Killington - Bear Mountain Quad

The History:
Killington's Bear Mountain Quad is arguably one of the most iconic lifts on the East Coast, and rightfully so. It ascends up the steep, wide mogul run, Outer Limits and provides a great view of the advanced skiers who tackle it. Every March a competition is held on Outer Limits and the Bear Mountain Quad is a great place to view it from. The lift itself was originally installed in 1979 by Yan as a triple, but when the Devil's Fiddle Quad was installed in 1983 right next to it, Killington decided to take advantage of the lift's overbuilt nature and install Yan quad carriers on it the following year (1984). For years, this lift ran daily and was highly utilized as many skiers preferred it to the slow ride of the Skye Peak Quad, but ever since that lift was replaced with a detachable quad in 2008, this lift has seen much less use. Now it typically only runs on weekends, but still garners a small line on those days. Since the decommissioning of the Devil's Fiddle Quad in 2008, the Bear Mountain Quad is the only way to access the entirety of the Bear Mountain trail pod.

The Lift:
The Bear Mountain Quad was installed by Yan in 1979 but with triple carriers. After the Devil's Fiddle Quad was installed right near this lift in 1983, Killington decided to retrofit Yan quad carriers to the BMQ in 1984. They were able to do this because of how overbuilt Yan's fixed-grip lifts were at the time. The Bear Mountain Quad uses a Yan "shipping container" top drive terminal that can't be found on any other of the manufacturer's quad chairlifts. The bottom return terminal is also unique as it features counterweight tensioning, making it one of only two quads in the East to use this type of tensioning system (the other being Cannon's Cannonball Quad). The towers are manufactured by Yan but do not feature lifting frames. Finally, the carriers are Yan's fixed grip-style quad carriers. The triple carriers used on this lift from 1979-1984 were sent to Southern Vermont's Magic Mountain and used on their Black Chair. Design speed is rated at 550 ft/min and it seems to run pretty fast, but not quite at that speed. Capacity is rated at 2,400 p/h.