Northern Rockies/Alberta Big Sky Ramcharger 8 Opens 12/14

[SShore]

Seems to say the first locking restraint bar in NA.

I think it's a bad idea. With 8 people the chances of someone having to shift their leg, ski, arm caught in the end, are high. What are you going to do when there's a screaming kid with his arm trapped? Usually that's a fairly quick fix even on a 6 pack. The net result will be the bar will be used even less than average.

Exactly, my wife's poles got caught between the footrest and her leg and she had to ride the whole way up like that. I usually don't say no, even though I want to, when people ask if they can bring the bar down. I think I will say no on this lift.

 

[Tom K.]

What I want to know is where everybody skis if that lift is loaded to capacity? I know it feeds the backside beginner lift and Thunder Wolf, but if everybody that rode it skied Tippy's or Silver Knife -- YIKES!

Haven't been there in ages, but I'm a slight possibility for Christmas day.

 

[SShore]

What I want to know is where everybody skis if that lift is loaded to capacity? I know it feeds the backside beginner lift and Thunder Wolf, but if everybody that rode it skied Tippy's or Silver Knife -- YIKES!

Haven't been there in ages, but I'm a slight possibility for Christmas day.

You have ThunderWolf, Southern Comfort, Lone Moose and the two Spanish Peaks lifts behind RamCharger. I find the terrain served by the Southern Comfort lift more crowded than Ramchargers and the ThunderWolf terrain is much bigger than you would think and it absorbs a lot of skiers also. Lone Moose is pretty empty most of the time and there is no reason to head to the other two lifts unless you are staying in Spanish Peaks (although there are some trees over there that hold powder far longer than most other places on the mountain). As for RamCharger, except for race days that lift was never full with 6 seats and when it is race day they are all over on Hangmans, so the slopes never seem crowded.

 

[James]

Does the 8 have more capacity than the 6? When we went quad to 6, exact same capacity. (= no new permit needed)

 

[SShore]

Does the 8 have more capacity than the 6? When we went quad to 6, exact same capacity. (= no new permit needed)

No idea about that, but since BS in on private land, not NFS, they don't have to worry about permits.

 

[James]

No idea about that, but since BS in on private land, not NFS, they don't have to worry about permits.

In VT it's the State.

 

[EricG]

I would hate to be in the middle seats on that thing.

 

[Talisman]

I would hate to be in the middle seats on that thing.

If you are tall, the end seats are head and shoulder knockers with a good possibility of having your arm pinched as the bar tapers in significantly at the ends. As others have said the old Ram Charger 4 was seldom fully loaded except for race days (which are coming) and I haven't been on El Ocho Grande with more than three other people.

 

[James]

You can't put your arm over the back of the chair on lifts like that. So if you have to grab someone with the bar up, you pretty much have to brace against the bar above your head. Which is awkward, and only works if you don't apply force forward to close the bar.

 

[Doby Man]

These high capacity enclosed lifts can be dangerous in the afternoon. It is estimated that at least one in every eight skiers has a chili bowl for lunch.

 

[JonathanR]

Seems to say the first locking restraint bar in NA.

I think it's a bad idea. With 8 people the chances of someone having to shift their leg, ski, arm caught in the end, are high. What are you going to do when there's a screaming kid with his arm trapped? Usually that's a fairly quick fix even on a 6 pack. The net result will be the bar will be used even less than average.

This is one feature I didn't like about the lift. My pole got stuck in between the bar and the chair on one ride and since I couldn't lift the bar I had to hold it in an awkward position all the way up, I saw this happen to at least one other person too.

On the other hand it has heated seats which are nice and the bubble/cover is really nice if it's windy and snowing.

 

[JonathanR]

Heck with the chair, how's the skiing there?

I've been at Big Sky for the past 5 days and it's been great. MUCH fewer people than the Colorado resorts I've been to. You feel like you have the mountain to yourself a lot of the time. Don't know if it will stay this way since it's my first time here.

Also it is still slightly rocky in certain spots but that is to be expected this early in the season. Not much snow since Nov.

 

[Tom K.]

I've been at Big Sky for the past 5 days and it's been great. MUCH fewer people than the Colorado resorts I've been to. You feel like you have the mountain to yourself a lot of the time. Don't know if it will stay this way since it's my first time here.

Also it is still slightly rocky in certain spots but that is to be expected this early in the season. Not much snow since Nov.

Thanks!

Yup, BS is a rocky place. In my experience, second only to Red Lodge (AKA "Rock Dodge").

 

[pete]

Lift Blog had a great write up on this lift.
I keep thinking, people can usually count to 4, can barely count to 6, they're going to lose their minds when they have to count to 8.
Cool grand opening of the lift on their Facebook page.

The Blog does have lots of neat info.

Big Ski has some cool images that include that of the cable rigging: https://bigskyresort.com/ramcharger8

 

[Talisman]

I got a tour of the top drive and chair storage barn aka "the white castle" from a lift mechanic. The brushless DC drive motor is 12 RPM and 946 KW, requiring no transmission. The chairs are automatically fed onto and off of the haul rope. The day I toured there were only 50 chairs on the rope as an experiment to see if fewer chairs would reduce stoppages, 64 chairs are a normal load pattern.

 

[Andy Mink]

I really liked the lift. We rode it several times during the gathering, usually 7 or less as one of the loading gates got snapped off and they blocked that one. After the first ride we were good about making sure everyone was settled and poles were out of the way before dropping the bar and, most times, the bubble. The only thing that needed help, IMHO, was the corral leading into the gates. It was pretty much a free for all until the last second when people had to figure out who was next into the gates. Maybe two lines split to 4 split to 8 to get in. Other than that, no issues at all. And the heated seats are pretty plush.

One thing you can't do is tuck your poles under your leg. It just won't work as there is no opening under the backrest. The footrests are great. Way better and easier to get your skis on than the 10" cross bar on other lifts.

 

[skidrew]

I really liked the lift. We rode it several times during the gathering, usually 7 or less as one of the loading gates got snapped off and they blocked that one. After the first ride we were good about making sure everyone was settled and poles were out of the way before dropping the bar and, most times, the bubble. The only thing that needed help, IMHO, was the corral leading into the gates. It was pretty much a free for all until the last second when people had to figure out who was next into the gates. Maybe two lines split to 4 split to 8 to get in. Other than that, no issues at all. And the heated seats are pretty plush.

One thing you can't do is tuck your poles under your leg. It just won't work as there is no opening under the backrest. The footrests are great. Way better and easier to get your skis on than the 10" cross bar on other lifts.

Definitely agree with the corral at least when there's any number of people. It's made worse by the ticket checker. People will slide by, and it's unclear who's grouped with whom, so open spaces develop or disappear. Really frustrating to see a chair of 3 go out when you're a pair and it wasn't clear they had only three.

While SixShooter has its problems, the lifties there do an excellent job of ensuring every chair goes out full if there's any kind of line. It uses two loading sides (plus singles) so you end up with groups of 2 and 3 forming a lot, which then get paired up. They even were doing it at Swifty on busy days/times. Big Sky should adopt this model for RamCharger 8 - and I'm surprised they haven't.

 

[mdf]

I rode that lift quite a bit at the Gathering. I really liked it. The triagle footrests are fantastic -- they hold your skis up just fine, but are not in the way as much as a traditional footrest. We only put the bubble down when it was really cold. I did have a little awkwardness with my poles when the bublle was down. Finally figured out you rest them on the seat back and top of the bar with the ends against the bubble. (Sorry for any scratches -- not really in line of sight, though.)

 

[SKI-3PO]

I “heard” that if one or more of the 8 doesn’t remove their feet from the footrest, the bar will not raise automatically, resulting in a late jump off the chair or possible round trip.

 

[Andy Mink]

I “heard” that if one or more of the 8 doesn’t remove their feet from the footrest, the bar will not raise automatically, resulting in a late jump off the chair or possible round trip.

We made sure to call out "feet off!" after hearing from someone who got hollered at by the lifty when they forgot. Kind of the same as "bar down!".