Crystal Mountain | Quicksilver

Описание: In 1965, Crystal Mountain made an uphill expansion in the southward direction, with their fourth chairlift, Chair 4 (Quicksilver).This new lift was a Riblet double, and opened up a long beginner run called Quicksilver, spanning from the base area to the top of the lift. This lift also had a mid-station, though unknown if it was for loading or unloading. In 1998, many years after Chair 8 (Discovery) was built, the lift was shortened to start halfway up the beginner slope served by that lift. This was likely to have less lifts in the base area, and also because Crystal Mountain didn't need the extra out-of-base capacity, with Chinook Express being installed the year before. A master plan was in place, including a replacement of Chair 4 with a high speed quad. In 2014, this lift replacement went through, however, Boyne Resorts, the current operator of the resort, decided to buy the used Deer Crest quad from Deer Valley, which was only 15 years old when it was replaced with Mountaineer Express in 2012. The quad chair replaced the double chair in 2014, on a shorter alignment starting farther uphill, just low enough to be accessible off the top of Discovery, and ending lower, just high enough to reach Forest Queen Express. The lift was also re-aligned, to run on a new cut, where the lift didn't sit on the Quicksilver run it served.

Quicksilver is a GaraventaCTEC fixed grip quad. Its original install year was 1997 at Deer Valley, so the lift is actually about 26 years old as 0f 2023, instead of nine years, the time it has been operating at Crystal Mountain. The lift was also built with a loading carpet, but I haven't ever seen them use it before in recent memory. They certainly weren't using it in this recording. Despite being further uphill, Quicksilver is nothing much more than a beginner lift, though it does serve a small black diamond trail called "Boondoggle". This lift is also used for race training on the Quicksilver trail, when Gold Hills can't be used during low snow cover (like in this recording), since Gold Hills doesn't have snowmaking coverage, and Quicksilver does. Being its age, Quicksilver is unlikely to be replaced anytime soon, and will last for a long time.

Timestamps
0:00 Bottom Terminal
0:32 Ride Up
3:53 Lift Stops
5:00 Ride Up
10:49 Top Terminal

Recorded on December 28th, 2022
GoPro Hero 10 Black, 4k, 30 fps, Horizon Leveling