Pico T-bar

TomWhite

The Alpine Ski Lift, designed and patented by E. Constam, Switzerland, and built by John A. Roebling’s Son, Trenton, N. J. Erected on north side of “Little Pico.” The line of ascent is 2330 ft.; vertical rise of 644 ft. The speed of lift is 500 ft. per minute. Capacity 1200 skiers per hour; ski school for beginners, 4400 feet long. Sunset Schuss, widest trail in the East, 21/2 miles vertical drop for experts. 225 miles from New York, 165 miles from Boston. Pico Peak “Where the Snow Stays,” Sherburne Pass, U. S. Route 4, 9 miles east of Rutland, Vermont.

lotsoskiing

I have often looked at the terrain under the current Little Pico chair and I can’t imagine a t-bar going over those huge rocks and up that steep headwall. Must have been a crazy ride and needed a ton of snow, but it used to snow back then, I guess… ;))

joshua_segal

<blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“lotsoskiing”>I have often looked at the terrain under the current Little Pico chair and I can’t imagine a t-bar going over those huge rocks and up that steep headwall. Must have been a crazy ride and needed a ton of snow, but it used to snow back then, I guess… ;)) </blockquote>

It was.  And if you fell off the icy track, it was a long walk through the woods to get to a trail.  I know that from personal experience!

djspookman

Wasn’t the same T-bar converted to run single chairs in summer for sightseeing, or am I getting stuff confused?

TomWhite

After reading the Constam T-bar article (see my post in Surface Lift #22) I started looking for chairs on T-bars. I thought I had seen a photo of such on the Pico T-bar in CardCow. I posted what I found but got hung up trying to post the Old VT ski areas. I was trying to make it a guessing game for all of us. If someone wants to try, it’s on p.14 of the ski postcards on CardCow.com.

In the Constam article (Skiing Heritage) the author says T-bars lost out to chairlift in the west because of the rugged terrain. Yet I too have ridden the Pico triple and said, “Wow a T-bar went up this!”

I hope to do a post on an idea I’ve had for years, a hybrid lift, a T-bar using double chairs. I want to do some more searching for photos of chairs mounted on T-bars for summer tourism (Skiing Heritage article p.33). If anyone has one, or a link, I’d love to see it.

sugarloaf

Not related to this subject line, but the ride on the Giant Killer Poma was insane.

bmwskier

<blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“sugarloaf”>Not related to this subject line, but the ride on the Giant Killer Poma was insane.</blockquote>

I miss that Poma– there’s a pair of my brother’s skis halfway down the mountain towards the state garage leaning up against a tree if anyone wants to go look for them. Dynamic VR-17’s with Marker Explodamatic bindings. 

joshua_segal

<blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“djspookman”>Wasn’t the same T-bar converted to run single chairs in summer for sightseeing, or am I getting stuff confused?</blockquote>

Yes.

Bill29

I guess that’s the one that served the A, B and C slopes. Half way up the hill it got so steep that the T practically became a chairlift. It felt like it was about to lift you off the snow. A couple of those slopes were pretty steep, too, especially when they were bumpy with frozen granular and benefitting from the kind of grooming available in the ’50s and ’60s, which is to say not much. That’s where some great skiers, including Rick and Suzy Chafee, Rebel Ryan and others developed their skills as kids. So did Andrea Mead Lawrence before them when her parents developed the area.