No industry, especially a customer-based “experience industry” such as skiing and snowboarding, can survive with a bad safety record. That’s one reason why chairlifts are a huge component of industry safety priorities. Over the years, the Ski Areas of New York (SANY), the New York State Department of Labor (DOL), and its Tramway Advisory Council have worked to insure that our industry has an enviable safety record. To extend this effort, these organizations, with SANY as the initiator, have created a detailed program of “ ski lift maintenance training” for all areas in New York State.

The training effort began to take shape in June 2011. At a retreat at Greek Peak Mountain Resort, the SANY board of directors agreed that they needed to help support lift maintenance training in the state of New York. The catalyst for this decision was the concern felt by the board over several lift incidents across the country during the preceding three or four years. In all of the incidents and close calls that had occurred there was a common thread: maintenance, training, and at times even inspection, had been absent or inadequate.

SANY believes that its customers and guests largely take lift safety for granted. Our clientele, by and large, is not worried or concerned when they ride a lift. Nor should they be; the industry nationwide has a very solid lift safety record. As the NSAA itself has said, “Ski areas across the country are committed to chairlift safety, and they have an excellent safety record for uphill transportation as a result of this commitment. In fact, there is no other transportation system that is as safely operated, with so few injuries and fatalities, as the uphill transportation provided by chairlifts at ski resorts in the United States.”


The Case for Training
Our aim, prodded by those recent incidents across the country, is to maintain our safety record. Lift incidents, wherever they occur, have the potential for negative publicity that could impact the entire industry. So the SANY board felt it was necessary to start our own educational training program for all lift maintenance mechanics in the state. This was important to SANY because we wished to be recognized as a leader in lift safety.

The board believed that this training would specifically help the smaller, more local ski areas, who often can not afford to send employees to distant, multi-day training programs. The SANY classes would provide an accessible and very inexpensive opportunity for all areas to share their knowledge, expertise and methods of documentation. The program would strive to engage the areas that needed the most help. The training/education these areas would receive would be invaluable and would be provided free of charge, removing the barrier of training costs. Three board members led the effort.


Year One (of Six)
Last year, 2012, was the first year of the SANY self-directed lift maintenance program. When the plan was introduced to the New York State ski areas, the lift training committee had already brought the New York State Department of Labor (DOL) into the project, and procured the support of the New York State Tramway Council.

The participation of the DOL meant the classes were open to DOL representatives and inspectors. The DOL carries the inspection and enforcement responsibilities for lifts in the state, so the program supports the state’s concerns as well as the goals of SANY. The committee and the representatives of DOL agreed that DOL inspectors could benefit from the same training that the lift mechanics would be getting. It was also a great opportunity for the DOL inspectors and the lift mechanics to build relationships and understand the challenges that each faces.

The program, as implemented in 2012, is a six-year effort. Six “training host resorts” spread across the state (Gore Mountain, Woods Valley, Kissing Bridge, Bristol Mountain, Holiday Valley, and Hunter Mountain) will host a slate of topics that will rotate from year to year. This allows all ski areas within the state to have easy access to all the training.

The committee adopted the NSAA-endorsed “Ski Lift Functions, Maintenance and Regulations” manual to generate the syllabus for each program class. The program provides training and networking to lift maintenance staff in more than 10 critical areas, including proper documentation.

A typical class was structured to be an all-day session, led by the host ski area’s lift maintenance department. It was hands-on and very interactive, with all class members participating. The host area provided lunch at no cost to the participating ski areas. To gauge the program’s success, a SANY lift committee member attended, introduced and monitored each of the six sessions.

By all accounts the 2012 summer program was very successful. There were more than 200 participants in the classes last summer with DOL representatives at four of the six classes. Participants came from as far away as Maine.

Instructors in each area had a good understanding of the material they were teaching and established an excellent dialogue with the participants. More importantly, they engaged the class in a meaningful give-and-take about similar tasks completed at the participants’ ski areas. Many host areas conducted tours of their operations as part of the training and networking.

In only one area did the committee feel that the program fell short of its primary objective: providing formal lift maintenance training to smaller SANY members and non-SANY ski areas. Approximately 20 of the smaller ski areas declined to participate in 2012.


An Open Invitation
This lack of attendance by the smaller ski areas greatly concerned the SANY committee. For this summer of 2013, the committee aims to better engage the entire membership and perhaps more importantly, work to get non-member ski areas in New York to participate in the program. An extensive personal outreach program is being mounted to address this issue. Members of the SANY board are contacting the non-participating ski areas to explain the program and encourage them to participate.

The committee has once again met with the DOL, which is once again handing out information on the training program as part of its seasonal inspection process. The committee believes that working with the DOL to both communicate and encourage all ski areas to attend the sessions will help raise the participation level.

The program is not limited to N. Y. areas. While it is a New York-branded effort, all ski areas are encouraged to attend. One does not have to be from New York, nor do you have to be a member of SANY to partake (and contribute) to this effort. SANY is willing and happy to share the outline of this program with other state associations as well.

In short, if your ski area attended maintenance training in 2012, please participate again this year. If not, please make plans now to do so in 2013 and beyond. SANY looks forward to seeing you at the next session!




SANY LIFT TRAINING DETAILS
Class curriculum for 2013 has been set and began May 21. The remaining sessions are:

Woods Valley - July 16
Drive controls, safety circuits and basic electric - Scott Rabe, Lift Manager
Reservation contact persons: Scott Rabe - Lift Manager / Tim Woods - General Manager
Phone: (315) 827-4721. Leave your reservation information on the answering machine.

Kissing Bridge - July 30
Prime movers, evacuation drives and brake systems - Mike Gerkin, Lift Manager
Reservation contact person: Angela - KB Operations Department
Phone: (716) 592-4963 Ext “0”; E-mail: alegna829@gmail.com

Bristol - August 6
Sheave assemblies, towers and line equipment - Troy Woodard, Lift Manager
Reservation contact person: Amy Sharp
Phone: (585) 374-1129; E-mail: asharp@bristolmt.com

Holiday Valley - August 13
Terminal structure, carriages, bull wheels, hydraulics and tension systems -
Jim Curtis, Lift Manager
Reservation contact person: Judy Bartlett - Administrative Assistant
Direct (716) 699-3908; E-mail: jbartlett@holidayvalley.com
Please RSVP to the ski area reservation contact person with the names of attendees that you plan to have participate.

SANY EXPO Holiday Valley - September 12
Magic Carpet maintenance training class - Class conducted by SunKid and Magic Carpet
Hands-on inspection of one of HV’s beginner carpets
No RSVP required

More information can be found at www.iskinyexpo.com.

SANY also extends an invitation to the annual EXPO, September 11-13 at Holiday Valley in Ellicottville, N.Y. The educational agenda will include myriad subjects, including lift maintenance and operations.