A couple of weeks in the past I ventured to the Alps with a delegation from Leitner-Poma of America. LPOA is the North American arm of Excessive Expertise Industries, the holding firm behind iconic European ropeway builders Leitner, Poma and Bartholet. Whereas Leitner-Poma of America fabricates upwards of 85 % of its gear in Colorado and Utah, the US outpost companions intently with its sister corporations again in Europe. The journey included friends from a dozen US and Canadian resorts together with Leitner-Poma workers and companions (full disclosure, LPOA lined the price of my journey aside from airfare.)
Our first cease after arriving in Munich was the Nebelhorn, close to the city of Oberstdorf. Leitner constructed a state-of-the-art 2S system right here in 2021, changing a number of jig-back tramways. A 2S combines the effectivity of a monocable gondola with the soundness and lengthy spans of a tram. The Nebelhornbahn options two sections, automated parking and placing Symphony cabins designed by Pininfarina. Oberstdorf Lifts CEO Henrik Volpert took us on a implausible tour of the gondola’s motor rooms, upkeep bays and parking areas. Not solely does Henrik oversee seven ski areas within the area however he additionally serves as President of the German Ski Areas Affiliation.
On the prime of the 2S, we continued onto an older jigback tramway, the primary of a number of on this journey. It was closing day for this resort and locals had been nonetheless snowboarding on the higher mountain whereas we ate lunch.
After lunch we headed to the opposite facet of the valley, the place one other of Henrik’s mountains had already opened for summer time. This household ski space contains a mountain coaster, a number of kid-friendly actions and climbing in the summertime season (there’s no actual offseason right here.) We rode a neat monocable gondola with a 90 diploma angle station to mid-mountain. Every thing on the elevate was prime of the road together with Leitner’s premium stations, a direct drive and Diamond EVO cabins.
The subsequent day took us via Austria to Italy, the place Leitner’s first 3S system operates between the town of Bolzano and the mountain village of Ritten/Renon (cities on this area carry each German and Italian names.) This distinctive 3S operates in a pulse vogue with cabins coming to finish stops within the stations whereas the road retains shifting at various speeds. The 3S serves as public transit for greater than 1,000,000 riders a yr and prices simply 5 Euros to trip. The elevate spans practically 15,000 ft with ten 35 passenger cabins. On the prime, an electrical prepare carries riders additional up the plateau with views of the Dolomites.
A spotlight of the journey was seeing Leitner’s factories, the biggest of which lies within the firm’s hometown of Sterzing. There’s a ski space proper on the town, in fact, but it surely had closed for the season. Our host right here was Anton Seeber, the pleasant chief of HTI Group and its many manufacturers. Sterzing is a real manufacturing facility with staff and machines chopping and welding uncooked metal into bullwheels, tire banks and towers. Sterzing additionally produces casings for direct drives used everywhere in the world. We visited this manufacturing unit on a Sunday so nobody was working but it surely was cool to see elements in various phases of completion.
The subsequent day we headed again to Austria and a more moderen manufacturing unit which makes a speciality of meeting of chairs, grips, hangers and direct drives. The 45,000 sq. meter Telfs plant opened in 2008 and serves simply three prospects: Leitner, Poma and Leitner-Poma of America. The varied arms of HTI used to provide chairs and grips in several vegetation however consolidation to Telfs improved effectivity and high quality management. In a busy yr, LPOA buys 1,000 chairs from Telfs out of two,600 to 4,000 chairs produced there. Chairs are in-built batches for a particular elevate. The explanation for this can be a six place chair, for instance, might be ordered in 230 completely different variations relying on buyer preferences. The day we had been within the manufacturing unit a crew was busy assembling chairs for Snowmass’ new Elk Camp six pack, set to open subsequent season. Two Snowmass guys had been on the tour and bought to take a seat on their new chair for a photograph months earlier than first chair. Bretton Woods’ Bethlehem Specific chairs had simply been accomplished and had been being readied for his or her boat trip to New Hampshire.
Each chair begins as a straight piece of tubular metal. An automatic bending machine transforms every tube right into a chair bail. One other machine cuts holes within the tube and different ending is accomplished by hand. The bails are despatched out for galvanization earlier than returning for meeting. Apart from the bail, the remainder of a chair’s components are sourced from a community of suppliers, lots of whom additionally provide automakers in close by Germany. A single chair can comprise 1,500 components and staff use excessive tech torque wrenches linked with software program to optimize workflow. A display exhibits the assembler precisely the place a selected half goes on the chair.
There’s one different chair element Telfs fabricates versus simply assembling: bubbles! This manufacturing unit will produce round 600 bubbles in 2025, all beginning as flat sheets of polycarbonate. The method Leitner makes use of is proprietary however might be summarized as thermo stretch forming. This work is very specialised and tough with not each bubble assembly high quality requirements (round 10 % are discarded as an alternative of creating their method to lifts.) After forming, holes are drilled and a plastic rim is glued on earlier than the bubbles are put in on chairs.
The third part of Telfs we toured was direct drive meeting. This was the primary time I bought to see the within of a direct drive as usually they’re not opened as soon as put in. Leitner was the pioneer of direct drive lifts and Telfs completes round 50 to 60 items a yr, most of which keep in Europe.
The final cease was the LPA grip meeting line, designed utilizing methods from fashionable car and plane factories. HTI previously constructed removable grips in three locations however now each grip and hanger come off this one line. Elements are delivered to the road by an automatic system however the precise meeting is finished largely by hand. As soon as a grip is full, it’s examined and a sequence of cameras take dozens of photographs to detect any anomalies. This additionally permits Leitner to trace every grip and hanger to a particular manufacturing run on a particular date by a particular worker. The grip and hanger mechanisms are then shipped collectively to venture websites. As soon as on website, crews merely join a chair to a hanger with one bolt. That is quick but additionally ensures high quality and security with a lot of the meeting finished in a managed atmosphere reasonably than a ski space parking zone.
After Telfs we ventured as much as Stubai Glacier, residence to a spectacular Leitner 3S and quite a few different lifts. Though we weren’t snowboarding, a number of gondolas and chairlifts nonetheless carried skiers at greater elevations. Many towers had been pinned to the glacier reasonably than conventional foundations. On the 3S, carriers might be parked in any respect three stations, permitting the road to be cleared of cabins mechanically in a matter of minutes. After all every part is pushed by a direct drive. This elevate is so massive that tire sections are run by motors reasonably than PTO belts. These helper motors are greater than these powering whole chairlifts within the Midwest.
Our final cease was Innsbruck, residence to the Interalpin mountain know-how tradeshow. Earlier than the present, we ventured up the Nordkette Cable Automotive, which Leitner half owns. This ski space is accessible proper from downtown Innsbruck through a Leitner funicular railway. The funicular features a bridge over a river, a number of tunnels and grades starting from zero levels to very steep. On the prime of the funicular, we rode a sequence of jig again tramways to achieve a 2,334 meter summit. It was foggy that day so I didn’t take many photos of the 2 trams we rode.
This was my second time to Interalpin and I may spend days there. If an organization sells know-how to ski areas, they arrive to Interalpin. The Leitner sales space featured a ConnX autonomous gondola cabin, a number of Symphony gondolas and a Leitner premium chair (the brand new Ropera removable was unveiled the day after our go to.)
Doppelmayr in fact had a big presence together with a 3S cabin for an set up opening subsequent winter within the Dolomites, a ten seater cabin from Paris’ upcoming city gondola and a Stella cabin for the soon-to-open TRI-Line at Hoch-Ybrig, Switzerland. MND was there too with a cabin from their Orizon removable line. AI was a significant focus of the present with producers highlighting software program merchandise to enhance upkeep and operations.
I haven’t even talked about all of the scrumptious meals we ate, the great instances had within the evenings and lots of different heat folks we encountered. Thanks to Daren Cole, Jon Mauch and everybody at Leitner-Poma for together with me on the journey. My recommendation to anybody fascinated with lifts who has not been to Europe: Go!
