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Resorts with state-of-the-art lift systems

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Another thread for you.

I want to know IMO the resort(s) with the most modern, fast, and efficient lift systems transporting skiiers.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
The vast majority of Saalbach, and St Anton, and the rest of Austria for that. PdS was archaic in comparison.
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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?
Bad Gastein has replaced a couple of gondola recently. I suppose the heated seat inside a gondola, with individual slot on the floor for the skis of each passenger, is enough for me to nominate it with state of the art lift system. Why skiers need to warn the bum when inside a weather-proof gondola is beyond me.

Others like Engelberg has revolving cable car. Think it rotates one 360 degree revolution in every trip.

Ahorn of Zillertal Valley claims to have the biggest cable car in the Alps.

The rich Swiss in Samnaun (linked with Ischgl) does do double decker for the cable car.

Zermatt on the other hand is hard to beat with the Europe highest cable car reaching a dizzy height of 3883m to Klein Matterhorn in addition to being one of the few places where you can stack the skis in a reserved rack, sit face to face with a group of friends to ride a train to the top of the skiing slope.

When it comes to the state of art for adventurous lift there is a single seater in Niseko that has no foot rest and no safety bar. The only sure way not to fall is to grab tight the vertical bar linked to the moving cable.


Last edited by Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see? on Fri 18-05-12 20:35; edited 1 time in total
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Hard to beat the 3V for well linked fast lifts, some bits still need upgrading but easy to miss out if you want to, also a few slow lifts on good areas to keep the crowds away.
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clarky999, st anton rather undermined by the ballfreezing epoch it takes to get up Schlinder's Lift.
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stevew,

I haven't done the 3Vs for about 10 years now, but there were a few slow exposed chairs that could have done with replacing the last time I was there.
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Obertauern and Ischgl are pretty good.
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After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Ischgl has gone from poor twenty years ago with unbelievably long T bars to being terrific with more to come.


Last edited by After all it is free Go on u know u want to! on Fri 18-05-12 21:50; edited 1 time in total
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Flachau/Wagrain
All high speed, mostly covered. Gondola to 1st station allows download when lower slopes struggling. Amazing.
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fatbob wrote:
clarky999, st anton rather undermined by the ballfreezing epoch it takes to get up Schlinder's Lift.


Yeah that is the exception, though personally I love that lift, great views as it goes over the ridge, and I kinda enjoy getting blitzed by the weather on it...

The Galzig makes up for it a bit though, I think it's the only gondola in the world you don't have to walk up stairs for (?), due to the ferris wheel design.
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clarky999, I do love that moment as you clear the ridge and it all falls away beneath you.

And watching the pick up on Galzigbahn is kind of hypnotic.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Agreed re Galzigbahn.
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One man's meat is another's poison! I loathe the lift system in Zermatt due to its reliance on rammed-full cable cars that force you to wait an age while they turn up and leave you knackered after you've spent 10 minutes ascending 1,000m whilst balancing on one leg and trying to avoid accidentally placing your hands on the wrong part of a stranger's anatomy. And some of the high speed chairlifts in the Arlberg spend most of their time traversing across the mountain rather than going up it. I want chairlifts, not the ski-removing faff of gondolas, cable cars and funiculars. I particularly don't want cable cars, drag lifts or funiculars; I want to sit down. I want high vertical speeds, not high horizontal speeds. I particularly want no queues.

But, most of all, I want the skiing to be good when I get to the top. What good is a great lift that leads to mediocre skiing? Far better to have a dismal lift that leads to epic skiing.
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 You know it makes sense.
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Revelstoke and Kicking Horse are both pretty recent. Pretty awesome terrain too.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Jonny Jones + 1. I ended up with a cracked rib from that cable car. Everybody was pushing as we came in and the floor was nearly sheer ice my feet went from underneath me due to being pushed and my back came down hard with back onto the blokes snowboard and bindings
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
One of my favourite resorts has a rubbish lift system. Sometimes what you do when you get off the lift is so good it really doesn't matter how you get up there...

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rob@rar wrote:
One of my favourite resorts has a rubbish lift system. Sometimes what you do when you get off the lift is so good it really doesn't matter how you get up there...


Go on where is it?
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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stevew, Niseko in Japan.
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Ragaz Sesslebahn in Damuels is the latest one I've seen, Auto bar up and down, heated seats, central ski pegs etc.

http://ski2.intermaps.com/damuels/index.swf?Lang=de&Aktuell=Lifte.
gotta go battey just about to expire Smile
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rob@rar, tah, looks scary
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stevew, you get used to it. After a couple of rides it's easy to relax, just sitting there enjoying the rest and contemplating the next line of awesome face shots Happy
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Bob,

That looks really interesting. Any idea what the cross country is like for Mrs M?
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Loved saalbach great lift system
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rob@rar,
Quote:

After a couple of rides it's easy to relax, just sitting there enjoying the rest and contemplating the next line of awesome face shots



WHilst getting deafened by blaring jap pop. Evil or Very Mad
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There a few places with a single seater chairlift but the one in Niseko is the one that has no cross bar nor foot rest. The rest of the chairlift system is perfectly normal. It is an experience.
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saikee wrote:
The rest of the chairlift system is perfectly normal.
I wouldn't say perfectly normal. Quite elderly, and with the odd quirk like lifts not going quite high enough so in a couple of places you need to skate uphill or walk while carrying your skis. But I'll forgive them that for the quality of the snow, which unlike the lift system is world class Happy
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
T Bar, J-pop on the lift! A Morning Musume mega mix to start the day!

Anyway enough semi mystical clap trap about it being the snow not the lift. The question was about cool lifts not where the best snow is. That's another thread entirely. Someone will be breathing on and on about earning your turns before you know it.

Back to lifts... The lift at Planai with the pissing shop dummy, stretcher, stuffed owls and sound effects is pretty surreal. Even if it is a drag.
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Austria has the best lift system in the world.

They have spent big on modern lifts.

The modern lifts compensate for the mostly average skiing.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Many Austrian resorts have invested heavily in lift infrastructure which puts other place to shame.
StAnton for the showy engineering of the Galzig and the futeristic look of the new Rendlbahn.
Ischgl is my favorite; with moving walkways in tunnels at the base, you may have to queue for one of gondolas at the base at peak time but wisk you far away to Idalp, opening up a large skiing area. The modern chairlifts with heated seats and canopies fan out in different directions to disperse the crowds. Then to ski down other focal points where lifts fan out again. You can get around remarkably quickley. You can ski into Switzerland and return via a double decker cable car.
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I have to say the European chairlift system has to be the most modern and well equipped.

We all know the North American resorts are a lot smaller, sized in acres instead of the accumulated piste length and boasting efficiency of using the minimum number of chairlifts to serve a large population of piste users. In reality the North American do not believe a resort should have a large number of chairlifts because they haven't got them so they do it cunningly by arranging 3 to 4 queues feeding up one chairlift from every direction they can find. If the North American haven't got enough chairlifts then it is safe to suggest they haven't modernised the lifts in the same rigour as the European. If you still have doubt then take a look at their top resorts like Aspen, vail, Beaver Creek, Whistler etc.

Among the European the French goes for mega size wherever possible so the chairlift investment in many French resorts is world class standard. However in smaller French resorts where revenue is in short supply many French chairlifts are pretty old and sruffy. Back may be 6 or 7 years the wife was thrown out in 3V at a drag lift that changed angle to about 120 degree (180 degree being a straight line). Two years later we tried to locate the same lift but found it replaced with chairs. Thus our experience in general confirms chairlifts in large French resorts do get changed quickly as a continuous improvement

The Swiss disallow big resorts and like to preserve the traditional village setting. Thus there is usually a bigger amount of drag lifts than other Alpine resorts. Their modernisation to new and large capacity lifts tends to be rather selective. The Swiss resorts with modern facilities are invariably confined to the most popular resorts visited by the international skiers. Swiss does do a lot of cable cars which are usable in the summer. There are small Swiss resorts that can have nothing except one cable car!

Italy is a mixture between the French and the Swiss. Dolomities is very modern. The Turin Winter Olympic has helped Milky Way transformed the lift system. In general I found the Italian chairlifts are quite up to date.

Austria in my experience is the country that really making a continuous effort to modernise their chairlifts. I do as a matter of interest keep an eye on the galvanisation of the structural steelwork and the Austrian chairlift systems are consistently shiny, clean and newish in most resorts I visited. Thus my own experience concurs with Whitegold and Lechbob. Austria has more chairlifts with heated seats and weather protection bubble than others. They seems to modernise the lift sooner than others too. One has to bear in mind that Austrian resorts are seldom crowded so their upgrading a chairlift is therefore not driven entirely by overcapacity.

Lastly from an engineering point of view a chairlift system fabricated in galavanised steel or aluminium to me would be more modern than the painted steel as the former lasts longer and requires less maintenance. The fact the seats are heated and bubble shield is provided can be viewed as extra luxury but I am sure many skiers consider them essential in poor and windy/chilly weather.
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There was a single in HintX, popular prank to stand beside a friend and chat, chair comes you roar off he's left standing like a pra++[/img]
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I would consider lift system modern only if it lets you to go around almost all runs on modern lifts.
Flachau, Wagrain and Obertauern probably the best I have seen so far.
Saalbach would be but there is still one mountain with two long drag lifts. Looks like it will be upgraded very soon though.
Ischgl and Serfaus look very modern but I have not been there yet.
St Anton - good overall but still some slow double chair lifts around. And unavoidable.
Livigno was good. Schladming Planai mountain and Hauser Kaibling side brilliant after recent upgrades. Same Dorfgastein.
Serre Chevelier not so good. Lots of slow lifts around.
3V good overall but still drags above Courchevel 1650. Old chairs above Mottaret, one mountain top there only accessible by drags. Slow old chairs in 4th valley.
So very good but not as modern as Flachau.
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Kronplatz is very modern. Pretty much all of its 20 odd lifts are gondolas or fast chairs
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Another vote for fast chairlifts and anti-gondolas and especially cable cars
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patricksh,

Look like you are not a fan for the Austria and Switzerland. An average Austrian resort usually starts at mid level and gondola/cable car is the only way from a town or main road to get to it. Many Swiss resorts terrains cannot be accessed other than with a cable car which is well used for the summer season for hikers and tourists. There are also trains and funiculas too.

Would Yad Moss be your ideal skiing resort ? You do have to walk from the road to the chairlift there though.

Can't really see the logic against convenience myself. Something like the link between Les Arcs and La Plagne or between Brevent and La Flegere(of Chamonix) a cable car is the only way to cross the dangerous ravine that cannot be skied.

Also with a gondola or a cable car a skier/boarder can return easily should he/she feel uncomfortable with the piste returning back to the bottom of the mountain. It is also a way for non skiers and visitors to enjoy the mountains.
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Revelstoke nothing is older than 7 years! All high speed lifts and well linked.
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saikee wrote:


Also with a gondola or a cable car a skier/boarder can return easily should he/she feel uncomfortable with the piste returning back to the bottom of the mountain. It is also a way for non skiers and visitors to enjoy the mountains.


It's not difficult to take a chairlift up and down if you are on foot, skis or board. However, this is not recommended if you are scared of heights as the view going down in an open chairlift is very different from the one going up!
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musher, I thought that they had been replaced over the last 10 years was the whole point of the thread
Tom W, Does your inclusion of St. Anton in your list mean that they have releived the horrendous lift queues that marred my last visit there about 8 years ago. I hope so.

Actually what is a "state of the art" lift system? Is it 8 seater dismountable chair lift, mixed chair and gondola lifts, muzak on each chair lift, PAYG charging systems, minimal queues (no, that is an old fashioned concept), covered moving carpets around the resort (as in Val Thorens), coffee dispensers at the lift station (actually I first came across this one in Borovets, where people left the queue for the telecabine and bought coffee in a nearby cafe for groups of people.). Are Gondolas carrying half a dozen people old fashioned, whereas dismountable chairs new? Many of the headline grabbing new lifts are telepheriques (rotating or otherwise), but to me these are a relic of the 1940s.

To me the modern trend is simply to replace lots of small lifts with fewer bigger ones hence reducing the staffing levels required to run the ski station.

OK how about this for a lift innnovation. It will work well with electronic lift passes. It will be very useful in places with big lift queues. You arrive at the lift and you are allocated a seat on the lift, when the specific lift arrives, you get on. The lift will only allow you through the gate onto the seat for your allocated seat. If you miss it then you go back to the back of the queue. Not only will this cut out the empty seats, reduce lift queues, and cut out queue jumping but also allow for the really big queues allow you to get a coffee and wait in comfort.
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Roundhill, New Zealand, 1.4km rope tow, 780m vertical Very Happy

Keeps the crowds down, and accesses some great terrain

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Tom W,
Quote:

St Anton - good overall but still some slow double chair lifts around


The only one I know of is the Albona 1 & 2 and its not an issue, I've never seen a queue there and TBPH the tranquil slow lift just adds to the beauty of the place. Only other pinch points in Arlberg IME are at Lech, ie Zug, and Zursersee lift up to Madloch again hardly an issue if you pick your times. The brilliant new stuff, and continuous investment in lift system in Arlberg totally outweight any downsides in my view, never had a problem,best lift served freeride in the Alps.

France Espace Killy lift system is getting tired IMO, and needs some big money spent on it (eg Col Du Vez/ Aeroski etc) not much investment since the Alberville Olympics push early 90's, apart from Les Laissenant - it had started to seem old last time I was there season before last compared with Arlberg, not many heated/ covered chairs or moving carpets and still queues..............and having to pay 2€ for an often dirty WC stop still grates at me, plus overcrowded cafeterias..........I think Austria has certainly moved well ahead in the last 10 years regarding lift infrastructure, facilities and movement around the mountain.
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