In another thread, I read that for a lift to start there must be acknowledgment from the return station that everything is OK. So at the beginning of the day, how does the return station give acknowledgment if there's no lift operators there? Is there some kind of override at the bottom station that allows the lift to run without any top station interaction? Every single time I ride a lift I've wondered about this, so I figured someone here could shed some light on that. And the same is basically true for the end of the day... do lift operators at the top of the lift take the lift down or do they take snowmobiles?
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First start of the day
Started by keystoneaddict, Aug 05 2010 06:20 PM
3 replies to this topic
#2
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Posted 05 August 2010 - 08:42 PM
It depends from ski area to ski area. If it's a detach more then likely there is a mech at each station.
IN the case of Beaver Creek the Fix Grips if it was a top drive the drive operator would ski to the bottom of the lift ring the mountain phone for 3 mins then press and hold the singal button for 2-3 mins and then start the lift using a key in the control panel.
At Snowmass on Lift 5 no mech would be at the bottom since it's a top drive. mech would ride to the top station, ring the bottom and then start the lift. When they started the lift it would only move .5 ft to test the rollback or ab or cable tach.
When the top operator arrived they would call the bottom to see if they were there yet. If no answer we would go ahead and do drive station checks and what not without the lift moving. ONce we get a call from the bottom we would start the lift and let it run on slow for 2-3 mins to warm up.
IN the case of Beaver Creek the Fix Grips if it was a top drive the drive operator would ski to the bottom of the lift ring the mountain phone for 3 mins then press and hold the singal button for 2-3 mins and then start the lift using a key in the control panel.
At Snowmass on Lift 5 no mech would be at the bottom since it's a top drive. mech would ride to the top station, ring the bottom and then start the lift. When they started the lift it would only move .5 ft to test the rollback or ab or cable tach.
When the top operator arrived they would call the bottom to see if they were there yet. If no answer we would go ahead and do drive station checks and what not without the lift moving. ONce we get a call from the bottom we would start the lift and let it run on slow for 2-3 mins to warm up.
Jeff
#3
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Posted 06 August 2010 - 05:23 AM
A detachable lift must have power on at both ends to run. Thus there's generally a mechanic at the drive end and the operators at the return (assuming it's a top drive, which most are). Fixed-grips don't necessarily have power at the return station, so it's possible to fire the drive end up and leave it ready for the operators to run from the bottom. Not sure if they still do this, but I recall working Rex (bottom-drive detachable) where we'd leave the power on at the top at the end of the day and only turn the bottom off. As far as the end of the day goes, our ops ski down after powering down the lift. Some areas-- those with a 'no skiing on the clock' policy, do pick up their ops on a sled.
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