Homage to the Fixed-Grip Chair

[fullStack]

I don't know why I thought this thread was limited to "fixed grip quads" before. Limited attention span or something.
Since everyone is getting all double-icious, here are a couple more of my favorites from the good 'ol days:

Blue (double) at Mt Hood Meadows - ran adjacent to the "Mt Hood Express" (which I think was a high speed triple at the time, and since has been upgraded to a HS quad). The best part about Blue was that it had a steep enough exit ramp that snowboarders were VERBOTEN. Occasionally the express would shut down (probably icing up or general mechanical stuff but I was too young to notice or care). Much butt-hurt was uttered by the single-plankers until MHE got running again. Schadenfruede at its finest.

Red (double) at Mt Bachelor - Whether it was hitting quick steep-ish pow shots on Shorty or accessing quick boot packs up the Cinder Cone, Red would run in the worst weather when Pine Marten and Outback were on wind hold. And it's immortalized by Deschutes Brewery, talk about paying homage!

Upper Bowl (double) at Mt Hood Skibowl - Loved this chair which accessed some nice lit bump runs, you could ski laps as fast as you were able during midweek nights. Also during the day it accessed some unexpectedly good stuff (when open) off Tom Dick and Harry Peak (I am not making that name up).


Current favorites: Since we ski mostly at Crystal Mt in Washington, Chair 6 and Northway, although the line for Chair 6 can get brutal on weekend pow days. Doesn't everyone know the powder in the PNW sucks? Go to Utah or something people!

 

[Posaune]

A Cascades classic is Seventh Heaven at Stevens Pass.

The chair is short and steep from load to unload.

Getting off the chair for the first time on a clear day is an experience. You can't see anything of the ramp or area around it until you're on it and since you've reached the ridge line you have a sudden, beautiful view over the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and a steep slope with huge bumps right in front of you.

 

[Dave Petersen]

A Cascades classic is Seventh Heaven at Stevens Pass.

The chair is short and steep from load to unload.
View attachment 14010

Getting off the chair for the first time on a clear day is an experience. You can't see anything of the ramp or area around it until you're on it and since you've reached the ridge line you have a sudden, beautiful view over the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and a steep slope with huge bumps right in front of you.

View attachment 14011

That bottom pic is spectacular!

 

[David Chaus]

A Cascades classic is Seventh Heaven at Stevens Pass.

The chair is short and steep from load to unload.
View attachment 14010

Getting off the chair for the first time on a clear day is an experience. You can't see anything of the ramp or area around it until you're on it and since you've reached the ridge line you have a sudden, beautiful view over the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and a steep slope with huge bumps right in front of you.

View attachment 14011

One of the great things about 7th Heaven is that it's a short ride, and to get to it you take Skyline express quad. Even if there's line at the bottom of Skyline, once you're on the lift it's a quick trip to get to 7th, then a short ride on 7th which rarely has any lift lines to speak of. 5 minutes up Skyline and 2+ minutes to get up 7th, less than 10 minutes. Take about the same amount of time to ski back to the base, so 20-30 minutes to lap, assuming you're in skiing shape and not doing anything stupid. (It's great on demo days, really put a pair through it's paces on the terrain which tests a ski for you).

The vertical of the double black slopes are longer (around 1000' vert) than the 7th Heaven lift itself (437'), other than the chutes feeding back to the lift. It feels like it's cheating to have long, sustained double black terrain with easy access and without having to ride a long, slow, cold lift. However long the lifts lines are from the base, or how crowded the main blue runs get, the terrain from 7th is always pretty wide open.

 

[MikeS]

If you've only rode the Sensation quad how could you possibly know how cold riding the Mansfield single & double were? The Big Spruce double was still there long after the original Forerunner hsq went in. Forerunner went in 1985. Big Spruce double removed 2005.

I know how cold riding high speed lifts along the same routes are. I also ride the Lookout Double occasionally, which is a fixed grip with even greater exposure than the Fourrunner. The hive mind at Stowe goes pretty far back, and the older instructors like to wax poetic about how snot-freezingly cold the single and the double were.

 

[DanoT]

The original two seat Burfield chair at Tod Mountain (now called Sun Peaks) opened in 1961 (pre dates Whistler) and was an 18 minute ride for its first 15 years, slowed to 20 minutes (if it didn't break down) in its final 18 years of operating to mitigate wear and tear. At a 360/hour uphill capacity the powder could not be skied off in a day. But it didn't matter as mid week in the 1970s there would only be 30-50 people skiing, maybe 100 would show up on a Friday.

Nowadays the new fixed grip quad Burfield chair takes 22 minutes to cover 2894 vertical and most new skiers to SP ride it once and never return. With the Sun Peaks village and all the resort development a couple of miles away the Burf is less busy than it was in the Tod Mountain days of the 1980s and day long untouched powder is still a possibility due to slow speed plus lots of empty chairs on many mid week powder days.

In the 70s they gave out blanket lined canvas capes. This was in the days before synthetic underwear, Goretex, Polartec, or offset baffled down jackets or even warm up pants.

 

[Eleeski]

Olympic Lady at Squaw is one of the best chairs! Short, steep, reasonably wind protected and directly servicing some awesome terrain. When it's open it's usually worth a few laps. To be sure, you can access the terrain from KT but it's a longer lap (for the same amount of good stuff) and you get stuck with all the rest of the KT traffic. The magic is in its placement on the hill and the selective operating days (only the best?).

Other than that, give me a modern high speed detachable. I avoid trams, gondolas, t-bars or rope tows. And I'm way too lazy to hike!

Eric

 

[skibob]

I like C Chair and 6 Chair at Breckenridge. Rarely have I ever had to wait at all especially on C Chair, plus I like riding alone.

"When I ride alone, I prefer to be by myself . . . "

 

[crgildart]

As much as I love the slower ride and rest break between runs, I gotta say I'd probably not be that keen on rides over 15 minutes with no footrest.

 

[DanoT]

I'm not keen on the chairs that I often find without safety bars while skiing in the USA.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

http://www.outsideonline.com/2069911/your-local-chairlift-could-kill-you

 

[crgildart]

http://www.outsideonline.com/2069911/your-local-chairlift-could-kill-you

We'll be riding ThunderStruck AGAIN this February!

 

[Jim Kenney]

My "home" ski area where I first skied 50 seasons ago is Blue Knob, in western PA. They are still using two fixed grip double chairs constructed within a year of each other from the time the ski area opened in 1963-64. This is one of my favorite photos of the most heavily used of those top-to-bottom double chairs at Blue Knob. Not only does the occupant of the chair make it clear that you are in Steelers country, but he was built like a member of the Steel Curtain:

Here's another view of jgiddy and ski-3po on this chair near the Blue Knob summit (elevation ~3100'); note the bizarre crisscrossing of two additional old fixed grip lifts at this location on the mountain.

Here's jimmy on Thunderstruck fixed grip triple at Timberline, WV, another beloved but creaky old mid-Atlantic ski lift.

The second old fixed triple at Timberline:

 

[Tricia]

Guess this chair?

 

[Philpug]

@Tricia & @DeAnn Sloan
​

 

[Erik Timmerman]

You guys are scaring me with all these antiques!

 

[Prickly Jones]

Maybe it's just the expanse of rides like this one, on the backside of my hill, that makes me hate fixed-grip chairs these days. A slow ride through the woods on one of the chairs you guys have shown doesn't sound so bad in comparison.

 

[Philpug]

You guys are scaring me with all these antiques!

@Tricia just turned 50, but I would hardly call her an antique.

 

[Tricia]

Then there is this article from Outside Online
Is your local chairlift a death trap?

Talk about the Anti-Homage to the Fixed Grip Chair

 

[Jim Kenney]

View attachment 14494

@Tricia & @DeAnn Sloan
​

My guess is both photos from A-Basin. Is the first the old lift they replaced with a new HSQ to Black Mtn Lodge??

By the way, photo of Jimmy above was taken about one month before that exact lift had the major failure talked about in Outside Mag article.