SAM Magazine—South Lake Tahoe, Calif., June 27, 2024—The 2024 Ski California Lift Maintenance and Operations Education (LMOE) conference set a record for attendance, with 368 ski industry professionals descending upon South Lake Tahoe, June 4-6, for education, training, and networking.

The event moved from Palisades Tahoe to a new location this year: the Tahoe Blue Event Center, a new conference space on the Nevada side of South Lake Tahoe. “The new venue was a big hit,” said Michael Reitzell, president of Ski California, the trade association for California and Nevada ski areas.

New this year, the educational event added sessions for vehicle maintenance personnel, boosting attendance to a new high. Reitzell estimated about 50 attendees came specifically for these sessions but weren’t limited to that specific track. 

“We had a goal of cross-training,” said Reitzell. “We set up several classes that could be attended across departments even if they had a focus on one subject.” There were a variety of risk management and leadership sessions in addition to the lift ops, lift maintenance, and vehicle maintenance sessions. 

There were 64 speakers for 59 classes, held primarily at Tahoe Blue, but a handful of off-site sessions and tours were held at Heavenly, where attendees learned about mazes and ramps, how to build a lift platform, how to conduct a tower rescue, and more. A group was transported to Sierra-at-Tahoe where resort leadership provided a tour and information about the resort’s recovery from the Caldor Fire, which hit there in 2022. All off-site sessions required advance registration, and all were filled to capacity, said Reitzell.

The keynote was delivered by California-native and racing legend Scott Pruett, who discussed the importance of working as a team to ensure safety when working with machinery. 

A record number of vendors turned out for Tuesday’s trade show, which, in conjunction with the opening night reception, “was buzzing,” according to Reitzell. New social events included a welcome reception on Monday night at Heavenly’s mountaintop Lakeview Lodge, and a takeover of the nearby Tipsy Putt Pub on Wednesday night.

Several awards are given out annually at the event. The late Yan Kunczynski of Lift Engineering was recognized with a special Industry Impact Award, accepted by his wife Lily Kunczynski. Joe and Mary Gmuender of Gmuender Engineering were recipients of the Dave McCoy Lifetime Achievement Award. Erik Shellman, Sugar Bowl, was named the Paul Beran Lift Maintenance Person of the Year, and Shauna Appelhof, Mountain High, was named the Don Lowder Lift Operations Person of the Year. The Top 3 Under 30 were Boreal Woodward Tahoe’s Robert Elliot, Heavenly’s Jordan Deas, and Homewood’s Sarah Rasmussen.

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