Lift 33: High & Steep: From the Cottage to the Dock

Model: 4-Passenger
Track: 190' at 43°
Area: Skeleton Lake, Utterson
Year: 2010

These owners had no access to the water prior to the lift. Now it’s 3 minute walk and a 2-1/2 minute ride to get to the water. Imagine how that would completely transform the owners’ cottage experience.

This lift evolved as we were building it:
- It started out as a 160-foot run with a vertical rise of 100 feet.
- On the first day, the owner asked us if we could raise the top end by six feet to allow for back filling the upper station, turning it into a 160’ lift with a vertical rise of about 110’.
- When we did this, we noticed that another ~2’ foot rise there would allow the top end to extend to the next ridge, shortening the cottage to upper station trip considerably , both horizontally and vertically and greatly increasing it’s utility. The owner agreed and all of a sudden we were building a 190-foot track with a 130-foot vertical rise and very long legs.

This is only lift we ever started in the middle and then built uphill to the top and downhill to the bottom. We love challenges.

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This photo gives a sense of the scale of the lift, the platform is 130’ above the water.

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Looking down the track before the motor house cover was fitted. You can see the frame we’ll use to attach the wood panels that form the housing.

Looking up the track to the upper station.

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The lower station came into a walkway that runs to here from the dock.

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Matthew’s using the Installation Hoist to bring a new section of track down the hill to the end of the existing track. Once we increased the angle the track got much higher off the ground and the hoist became essential.