"The finishing touches are being made to the several million dollars worth of on-mountain improvements that are about to come online at Buttermilk and Aspen Highlands.
The chairs have been hung on the new Tiehack lift and the renovation of the Merry-Go-Restaurant mid-mountain at Aspen Highlands is three-quarters complete. The new amenities will be ready for skiers and riders when the mountains open on Dec. 10.
A load test of the Tiehack chairlift is scheduled to be conducted on Wednesday, said Rich Burkley, Aspen Skiing Co. vice president of mountain operations.
Engineers from POMA, the lift’s manufacturer, SkiCo lift technicians and representatives from the National Tramway Safety Board will be on hand for the Nov. 9 load test.
“We fill trash cans full of water, representing people and we run the lift at absolute extremes in terms of speed and braking,” Burkley said.
The barrels of water will be strapped into the chairs and the line will be loaded to represent the average number of people who will ride the lift at any given time. The metrics of the chairlift will be tested multiple times — running backwards, forwards and at the fastest speed possible.
The $7 million high-speed quad will serve the only advanced terrain at Buttermilk, and replaces both the Upper Tiehack and Eagle Hill — aka lower Tiehack — chairs. Combined, those two lifts took 18 minutes to ride. They were built in 1969.
The new “Tiehack Express” will take skiers 1,640 vertical feet to the top in seven minutes on 71 chairs. The lift has a fairly low profile — the highest point is 48 feet, Burkley said...."
( Carolyn Sackariason)
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