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Lorenzzo

Be The Snow
Skier
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
2,984
Location
UT
T-bars are a whole other beast :crash:

I mean a tow rope!

539w.jpg


Damn hard on gloves too!
Stipulated...I just think the capacity for looking and feeling stupid might surpass.
 

skibob

Skiing the powder
Skier
Joined
Jan 5, 2016
Posts
4,268
Location
Santa Rosa Fire Belt
Just for fun, I googled for pics of Nashville Alps (Indiana) and found this. The, um mountain, on the right was the "expert" slope. Double black diamond and all. But I actually remember being afraid of it!! The intermediate runs were to the left. The tow rope was in the foreground, just beyond the footbridge. An area that, for the life of me looks flat now. Thread drift? Oh, all those chairs (well, both of them) were fixed.

By the way, I've told the story of dropping one of my skis in the creek before. Yeah, that's the bridge.

Schooner-Valley-1-small1-940x626.jpg
 

x10003q

Out on the slopes
Skier
Joined
Nov 19, 2015
Posts
750
Location
NYC Metro
A high speed chair does NOT shorten time in the lift line on a busy day. It actually makes the time you stand at the bottom LONGER when you could be sitting on a slower moving chair. Two quad chairs side by side, one detachable and one fixed grip move the same number of skiers up at roughly the same load and unload rates.. but the detachable has fewer chairs, spaced farther apart, moving up faster, shorter ride. Fixed grip has more chairs on the cable, i.e. more people sitting down where the detachable has fewer chairs for people to sit in and more people stacked up at the bullwheel waiting for fewer, but faster moving chairs.

Now, on a not so busy day the detachable will get you a LOT more laps in a shorter amount of time. But when there is a line backed up, the only detachable that is faster are the ones with more seats on each chair.

I'd rather sit on a slow chair riding up than stand at the bottom in a packed corral waiting for a faster chair.

Not exactly.

Detachables are much easier to load and unload vs fixed grip chairs. Fixed grip chairs generally stop a lot more than detachables due to loading and unloading problems, especially if the fg lift serves green and blue terrain.

If you ski in the northeast, it is usually warmer standing in line for 7 minutes and having a 7 minute high speed ride vs having a 17 minute ride hanging in the wind. ;)
 

Dave Marshak

All Time World Champion
Skier
Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Posts
1,454
Two quad chairs side by side, one detachable and one fixed grip move the same number of skiers up at roughly the same load and unload rates.. but the detachable has fewer chairs, spaced farther apart, moving up faster, shorter ride. Fixed grip has more chairs on the cable, i.e. more people sitting down where the detachable has fewer chairs for people to sit in and more people stacked up at the bullwheel waiting for fewer, but faster moving chairs.
Actually, detachables have a lot more capacity than fixed-grip quads. It's all about the loading. Theoretically, all lifts load one chair per 7 seconds, but fixed-grip quads rarely run that fast. A detachable with a poor loading zone can run 30% below it's theoretical capacity, and the best fixed grips are worse than the worst detachables for loading errors and stoppages. That was the whole point of switching to detachable.

The best lift of all is, of course, the Mad River Glen single. Faster rope speed and than other fixed-grips; shorter loading interval and fewer empty seats, loading errors or stoppages than a detachable.

dm
 

Crank

Making fresh tracks
Skier
Joined
Dec 19, 2015
Posts
2,626
Give me a slow loading, fast moving, plushly cushioned detachable any day! Except when it's too windy out to run it, then give me a bang you in the back, crawl to the top ever so slowly fixed grip... just get me up the damn hill!
 

fullStack

Getting on the lift
Skier
Joined
Jan 9, 2016
Posts
194
Location
Earth
It does take some getting used to, but way better than the old lift, no?

Actually we never used the old lift - both girls were too young at that point. I will say the lift operators have always done a great job with the new one so it's not terrible, just odd...maybe if the carpet extended another 10 feet or so it would be less weird. Fortunately they all would rather ski Rex, GV or FQ anyway.


Back on the topic of homage, my favorite fixed grip quad was Shooting Star at Mt Hood Meadows (before it was upgraded to an express of course). I probably have enough hours logged on it to get some kind of junior pilot's license.
 

CharlieP

Putting on skis
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Joined
Aug 23, 2016
Posts
48
Location
MD suburbs of DC
Sept 20, 2016

About 10-15 years ago at my home mountain, Ski Liberty here in south central Pa, there was some heated discussions about putting in a detachable quad. After a while, the talk cooled down and it never came to pass. A decent interval later, I discussed this with the area GM. He gave two reasons. The first one was that at that point in time, in order for a detachable quad to operate, the length of the ride had to be a certain minimum distance. In order to achieve that minimum, the chair line would have to be adjusted so that it would cut the corner of a piece of private property. The asking price for either the right to cross the property line or the outright purchase, I'm not sure which, was prohibitive. The second reason, was that the super quad would dump too many skiers onto the mountain, making for more densely populated ski trails and lower the quality and enjoyment for all. Probably with the passing of time, the minimum length for a super quad might have decreased, but we are still a "fixed" grip chairlift mountain. I have no complaints or arguments. Like someone else said, my legs now appreciate the rest afforded by the slower lifts.

Now, if I could only purchase some music for my 8 track, I'm on my way.

CP

ps: due to the larger width of the magnetic tape on the 8 track, it contained more magnetic material per inch and thus more dense information could be recorded on it, potentially making the sound quality (higher signal noise ratio) better than the cassettes which replaced it.
 

crgildart

Gravity Slave
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Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
16,328
Location
The Bull City
Not exactly.

Detachables are much easier to load and unload vs fixed grip chairs. Fixed grip chairs generally stop a lot more than detachables due to loading and unloading problems, especially if the fg lift serves green and blue terrain.

If you ski in the northeast, it is usually warmer standing in line for 7 minutes and having a 7 minute high speed ride vs having a 17 minute ride hanging in the wind. ;)
Not exactly. In the east most chairs are well protected from wind by trees, except right at the top where the area is cleared. That's the spot it sucks to be.stuck in when the lift stops on a cold, windy day. I'd still rather be sitting than standing when not actually skiing. Fixed grip makes that more likely even with stoppage time factored in.
 

SkiNurse

Spontaneous Christy
SkiTalk Tester
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Nov 9, 2015
Posts
1,698
Location
Colorado
Ahhh, the fixed grip chair. (Careful, I'm about to have an emotion.....)
It gives us time to chat, reflect on the day & sip on the flask. Not a bad way to spend time with people that count in your life. :hug:
 

Jim Kenney

Travel Correspondent
Team Gathermeister
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Joined
Nov 27, 2015
Posts
3,588
Location
VA
T-bars are a whole other beast :crash:

I mean a tow rope!

539w.jpg


Damn hard on gloves too!

You can't post a cool picture like that and not tell us Who, Where, When.
 

spackler

Booting up
Skier
Joined
Nov 15, 2015
Posts
31
At my tiny hill in western Quebec, we have 3 fixed doubles and a tee bar. There is an unassembled 4th fixed grip double sitting in the parking lot waiting to be installed at some point in the vague future. Sometimes, on a very nice day, the chair lift lines can get into the 10+ minute range, but the slopes are never overcrowded, and the tee bar never has much of a line up. You generally know a lot of people in the line up, so it's easy to pass the time without ever worrying about it too much. It all seems to work out.
 

skibob

Skiing the powder
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Joined
Jan 5, 2016
Posts
4,268
Location
Santa Rosa Fire Belt
Not exactly. In the east most chairs are well protected from wind by trees, except right at the top where the area is cleared. That's the spot it sucks to be.stuck in when the lift stops on a cold, windy day. I'd still rather be sitting than standing when not actually skiing. Fixed grip makes that more likely even with stoppage time factored in.
You do NOT ski in Tahoe, do you? I've observed 127 mph winds at the weather station on top of Mt Lincoln (Sugar Bowl). Admittedly this was during a full blown blizzard, but that's like Category 4 Hurricane if it were tropical!

As for actually being there, on slide side of Mt Rose last year, we all sat on the lift with our skis vertical because we were genuinely concerned that the wind might blow one of the kids' skis off. No, really. We abandoned slide side after that.
 

MikeS

freeski919
Instructor
Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Posts
162
Location
New England
Not exactly. In the east most chairs are well protected from wind by trees, except right at the top where the area is cleared. That's the spot it sucks to be.stuck in when the lift stops on a cold, windy day. I'd still rather be sitting than standing when not actually skiing. Fixed grip makes that more likely even with stoppage time factored in.

Mmmhmm. Come ride the Fourrunner at Stowe with me on a day that's -10 with a 20mph wind coming over the ridge and through the Notch. When that route was fixed grips, they had to give out blankets at the bottom so people didn't freeze to the chairs by the top.

I'll take high speeds any day. Any time crowded enough for the lift to be running at capacity, I'm working and skip the line anyways. No line plus faster lift ride means more runs.
 

scott43

So much better than a pro
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
13,552
Location
Great White North
I learned on one of those. Damn hard on the jacket too! Used have a big patch around the middle of the jacket.

Funny story..I was about 12 going up the t-bar and I was poking my pole in the snow on the way up..bored..and I dropped my pole. So I decided to step off the t-bar and get my pole and ski down. There was a fair bit of soft snow under the down side of the lift and I kinda got hung up and fell over. So I look up to see where my pole is below me and WHACK..I get the down t-bar in the back of the head..I was thinking..wtf?!? Before I figured it out..WHACK..another one.. I mean, how stupid do you have to be?!?! :roflmao::bloodymary:
 

scott43

So much better than a pro
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
13,552
Location
Great White North
I do enjoy grinding up the summit lift at Whiteface..nice cool breeze..listening to the squeaky wheels..enjoying the view..no rush..it's like driving in the slow lane when there's stupid traffic..
 

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