By Nathan Ham
The Beech Mountain family gathered together on Saturday to officially dedicate the newest accomplishments at the ski resort, two brand new ski lifts.
Beech Mountain President and CEO John Costin, as well as general manager Ryan Costin, corporate treasurer/secretary Shawn Williams and director of grounds maintenance, Jack Costin, all came to the mountain for the special event.
“I was pleased with the turnout and it felt appropriate that our big Beech Mountain family was all present and it was nice to see the Costin family all together,” said Talia Freeman, the Director of Marketing for Beech Mountain. “It was nice to have the community there and the Boone Chamber, Avery Chamber and the Beech Mountain Chamber were all present so that was really cool to have all of them there and supportive as well.”
Ryan’s daughter, Harper, had the special task of cutting the ribbon.
“Watching little Harper cut the ribbon with those big giant scissors was my favorite part because she was really excited about that,” Freeman said.
Both of the lifts are Doppelmayr quad lifts that were installed this fall. Lift five has already been hauling people up the mountain while lift six will hopefully be opened soon, according to Freeman.
Ryan Costin says reviews have been good so far from the customers.
“We’re just excited getting the project finally finished and getting the winter started, we’re really looking forward to what the lifts are going to provide to our customers,” said Ryan. “Obviously getting acclimated to it and getting used to it, not only for our customers but for the employees, there is still some training going on. It has been good,” Ryan said.
Lift five has 144 chairs and will be able to accommodate 2,400 skiers per hour and lift six will be able to accommodate around 2,000 skiers per hour. Lift five also features a loading conveyor that the skiers will step on and then the conveyor will move them forward as the lift chair comes around to take them up the mountain.
“Anytime you have new equipment it’s certainly a learning curve. In general, it’s really just a quality product and in the long run I think it will be a lot easier maintenance wise than what we’ve dealt with before,” Freeman said. “So far everything is going great and everyone is excited.
Freeman says she was a little nervous at first with new customers getting used to the loading conveyor.
“They all seem to be taking to it pretty easily,” she added. “I think it will really make the loading process a lot more efficient.”
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