#ski lifts

[nopizzaaftermidnight]

[highways-are-liminal-spaces]

fog at Eaglecrest, Juneau

[techdriveplay]

Victorian Interschools Snowsports Championships Set to Begin at Mt Buller

Victoria’s top young skiers and snowboarders will launch from the race gates and hit the slopes at Mt Buller starting Monday, 19 August, as the mountain welcomes students from prep to Year 12 for a week of camaraderie and competition. Mt Buller’s mountain operations team has been tirelessly preparing race courses and managing the snow cover to ensure the best conditions for the competitors.…

[shiftythrifting]

idk if this counts but there was an entire ski lift car in my local homegoods (and it was paid for???)

what the fuck

[mim70]

Abandoned ski lift

Seminsky Pass, Ailay, Siberia

[cpahlow]

[qwilanikan]

I couldn’t get this image out of my head when I was skiing a couple weeks ago. I think Aziraphale would be such a cute old fashioned skier!

[erkmurray]

Spring sunset in Central Oregon

Instagram

[blocksruinedme]

The Third Traffic SMP Jimmy Slash Prediction Poll!!!

(Note: In the previous polls I don't think I filtered the fic numbers, but I don't remember.)

Martyn obviously married Jimmy last time, so he's out. I eliminated Scar and Skizz this time based on “have more than ten full length fics mostly about their ship”. Which, y’all called, they were the top three for winner for the Secret Life poll!

How the fellas performed on ao3 after the Secret Life poll last year:

Absolute Winner: Martyn

A-tier: Scar and Skizz (I will be haunted by the "Pretty Woman" rp for the rest of my life)

B-tier: Impulse

C-tier: Etho, Ren, Mumbo, BigB

F-tier: Bdubs

And heading back to the Limited Life poll:

(in case you haven't heard, either Gem Impulse Grian and Jimmy are hinting the next season is recording next week, or they are sadists, and not in a fun way.)

Reminder: Jimmy gets gay married in odd numbered seasons and is in a gang of schoolyard hooligans in even seasons!

[pamietniko]

fireweed summer

Snoqualmie, Washington

[techdriveplay]

Mt Buller Buried in Season’s Biggest Snowfall

Snow enthusiasts are ecstatic as Mt Buller experiences the largest winter storm of the season, with over 25 centimeters of snow already blanketing the mountain. The snowfall began overnight and has persisted throughout the morning, with forecasters predicting the storm could bring up to 50 centimeters or more. The resort is maintaining cold conditions, with temperatures around -3°C and a wind…

[laurearte]

Leorio les a expédiés en colo à l’alpes d’huez et gon voulait envoyer une photo à kurapika... mais pas grave parce que de toute façon il comptait déjà faire la randonnée sous le télésiège pour récupérer son portable. Killua a sûrement insisté pour soulever la barre 20 mètres avant l’arrivée

[gravitywonagain]

Chairlift Confessional

(a Fresh Powder in the Pine Trees story)

.

The sky is grey and overcast, diffuse light dimming with the approaching dusk as they ride Phoenix Mountain Express up the backside of the peak. The night skiing lights will kick on soon to illuminate the slopes and extend the ski day. This is the third day this week that Wei Ying and Lan Zhan have gone to the backside to wind down after lessons have closed. It’s a new habit, a good habit, if you ask Wei Ying. Lan Zhan doesn’t seem to hate it, either. 

The lift rocks to a stop and Wei Ying leans back. It’s not abnormal for the lift to pause for someone struggling to get on or off the chair, but as the silence stretches, Wei Ying realizes this is some other problem entirely. Whether mechanical or human doesn’t really matter. They’re going to be sitting here for a while, it seems. 

The wind is soft through the trees, blowing powder off in small flurries. It’s cold enough that both Wei Ying and Lan Zhan have their faces covered, Lan Zhan with his actual brandname BUFF in midnight-blue merino wool, and Wei Ying with his 69-cent red bandana. 

The quiet is peaceful and, normally, Wei Ying might be content to just sit here with Lan Zhan and enjoy the company. He likes not having to fill the silence. Likes just being in the same space and not feeling like too little or too much. But there’s… something that’s been brewing between them and Wei Ying can’t think of a better opportunity to have this conversation. 

Still, it’s not easy to break the moment. Wei Ying kicks snow off his board as it dangles from his left foot before propping it back up on the toes of his right boot, preventing too much torque on his knee. There’s plenty of room for it on the four-seat chair with just the two of them. But it’s really just a procrastination. One that Lan Zhan seems to pick up on as he quirks his head to the side in question. 

“Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying starts, “we’re friends, right?”

“Mn.”

“Yeah? Good, good.” He leans forward on the restraint bar and ignores whatever look Lan Zhan gives him about it. “It’s more than that, though,” he says, “right? I’m not alone in this?”

“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan says, somewhat muffled by the buff but sounding uncomfortable, or maybe just tired. But it’s not a no. It’s definitely not a no. 

“Okay, so I’m not totally off base,” says Wei Ying with a smile Lan Zhan won’t be able to see, but he’ll be able to hear. “Are we gonna do something about it, then?”

Lan Zhan sighs and shakes his head, “Like what?”

Wei Ying thinks he can hear something like a smile in Lan Zhan’s voice, too. It spurs him on. 

"Oh, come on,” he says, teasing, “You've wanted to fuck me since you saw me with my sleeves rolled up, teching a pair of skis."

"No," says Lan Zhan with an abject dismissal that takes Wei Ying by surprise.

"No?"

"No,” he confirms, and then, “I've wanted to fuck you since you told me I had a ski pole stuck up my ass and inquired as to whether the basket was still attached."

Wei Ying feels his eyes go comically wide, "Lan Zhan!" He isn’t sure if he’s reacting more to the profanity or the confession. Both are delightful. 

“Mn.” 

It’s a smug confirmation and Wei Ying is living for it. 

“But I was such an ass!”

“There are,” Lan Zhan pauses, considering his words, twisting his poles with his fingers, “solutions to that problem.”

Wei Ying really hopes he means that the way he thinks he means that. 

“And yet, here we are,” he says, gesturing vaguely to the mountain and present time, “almost two months later and…?”

Lan Zhan’s voice turns serious, "You're my subordinate, Wei Ying."

"I am not. I mean, I could be if that's how you like to play."

"You are. You're my employee."

"We haven't been boss-and-employee for months now."

"We have." He’s calm, serene as always, but the words are heavy, emphatic. 

Wei Ying can’t accept it. He turns to face Lan Zhan as fully as he can, lifting his knee onto the chair. "You follow all of your employees under the rope?" he asks, voice goading.

"I --"

"You let all of your employees bully you into a three hour park session?"

"Wei Ying." 

"Every Thursday."

Lan Zhan shakes his head again. "That's not the point," he says quietly.

"What's not the point?"

"Don't you want to run Juniors' Club?"

That is not where Wei Ying thought this was going. "You think I'm trying to get a promotion by fucking you?"

"I don--"

"Or by you fucking me,” he amends, turning it into a joke. “Really, either way, I'm easy."

"Wei Ying." 

The chastisement in Lan Zhan’s voice is sharper this time, so Wei Ying stops. Changes tactics. Narrows his eyes, not that Lan Zhan can see them. 

"Is this a rules thing?"

"It is an HR violation," says Lan Zhan, like he’s finally back on solid ground. 

Wei Ying scoffs, "Your brother is the owner. I don't think you'll get fired over it."

"I won't."

The implication is obvious, but Wei Ying actually hadn’t considered that possibility. It stops him short. "Oh." 

"Which would be ridiculous,” says Lan Zhan, suddenly more aggravated than Wei Ying has ever seen him, “because it would be my impropriety, my abuse of power, not yours."

"I mean, if abuse of power is what you're into…" Wei Ying tries, weakly. 

"Wei Ying."

"Oh my god,” Wei Ying laughs then, at them, at the whole situation, “lighten up!"

He’s not sure how he can tell with the goggles and buff in the way, but he’s almost positive Lan Zhan is glaring at him.

"Fine,” he shrugs his shoulders, “I'll quit."

"No!"

Wei Ying didn’t expect a response quite that strong. He isn’t really sure what to do with it. "What?” he says, deflecting, “I'm sure I can find something else."

"You love this job,” says Lan Zhan, voice heavy with emotion in a way Wei Ying can’t really parse. “I will not allow you to quit. I'll… I'll refuse your resignation."

That, at least, makes Wei Ying smile. "I'm a carnival worker, Lan Zhan, I don't think you can refuse my resignation."

"You would not do that to Wen Yuan and Lan Jingyi, would you?"

Wei Ying pauses, sucks his teeth. The argument is valid. Unfair, but valid. It’s a trump card he didn’t know Lan Zhan had, but he’s right. He huffs out a sigh, fogging his goggles slightly. 

"Fine! Okay, okay.”

He scrubs his hand, uselessly, over his goggles in frustration. He wants to see Lan Zhan’s face. Needs to see his eyes where he keeps all of his more subtle emotions. Wei Ying can read him so easily through his eyes. This conversation is too much for how covered they are, but then, maybe that’s better. 

“Okay, so, what?” he asks, exasperated, “We wait until the season's over?"

"Are you not planning on coming back next year?"

"Well, sure, but if we start something in the off season, it's not an abuse of power, now is it?"

Lan Zhan considers this argument. Mulls it over in silence. He nods, seeming to find it acceptable.

"So we wait," Lan Zhan says carefully.

"Yeah! It's January, already. So like, three more months?"

"Three months."

"How hard can three months be, right?" Even as he says it, he knows he’s full of shit. 

When the chair kicks back into motion, Wei Ying looks off to the side. The lights are on now and the closer trees have purple and gold Mardi Gras beads dangling from their branches. He breathes loudly in their silence and thinks. Three months is no time at all. Three months is forever. 

He glances over to Lan Zhan, face still guarded by goggles and dark blue gaiter. He wants to reach over to him, to take his hand, to steal his poles. Something. Anything. He keeps his hands tight on the bar, taps more snow off his board. 

It’s doable, he tells himself. They can manage this. They can still be friends, he can keep dragging Lan Zhan out of his comfort zone and pushing him into spending more time with the instructors. Good distractions for both of them. There’s just a new boundary. Wei Ying can respect that boundary. There are, after all, lines even he won’t cross. 

This, their after-work sessions and easy friendship, this can be enough. 

He reaches over and steals one of Lan Zhan’s poles.

“For the flats,” he says, smile bright in his voice. 

“You’re not even strapped in yet,” says Lan Zhan, stealing it back. 

Wei Ying is pretty sure he hears a smile there, too. 

It’s enough. 

[incorrectinfinity]

Sigh. Tooru should've been apart of the main gang. He should've been a twist villain. He should've he should've he should've

[devdas5z]

Anastasia Ferreira

[ailurinae]

Thank you! That explains everything very well!

I couldn't quite parse it out before, I wasn't sure where the cable went, etc (didn't help that it was before coffee). And I am sure if one has looked at these kinds of assemblies in detail before it is much easier to see at a glance.

What the heck's the deal with tower 6 on the Big Red Express (1997–2022) at Whistler-Blackcomb?

So, on Whistler Mountain, there was this one chairlift, the Big Red Express (due to be replaced in time for the 2022–2023 ski season with a new lift by the same name), which was notable for, mostly, being remarkably miserable to ride on snowy, windy days; being ten minutes long; and:

This is a rare design feature on ropeways, which only really happens when there's a serious elevation differential across the several metres separating each side of the ropeway. Usually, they'll just build a tower tall enough to support both sides of the cable, unless it's way cheaper to not do that. Which, well, it is here.

But there's another thing that's weird about that tower. Like, here, let me show you a basically identical lift built by the same company, Doppelmayr, around the same year:

Check the tower heads on both — the ones on the second picture are normal for that manufacturer in that era. So where did the Big Red get its weird towers from?

The Redline Express, installed in 1992. I'll get into why it only lasted five ski seasons in a bit, but basically, they ended up having to put that little side tower in because that lift was itself replacing the original Red Chair (1965–1992). Which was built, well, very differently from the big, beefy high-speed lifts that started to become the main workhorses of large ski resorts in the '80s, and which also had chairs that didn't require quite the same vertical clearance or other such space:

So, reusing the same alignment, which was the most direct route from "the top of whatever lift comes up from the base at Creekside" to "up a hill from the main lodge on the mountain, so that people can ski down to the ski racks", but with chairs that need way more vertical clearance and can support larger gaps between towers, meant sticking in a little side tower to make sure people's skis wouldn't brush against the snow (or worse!). Speaking of "worse", though, let's get into why the Redline was replaced maybe a sixth of the way into its theoretical service life:

Think about how it works in practice. For clarity, this is a device intended to secure hundreds of kilograms of metal and passengers to a rope, usually in temperatures below freezing, under conditions where forces on the cable, such as those that occur in the event of an emergency stop, can result in reduced or absent gravitational force acting on the chair.

And for more clarity, look at the upper part of the "jaws" on the cable, and where the hinges are relative to the "jaws". Just one more thing: those tension-providing devices aren't lazily drawn metal springs; they're rubber "marshmallow" springs.

Can you see where the problem might be with this setup? Because this guy didn't:

Meet Janek Kunczynski, the founder of Lift Engineering & Manufacturing Co., AKA Yan, who might as well be the Elon Musk of ropeways. Before I get deeper into just how disastrous his detachable grip design was, let me show you another Incredible™ (derogatory) example of his engineering sensibilities:

Allow me to remind you that this is usually operating in sub-zero temperatures, and that this specific lift was often subject to considerable wind and snow. As in, when mechanics were working on this chairlift, they'd have to do that with no protection from the elements. (It's also at least rumoured within the ropeway and ski resort industries that his lifts were routinely welded together in ski resort parking lots.) His whole thing was, basically, making lifts look cool and implementing them cheaply, to undercut his European competitors, which led not just to impractical designs that were hostile to the people maintaining them or prone to breaking down, but to his company's lifts killing at least five people and injuring at least seventy.

Which brings us back to Whistler:

Whistler, at the time in an arms race to outcompete Blackcomb, its neighbour, but lacking the sort of venture capital backing Blackcomb had, wanted to put in some high-speed lifts to be able to match the skiing experience at Blackcomb, which had already bought several such lifts from Doppelmayr (after buying several low-speed lifts from Yan). So they figured they'd take the cheap route, and get three high-speed lifts, of a fairly unproven design, installed. These were to replace three ancient lifts that were, at that point, constraining the resort's capacity.

While the Redline and Green both served through their five years of operation without any serious issues, the same can't be said for the Quicksilver Express, which was the only chairlift Yan ever built with "bubbles" on it — which required a slightly enhanced grip, to handle the additional weight.

It wasn't enhanced enough, though. On December 23rd, 1995…

The Quicksilver, specifically, was an unmitigated dumpster fire, even before any accidents happened. It was designed such that, in wind, grips could smack against towers, taking on damage in the process. It had a faulty brake system that would apply maximum braking force via the emergency brake when a normal stop is what the operator pressed the button for. At least a few empty chairs had straight up fallen off the cable before the accident. And then there were the grips.

These grips received multiple retrofits and rebuilds throughout the few years the lift was operating, which never seemed to help — they slipped so often that operators on the lift just stuffed paper into the grip force alarm to muffle it. The clearance between grips and towers was known to be below code, and Whistler stated that they simply couldn't fix it. Upon testing the grips after the accident, of 29 tested, every single one failed to perform adequately.

Furthermore, there was the whole thing with the rubber and the claws. Rubber springs lose performance at much less extreme temperatures than metal springs, and the way the grips were designed, a lot of their grip force relied on the chair applying force via gravity. Take away gravity, and the grip can slip. Take away gravity on a particularly steep section of the lift line, and you've got a cascade of chairs knocking each other off of the cable until they ram into a tower and fall to the ground.

So it was 1997, and Whistler, on the edge of going bankrupt from lawsuits and lost business, had to get rid of the other Yan high speed lifts, which were likely safer, but not safe enough. Some resorts retrofitted theirs to use a better grip design, but Whistler just got rid of them…

…other than the towers.