I was in Serre Chevalier last week where some of the chairlifts appeared older than at resorts such as Tignes. I only saw one magic carpet in the whole area.

My question, is it possible retrofit a magic carpet to an existing chair to speed up loading and then speed up the speed of the chair itself?

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Quote:
My question, is it possible retrofit a magic carpet to an existing chair to speed up loading and then speed up the speed of the chair itself?

Potentially yes, but it may only be possible to make a modest increase in line speed if any at all without much more extensive refurbishment of the lift and it's components.

I'm not convinced by the case for loading ramps, they are potentially taking a pile of bodies into the path of an accident - so they could cause more problems for inexperienced users and cause more stoppages and not less.

However an unload carpet can run slightly faster than line speed and takes people out of the path of the chair. An unload carpet along with a clearly marked, level and well maintained loading ramp could well effect a capacity increase by reducing stoppages and slowdowns considerably.

i have seen them being used to speed up chairs (i think theres some in Beaver Creak), but genrally there a bit dodgy i believe. However considering scotland is the only country that runs lift where you have to slalom rocks i think it could work if the lift can be speeded up enough, all though you also have to have them on the exit to the lift

Surely a ramp of snow (remember that stuff?) serves for exiting the lift? I can't ever recall getting off onto a carpet...

We go to Serre Chevalier every year and in the past 10 years or so they have been progressively replacing the old, slow, fixed grip chairs with fast, detachable 6 packs, to great effect. last year they added "Vallons" to substantially open up the Cucumelle, off piste area, at the same time decommissioning a nightmarishly difficult to mount and slow fixed grip 3 seater. The once strategically important fixed chairs and drag lifts in areas such as the Prorel/Chantmerle link have now all but disappeared over the past decade, to be replaced with fast detachable chairs. the end result is that the resort rarely suffers any serious waiting times, even in peak half term holiday periods. the fixed grip chairs that remain are generally in non strategic locations and therefore don't generally have much of a waiting time either, though they are still tediously slow and some are in VERY cold places!

In contrast, at the nearby Puy St Vincent (much smaller) area, which is included in the Grand Serre Che pass, they have a couple of old fixed grip lifts which they have tried to enhance with magic carpets in the load area. In my opinion the results are entirely negative since they seem to me to be more complicated and ultimately just as difficult to mount (particularly for less experienced users) and don't seem any faster. The dismount can only be worse if they are actually running quicker as this increases the likelihood of a bash on the head, or worse as the chair comes round. In this respect I have to agree with Alan in that they represent accidents waiting to happen...

It's all about money, of course. Serre Che has invested massively and consistently in snow making and in a better lift infrastructure that is capable of easily absorbing many thousands of users throughout their relatively predictable season (due, in no small part to the snow making). They therefore generate the critical mass needed for further investment, etc etc. The resorts that cannot (or do not) make the investments will generally find it progressively more difficult to generate the critical mass needed to generate investment funds, etc etc etc.

Sorry. I've probably gone off topic!

A NZ$500m redevelopment of New Zealand's Porter Heights Ski Field has been given the go ahead, that's about £259m on a ski area that currently has 3 t-bars and a magic carpet!

[www.stuff.co.nz]

There's been quite a few £40m+ Euro Millions winners in the UK recently, any skiers?

To quote from the NZ article:

"
...The project is being developed by Harvey (a Sydneysider) and four Russian investors – Yuri Koropachinskiy, of Moscow, and Oleg Kirillov, Yury Zelvenskiy and Vladimir Uchitll, all of Siberia.

"
Perhaps someone should contact Abramovich? Scottish skiing would probably be a better use of money than Chelsea at the moment!

You see plenty of detachable chairs with magic carpets in the loading area. It was my understanding that the primary use of magic carpets in the loading areas of chair lifts was to ensure that all the skiers/boarders where in the correct place for loading at the appropriate time, with the minimum skill level required. This should result if fewer loading mishaps.

I have personally never seen a fixed grip chair and magic carpet loading arrangement where I was moving on the carpet when the chair arrived. Though a suitably long carpet should allow the chair to run faster, bit mad though.

As to beginners not being able to negotiate a magic carpet, that is a plain ludicrous suggestion given that a magic carpet is by definition a beginners lift!!!

Such an arrangement exists on at least one lift in Deux Alpes, the idea being to bring the line speed of a fixed grip chairlift closer to that of a detachable while maintaining a lower relative speed for loading. It's not beginner friendly, requiring both a moving load area and a rapid departure from the unloading area.

see URL below for a rather long article on lift types in general:


[www.mountainpassions.com]

Whereas this might not be of too much general interest to the experts who frequent WH, after talking about "state of the art" detachable chairlifts, the Mountainpassions article continues as follows:

""
A simpler, lower-cost alternative to this system is the magic-carpet lift, which is essentially a fixed chairlift, but whose loading area(s) has a full-width flexible conveyor-belt running at around half the speed of the chairs. Step onto the carpet (or ‘tapis-roulant’) and you’ll be carried smoothly forward while the next chair advances behind you – the speed difference is thus modest enough to allow you to seat yourself calmly and safely on the what is very much a high-speed lift.

""
There is also a picture of just such a six seater lift in Tignes/Val D'Isere, but I can't get it to paste here.

Now it's probably just me, with my 2 left feet and lifelong tendency towards panicking clumbsiness, but the "calmly and safely" part doesn't match up with my recollections of using this type of lift!

The picture in that article looks to be of a detatchable lift. And the magic carpet contraption is there really just there so you dont need to push to get into position as the magic carpet ends usually before you sit down. Its a lift for lazy buggers in other words.

Cant say I have many problems with magic carpet loading systems on chairlifts. Though I've never encountered them as or with a beginner.

Been to number of resorts and never seen an off loading conveyer system but I cant imagine it would work at all, especially with beginners in the mix. As the conveyer would need to be going faster than the line speed. It would just spell trouble.

A carpet on a detachable means that chair spacing can be decreased due to less time for the next group of passengers to get into position, this increases capacity from ~3600 to ~4000 per hour for an 8 seater chairlift.

I've seen it with my own eyes at La Plagne. Hard to believe, but some folk are so bad they fall over on the belt, invariably taking the other 5 with them....

Although hilarious, it can be infuriating....

Just because someone has fallen over on a belt does not mean it was down to the belt. You could just as easily see someone fall over without there being a belt and taking the rest the group with them. The critical question is does the introduction of the belt reduce foul ups in the loading area.

This year I saw on a Ski Freshtracks purple holiday in Flaine someone on the holiday dropping their pole getting on a chair lift, then someone loose a ski getting on a chairlift, and finally someone not get on the lift at all ending up dangling from it. Remember these where all SCGB purple standard skiers so ability can count for zilch.

It is ability, though; it's the speed differential that causes the wobble, the wobble causes the fall, the fall causes the carnage and the carnage causes the stop.

Like when a beginner tries to ski over heather, their weight goes forward and they land in a heap, same effect....