Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Harmony/Crystal Ridge lift projects overcoming challenges

$18M Installation on time and on budget
news_whistler2
HARMONIOUS The upper terminal station for the six-seater Harmony 6 chair is being assembled, while the area itself was widened considerably to accommodate the increase in traffic. Arthur DeJong, pictured here, is coordinating the two-lift project for Whistler Blackcomb. Photo by Andrew Mitchell

Whistler Blackcomb's ongoing Harmony/Crystal lift development project has encountered some construction obstacles over the summer, but planning ahead for the unexpected has allowed the project to remain ahead of schedule and on budget.

"Have there been challenges? Yes," said Arthur DeJong, manager of mountain planning and environmental resources for Whistler Blackcomb during a site tour with

Pique last week.

"Did we anticipate having challenges? Also yes. Did the challenges slow down parts of the project? Yes, but it's nothing we didn't expect and nothing has stopped us so far... By the time winter comes we'll be long done, and ready to ski these new lifts."

DeJong explained that at least four of the current towers on the existing Harmony Express lift line will need to be replaced because of the added weight of six-seater chairs. However, he said it was anticipated that this could happen at the start, and Whistler Blackcomb doesn't expect any major delays as a result of the tower replacement.

"Our intent was to use as much of the existing infrastructure as possible (but) it's a larger lift and going from a four to a six-seat we had to strength-test all of the towers," said DeJong.

"That's when we recognized that towers needed to be replaced and the concrete footings increased."

In that sense, DeJong described the new project as a hybrid. Four towers and tower pads on Harmony will be replaced with new ones, while the existing tower tops, lift cable and terminal stations will be used for the Crystal Ridge chair. All of the towers on the Crystal Ridge Chair will be new, as will the terminal stations for the Harmony Express.

Two companies, POMA and Doppelmayr, are working on the project, as well as contractors from Whistler Excavation, Coast Mountain Excavation and Whistler Blackcomb. Over 100 people are working on the project at any given time.

Another challenge emerged in building the new base station for the Harmony Express.

The project includes the construction of a lift barn to house the chairs overnight, but the work site has presented a few unexpected challenges. The northern side of the site where the lift terminal is being built is rocky and easy to build on, but that is not the case for the south side. While digging out the site, crews discovered a large amount of subsurface water sitting on layers of compacted clay — far from ideal when it comes to building a permanent structure that could have a few metres of snow on the roof six months a year.

The solution involved digging more than 5,000 cubic metres out of the area and letting the clay base below dry out in the sun.

The wet clay was moved to the slope at the end of the Burnt Stew Trail to make that slope more gradual for skiers and snowboarders, while the barn area was filled in and packed with rock — most of it taken from the top area of the Harmony six-seater. That area was blasted and widened by around 15 metres — tripling the width — to accommodate the 50 per cent increase in skiers and snowboarders that will be offloading in the area this winter.

The project is so large and complex that DeJong says the key has been to be adaptable. A few parts of the project, for example, are well ahead of schedule while other parts are slightly behind. If there's a delay on one aspect — such as delays caused by the recent "Extreme" fire hazard rating — crews switch over to another part of the project and keep working.

DeJong added that the project remains on time and within the $18 million budget.

The key to the success of the project, said DeJong, was getting in early to give crews as much time as possible. Construction machines and fallers went into the new loading zone for the Crystal Ridge Express in late April, long before the snow melted. At one point 20 machines were on the site clearing snow, moving rock, widening runs, creating a new ski-in and ski-out to the lift base area, digging a trench to install snowmaking lines, and more.

There's now the beginning of a lift terminal in the area — the Harmony Express terminal relocated over from Whistler — and the previously cut lift line that was already in place has been widened by 10 metres.

Crews are currently hiking into the areas lift towers will be constructed, carrying their equipment on their backs, to minimize the need for roads. Concrete and building materials will eventually be delivered by helicopter later this summer, as well as the new lift towers.

The four-hectare base site required the movement of 20,000 cubic metres of rock and fill — picture four football fields covered with a metre deep of rock, said DeJong. The area is now in the process of being covered with soil that was preserved from the excavation and will be used to replant the area with grass in late August.

"The biggest challenge was getting in early enough to get the major earthworks done," said DeJong. "We couldn't get the terminal in until we'd completed the final grade and on that score we're ahead of schedule."

DeJong added that this project must be completed this year. "This is a one season project, and so you do everything you can to get ahead on the actual work. (For the Crystal base area) we're about three weeks ahead right now, and maybe even further than that."

In fact, that part of the project went so well, and so quickly, that the savings in time and money were able to be reinvested in the project, widening and re-contouring the end of Rock'n'Roll and Ridge Runner ski runs to open up the new base area.

Uplifting story

• With a six-seater serving Harmony —called the Harmony 6 — hourly lift capacity will increase from 2,400 to 3,600. The off-load area up top has been enlarged to handle the additional traffic, while access to the bottom lift station will also improve with a more gradual slope from Burnt Stew Trail.

• The ability to take chairs off the line at night and stow them in a barn also makes it easier to open the lift after a storm, as the chairs won't need to be cleared of snow and ice.

• All but four of the Harmony Express's existing lift towers will remain in place with new crossarms to accommodate the wider chairs and added weight.

• The rest of the Harmony Express chair will be replaced by a new lift being constructed by Doppelmayr.

• Pieces of Harmony Express being replaced (top and bottom lift terminals, tower crossbars, tow rope, drive motor) have been moved to Blackcomb Mountain, where they will run roughly parallel to the existing Crystal Chair. The Crystal Chair will remain in place but will not be operated in the future.

• Using the Harmony Express four-seat high-speed detachable chair instead of the current three-seat fixed grip chair will increase the vertical rise of the lift by 157 metres to 535 metres, while increasing the hourly passenger capacity from 1,450 to 2,400.

• Named the Crystal Ridge Express after a public contest, the new lift will terminate next to the existing chair.

• The lower base station is below the Glacier Road near the exit of Rock'n'Roll, and can be accessed from the Glacier Road or Excelerator Chair.

• The Crystal Ridge Chair is considered to be in the "sweet zone" of the mountain — high enough to get consistently good snow, but low enough that it can open on challenging days when high winds, low visibility and snow elevate the avalanche risk and delay the opening of the alpine.