By Nathan Ham
A brand new, four-passenger chairlift on Big Birch was installed at Sugar Mountain Resort this summer and a special ribbon cutting was held during SugarFest on Saturday.
The new Doppelmayr quad lift replaced a lift that has been on the mountain for over 50 years.
“It’s a four-passenger lift and not detachable. It’s brand new with all the bells and whistles,” said Gunther Jochl, Owner and President of Sugar Mountain Resort. “ We got it because we needed to replace a lift from 1969 that was overhauled in 2005. It was perfectly safe, no doubt about it, but you need to look at what needs to be redone to keep it safe. There comes a time when replacing it is really the only way to go.”
As part of the new lift installation, the landing area for people to get off the lift before starting down the slope is about three times as big as it used to be according to Jochl.
“Speed control is much easier and loading and unloading are much easier,” he said.
The celebration included ringing a bell that Doppelmayr sends with all lifts to ring once they are installed and completed.
“We made it work and made it work quickly. I think it is important to note that we were probably on the delivery list last but we finished ours first. It was the first Doppelmayr lift under construction this summer that was load-tested,” Jochl said.
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