 Poster: A snowHead
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Always interested to see what resorts are investing in new ski lifts for the next season. Anyone aware of any new lifts going in for next year?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Massive one being built 750m away in front of us, replacing the Pointillas lift here in La Salle / Villeneuve Serre Chevalier - 2,700 per hour - evidently there is a sign up all about it and what it will replace which I'll take a pic of.
They closed the old lift end of Feb hols and started work immediately on the demolition of the old one, hope is that they have it running in time for the start of next season, but that's going to be a very tight schedule.
Evidently, they're building the lift infrastructure first and the surrounding buildings the following year.
For those that know Serre it will finish above the Frejus Cafe on the plateau by the Mea drags, and no mid-station.
Once that is up and running then they'll close the old Frejus gondola.
We're not too sure what will happen with parking etc there's a lot of development going on with four new apartment blocks as well.
All you need to know
https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=38500
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Two projects currently underway in the PDS:
Morgins: Replacement of the main and slow 3-srater village La Foilleuse with a 10 person fully automated gondola that can be run fully un-supervised (2nd if it’s type) and will fit mountain bikes inside the cabin in summer. Removes a bottle neck at Morgins village and makes it a viable skiing starting point in CH instead of driving onto Châtel.
Avoriaz: Replacemet of TSD4 Lac-Intrets chair with a new 6 seater and also raising the height and moving the top station to provide easier access to existing terrain. A modern six seater will ease queueing of this popular main area of Avoriaz but I don’t see the point in the environmental impact of creating a new lift-line and top station area.
https://www.passionportesdusoleil.com/chantiers/
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Paradiski, La Plagne the Bellecôte lift is changing to a new one. I think this is mainly to try and reduce the environmental impact of that particular area of La Plagne. Plus gives Summer and Winter access to that area (although it is slightly adjusted, so not quite the same) but slightly lower, but of course still above 3,000m.
Opening December 2023! https://www.skipass-laplagne.com/en/projets
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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The problem with new lifts the payoff is new accommodation to pay for it , sometimes it’s worthwhile other times it creates problems .
For an example I’ve been going to La Rosiere for day trips to La Thuile from Ste Foy for years and they desperately needed the two lifts up to Mont Valaisan to add some variation , in my view ,to a rather boring piste offering , this has come hand in hand with a big club med and several new apartment blocks resulting in two great lifts and pistes but loads more people who aren’t being dispersed onto the new but difficult area . I’ve got to be honest on the three trips I’ve made there this season I couldn’t wait to get over the border to La Thuile out of the Carnage .
Last edited by You'll need to Register first of course. on Tue 11-04-23 10:26; edited 1 time in total
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The Transarc in Arc 1800 is being replaced. No longer the need to stand/perch, but a 10 seat gondola that will ascend faster. Hooray as that's an uncomfortable ride, but a useful lift.
https://www.snowindustrynews.com/articles/2022/september/les-arc-s-transarc-is-beginning-its-metamorphosis/
I'd love to see them put a removable rope tow in for the hill and flat between Villards and Dahu. We stayed that side of 1800 and the kids were having lessons with Evo2, so that was a trudge in the mornings. There's a rope tow on the much flatter uphill section on the approach to 2000, so it would be awesome to have one in 1800. Removable as it's not needed in the summer
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@Owlette, what’s the payoff in accommodation to pay for this ? I’m sure there will be one .
La Plagne and Les Arcs are packed as it is now
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| telford_mike wrote: |
Huge new 3 stage cable car here in the Bernese Oberland from Stechelberg up to the Schilthorn via Mürren.
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They'll have to make sure it doesn't get blown up by the British secret service
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Ozboy wrote: |
Morgins: Replacement of the main and slow 3-seater village La Foilleuse with a 10 person fully automated gondola that can be run fully un-supervised (2nd if it’s type) and will fit mountain bikes inside the cabin in summer. Removes a bottle neck at Morgins village and makes it a viable skiing starting point in CH instead of driving onto Châtel.
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In fact there's almost never a real bottleneck there, but it is now so old that it's no longer viable to keep maintaining it. Replacement parts are no longer manufactured, it seems, so even the most minor repairs can end up costing a lot. It also takes about 9 minutes for the ascent which will be much quicker with the new lift.
Work has already started around the base station, some pre-work at the top, dismantling some wooden buildings, was already evident a few weeks ago. It means that there won't be any uplift available for mountain bikers this summer but it's to be hoped that the new lift will bring more in future years.
| Ozboy wrote: |
Avoriaz: Replacemet of TSD4 Lac-Intrets chair with a new 6 seater and also raising the height and moving the top station to provide easier access to existing terrain. A modern six seater will ease queueing of this popular main area of Avoriaz but I don’t see the point in the environmental impact of creating a new lift-line and top station area.
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It's a bit flat with a push across in either direction, particularly towards the Combes area, so I can see the logic - questions of environmental impact are always difficult, but I don't really see why building the top station a little higher should be notably worse than simply putting it in the same place. In any event the pylons, some of which are nearly 40 years old, will all need replacing (I assume) for the new installation, so little or nothing of the old top station could realistically have remained intact.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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As far as I know the plans are still on for a new gondola at St Gervais linking the railway station at Le Fayet with the current gondola from the town up to Bettex. Certainly the official planning permission signs for new construction have been placed both in the Le Fayet car park and the skilift car park, and some work has been done clearing the ground where the top station of the new link is planned. However like all such projects there is controversy about whether it will stay within budget, https://groupe-ecomedia.com/saint-gervais-45-millions-pour-lascenseur-valleen-et-la-telecabine/
Of course this won't open up the ski area in any way, it will allow day visitors to come by train instead of car and boost Le Fayet as a base for skiing. It is intended to operate year-round which will be a benefit to those who visit at other times and use public transport - though what would be nice is if it acts as a spur for SNCF to create a faster train service.
The idea is that it will be in operation for the 23-24 ski season, which will need a lot of work on the top station in particular. The ultimate plan is that the top station of the new gondola will be combined with a new bottom station for the existing gondola onwards up to Bettex (the existing station would be demolished and the cabling extended another 100m across the car park to the new building) but it seems a tall order to achieve that as well on a nine-month schedule including operation during the summer season.
In the wider Evasion Mont Blanc, I think the new configuration of the Rochebrune-Cote 2000 ski lifts is also planned for next year. As I understand it, the idea is for two new chairlifts (crossing each other) to replace the current Petite Fontaine and Jardin chairlifts and the Lanchettes and Rochefort drags. They will allow much easier access to and from the Cote 2000 area from Megeve, and presumably will involve reconfiguring a number of pistes which could be interesting. It would be nice to think it could also be a spur to upgrading the current painfully slow Cote 2000 chairlift.
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You know it makes sense.
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@Rob Mackley, I'm hoping this is just a replacement for a really crap lift - it's desperately in need of replacement
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| eps wrote: |
Paradiski, La Plagne the Bellecôte lift is changing to a new one. I think this is mainly to try and reduce the environmental impact of that particular area of La Plagne. Plus gives Summer and Winter access to that area (although it is slightly adjusted, so not quite the same) but slightly lower, but of course still above 3,000m.
Opening December 2023! https://www.skipass-laplagne.com/en/projets |
I highly doubt it. It's mainly about reducing costs, as they can now scrap two chairs (Chiaupe and Traversée), and provide a better on-piste experience for intermediate skiers. The environmental points come in handy for the piste-work to be done. For off-piste skiers it's a shame.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Big works to come in Valmorel: They will scrap their first fast installation, the bubbled 4-seater Altispace, this summer and build a 10-place gondola instead.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Boris, I take it you are referring to the Transarc if so yes it does need replacing however I do remember it going in and what it replaced , the Grand Renard chair at the time . That’s when charmettoger was being first built and look what’s happened since .
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Not lifts, but in La Chapelle D’Abondance they’ve spent €1.8m on new snow making for the Cret Beni area. Now I love Cret Beni, but it’s a limited set of runs not linked to the wider PDS area. At €30 a day ticket you’ve got to sell an additional 60,000 days to pay back! Clearly there’s some spin off revenue in terms of accommodation, food, ski hire etc, but still seems like a tall order to make it pay back.
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| Rob Mackley wrote: |
@Owlette, what’s the payoff in accommodation to pay for this ? I’m sure there will be one .
La Plagne and Les Arcs are packed as it is now |
I'm sorry, I don't understand your question.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Owlette, he is suggesting that they will build more accommodation in order to get in more punters in order to pay for the upgrade.
And further suggesting that the ski area already has more punters than it can cope with.
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| Chaletbeauroc wrote: |
| Ozboy wrote: |
| Morgins: Replacement of the main and slow 3-seater village La Foilleuse |
Work has already started around the base station,
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Aaaand the old lift is no more. Helico been coming and going for the last hour or two, now all but the bottom-most pylon have been lifted down to the road level and they're still going.
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| Layne wrote: |
@Owlette, he is suggesting that they will build more accommodation in order to get in more punters in order to pay for the upgrade.
And further suggesting that the ski area already has more punters than it can cope with. |
Thanks.
Seems unnecessarily argumentative when all I did was contribute with a fact of what is happening, and muse on a lift I wished existed. Presumably budgeting for the new Transarc has already happened, especially given that it's Phase 2 of the works to update that side of 1800.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@Layne, Thank you , I wasn’t being argumentative at all but every time there is a any major lift upgrade extra accommodation always seems to arrive and yes I do think Les Arcs and La Plagne are packed , pretty sure they have one if the highest bed to lift capacity ratios around . @Owlette, Please look at my earlier post about La Rosiere not argumentative just an observation .
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| j b wrote: |
As far as I know the plans are still on for a new gondola at St Gervais linking the railway station at Le Fayet with the current gondola from the town up to Bettex. Certainly the official planning permission signs for new construction have been placed both in the Le Fayet car park and the skilift car park, and some work has been done clearing the ground where the top station of the new link is planned. However like all such projects there is controversy about whether it will stay within budget, https://groupe-ecomedia.com/saint-gervais-45-millions-pour-lascenseur-valleen-et-la-telecabine/
Of course this won't open up the ski area in any way, it will allow day visitors to come by train instead of car and boost Le Fayet as a base for skiing. It is intended to operate year-round which will be a benefit to those who visit at other times and use public transport - though what would be nice is if it acts as a spur for SNCF to create a faster train service.
The idea is that it will be in operation for the 23-24 ski season, which will need a lot of work on the top station in particular. The ultimate plan is that the top station of the new gondola will be combined with a new bottom station for the existing gondola onwards up to Bettex (the existing station would be demolished and the cabling extended another 100m across the car park to the new building) but it seems a tall order to achieve that as well on a nine-month schedule including operation during the summer season.
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AFAIK they have broen ground on this one already!
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| j b wrote: |
In the wider Evasion Mont Blanc, I think the new configuration of the Rochebrune-Cote 2000 ski lifts is also planned for next year. As I understand it, the idea is for two new chairlifts (crossing each other) to replace the current Petite Fontaine and Jardin chairlifts and the Lanchettes and Rochefort drags. They will allow much easier access to and from the Cote 2000 area from Megeve, and presumably will involve reconfiguring a number of pistes which could be interesting. |
Not a great chance of this happening anytime soon, construction brought to a halt by a very nasty pesudo enviromental group with heavy backing!
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You know it makes sense.
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| j b wrote: |
| It would be nice to think it could also be a spur to upgrading the current painfully slow Cote 2000 chairlift. |
Not even on the long term internal plannnig! The current lifts whist slow, have more than enough capacity to deal with the skier numbers.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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Thanks @Idris for the update.
My thinking was that once (if) the reconfigured chairs make it easier to reach Cote 2000 there will be more people wanting to use that top chair.
Your use of the word "pseudo" in relation to the local environmental lobby presumably relates to the way the proposed lifts wouldn't impact very much differently from the current ones in environmental terms. There are some people who will always oppose for the sake of it. Interestingly the works boards listing planning permissions were in place last winter, which I thought would have meant all objections had been considered and the project been approved.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Two lifts planned for construction this year in the Arlberg: Grubenalpbahn in Lech, and Albonabahn 1 in St Anton.
A replacement for Rotschrofenbahn is somewhere early in the planning cycle, as is a gondola to connect Schröcken Dorf to the ski area. The latter has been talked for years and even appears on the ski map as a dotted line marked “proposed”.
IMHO, I think Riffel 1 and Seekopfbahn should be the replaced. Riffel 1 is a long lift and, especially early in the season, it can get too cold to comfortably do many laps. It serves 2 pistes directly, access to Riffel 2, plus a multitude of slack country lines. Over in Zürs, the slope capacity on the Seekopf side far exceeds the lift capacity, with big queues in the morning on both lifts. That said, those queues disappear at lunchtime and often don’t return, but I would still replace one of them with a 6 or 8-seat chair.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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While in Meribel last week they were talking about a replacement for the Sauliere Express with what will be the fastest bubble lift in the world.
Seemed odd since that lift isn’t that old since Folie Douce paid for the last upgrade, would rather they paid for an upgrade to Rhodos
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Fitzsimmons chair in Whistler currently being replaced by an 8-seater. Not going to change much for skiing as this links up with Garbanzo for upload which is going to still be a 4-seater, but it is the main bike upload chair so probably going to be good for summer.
Going to be an 8-seater replacing Jersey Cream too - this will be much more useful for skiing. Unfortunately not coming quite so soon as Doppelmayr couldn't get it done this year
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Idris wrote: |
| j b wrote: |
| It would be nice to think it could also be a spur to upgrading the current painfully slow Cote 2000 chairlift. |
Not even on the long term internal plannnig! The current lifts whist slow, have more than enough capacity to deal with the skier numbers. |
TBH I’m usually quite glad of the rest on the two slow chairs after chasing the youngster down Stade Descente in one sitting.
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Fair enough @Jonny996, our children are good at showing us up.
But I still feel the chairlifts let down what is a great little ski area.
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| Rob Mackley wrote: |
The problem with new lifts the payoff is new accommodation to pay for it , sometimes it’s worthwhile other times it creates problems .
For an example I’ve been going to La Rosiere for day trips to La Thuile from Ste Foy for years and they desperately needed the two lifts up to Mont Valaisan to add some variation , in my view ,to a rather boring piste offering , this has come hand in hand with a big club med and several new apartment blocks resulting in two great lifts and pistes but loads more people who aren’t being dispersed onto the new but difficult area . I’ve got to be honest on the three trips I’ve made there this season I couldn’t wait to get over the border to La Thuile out of the Carnage . |
They're extending the La Thuile Gondola to the peak for next year, though I suspect it's more aimed at summer mountain bikers. Would be nice if they improved some of the infrastructure for getting back and forth between the La Rosiere and La Thuile, it can get quite bottlenecked.
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| Rob Mackley wrote: |
The problem with new lifts the payoff is new accommodation to pay for it , sometimes it’s worthwhile other times it creates problems .
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Imho, it's more the other way round: They want more accomodation because of money. Then they are more inclined to upgrade lifts. Because people hate queues, while most of them are more okay with overcrowded pistes. I'm with you on the problem thing, though.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Ski resorts/ski areas have the same problem as many cities/countries have with population - what is optimal, how do you get there, how do you stay there?
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@Tristero, it's a bit more complicated than that. E.g. a few years ago Les Gets couldn't get regional permission to build more housing as there "wasn't enough for people to do", cue the plan to link into Samöens, increase the skiable area, trebles all round.
Anyway that plan didn't come off but they seem to have got  round the planning nonetheless
AFAICS, most lifts get replaced because they reach the end of service life.
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