Mad River Glen historic rebuild of single chairlift

Abstract

Mad River Glen is New England's American iconic symbol of pure skiing - no snowboarding allowed here! And as part of this egalitarian ideal and uniqueness also, the last single chairlift operating in North America (one does operate on a part time basis in Alaska) and placed into operation in 1947, still carries skiers, albeit one per chair. However, due to its age, and being out of codes - chairs breaking up, antiquated grips, no rope catchers, archaic derail electrical system, etc. the ski area in 2006 decided to totally rebuild the lift, but in maintaining historical value, keep it as a single chairlift. Thus, this paper and presentation goes through the rebuilding process determining what equipment was salvageable, what equipment was needed to be replaced, and then the removal, and reinstallation process placing the new single chairlift back into operation. Many photographs of the original installation, plus photos of the new installation work will be presented.