, Hunter used the old lift’s equipment to replace the E Lift, an old Hall double. Towers were flown off Broad- way and reconfigured in the parking lot into 10 tow- ers for the yet-to-be-named E quad replacement. This 400-vertical-foot, bottom drive/bottom ten- sion quad also runs in a new alignment that removes lift towers from the Central Park and Central Park North trails. Simultaneously with the lift projects, an in-house crew worked on a major snowmaking overhaul, relocating pipe on Rip Van Winkle, adding 70 auto- mated hydrants to existing HKD guns on another trail, and adding 69 fully automated guns with new hydrants on two trails. On steeper trail sections, Hunter utilized a helicopter to place tower-mount- ed guns onto pedestals. The resort also purchased new HKD sled guns, which will be manually moved from trail to trail.
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