Fewer Lift Breakdowns at Red This Year?

If you spent a significant amount of time skiing or boarding up at Red last season you likely were there on at least one day when a lift or two was broken down. Nothing can ruin a winter day like the tragic combination of amazing conditions and silent bullwheels. Nobody was more frustrated with the less-than-reliable lift service than Red Mtn themselves. Consequently, Red embarked on an ambitious lift audit and re-build process over the summer. They’ve spent nearly one million dollars on the process, and this winter the lifts should be running smoothly and reliably. “The main focus this summer has been on maximizing the reliability of the lifts. So what we did this spring, right when we closed the mountain, we brought in a number of professionals to focus on the lift service. They did an audit basically. Professionals looked at the lifts, determined what was wrong, determined what had caused the problems over the winter season, and a lot of that was due to the fact that the lifts are older. They are safe but some of the parts just needed some updating and a lot of that was the communication circuits to the actual lifts. If the communications circuits from the bottom to the top weren’t functioning properly, the lift would shut down for long time. So basically they determined what needed to be done to upgrade all the communication circuits, and if there were old parts that needed replacing they did that as well,” explained Red’s marketing manager, Lara Wiseman. To get the work done, Red kept on the largest summer crew they’ve had since the installation of the new Granite chair in 1995. This summer has also seen the largest influx of on-mountain capital since the Granite chair project. Most noticeable to skiers will be the re-construction of several of the lifts’ unload stations. On Red Mountain proper, the unload station was completely rebuilt to make it safer. With safety in mind, the unload station on the Paradise chair has been rebuilt to create a larger unload area with less of a sharp left turn to get out of the unload zone. Apart from the lifts, the summer grooming program worked largely on The Slides, Pale Face, War Eagle and the T Bar slope, cutting out those dreaded alders. Those pesky alder bushes, it is rumoured, are the nesting home of the common snow snake; their removal should keep the snow snake population, along with tip snags, down this season. Lift stoppages and breakdowns last season weren’t entirely to do with old lifts malfunctioning; a bit of bad luck with a mid-winter lightning storm helped too. “One of the things that was a problem last year that a lot of the community didn’t really understand was that there were some problems with electricity that were solely related to Fortis. A lightning bolt hit the transformer, and that caused a power outage on all the lifts except the Silverlode because the Silverlode runs on a separate transformer. Fortis has actually come up this summer as well to make a few improvements. We hoped they would be able to replace the whole transformer, but they are looking to do that next summer. Unless there is some random lightning bolt it should all be running fine this winter,” explained Wiseman. With the existing lifts running full steam, the resort is looking ahead. With the current market upheavals affecting the areas which provide the bulk of Red’s business, future mountain expansion plans are uncertain. Red does, however, hope to push forward with their master plan starting first on Grey Mountain. “At the moment the hope is to put a high speed lift up Grey," said Wiseman. "If and when it goes ahead we are planning to go with a high speed quad only on Grey. To be honest we don’t know at the moment when it will get built. With this whole financial crisis going it’s a little bit tough. We are re-looking at things now, but are hoping on Grey Mountain to get at least the terrain cut and things moving forward next summer. It’s not 100% confirmed but that’s the next step in on mountain extension." With only 56 days and counting until the scheduled opening day this year, it’s officially okay to get excited about the upcoming ski season, so raise a glass and keep your fingers crossed that the lifts keep running and the snow keeps falling.