Julie Maurer, vice president of marketing and sales for Booth Creek, answers questions about the new chairlift at Northstar.
Who is the maker of the new chairlift? Doppelmayer. It is a six-pack chair and is Northstar's first six-pack.
Where is it located on the mountain, and how long is the ride? It takes skiers from mid-mountain at Northstar to the top of the "Northwest Territory." The chair time is five minutes and covers 1,050 vertical feet. It is electric powered.
Why did Northstar decide to build this chair? The Tahoe Zephyr is the single-best improvement that Northstar has made to their mountain in addition to adding new terrain in the past.
There are a few reasons for this. The "Northwest Territory" is under-utilized terrain, and the new lift will make it much more popular and help to spread the mountain traffic out to that area. It also takes skiers to the top of the mountain and accesses a new run.
The run is called "Drifter," and it is a one-mile intermediate run that takes skiers to the bottom of the backside of the mountain. Finally, it improves the flow of people to Lookout Mountain.
What was the cost of the new high-speed six-pack Doppelmayer chairlift? Around $6 million.