The History:
After replacing the South Ridge Express in 1992, Sunday River's North Peak was still left without detachable lift service up until 1997. In 1997 the American Skiing Company decided to give the North Peak area of the mountain a detachable lift to the summit. Doppelmayr installed the Perfect Turn Express to replace the Borvig-built North Peak Triple. From its first season up until 2008, the Perfect Turn Express received high ridership as it was the only way to access the summit of North Peak. In 2008 when the Chondola was installed providing access to the summit of North Peak, the North Peak Express (renamed around the installation of the Chondola) received lower ridership now that there was a base to summit lift for North Peak. As a response, Sunday River turned multiple trails in the area into massive terrain parks giving North Peak a new purpose as a dedicated park lift. Since then, North Peak has been far from the most crowded lift on the mountain, but it is still well utilized. Sunday River almost always runs this lift at its maximum speed of 1,000 ft/min resulting in a very quick ride. Because this lift is reliable and does not have any capacity issues, I don't see it being replaced for a long time.
The Lift:
The North Peak Express is a fairly standard late 1990s Doppelmayr "Spacejet" detachable quad. It uses a second-gen (smaller windows) UNI-M bottom return terminal with hydraulic tensioning, a second-gen UNI-S top drive terminal, EJ carriers, DT-104 double position detachable grips, mid-late 90s Doppelmayr lifting frames, and Doppelmayr sheaves. There are countless lifts like North Peak across the U.S., but North Peak is one of not too many lifts that consistently runs its design speed. Even on non-busy days, North Peak cranks along at 1,000 ft/min, and truth be told, feels even faster than that. Capacity is rated at 2,800 p/h which is most likely achieved every time it runs.
8 окт 2024
