Doppelmayr has builta detachable 6-seater chairlift in the Bjelasica Mountains near Kolasin, 65 km northeast of the Montenegrin capital Podgorica. According to the operators, the ski resort is now the most modern in the whole of Montenegro.

For many years, tourism was in the doldrums in Kolasin, but since privatization in 2006 it has experienced a noticeable upswing *1. The ski resort itself has a total of five lifts – the new detachable 6-seater chairlift “Vilina Voda”, a 2-seater chairlift and three surface lifts – plus 20 km of interlinked ski trails. Three ski trails were constructed for the new chairlift. They range between 40 m and 60 m in width and their lower section has snow-making facilities. Right next to the new lift is the bottom station of the old 2-CLF which provides access to the slope opposite.

Wooden-clad façade

The new lift runs in a southwesterly direction into the new ski area. Adjacent to the bottom station is a secure parking lot. From here, a bridge provides access to the ski rental and then to the ticket desks which are housed in separate kiosks. A restaurant is integrated into the bottom station. Both the top and bottom stations are steel lattice constructions with wooden cladding, as frequently used by Doppelmayr in France. The lift features a loading carpet and RPD monitoring *2.

Extensive construction work

A 3.5-kilometer-long access road had to be built to allow work on the top station to go ahead. As construction of the lift did not start until early November 2008 and there was unusually high snowfall, building progress was delayed in spite of the huge deployment of personnel and equipment. Up to 100 people worked on the construction of the top station. The towers were erected in February using helicopters and the installation was finally ready to go into operation in the second week of April 2009. Doppelmayr was responsible for the planning and execution of the entire ropeway equipment. The geomechanical investigations, the foundations and control rooms as well as the power supply to the station, local transport, etc. were taken care of by the customer, New Ski Centar Bjelasica A.D. Kolasin.

6-CLD Vilina Voda
Transport capacity 2,800 PPH
Trip time 4.5 min
Speed 5.0 m/s
Chairs 72
Interval 7.7 s
Inclined length 1,258 m
Vertical rise 384 m
Towers (1 twin tower) 13
Drive Bottom
Hydraulic tension system Bottom

*1) Guests are primarily from Russia, Albania and Podgorica.
*2) Rope Position Detector, the fail-safe monitoring system from Doppelmayr