Lift Maintenance 101
The Whole Summer Was Spent Getting Ready For Winter.
Reassembling parts takes time and patience.
Credit: Harriet Wallis
It’s 80 degrees at Deer Valley. Mountain snow melted long ago. A summer breeze rustles leaves on the aspen trees and wafts through the open doors of the maintenance shop. The crew wears shorts and T-shirts. It’s mid-July.
Gears and gizmos cover the work benches, and the crew is meticulously polishing, calibrating and lubricating the parts. It’s virtually open heart surgery on the inner workings of a ski lift.
“We work eight months to be open for four months of skiing,” said Deer Valley’s Lift Maintenance Manager Jeffrey Miller. “All of us in this industry do a great job. We’re well aware of how many bottoms are in the air.”
Maintenance also deals with rubber parts that get worn, such as belts. Weather, wind and temperature can affect alignments. Even identical lifts can wear differently. Lift maintenance is complicated. It’s part science, part skill and part art.
It takes a lot of work to refurbish parts.
Credit: Harriet Wallis
Deer Valley’s talented crew keeps the resort’s 25 lifts running smoothly.
But there’s more. Just like your car gets its 60,000 mile service, lift components must be inspected, reconditioned and rebuilt at various frequencies, Miller said.
“For example, certain lift manufacturers require that sheave assemblies be rebuilt every six years. Brakes should be completely torn down, inspected and rebuilt every four years. Gearboxes and final drives get reconditioned on an hour basis, right around the 12,000 hours.”
Got that? It’s a complex schedule.
In spite of all the tedious maintenance, a breakdown can happen. The needed part — many of which are huge — might not be in storage. But a nearby resort might have that part. “We’re a tight-knit group much like a family. We reciprocate by sharing parts,” Miller said.
This is a job for four hands.
Credit: Harriet Wallis.
All this so you can enjoy your ski day.
But the work doesn’t stop when summer ends. When we ski, we’re always looking up – looking at the lift mechanisms, he said. And we periodically sample the oil to see what’s in it and we check tension adjustments.
Get ready to ski. Deer Valley’s lifts and the lifts at your favorite resort had their summer work outs.
To read more from Harriet click here for her stories on SkiUtah.