so ive heard some random shit being thrown around about the new lifts. Heres whats going down.
-New trail "the Gnar-wall" opening top-to-bottom skiing under the lift.
-the triples arent actually "new". towers and chairs for both "new" lifts are from a 1985 poma at haystack Mt. vermont (being replaced with a HS six). The summit lift terminals are from the same lift, and the lift that will replace the northwest chair came from either sugarbush or sugarloaf
-even though its called "The West Express", its not an express, or fast. it runs at 400 fpm, a touch faster than the old center-pole, 50 fpm faster, I believe.
-the new lift will begin in front of the rental shop, allowing for a larger park.
History-
Summit double: mid to late 1950's riblet from kobl mountain, Lake Placid (closed), installed at west in 1963, and upgraded in 1999 with new chairs safety equipment from bromleys former stargazer lift. towers from bromleys old lift are used as poles for west's tower guns, which they built themselves. LENKO brand snowmaking wasnt introduced until late 90s to early 2000.
Face lift: 1977 hall double retrofitted in 90s with an aftermarket hydraulic drive- retrofit done by owner, who now runs Pistenbully of Utica
Northwest Triple: aka "the triple" was the first in the east, installed in 1973 by thiokol
Original face lift: a 1961 single chair, it landed 50 feet up from the current face lifts end point
J-bar: this lift went up the race hill and ended 3/4 of the way up the face. it was removed in 1998 for the tubing park install
HKD snowmaking: a bad and uneconomical move in my opinion. west bought 10 air-water and 10 fan guns in 2015. good luck with that. very inefficient and not enough pump power for those air-water guns. not to mention the air-water guns make low quality snow, can only operate in temps below 20, and have on-board compressors, which suck up energy.
data from: www.poststar.com www.chairlift.org
the Brandts,and my dad, the former ski school director and former employee of 20+ years.