Cam Shot Description

There are some cool things that you see or get to be a part of at a ski area, that really make the job unique. While "flying" lift towers on a new lift build and making snow are both pretty ski area specific, splicing haul ropes is on that short list, as well. Today's shot is of members of Mountain Operations' various departments (Lift Maintenance, Snowmaking, Ski Patrol, Vehicle Maintenance, et cetera) working on splicing the old Silver Queen haul rope to the new Silver Queen haul rope, which is still on a giant spool just uphill from the bottom of the lift. In case you don't know, the "haul rope" is the cable that the chairs attach to for their trips up and down the mountain--it's a crucial piece of equipment for obvious reasons. All the Mountain Operations guys are holding the haul rope off the ground and helping wind one of the strands of cable on to the rope. You can see the white poly-something-or-other core of the haul rope that the strand they're working will cover up.

The guy in the red jacket is the legendary R.J. (legendary to lift operators and lift maintainers in the NOrth America) one of just a handful of guys in North America qualified to splice haul rope cables. You've been riding on his splice work for many years at Crested Butte . . . he's the best of the best and well respected for his expertise. In today's shot he's beating strand of the haul rope into place with a pair of hand sledges. The process was repeated six times, as each of the six strands of the new haul rope will be spliced to the old.

The next step in the Silver Queen's haul rope replacement will be use the old haul rope to pull the new haul rope onto the lift line, while simultaneously unspooling the old. Next, the ends of the new cable will be spliced together in much the same manner you see above. Maybe they'll get a better weather day for that process. From there, they retention the haul rope, put all the chairs back on the haul rope and run the lift. The Silver Queen’s tensioning system will automatically adjust does its break-in stretching.

Weather-wise Wednesday, it was a soggy one around CB. The morning began foggy and rainy and really didn't change much until late afternoon when the sun broke through for an hour or two before an intense bunch of rain and wind whipped through just before six. The forecast is calling for more of the same tomorrow and Friday, so keeping the rain gear handy will be a good idea.

I hope your Thursday goes well out there and we'll see you tomorrow.