Vail, Colorado — Vail Mountain is having a solid March. They’ve received 23 inches of snowfall in the past week, with more snow on the way. However, they were without one of their core chairlifts for a decent part of the month.
John LaConte from Vail Daily reports that the Riva Bahn Express (Chair 6) was shut down on March 7th, and didn’t reopen for roughly two weeks. This chairlift is the core chairlift at the Golden Peak base area, with it being the only way to reach the upper mountain from this entry point. Out of all of Vail’s base areas, this chairlift provides the easiest access to the Highlands and Northwoods chairlifts.
The reasoning for this closure was that its gearbox required a full rebuild. The gearbox controls the pace and rotational force of the chairlift. The rebuild of the gearbox was from Vail’s lift engineers along with help from a third-party lift mechanic expert.
This lift will ultimately be critical for Vail later this month, as the ski resort will host the Toyota U.S. Alpine National Championships, which will be happening from March 29th-April 1st.
Image/Video Credits: Vail Mountain, Colorado Lifts
