We had a big fella stroll through this week.  Colorado is home to over 3,000 moose with most of these animals found in the northern Colorado Rockies.  The type of moose most commonly found in our state is the “Shiras Moose”, which is the smallest of the North American moose subspecies.  However, the largest bulls can still grow up to…

Our Patrol team is working hard on installing snow fences in No Name Basin. We are planning to build a few thousand linear feet of fencing in NNB. The majority of these will run along the two upper ski-ways (Wapiti and Prospector) and will be placed on the windward side of these two trails. We will maintain multiple gaps in…

Lowry Contracting is putting the finishing touches on the summer road in No Name Basin.  This road access to the bottom is complete and final grading is now underway.  The road design also includes the installation of nineteen culverts to provide drainage under the roadway.  The last of these on the lower roadway were installed this week.  These culverts are…

The top terminal for the new Tomichi Lift is taking shape.  The enclosure assembly has been constructed and we can really start to see how incredible this new lift is going to be.  Unlike our other drive terminals that are located at the base of the lift, this one sits at the top, high upon the spine of the Continental…

The construction on the top motor room for the new Tomichi Lift is underway.  This includes the installation of the 250 horsepower motor, gearbox, and drive bullwheel.  These components will run the triple chairs (carriers) up and down the 2908 linear foot lift line.  The crew from Skytrac contracted with our local crane operators over at Terry’s Crane & Rigging…

The drive and return bullwheels for the new Tomichi Lift are here!  These bullwheels are 12′ in diameter and the haul rope will spin around these bad boys. Very soon the top drive motor, bullwheel, and motor room enclosure will be installed and it will really start to look like we have a new lift going in.

The haul rope for the new lift in No Name Basin has arrived and is now on site at Monarch.  This rope is manufactured by Fatzer AG in Switzerland who specializes in producing and distributing high quality steel wire rope around the globe.  The haul rope for our new lift is comprised of twenty-five individual wires in each of the…

The teams from Skytrac, Timberline Helicopters, and Monarch Mountain worked a solid day this week flying in the concrete for the tower foundations.  It took nine concrete trucks arriving at Monarch to fill each bucket one at a time. From the fill station, the buckets were then flown out to the backside of the mountain. Due to our high elevation…

With the top foundation work complete, the crew from Skytrac has started hanging the first few pieces of steel for the top drive terminal. Like any major construction project, there is so much work that goes in below the ground. It always seems to take a long time and much of it is hidden from sight after the process. Once…

Lowry Contracting has reached the bottom of No Name Basin with the construction of our service road.  This team now turns to grading the bottom terminal area.  This area will include the return terminal for the lift, operator house, RFID gates, lift mazes, vault toilets, a warming hut, and ingress/egress for skies/riders.  In order to accommodate all of these critical…