Mountain Stats anyone?

[fujative.]

I'm looking for a few mountain stats for a research paper I'm doing on Gore. Can anyone help me out with a few things?

-Vertical rise and Time it took for the old red gondola to go up
-Acreage added from the Topridge Area expansion
-Acreage added from the Burnt Ridge Expansion
-Any other random fun facts about Gore

Thanks!

 

[Snowballs]

OH OH...May I ask a ? too?

Did the old Red Gondola have a proper name?

Was it possible to disembark at Midstation of the old Red Gondola?

Has anyone on here ever skied down from the Midstation building? What's it like?

It looks like one could ski down from Foxlair and slide right out that little ridge to the Midstation building and then down the frontside to Sunway......Actually looks pretty cool when viewed from the Topridge Triple.

Anybody ever done this? It looks like there is a bit of a trail........

 

[I:)skiing]

Sounds like Fuji wants someone to type his term paper for him.

Just kidding.....


Surely all this info has been discussed on this or other forums....a call to Gore could easily answer the acerage questions and the old name. Am I thinkingof the Lake Placid gondi if I was to speculate seeing something about flying in the name?

 

[fujative.]

Sounds like Fuji wants someone to type his term paper for him.

Just kidding.....


Surely all this info has been discussed on this or other forums....a call to Gore could easily answer the acerage questions and the old name. Am I thinkingof the Lake Placid gondi if I was to speculate seeing something about flying in the name?

That'd be nice! I'm already half way done though. It's due... well technically today I guess... so a call home wouldn't quite work out.
Whiteface's Gondi = The Cloudsplitter. Jay has a highspeed triple called the Flyer, maybe that's what you're thinking of?

OH OH...May I ask a ? too?

Did the old Red Gondola have a proper name?

Was it possible to disembark at Midstation of the old Red Gondola?

Has anyone on here ever skied down from the Midstation building? What's it like?

It looks like one could ski down from Foxlair and slide right out that little ridge to the Midstation building and then down the frontside to Sunway......Actually looks pretty cool when viewed from the Topridge Triple.

Anybody ever done this? It looks like there is a bit of a trail........

On Gore's timeline it simply called it "The Old Red Gondola"
No you couldn't get off at the midstation, It was just a turning point I believe
I've heard of people doing it, but people just lie. The wind tells me it's steep, narrow, overgrown, and dangerous. Also that there's a live 240V wire running up the middle of it.
Yeah it looks like you could... but you cant.
There it no trail. I've heard of people finding magical portals to teleport there though.

 

[Frostillicus]

Snowballs- some things are best not discussed on internet message boards. :wink:

 

[Snowballs]

Oui Monsieurs. Check it.... I've heard a couple people say they used to disemabarked at midstation on the ORG. Hehe.

There, I christened it ORG. Now it has a name. A nom de plume.

ORG must of had one of them there Portals Fuj mentioned @ Midstation, eh ? :lol:

 

[Harvey44]

I think the ride was 19 minutes. There's a guy who posts on Harvey Road who knows a lot of this stuff. I'll reach out to him.

I'm glad I got to ride the ORG but MAN I'm glad I was never up over the canyon when it broke down!

And uh ... I agree with Frosti.

 

[Adk Keith]

I think the ride was 19 minutes.

I think that is about right. It was about the same as the East Chair at the time.

There were no official disembarking at the mid station. There were no attendants there to let you out, just a couple of lift operators. I know of at least one former ski patrol that more recently worked as a groomer that skied the line below Midstation. (I also saw this individual ski the last drop under the HP chair Circa 1979) I also know of others, more recently that have skied it (with half a binding no less!) Midstation was where both (upper and lower lines) of the Gondolas were operated from. Since this is were the lift changes direction you had to detach from the lower line and reattach to the upper line there. (ski lifs have a really hard time going around corners.)

At the time there was a mysterious maladay that caused the lift to have an emergency stop any time the mountain manager was in the gondola over the abyss. This would cause a stomach lightening yo-yo ride up and down while the counter balance bobbed with a full line of full gondolas.

Ahh the memories :wink:

 

[Snowballs]

Yea they say the ORG cars used to be rather aromatic on a regular basis.....like at a Grateful Dead concert. Damn kids. :wink:

 

[x10003q]

I think the lift operators in the midstation pushed the gondola from the lower line to the upper line.

Yea they say the ORG cars used to be rather aromatic on a regular basis.....like at a Grateful Dead concert. Damn kids. :wink:

Every gondola in North America was aromatic. Sometimes the right company and circumstances turned aromatic to amorous.

 

[Snowballs]

^^^ Was?

Funny you should mention that. I keep asking ye ol Lady to join the Gore mile high club...but she insists she's not gon do lado it. hehehe.

Then again, maybe if someone else asked her......... :shock:

And so Harv don't have to repeat his mantra......Pics Please!!!

 

[Harvey44]

From 70s Gore Kid, a regular at Harvey Road:

"The Old Red Gondola was just "The Gondola" during the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s. Red was never in its name.
 
The ride from my timing, on dozens of rides over the years,  was 20 minutes.  I see Harv posted 19, which might be more accurate, but it was universally known among Gore regulars at the time as a "20 minute ride with a 30 minute wait."
 
You could NEVER disembark at midstation, unless you were personally friends with a lift attendant.  The reason  -- is that the doors were locked from the outside with a key.  The attendant at the base locked you in, one at the top unlocked the door.  The midstation had two attendants who manually dragged your car from the track of the first stage to the second stage. They would have needed to unlock your car for a skier to get out. 
 
It was served by a cat track trail that made its way down to Lower Tannery (now a cross country trail since it was too flat for downhill skiing), which brings the question:  why on earth would anyone want to disembark at midstation? :wink:

Unless of course, you had just encountered high winds on the valley crossing (I like the term, "The Abyss") and needed out for an emergency bathroom break."

Harv's note: Kid is Harvey Road's expert on all things 70s Gore. I defer to his 20 minute number.

 

[adkskier]

Gondola

Harv's last post has the facts. A little more info, the mid-station design was not done with an intent for unloading. The gondola was actually two lifts that were powered independently. I believe (not 100% sure) that at the time the lift was built it may have been the longest US gondola. So it was engineered with two motors. the mid-station was a transfer point much like the upper and lower terminals. it always reminded me of an amusement park fun house. The cabins detached from the cable and were moved from one cable to the next. When the transfer mechanism was working, this happened automatically. As the lift aged, the liftees would sometimes have to get up and go out to give a cabin a push. Occasionally vandals (kids) would get out of control on this lift, kicking out windows or tossing junk out windows. You should have seen their faces when were met by a patroller who walked alongside the cabin as it moved through the upper terminal with the kids locked in for a "free round trip" to meet another patroller or a cop at the bottom! The first patrollers up in the morning would often ride before the top attendants. This required riding with the door open so that they could stop their cabin (Fred Flinstone braking style) when they came into the upper terminal. Failure to properly brake could result in a hard landing as there were some cabins stored in the upper terminal overnight. The first ride was not for the faint of heart as those first riders would determine how windy it really was.

 

[Harvey44]

Re: Gondola

.... As the lift aged, the liftees would sometimes have to get up and go out to give a cabin a push. Occasionally vandals (kids) would get out of control on this lift, kicking out windows or tossing junk out windows. You should have seen their faces when were met by a patroller who walked alongside the cabin as it moved through the upper terminal with the kids locked in for a "free round trip" to meet another patroller or a cop at the bottom! The first patrollers up in the morning would often ride before the top attendants. This required riding with the door open so that they could stop their cabin (Fred Flinstone braking style) when they came into the upper terminal. Failure to properly brake could result in a hard landing as there were some cabins stored in the upper terminal overnight. The first ride was not for the faint of heart as those first riders would determine how windy it really was.

THAT is a GREAT story!

I've gotten a few PMs with regard to this thread. Another oldtime Gore skier told me he'd timed it at 17 minutes almost exactly.

I sent a note to Mike. His response:

"The original gondola was about 2 1/2 miles long. The ride to summit was just over 17 minutes."

If there are any Original Gondola experts out there with pics or info .... Harvey Road would love to publish them.

Email: [email protected]

 

[I:)skiing]

history memories thread bound

Sould I do the cut and pasting or is this for someone else...into the history thread..or would a link suffice.

 

[Snowballs]

Re: history memories thread bound

Sould I do the cut and pasting or is this for someone else...into the history thread..or would a link suffice.

" Excellent idea! " Him Say.

I took the bait. :wink: It's done.

 

[MidnightCarving]

i was only maybe 12 years old when the old gondola was shut down, so i have vivid memories of being a kid going through the symphony of mechanics in that transfer station, and i had always wanted to go back. I finally made it back last year and scoped out the place. Its honestly got some interesting architecture, the side of the building that you enter from has some killer looking big windows. Inside there is a lift operator booth with a bunch of old magazines and books and stuff in it, and scattered about are some of the old safety stickers that say things like "capacity, 4 persons of 440 kilograms"

i took a couple of the old stickers when i was up there, if you ever see a ford explorer with "capacity 4 persons or 440 kilograms" and "emergency unloading procedure" stickers on it, its me.

 

[Harvey44]

i was only maybe 12 years old when the old gondola was shut down, so i have vivid memories of being a kid going through the symphony of mechanics in that transfer station, and i had always wanted to go back. I finally made it back last year and scoped out the place. Its honestly got some interesting architecture, the side of the building that you enter from has some killer looking big windows. Inside there is a lift operator booth with a bunch of old magazines and books and stuff in it, and scattered about are some of the old safety stickers that say things like "capacity, 4 persons of 440 kilograms"

i took a couple of the old stickers when i was up there, if you ever see a ford explorer with "capacity 4 persons or 440 kilograms" and "emergency unloading procedure" stickers on it, its me.

Post of the year.

I want to put that quote under the best old gondi pic that anyone has.

Even the scan of a polaroid.

Kid? Anyone? Send it.

[email protected]

 

[Snowballs]

i was only maybe 12 years old when the old gondola was shut down, so i have vivid memories of being a kid going through the symphony of mechanics in that transfer station, and i had always wanted to go back. I finally made it back last year and scoped out the place. Its honestly got some interesting architecture, the side of the building that you enter from has some killer looking big windows. Inside there is a lift operator booth with a bunch of old magazines and books and stuff in it, and scattered about are some of the old safety stickers that say things like "capacity, 4 persons of 440 kilograms"

i took a couple of the old stickers when i was up there, if you ever see a ford explorer with "capacity 4 persons or 440 kilograms" and "emergency unloading procedure" stickers on it, its me.

Great tale! Thanks Midnight!!!...BUT wheredahellyoubeen! :wink: The building you mentioned, are you refering the the actual transfer station? I always thought it'ld be a cool cabin locale, views out over the lower valley and views towards the summit.

Betcha Harv would cough up several Saddle Lodge cookies (maybe lunch!) for some of those stickers and photos of/from the ORG transfer station building...you're up Rossi.

 

[rossi]

hahaha. i got you. i only have 2 and they dont show much, pointing at the entrance.

next time im up, which hopefully will be soon, sooner if i can get that ticket on fb, haha, but ill definatly get some better pics of the entire area. its a really cool building. the second picture im just infront of the turntable where the cars made the bend, theres a little control center where a single worker prolly sat and made sure everything went smoothly. a lot of steal and old wood. i might head up next weekend if i can.

haha actually the more i think about it the more i want to go up and just take some photos, id go tomorrow and just hike up buttttttttt, world cup finals. which netherlands will win.