A Day in the Life of Lift Maintenance at Beaver Creek

Posted February 19, 2024
By Madison Miller
Photos by Thaddeus Schau

If you have ever wondered what it takes to get a mountain up and running before our guests arrive, here is an inside look in to what a day in the life of a Lift Maintenance team member is like. 

Our Lift Maintenance team arrives at the break of dawn to bring our mountain to life. With 25 lifts across our mountain, it’s go-time for this department to get a great amount of work done in an hour and half each morning. Everyone on the team arrives around 6:30 AM to get dressed in uniform, load their tools onto their snowmobiles, and do their daily snowmobile inspection snowmobile. From there, they ride over to the drive station of all detachable lifts, going inside the terminal to complete pre-operational inspections and safety checks. 

After completing initial pre-operational inspections, Lift Maintenance calls into lift Dispatch to let them know that each lift is ready for the Lift Operations team to take over. A Lift Operator will then complete a line inspection ride from bottom to top of each lift.  Once they have arrived at the top terminal, will go through a whole series of additional inspections of the speed controls, stop buttons, and any other pre-operational requirements from the Colorado Tramway Safety Board are completed prior to public operation.

The work that Lift Maintenance does EVERY day is vital to Beaver Creek’s daily operations and is completed in a short period of time each morning. Safety is of the utmost importance to this department, not only for our guests but for our fellow employees as well. Safety starts with training; the Lift Maintenance leadership team fosters a strong team-safety culture where everyone is always looking out for one another. That can mean having a teammate climb towers with you and having a spotter at the bottom, checking one another for correct PPE, and having a team that has each other's safety at the front of mind in all aspects of the job.

While some people might find the work and time constraints stressful, the employees we have in our Lift Maintenance department thrive in this type of environment. With varying previous work experience, most people on the team have experience in mechanical, automation, or engineering related industries.   Even if someone doesn’t have prior experience directly related to ski lifts, this team provides hands on training for all levels of mechanics and electricians, not only at Beaver Creek, but also throughout the ski industry.