Crystal Chair 6 replament and other new chairs

Announcement

Chair Six damaged on March 10Th is going to be replaced with another fixed grip double -- good IMO.   

QuickSilver is going to be replaced with a fixed grip quad -- and will be 250 shorter -- catering to beginning intermediates -- seems OK to me

However -- it looks like they do have plans to build a new Bullion Basin chair -- mixed feelings here -- on the plus side it could make the exit from Bullion Basin easier skiing,  particularly in early season,  OTH I wonder how much conflict between uphill skiers and lift skiers will result.   Crystal's skinning policy so far has been fine -- hopefully it will remain so.

Goodbye Bullion....

From the map they've posted


The new chair appears to top out at the same location as the old Bullion Basin lift. I supect the new lift is all about improving condo access for the properties along the east side of valley.

The old Bullion Basin lift was moved to it's Gold Hills location in the '80s -- I'll bet that the new chair will include snow making so people can ski in/out of their condos at lunch time.

That map is confusing because it is posted up side down. Shouldn't Bullion Basin be on the left(East) side of the map and Northway be the top(North) side?

That map is confusing because it is posted up side down. Shouldn't Bullion Basin be on the left(East) side of the map and Northway be the top(North) side?

You're right - South is up in that map. Somehow the odd orientation seems natural to me, as it's the way things are laid out when you drive into the parking lot...

Went for a half day hike at xtal and lo and behold there was a huge, double rotor heli revving up in the B lot, with all the C6 & 4 towers neatly layed out. Sat on the A lot curb over looking B, munching lunch and watched THE MACHINE pick up a few lift towers and rocket them to the top of 6.  Very cool.   Then the better half and I high tailed it up Skid Road/Downhill to the Campbell Basin lodge, sat in one of the CB lift chairs in the warm sun and watched the rustlers wrestle the towers onto the footings and bolt them down.  THEY AND THE PILOT HAVE MY RESPECT. 

A couple times the pilot would get a tower up there,  try and finess it down to the rustlers and after 5 or 10 minutes, (yeh, really, 5 or 10 minutes!) of dangling danger decide it was just too heavy and rocket it back to B lot, lay it down for the crew to unbolt the top carriage assembly, while he zapped the next tower up the hill to set in place.  Then he'd come back for the now topless bare pole, fly it up and set it.  Then fetch the separated top carriage and, while some crazies were hanging off the tower ladder 30 feet up the pole, lower it down to them.  Then they'd some how get the carriage turned around to line up the bolt holes, drop em in and wrench 'em down, all while this ton of metal is dangling from the heli.  This was incredible stuff.

Some times they'd get the tower pinned immediately, lucky I guess, and it was like one of those fast motion, time delay movies, also impressive.  Other times it took a long time, (once they bent a foundation bolt and it took a while to get it straightened) or they just couldn't get it lined up right taking many minutes to finally get it down and bolted.  I spoke with one of the xtal bosses there and he said they'd hoped to do all of C6 and C4 today, but the copter arrived late, plus the couple times having to mess around with extra trips to unbolt the carriage assemblies, doubling the number of trips and scary alignment/attachment rodeos, caused several delays.  The sun slipped away about 5 pm and we hiked back down.  We heard them place a few more towers which would mean they got down around the flats below the lodge.

It was enjoyable sitting in the sun chatting with the xtal folks and the state tram inspector getting all the inside scoop on the process.  The company building the chair is out of Salt Lake and is new in the business.  Apparently the extra copter time, ($7000/hr) is on the tram builders dime and won't cost xtal extra.  Poor manufacturer, he probably lost 50+K today because of his optimistic assumption that the copter would be able to place every tower as a complete assembly and not have to make the many extra trips for the ground crew in B lot to separate the carriage from the towers on a couple of the bigger assemblys.  Hopefully it will go better today with lower (thicker air) elevations.

Up shot is that if you've got the time you should be able to see the same thing today and you won't have to walk as far to see the C4 towers slung into place. 

Gotta go to the dentist.  No time to proof read, but you get the idea.  It was really cool and it looks like they will really have C6 up and running.

Now edited to add:  Back from the dentist, one less tooth.  I wanted to also say that there still is a 150 foot diameter, debris covered, pile of snow, 15 or 20 feet deep left from the slide just below the lower C6 terminus, (Queens Run Glacier?).  Get you Tay on for Oct.

Eric

If you wait a couple weeks you can watch them at Hyak do the same thing. They are currently getting the tower footings ready for the cement and I'd guess by the 3rd week this month the towers should be going into place.

What are they doing at Hyak? Couldn't find anything on the interwebz.

www.summitatsnoqualmie.com/news/new-chairlift-summit-east

Thanks Charlie.
I think my problem is I refuse to think of it as anything other than Hyak. Google knows that area by a different name...
Hopefully it will still be closed on weekdays

I would be surprised if they invest this much money and still only opened Sat/Sun but who knows. I would like to at least see Friday's return. You can follow the progress here:

www.flickr.com/photos/hyak/sets/72157645520193533/detail

I wanted to also say that there still is a 150 foot diameter, debris covered, pile of snow, 15 or 20 feet deep left from the slide just below the lower C6 terminus, (Queens Run Glacier?).  Get you Tay on for Oct.

Dang, we should have done that poll I suggested back in March :

So anybody want to start a poll on when the snow brought down by the Throne avalanche finally melts this summer? Or will it persist until next season?

Hi Lowell,

No doubt in my mind that the pile of snow will last til the snow flys this year.  I would even venture to guess that with good snowfall this season and coolish summer it may last thru next year as well.  Pretty awesome pile of snow ….. for October.

xtal site yesterday noon (haven't looked this morning) says they were well on their way on chair 4 so maybe they got it all done.

Also I heard the first 20 names were drawn for the old C6 chairs and they are in the process of contacting those chosen.  Then they will go to the next 20 and so on til they're all gone.  I was told the names are chosen from a lottery and not by who signed up first.   I think I recall there's ~180 chairs and 1800 names.  Sounds like there may be some declines due the the $900+ price tag.  Crossing my fingers.  The C4 chairs went to those left over from the miners basin chair list of a few years ago.

Eric

Saw this in the DJC today

$900 for the Crystal chairs? Dang.....I'm selling my dino double chair for $200, maybe I should raise my price? =)

i got a Baker chair for 6.

I have an old double from Baker in my backyard that was a gift. I think I'd rather spend $900 on a pass or some new gear. No offense to anyone interested in buying a chair from Crystal, but $900 seems pretty ridiculous to me. On the other hand, when they sell them all, they stand to make $162,000 and if folks are willing to pay up then more power to them.

FYI, towers are supposed to be flying at Hyak this week (today in fact, depending on weather).

Towers at Hyak

vimeo.com/111369156

i got a Baker chair for 6.

Damn. I feel lucky because I bought two of the Mt Baker Chair 4/5 lift chairs from the ski area for less than that (don't remember the exact cost, though). They even cut up & welded the support arm to turn it into a base for the chairs. I think after they got rid of the 4/5 chairs, they realized that they could make some money by doing so.