Out With The Old...
Many longtime skiers of the resort, including myself, took their final rides on the main double lift. As I took one last slow ride up the mountain, I couldn't help but notice the quiet, calming nature of the lift. Having carried skiers for 62 years, the machine feels as much a part of the mountain as the trees that shape the runs.
The energy of the day felt more like a memorial tribute than a fun day on the slopes as people came to pay their respects to the lift that was integral to so many of their great memories. At 4:27pm the original 1961 double chairlift carried its last passengers for the final time. Rita, a patroller on the mountain for 40 years called the last chair and rode up in front of Lee, the longtime operator of the lift, and his daughter who learned to ski on these slopes. I was lucky enough to capture the moment in the video above.
The very next day, work began to remove chairs from the lift, starting the long road to completion of the new Voyageur Express lift that will be installed this summer. Many of the chairs have already found a new calling as mementos for loyal riders and fans of lifts from across the country. If you haven't secured yours yet, don't wait, opportunities are running out to bid on a chair of your own. We'll be keeping a few for ourselves to use as spares for our 5 center-pole riblet chairs that will remain for years to come.
The grooming team also took to their machines to begin clearing the project areas of snow. While we are stoked to have had an above-average season for snowfall, the deep snowpack does present us with a few challenges for this construction season. Our timeline calls for initial excavation for the drive terminal to begin on May 1st. In order to stay on schedule we need to remove as much snow as we can from the site and hope mother nature lends us a helping hand to melt what's left, dry, and thaw the ground so we can begin on time. Duane and Brandon are moving massive amounts of snow to give us as strong of a head start on mud season as we can get.
