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NEW TECHNOLOGY
ELIMINATES THE CHAIRLIFT GEAR BOX,
WASTE OIL, AND
A LOT OF DECIBELS
ew chairlift technologies—cutting-edge features such as heated seats, ergonomically
designed bubbles, and automated restraining bars—are usually touted for what
N they add to the operational system or overall riding experience. But every so often
a new technology comes along that is touted for what it doesn’t add. In the case of new direct
drive chairlifts recently installed at two Colorado ski areas, that list includes a gear box,
waste oil, and a notable amount of operational noise.
“Whisper quiet” is how the communications team at outfitted with blue bubble carriers with restraining bars and
Winter Park Resort describes its new 10-person Zephyr footrests. The new lift travels 9,865 slope feet and 1,906
Gondola, the first on-mountain lift installation at the resort vertical feet in just over nine minutes. Both the American
in more than a decade. The $21-million gondola replaces the Eagle and American Flyer have full-capacity generators that
Zephyr high-speed quad, and will increase uphill capacity to act as back-up and evacuation drives.
3,600 people per hour (pph) and decrease lift wait times by All three lifts are built by Leitner-Poma of America.
up to 15 minutes on peak volume days. The gondola travels Jon Mauch, senior sales manager at Leitner, says his company
5,570 slope feet and roughly 1,600 vertical feet in five min- has been refining direct drive lift technology within its rope-
utes from Winter Park’s main base area terminating near its way division for more than 10 years. The trend has been
Sunspot Mountaintop Lodge. The impressive machine also changing for drive options in Central Europe. Currently,
boasts a 2-inch diameter cable with a tensile carrying strength more than 70 percent of the new installations are being
of nearly 242 tons. supplied with direct drive.
Slightly farther west, Copper Mountain Resort is also
incorporating direct drive technology in the replacement of
its two busiest base lifts, the American Eagle and American HOW DIRECT DRIVE WORKS
Flyer. The resort’s high-speed quad American Eagle Lift has According to Mauch, direct drive was developed as a solution
been replaced with a high-speed combo-lift equipped with to an otherwise insolvable mechanical problem of powering
96 six-person carriers with restraining bars and footrests ski lifts with “off-the-shelf” motors that require primary gear
and 24 eight-person gondola cabins. The new lift travels reducers. As he explains, most lifts use either 4- or 6-pole
6,026 slope feet and 1,469 vertical feet in about six minutes, motors that generate 1,750 rotations per minute (rpm) or
increasing uphill capacity by more than 40 percent. 1,150 rpm, respectively.
Meanwhile the American Flyer high-speed quad has been That’s not a usable speed for a bull wheel, says Mauch,
replaced by a high-speed six-seater featuring 182 carriers so lifts are also equipped with a gear reducer to slow down
EARLY WINTER 2018 | NSAA JOURNAL | 43
