Niseko - old chair lifts

[hally_13 0]

hi,

i was in niseko in 07/08 and saw an old lift platform in the grand-hirafu resort. I was then thinking that this would be a good photo. so i went back to niseko in 08/09 and spent 3 days looking for the lift platform but couldn't find it.

Have they been removed or are they still there??

Thanks

Ben

[Mike Pow 52]

If it was the single lift above the Hirafu Gondola, then it was removed. The double chair replaced it.

[Ezorisu 0]

There's some old lift debris off to the side of the Ace Quad 2 (around where the Furiko course dumps out onto the green run) that's still there - looks like part of a platform and a collapsed tower.

[thursday 1]

dismantled stuff get dumped on the side of the slopes?

[Ezorisu 0]

I usually see them just abandonong old lift lines in place, maybe taking the chairs off, unless the towers and old platforms get in the way of whatever new lift is replacing it. They seem to not want to go through the trouble of even dismantling stuff unless absolutely necessary. I'm guessing that before there was the Ace 2 quad, there were two non-detachable pair lifts that went up to the midstation in two pitches and that old platform was the middle. The remaining metal is really rusty.

[oo 1]

Yes I can recall seeing similar myself (at places other than Niseko).

[ShinyDiscoBall 2]

Isn't there some law about taking lifts down if they are not used anymore? Or can they just leave them up? Sure i heard they had to take 'em down...

[HelperElfMissy 42]

There's an old unused rambler of a lift at Thredbo - to the left of the Kosciusko Express - called Ramshead - never seen that moving. I reckon it has not been used in the past 3 years at least ... they havent removed it, and it is still on all the trail/lift maps. I suppose that means they intend on upgrading it at some stage.

 

Or maybe it does run, but I have never seen it.

[shingaikokujin 0]

Not the right place perhaps, but does that far left lift at Kandatsu in Yuzawa ever move?

[muikabochi 208]

As far as I know, it hasn't been used for a number of years now.

[shingaikokujin 0]

Thanks muikabochi. Whats the reason for that, just not needed?

[muikabochi 208]

Not sure shingaikokujin.

My guess is that at first they were cutting costs and just got into the habit of it as numbers went down every year.

That lift not running doesn't actually close off any courses as you can easily get to that course on the other quad.

[joshnii 2]

I think that's surely it.

Numbers at Kandatsu are a small % of what they used to be when it first opened, so they probably simply don't need it.