Hands-on experience, that’s what it’s about. Photo: Alterra
What’s the longest you’ve ever been stuck on a chairlift? Long enough to panic? Long enough to think you might get left dangling overnight on a cold chair with nothing but your cold fingers to chew on?
Thankfully, because of well-trained lift mechanics, chairlifts don’t normally stop long enough for your imagination to conjure up worst-case scenarios. You’re more likely to hear the sound of a snowmobile arriving at the source of the problem, followed by the commotion of a capable human getting you back to your regularly scheduled pow day.
At least that’s the experience we, as resort skiers and riders, have come to rely on. But with many lifelong lift mechanics retiring, or about to retire, North American ski resorts are on the verge of an industry crippling worker shortage. In an effort to get ahead of that problem, Alterra Mountain Company has joined forces with Colorado Mountain College to create a four-week program that’s meant to rapidly train the next generation of lift mechanics.
“The coming retirement wave in the skilled trades, particularly for lift mechanics in the United States, is potentially really bad if we don’t work on this,” Ben Cairns, the dean of CMC’s Leadville Campus told me.
The Ropeway Maintenance Technician Level One Certification is in its second year of operation and marks an effort to boost the workforce before it’s too late. The coursework takes place at the Leadville campus and on-site at local ski areas. Last year’s pilot program had 14 students, mostly employees from across Alterra’s resorts, who benefited from a healthy mix of classroom sessions and on-mountain labs.
“The program is four hours of lecture in the morning and then in the afternoon you go to a ski resort and spend time actually putting what you learned in the classroom into practice,” explains Hannah Barrego, Director of Mountain Operations for Alterra. “It gives you the hands-on experience and helps train team members faster because they’re not doing it on the job. They can really slow down, focus and ask questions.”
One of last year’s labs involved tearing down Steamboat’s Priest Chair – a fixed-grip double chair built in 1972 – while explaining the math that’s necessary to execute that process safely. The 2024 program – which is about halfway through as of this writing –divides its time between the CMC Leadville campus, Copper Mountain, Ski Cooper, the Arkansas River and other locations while focusing on rigging, basic electrical and welding. The four-week course is worth 12 college credits that can go towards an Applied Science Degree, should the student choose to pursue that path (though the course can be taken as a standalone in order to obtain Level 1 Certification).
This year’s program has 22 students, mostly Alterra employees, but with a few from Vail Resorts as well. The Labor Crisis has the potential to affect the whole ski industry, not just Alterra and the mountains included in the Ikon Pass.
“I’d say Vail is very much in the conversation along with Alterra,” says Cairns. “And then of course the other major corporations and all the Mom-and-Pop resorts are all part of it as well.”
“Down the road, we want ski areas and ski companies to have the opportunity to sit down with these students and say ‘alright, do you know where you want to go? Are you interested in this as a career? Let’s get you set up to come and work at a resort, whether it’s Vail, Alterra, it doesn’t matter. Let’s get you into the industry,’” says Barrego.
All concepts learned in the classroom are immediately put to use in the field. Photo: Alterra
The Level 1 Certification addresses another issue as well. Historically, the education available to lift mechanics in the United States has been a patchwork of virtual learning, apprenticeships and lessons learned on the fly during operation hours.
“That’s a big part of what we’re working on is standardizing this career path,” says Cairns.
“There are a few programs throughout the States that you’ll see here and there,” adds Barrego. “But the big thing that was missing was that in-person training on resort.”
That standardization makes it a lot easier for employees to move from one resort to another with a more universal understanding of ski lifts and the systems that keep them spinning. As far as that whole process goes, CMC has taken notes from programs north of the border, like the ones offered at Selkirk College.
“I don’t know how to say this nicely,” says Cairns. “Canada’s better at this than the United States. [They] just have a more robust apprenticeship pathways and [they] have more trades pathways that are really clear to high school students how to get into the career.”
And really, building careers is what this program is all about. It’s all too easy for mountain folk to fall into a paycheck-to-paycheck existence that makes it impossible to put down roots in the towns that service local ski hills.
“We want to help the people that maybe arrived as a dishwasher or a bartender determine their career path and be able to afford homes in mountain communities and establish themselves,” says Barrego. “That’s one of our goals.”
While this course aims to get ahead of a worker shortage, it could be argued that the problem is much deeper. The pandemic saw a host of lift mechanics retire, and resorts are already dealing with the fallout from that drain on the workforce.
“We had a resort, and this was a few years ago, where they were in such a rough spot for lift mechanics,” explains Barrego. “There were times where they weren’t able to run certain lifts because they just didn’t have the manpower to support that…If we don’t have people to actually support the resort, we’re not going to put people in an unsafe situation.”
In other words, there’s a chance this labor crisis could shut down lifts at our favorite resorts. And that’s before we even get to liftees, cat drivers, and all the other labor positions needed to properly operate a resort So hopefully this program yields a healthy crop of certified lift mechanics who can keep those chairs swinging around the bull wheel.
So if you’re looking for a decent-paying job where you never stop learning, this program’s definitely worth checking out. It’s a legitimate career path, with a skill set that translates to other pursuits as well.
“The rigging work would be directly translatable to general mountaineering and Search and Rescue type scenarios. Plus your ability to problem solve and be safe in a remote setting is very much a part of being lift mechanic,” explains Cairns. “There’s just a lot of basic mechanical and industrial skills someone would learn that can be useful in life. Every mountain person has a little bit of redneck skills in ’em, right?”
