# The Mount Snow Chairlift Thread



## Glenn (Aug 6, 2011)

vcunning, drjeff and myself all purchased chairs from Mt. Snow's Grand Summit express (American Express and before that, Yankee Clipper). Figured I'd start a thread where everyone could post pics of their chairs. 

The chairs went on sale 4/1 around 9AM...they sold all 150 by 2 or 3PM IIRC. The mountain set up a number of days where you could pick up the chairs. Since they weigh about 250 lbs, the forklift is a huge help. 

My wife and I picked ours up a few weeks ago: 

Dennis Bills, the Director of Lift Ops was a HUGE help! 

















Pile of chairs:





Seat pans and pads:





more pics in next post...


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## Glenn (Aug 6, 2011)

Back in Dummerston:





The chair was going to go in the backyard; across our stream. So I used the ATV to move it.





My wife and I managed to carry is across the bridge and place it on the patio space she made for it.

My ATV jack was a really big help for helping with the base I was making:










The original plan was 3 4x6" beams stacked...I ended up going with 2. 





Plans change...I was going to use u bolts to hold the chair down. But finding 6" U bolts was a bear...and drilling from the bottom didn't work. The Spax lags are great though. I used those to hold the beams together. 4' on the bottom, 3' beam on top. 






More pics...


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## Glenn (Aug 6, 2011)

Life is good: ATV, power tools, chairlift chair:





I nixed the u bolts and went with lags and metal strapping. I had to bore out the strapping. The first few lags I used didn't cut it and a snapped a few. I used three lags on each side. I had to shim it up a bit; you can see the bit of scrap wood I used. Resting it flat resulted in the chair tiling forward. I used a level and plumbed it up to make sure it was flat. 





Because I'm a safety weenie, I ground down the sharp edges on the strapping with my grinder:





I then used a wire wheel on the grinder and hit all the scraches and rust spots. That made quick work of it. 

Side view of the chair on the mount: 





All done! I had to grind down the seat pan a bit due to my mount, but that was quick work with the grinder. I hit the cleaned up rust spots with a little gloss black. And finally, I put on the seat pad with some zip ties. 






Two shots from the deck:










We absolutely love it! It's cool enough to have a chairlift chair...but to have one from your "home" mountain...it's pretty special. And given how often we're there skiing, we probably rode this exact chair a number of times.


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## snoseek (Aug 6, 2011)

Damn, you have a sweet back yard that's now even sweeter with that chair. I guess you all will be taking "drinking beers on the chair" to all new levels!


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## drjeff (Aug 7, 2011)

I hope to have pics of mine with the stand all welded to it and sit on my back patio in the next few days - just waiting for my local welding shop to call and say they're done and to come pick it up!


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## deadheadskier (Aug 7, 2011)

does the stream run all year?  any Brook Trout?

bravo Glenn.  Looks sweet


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## thetrailboss (Aug 7, 2011)

Love it.  Nice.  A classic Yan chair that you don't see anymore.  You are lucky to find it since Killington and Sunday River got rid of most of these style chairs a few years back and replaced them with Pomas.


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## JimG. (Aug 8, 2011)

deadheadskier said:


> does the stream run all year?  any Brook Trout?
> 
> bravo Glenn.  Looks sweet



I was going to ask if it ever floods. It looks small, but looks can be deceiving.


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## o3jeff (Aug 8, 2011)

Looks nice, any thoughts on making a swing out of it?


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## drjeff (Aug 8, 2011)

deadheadskier said:


> does the stream run all year?  any Brook Trout?
> 
> bravo Glenn.  Looks sweet





JimG. said:


> I was going to ask if it ever floods. It looks small, but looks can be deceiving.



Having been to Glenn's place a few times, and hearing stories of that stream from other times #1 - last summer during a dry time, my kids were in that stream and the depth of the water was barely getting over their feet, so it can get pretty close to going dry

#2 from the angle that Glenn's wife tookthose pictures from, it makes it look a bit deceiving as to how high above the water level the chair is.  It's probably a good 3 feet above the water level and with a culvert that goes under their road maybe 50 feetor so upstream from the chair, you almost have a natural dam to regulate run off flow from expanding up and out not too far away and then combine that with how quickly downhill that stream goes once it leaves the property (If you've ever driven by Maple Valley, look across the street on the other side of the West River and you see a pretty big ridgeline over there and Glenn's place isn't too far from thegeneral area of the top of it), short of some debris causing an impromptu damming of the water, I'd doubt that it could get that high


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## Nick (Aug 8, 2011)

It looks like you should have a full on lift going up that back hill. 

Nice job! Get out there and drink some brews now, would ya!


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## Glenn (Aug 8, 2011)

Thanks everyone; I really appreciate it. 

We thought of doing a swing, but it would have required a lot more lumber to do it right. And some engineering. But who knows...maybe down the road.

This time of year, there aren't may fish in there, just some really small ones. Across the road, there are few bigger fish...maybe 3-4". We were talking to our neighbor a few weeks ago and he said years ago, there were more fish. 

Luckily, the stream does get that high. It's pretty wide for the amount of water that flows through. Next door, there's a large stone and cement bridge with a culvert. One of the previous owners had damed it up and made a swimming hole. Another neighbor told me he took his daughters down a few times to go swimming when they were younger. So I think when it was damed, that caused the stream to be a bit wider and deeper. It gets going pretty good in the spring....and in the fall when it rains more. 

Legend has it, there was a really big washout a number of years ago. Our road turns into a Class IV about 1/4 mile up. The head of public works went up there and knocked down a beaver dam. Made a heckuva mess when it let go...washed out part of our road.


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## JimG. (Aug 8, 2011)

Glenn said:


> Legend has it, there was a really big washout a number of years ago. Our road turns into a Class IV about 1/4 mile up. The head of public works went up there and knocked down a beaver dam. Made a heckuva mess when it let go...washed out part of our road.



My property has a trout stream running through it...it is much wider and deeper than your creek and man when it rains hard that stream really gets going. A few years back it rained pretty hard for something like 9 days straight and my stretch of stream turned into a Class V. It's normally a fairly slow moving straight with small riffles at both ends, but it turned into two Class V rapids with a nasty looking wave running between the two.

Your creek reminds me of a small creek that ran through the backyard of a ski house we rented years ago in East Jewett near Hunter. That creek looked just like yours, mild and shallow. Then we had a November weekend downpour and that little creek turned into a monster. Washed out 2 bridges at either end of our road and I thought it was going to wash the house away. Luckily, it didn't.


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## drjeff (Aug 13, 2011)

My chairlift (and a few shots of Vcunning's chair too)

Arriving to CT from Mount Snow befoire heading off to my local welding shop to have stands attached






Fast forward a few weeks, and the chairs and welded stands arrive!






Close up of the welds and finish work my local shop did






Unloading my chair onto my patio while Vcunning's rests on the trailer.  And let me say that with the stands on, the chairs weigh easily over 300lbs a piece, and trying to get one off the trailer isn't exactly an easy one man job!






I still need to sand and paint the stands,  but my chair has arrived on my patio and I think compliments my ski chair pretty well! 











Since the actual numbers of the chairs were on the grip assembly which were removed and used on the new grand summit chairs, with the exception of the gold painted chair #50(which will be auctioned off his fall with all proceeds going to local West Dover, VT charities), its impossible to know which number chair one has.  But it is fun to sit on it and wonder just exactly how many times over the 25 or so years this chair was hanging from the haul rope that I've ridden on it before!


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## Nick (Aug 13, 2011)

I like they Adirondack Chair made from skis 

Sent with Tapatalk


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## deadheadskier (Aug 13, 2011)

nice collection of Rossi 4S, 4G and 3G in that chair.


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## drjeff (Aug 13, 2011)

Nick said:


> I like they Adirondack Chair made from skis
> 
> Sent with Tapatalk





deadheadskier said:


> nice collection of Rossi 4S, 4G and 3G in that chair.



Yup, that's what the intention was an adirondack style chair.  And, I affectionately call this chair my late 80's/early 90's Rossi Chair!


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## Glenn (Aug 13, 2011)

Darn mobile site!  I'll have to jump on the laptop later to see the pics.


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## Glenn (Aug 15, 2011)

Those look great Jeff! I like how the shop angled the ends of the square tubing before capping them. Very impressive!


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## drjeff (Aug 15, 2011)

Glenn said:


> Those look great Jeff! I like how the shop angled the ends of the square tubing before capping them. Very impressive!



Glenn, the guy at the welding shop who did all the fabrication work on the 3 chairs really seemed like he had a fun time working on them, atleast it came across that way as I was talking with him as he was loading them onto the trailer, and I think the results show that.  As he put it, this job wasn't the usual weld some structural steel for a building or weld an 18 wheeler trailer back together that he usually spends most of his time doing!  He also told me that in the few days between when he finished the chairs and I picked them up, that there were 5 or 6 other customers of the shop that saw the finished project and inquired if the shop could make something similar for them (chair and all!)


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## Glenn (Aug 15, 2011)

It's certainly not something you see every day! And I imagine you got quite a few looks when hauling that trailer down the highway. 

I bet that guy wish he had a few more that he could weld up and sell. Again, he did a really good job. Those will last a good long time!


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## vcunning (Aug 15, 2011)

We invited DrJeff and family over for lunch the other day.  Here's how the conversation went.

*Vince:*  Jeff, why don't you and the family come over and we'll have a cookout on Sunday
*Jeff: * Vince, great idea.  We see each other every weekend in the winter, but hardly ever in these lame summer months.
*Vince: * Excellent.  Just bring yourselves and your current Ski Area Management Magazine.  I'll see if we can get Halley to autograph the covers for us?
*Jeff:*  Are you sure we can't bring anything?
*Vince:*  Nope, we're all set.

So Jeff and family arrive at our place and what do they show up with?







Good thing it was raining.  This puppy (with the new welded stand) probably goes around 325 pounds.  Water and asphalt seem to make a slippery surface to move it onto our basketball court (where the final sanding and painting will take place).   I like the height of the lift.  Notice the 6'4" DrJeff can barely touch the ground when seated.





Spectacular creative welding working by DrJeff's guy.  I love how he tapered the ends of the stand:











So with a hot tub, swingset, horseshoe pit, sandbox, tetherball and basketball court in our backyard, the addition of the chair will elevate us to white trash status here in suburban Connecticut.

Thanks Jeff for the pickup, fabrication and delivery.  I'm looking forward to a great ski season with you guys this year.


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## Glenn (Aug 16, 2011)

Awesome Vince! A great addition to the house!


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## bheemsoth (Aug 16, 2011)

I am very impressed! How much did the fabrication work cost? I assume you got it done by a shop here in CT?


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## vcunning (Aug 16, 2011)

bheemsoth said:


> I am very impressed! How much did the fabrication work cost? I assume you got it done by a shop here in CT?



DrJeff will have to answer that (as he arranged all the work) . . . But I think he undercharged me.  I paid him in PBRs.  3 cases of tallboys.


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## drjeff (Aug 17, 2011)

bheemsoth said:


> I am very impressed! How much did the fabrication work cost? I assume you got it done by a shop here in CT?



My local shop charged me $320 per chair (tax inclued).  2 4 foot sections of 1/4" square tube steel for the supports per chair,  chair prep work (including having to cut off a 6" section of square tube on the outsite of one of the vertical arms of each chair that Mount Snow used to insert a bike hanging rack in when they had mountain biking from the summit) and about 3 hours total of fabrication/finishing time per chair.

The shop that did the work is Beaudreau's Welding in Dayville


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