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nay

dirt heel pusher
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From the press release:

The iconic Sunnyside Lift within the Mary Jane Territory at Winter Park Resort is getting a much-needed upgrade with the addition of a new high-speed, six-passenger chairlift for the 2019-20 season, part of $16 million in investment for next season.

The three-person, fixed-grip Sunnyside, which was installed in 1989, will be replaced by a $6 million Leitner-Poma detachable high-speed six-pack, increasing uphill capacity by 800 people per hour and reducing the ride time from eight minutes to 3.8. This increased efficiency will also greatly reduce lift lines at the bottom of Parsenn Bowl and facilitate ingress/egress through the Lunch Rock area.

In addition to the new chairlift, over $1 million will be invested in summer operations, part of an ongoing plan to revitalize Winter Park’s summer offerings. Two new base-area ropes courses will be added for this summer, along with an indoor/outdoor climbing wall, and landscaping improvements that integrate with the new village and gondola plazas to create more areas for guests to simply relax and enjoy Colorado’s incredible summer days. Winter Park will also undergo significant enhancements to its hiking trails, furthering the resort’s commitment to on-mountain hiking, while also investing an additional $250,000 in bike trail improvements at Trestle Bike Park, the country’s premier downhill mountain bike park.

The resort also plans on spending $7 million in maintenance projects, improving service of lifts, slope-maintenance, and food/beverage offerings throughout the resort. Over the last two seasons, over $50 million has been invested into Winter Park Resort, with this year’s improvements adding to the momentum created by the popular new gondola and village plaza projects from last year.

Winter Park’s new additions are just part of Alterra Mountain Company’s plans to invest $181 million in capital improvements across its 14 North American mountain destinations for the upcoming year. These capital projects are part of an ambitious improvement plan totaling more than half a billion dollars through the 2022-2023 season, focused on elevating the guest experience at all destinations.

The Ikon Pass, of which Winter Park is a part along with 37 other world-class destinations, goes on sale tomorrow.
 

doc

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Didn't see two things I was looking for in this announcement:
Replacement of the detachable Pano lift with a fixed grip, in order to lessen the ridiculous number of wind shutdowns on the existing Pano lift.
Upgrade of the Eagle Wind lift, to avoid the all-too-frequent breakdowns, like yesterday's (a very high traffic day) which resulted in a veritable vomit of skiers from the Eagle Wind line down the narrow cat track, and subsequent flats, to the Pioneer lift. Remarkable no one got hurt in WP's version of The Running of the Bulls.
 

tball

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Yea, a six pack on Sunnyside seems drastically unnecessary to serve that terrain.
Agreed. On the positive side, it could help keep people off the front side of the Jane who see a long line at the slow Sunnyside lift and ski around.
 
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aerojack

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Yea, a six pack on Sunnyside seems drastically unnecessary to serve that terrain.

I’m not sure about a quad vs sixpack, but adding a high speed there makes a lot of sense for both skiers and the administration. That lift is by far my least favorite, and I’ll only take it as a last resort. The other option to get out sucks too though with that long cat track.

As mentioned, that leads to more folks at Superguage, which can get busy.

There is a lot of fun intermediate terrain accessible from that lift I would definitely hit on busy days.

And it encourages people to travel to the surely more profitable lunch destinations compared to my favorite spot - Pepperoni’s.

So it will get folks to a different, and likely under-used part of the mountain.

What is the difference in cost between a 4 seat vs 6? If I was putting in a new lift with 20-30 yr windows of operation, I’d think hard about not doing a 6 seater. Lift lines are the biggest complaint I see nowadays - surely they feel that too as evidenced with the gondola this season and this next.
 
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nay

nay

dirt heel pusher
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I’m not sure about a quad vs sixpack, but adding a high speed there makes a lot of sense for both skiers and the administration. That lift is by far my least favorite, and I’ll only take it as a last resort. The other option to get out sucks too though with that long cat track.

As mentioned, that leads to more folks at Superguage, which can get busy.

There is a lot of fun intermediate terrain accessible from that lift I would definitely hit on busy days.

And it encourages people to travel to the surely more profitable lunch destinations compared to my favorite spot - Pepperoni’s.

So it will get folks to a different, and likely under-used part of the mountain.

What is the difference in cost between a 4 seat vs 6? If I was putting in a new lift with 20-30 yr windows of operation, I’d think hard about not doing a 6 seater. Lift lines are the biggest complaint I see nowadays - surely they feel that too as evidenced with the gondola this season and this next.

I suspect the 6 pack reasoning is that a high speed quad doesn’t add much capacity over a 3 chair fixed. The article says it will increase capacity by 800 skiers per hour. Probably 400 of those will go straight into Lunch Rock :roflmao:.

It does make sense given Sunnyside sits between six packs. A lot of people will ride Pano and take Village Way to avoid Sunnyside, which is positioned as the backside offload lift. I don’t know that it adds a lot of skiers to that terrain so much as makes exiting Parsenn a lot more efficient.
 

Magi

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... It does make sense given Sunnyside sits between six packs. A lot of people will ride Pano and take Village Way to avoid Sunnyside, which is positioned as the backside offload lift. I don’t know that it adds a lot of skiers to that terrain so much as makes exiting Parsenn a lot more efficient.

I know a 4 minute ride time will make it so that I'm willing to actually lap the Sunnyside accessed terrain.
 

mikel

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Well, at least they didn't say anything about parking 'improvements'.

RIGHT!!! because you know what that would mean.

I figured they decided to go with the high speed 6 to make it easier to clear out the hordes of people waiting at Pano during a shutdown. :roflmao:

I got my "See You Next Season" email from WP (not IKON) this morning. Unlimited with no blackout dates $449
 
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Freaq

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On mornings when the Pano is red but spinning it will be much more palatable to go put eyes on it.
 

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