Outside Magazine Special Report: Is Your Local Chairlift a Death Trap?

Got this in my Email today. It was mentioned in the Sunday River Spruce Triple thread, but boy it is a very interesting read and has gotten the attention of the industry.

http://www.outsideonline.com/206991...0&spJobID=901269229&spReportId=OTAxMjY5MjI5S0

Some very interesting information in there, including mention of a recent Lift Manufacturer presentation to lift mechanics saying that yes, many lifts are getting old and you do need to replace them or the industry is going to be in trouble when more incidents occur.

SAM offered this response tonight: http://www.saminfo.com/headline-news/8725-outside-online-article-questions-aging-lift-infrastructure

Read both and post your reactions. I think that there is an issue with lifts getting older.

Eh... well I'm really not a fan of the Outside article's title, but additionally they seem to imply some sort of cover-up with regards to chairlift problems in the industry IMO. It raises a lot of good points, but it doesn't acknowledge the reality of the ski industry. With so many lifts aging it is going to be near impossible to replace them and lower the average age to 20 years anytime soon.

Look at K as an example and SR as well. There just isn't that much capital around. Moves like what SL took after King Pine, and we'll see if that works or not, where you infuse 1.5 million dollars into older lifts, is going to be much more likely.

As to their point about Safety Boards, i think there is certainly some room for improvement, but they made it seem like safety boards in most states are just some 80 year old man who likes lifts that runs around to all resorts in the state and says 'looks good.' That just simply isn't true.

Typical media overhype.

To be ignored.

But, yes lifts are aging and won't last forever. Maintenance and capital improvements need to be part of the master plan.

For any business.

Have any of you guys skied Blandford Ski Area lately? Some of those chairs are roped off and un usable. I'd guess they're on a shoe string budget but safety of their lifts should be the first priority.


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Well I might hope that if a chair is already unstable with chairs roped off, they're hopefully very aware of the issue and watching other chairs very carefully! I could be overly optimistic though.

I'd watch out if you were skiing under the chair though!

All MA ski areas that aren't Jiminy, Wachusett, and Nashoba (don't know anything about Blue Hills) have got to be hurting pretty badly though. So many people just head north now it seems!

Jully said:

Well I might hope that if a chair is already unstable with chairs roped off, they're hopefully very aware of the issue and watching other chairs very carefully! I could be overly optimistic though.

I'd watch out if you were skiing under the chair though!

All MA ski areas that aren't Jiminy, Wachusett, and Nashoba (don't know anything about Blue Hills) have got to be hurting pretty badly though. So many people just head north now it seems!

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Sugarbush did that on the valley house in the few years before replacing it. I don't know why they don't just take Broken chairs off the line.

from my experience a roped off chair tends to be from a broken safety bar