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A spate of lift incidents over the past few years and increasing publicity, thanks to social media, has focused attention on lift maintenance, and on formal lift maintenance training in particular. Increasingly, regulators and the public are questioning the safety and reliability of older lifts, putting the spotlight on how much TLC lifts get, and from whom. Whether resorts adopt their own formal training programs or find such programs thrust upon them by state regulators, training programs appear inescapable.

At the RMLA Conference in May, NSAA’s Dave Byrd outlined the issues in a keynote address. He cited an article planned for OutsideOnline.com regarding chairlift safety as an example of increased public scrutiny. That attention coincides with an aging lift infrastructure that requires more attention to maintenance, he pointed out.

Steep Management principal Bob Ackland notes that the Keene (N.H.) Sentinel presented a series of articles last year following a minor incident at a local area, criticizing the lack of regulatory supervision. “This is what people are talking about,” he says. An increased public focus on lift maintenance is coming, he adds, “whether you like it or not.”

Currently, only a small percentage of resorts have a formal training program for mechanics. Michael Weise, parts and service manager for Leitner-Poma, estimates that perhaps half of the larger Western resorts do, but nationwide, the figure is probably a quarter or less.

Addressing this issue will require resort leadership to commit resources. And there are signs managers are paying attention. “I was impressed at how many small areas made the commitment to attend LMS this spring,” Ackland says, despite the poor season. “There’s a hunger for information.”

Existing Training Models

The idea of formalized lift maintenance training is not new. In Canada, Ontario has had an established licensing program for lift mechanics since 2012. Anyone who works on lifts must have a license, or “skills passport.” It establishes three levels of expertise, and describes what types of work each level may perform. For a new mechanic, it takes 6,000 hours of work experience—about three years—to reach the highest level. The detailed program has lots of steps, each with its own number of required hours of experience and training.

Other jurisdictions have moved in this direction. British Columbia has established criteria and a formal training scheme, but these are not required by law. The state of Vermont passenger tramway board, in conjunction with some of the state’s larger resorts, has developed a maintenance apprenticeship that leads to a maintenance qualification, but it, too, is not required. Both programs, like Ontario’s, establish three different levels of certification, and require 6,000 hours of experience and education to achieve the top level.

In addition, several resorts have developed their own formal training programs, and these, too, could serve as examples for other areas to follow.

How Do You Stack Up?

That was the message Michael Weise delivered in his seminar at this year’s RMLA conference, “How Do You Stack Up?” He reviewed the Ontario, B.C., and Vermont programs, and then the programs developed by several Western resorts of various sizes, to suggest ways resorts could create their own maintenance training programs.

“This is the way of the future,” he says. To the resorts that don’t have a program already, he advises, “you should start thinking about it.”

To assist with that thinking, he outlined some common elements of the existing programs, particularly those of the individual resorts. Starting with the maintenance manuals supplied by the lift manufacturers, the areas listed the maintenance each lift requires, and categorized each item according to the expertise needed to perform it. They then described how expertise could be developed, so that mechanics could improve skills and expand the scope of their work.

From this sort of detailed description of the maintenance items, a formal training program can set out a list of skills and proficiencies mechanics must have to perform these tasks, and a program for ensuring that mechanics have the skills for each level. Typically, the tasks are divided into three skill levels, but some resorts have established four or even five different levels of training.

Weise notes that both the B.C. and Vermont groups based their program on the 450-page Selkirk College manual on “Ski Lift Function, Maintenance and Regulations,” part of the college’s program on ski area management. The maintenance portion covers more than 30 subject areas, including:

• preventative maintenance tasks

• electricity and electrical

• control circuits

• wire rope and splicing

• sheave assemblies and towers

• terminals and tensioning systems

• hydraulic systems

• prime and auxiliary power systems

• drive controls and safety circuits

• drive line and braking systems

• carriers and grips

• detachable grip systems

• communications systems

• NDT training and vibration analysis

• shaft alignment

• machining and welding

• documentation

Starting from Scratch

So: if you don’t have a program, how do you go about creating one?

Start with a list of topics, the things that are important for a mechanic to know, Weise says. That comes from reading your lift manuals. From that, you can develop written procedures for each maintenance item. The next question is: who needs to know how to perform this maintenance? Is it a basic level operation, or something only the top mechanics can manage? And from that, you can develop the training program.

Finally, create forms from these procedures so you can track and document daily/weekly/annual work.

For example, an area might start by listing categories such as sheave assemblies, hydraulic systems, and line equipment. It could then identify the various maintenance items in each category, such as sheave assembly lubrication; bearing, bushing, axle, and tire inspection and replacement; and sheave alignment, and then describe the level of expertise required for each of these items. Weise urges areas to establish set procedures for each maintenance item, to ensure that the work is always done the same no matter which mechanic does the job.

The regional fall and spring association shows are a great resource. Doppelmayr, among others, provides a range of educational programs at the shows. A few years ago, says customer service manager Gary Mayo, Doppelmayr took its factory training program on the road, offering an electrical training program. The current program is on hydraulics. “The idea was to take the same message all across the country,” Mayo says.

There are other resources, too. NSAA sells the Selkirk College manual ($125) through the members section of nsaa.org. Michael Weise will share his RMLA presentation with resorts that request it (contact rick@saminfo.com for details). In short, resorts that wish to start building a formal maintenance training program can find plenty of help. And with public awareness rising, that’s one more reason to get started soon.