Sainte Foy Tarentaise : 05 November 2020
Snow and much cooler weather are already telling us that winter is well on its way, and the same can be said for the new Arpettaz chairlift in Sainte Foy.
Progress on the new six-seater lift continues to go well and all the main structures are now in place. The departure and arrival stations are built. The lift attendants / pisteurs huts are being clad in stone and are receiving their finishing touches.
The last jobs to be done before testing the lift are to complete the engineering work on the motors and gearing system which drive the cable and run the lift itself. This is taking place inside the large floating glass construction on both the departure and arrival stations. I am not allowed to climb up and go inside to photograph this!
The cable will be able to run up to 5.5 m/s, or nearly 20 km/h, and although it won’t necessarily run at this speed all the time if not required, it will be tested at its maximum.
The lead picture shows chairs being prepared to load onto the cable, as soon as cable testing has been completed. There will be 44 chairs on the new lift.
Full lift testing will take place in the next couple of weeks and it will be up and running for winter sports enthusiasts to ride on when the season opens in December. We can’t wait!
Read other articles about Sainte Foy on the Time to Ski blog page
