An affordable high-speed chairlift

A good friend of mine who's spend his career promoting French heavy ski equipment continues to consult for some clients now that he's retired. At the moment, he's trying to find a good, used chairlift for a new ski area in Kyrgyzstan (correct, that's next to China and north of Tajikistan).

He's found a used one in Badgastein, not far from Salzburg, Austria and while his clients would have been just pleased with a fixed-grip chair, the one he's found is detachable. Today, a brand new detachable chairlift cost of a lot.

To fill the needs of the Kyrgyz, it would have cost them about $8 millions. Instead, my friend will get it for them for just $400,000 plus as much to load everything in seven 40' containers. Even at $800,000 this lift made by Garaventa remains a bargain when a brand new fixed grip might have cost as much as $2 millions.

Hopefully, that machine will work fine and serve the Kyrgyz skiers for another decade or two...