This lift is a bit special to me as I've ridden it a lot over a decade ago starting when I learned to ski Snowbird and it's hard terrain that resort is known for. It makes me so sad to see it go because Wilbere was such a cool, vintage Doppelmayr center-pole model long before Doppelmayr's bail carriers were debuted. At least it's neighbor and sister, Mid-Gad will remain, even when it is 10 years newer than Wilbere. Wilbere will get replaced by a newer, Doppelmayr fixed-grip quad starting at the Gad Valley base, next to Mid-Gad and rise to the top of the old existing Wilbere to allow for easier access to the Snowbird Center and Race Courses.
If you're reading this description until April 14, Wilbere currently was one of the first inagural lifts at Snowbird opening along with the Tram, Gad 1 & 2 chairs all opened in 1971, the Tram by Garaventa AG and Wilbere by Doppelmayr. The chairs are like the old center-poles Yan (Lift Engineering) uses, but actually not on the seat but behind the seat, with footrest safety bars. Wilbere has a massive bottom drive/tension shed about 2-4 times larger than modern fixed grip lifts which have their drive stations compact. Wilbere is a good progression spot after one rides Chickadee many times enough and is ready to move up and provides access to Snowbird Center, albeit in it's current pre-2024 location, more hidden and up the hill from Gad-Valley. Wilbere is also used for Race training as the Wilbere Ridge and Byrce runs and a mogul-skiing setup present at the Wilbere Cut-Off trail. I'm so sad to see such a unique lift go, but I hope the new Wilbere Quad will help with decreasing wait-times also on Mid-Gad and Gadzoom respectively. Goodbye Old Friend, you will be so missed.
SIDE NOTE: Wilbere has had a combination of square safety bars and what I call ''half-octagon style' bars (the latter is all found on Mid-Gad) over the years until around 2013-2015, when Gad 2 was removed and replaced, some of the chairs were re-used on Wilbere making it 100% the square-style bars.
Capacity: 1,200 per hour
Ride Time: 5.1 minutes
Vertical Rise: 668 ft
Length: 2,022 ft
Towers: 10
Carriers: 76
Design Speed: 500 fpm
Speed day of recording: 400 fpm
Filmed April 11th, 2024