Spirit Mountain, Summer 2012

[rwmaron]

Took a drive out to West Duluth this evening; looks like preparations are underway for the Express Chair replacement:
Survey stakes are in -


The old chairs have been removed from their normal summer storage area -

A new road grade has been cut from the Grand Avenue lot up to the base of the chairlift -

Equipment on site -


No signs of activity on the new chalet as yet.......
Russ

[Gramma Jane]

We will soon have lots of extra seating around our fire pit --I bought one of the chairs from the old Four Pipe lift! .

[rwmaron]

They've taken the roof off the lift station, taken down the chair storage area, and stripped the communication lines off the main tower line:

Still no evidence of any chalet construction activity.
Russ

[bobble]

russ -- flooding looks real bad from down here. hope all is well.

http://www.startribune.com/local/159844615.html

[rwmaron]

The good news is that there was no loss of human life.......







Russ

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

Impressive rain!!

Curious, why would they replace an "Express" chair? Too old? Increase to six pack? Change location?

Hope you are all high and dry!!

I was raised in Grand Rapids. Lots of family in Minnesota

[bobble]

yikes! were those photos taken near your house?

[rwmaron]

Bryan - the chair being replaced is a detachable quad the has reached the end of it's useful life. The new chair will also be a detachable quad, have slightly more uphill capacity, and be far less costly to operate.

Bobble - the top picture is on Midway Road in Hermantown; the bottom two are at 7th and 9th Ave East - about 2 miles from my house. Here's the real bummer though; this was one of the area's prime cycling roads before Wednesday morning:



We were able to walk around it on the right side this morning.
Russ

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

Thanks for the reply, interesting that a detachable is old enough to be replaced already? How time fly's!!

I remember when Yan had issues and were replaced. I just haven't heard of many high speed detachable s being replaced.

[Gerg]

Government-run (even quasi-government-run) areas tend to have a set life for things like chairlifts. Whether they need to be replaced or not, they get replaced. Hyland is in the process of replacing one of their lifts this summer too, because the calendar said it was time.

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

Government-run (even quasi-government-run) areas tend to have a set life for things like chairlifts. Whether they need to be replaced or not, they get replaced. Hyland is in the process of replacing one of their lifts this summer too, because the calendar said it was time.

Understood. Especially when there are allot of moving parts and liability envolved. It might even be an insurance driven move? Good point. I know from a mechanical standpoint allot of equipment is replaced to prevent expensive repairs and down time.

[rwmaron]

Upper lift station on June 22nd:


Upper lift station on July 5th:


Russ

[bobble]

russ -- are they going to regrade the top of 4-pipe? seems like now would be a good time. last time i was there i almost didn't make it over the first hump.

[BobD]

So that's where they went....

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hn...100214432.html

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

Shipping these is a bugger!!! If I was looking for 800$ for these I would set it up in a super plush backdrop at a very high end home.

[rwmaron]

Updated view of the upper lift station:


Progress on the new lower chalet at the bottom of Fourpipe:


More reasons to look forward to winter!
Russ

[khoward]

The Lower Lift Terminal has arrived !

[rwmaron]

Upper Lift Station on September 5th:

Russ

[khoward]

The new Chalet on Grand Ave is going up

[rwmaron]

Took a ride this morning on the closed (due to damage from the June floods) far west gravel section of Skyline; fall colors in this part of town are peaking:


Another view of the new upper lift station:


New haul rope is in place, chairs are on site:



Ski Patrol refresher training day in two weeks!
Russ

[bobble]

confused... are there going to be two quad lifts? or just replacing the main lift?

[rwmaron]

Just replacing the old quad; but curious that the base station unit (on the truck in an earlier post) and the upper station are apparently named differently.....
Russ

[Gerg]

Looks to me like the "II" is just covered in the first picture, on the truck. You can see they added a protective covering to the metal wherever they strapped it down.

[rwmaron]

New lower lift station; chairs have been mounted:


Progress on the new chalet (from near the lower lift station):


And from the lower parking lot:


I chatted with the operations manager at yesterday's ski patrol refresher - the bidding process got behind schedule, so no firm date yet for opening of this facility.
Russ

[bigwavedave]

Heard a rumor about a FIS alpine race this winter at Giant's Ridge, January 5-6, and here it is on the their calendar!
http://www.giantsridge.com/calendar/?january2013
Might be a chance to see some top racing close to home.

Hope Spirit will be able to start making snow soon.

[rwmaron]

Hope Spirit will be able to start making snow soon.

Not looking good on the snowmaking front - heard today that the earliest possible open would be November 30th.
Russ

[bigwavedave]

Went up to cover up the boat and saw snow on the mountain top at Spirit! For the snowmobile cross, nothing on the hills yet.

[bruincounselor]

When I lived in Duluth I hated that snowcross. It pushes opening back one or two weeks every year. I know they make a lot of money at the hill and it brings in the $$ to the community; but it's not my thing.

Thanks for the updates. I'll be over that way in January.

[rwmaron]

Time to call it good on this thread - there's some cold weather on the way but it's still a week or so out. I was out at Spirit yesterday morning for chair evac training then took a walk.

The new chalet at the bottom of Four Pipe is coming along nicely - tentative opening date of sometime in January:

Parts of the downhill mountain bike trail wind through the small ravine between runs 9 and 10 - looks finished but still signed as being closed to the public:




Snow in front of the chalet (see Dave's photo) and some scattered mounds most of the way down run number 9 (though I'm betting that they'll harvest this for the Sno-Cross):


Went bike riding today with temps in the 50's.....
Russ