SToWe MoUnTaIn ReSoRt

Last Thursday the 22nd our practicum class headed out early to Stowe to check out their new lift project. I personally was really excited to get to stowe no matter what type of work they had waiting for us as i have never actually been to the resort before. I always hear good things about stowe and it was cool to finally get there and check out what they have to offer. Right away we got the chance to check out Stowe's new lift. They are replacing an existing fixed grip chair with a brand new dopplmeyer detachable quad. We walked over to the construction area where we were able to check out the terminal and even go up in it. There we saw all the wheels and clutches that guide the tow rope. The Constuction workers were even putting the roof on the terminal while we were up there. In conjunction with the new lift, Stowe is also building a chair rail and a huge barn to house the chairs. I found it interesting that they plan to take every chair off the line every evening and put them back on everynight. i havent heard of many mountains taking their chairs off daily. The reason that they are doing this is to prevent icing on the chairs that could potentially cause problems when chairs go into the terminal. icing on chairs often break parts and cause breakdowns of chairlifts. After checking out the bottom terminal, we hopped in the vans and went up to view the top terminal. As this is a top drive lift, we saw the motors and a pretty similar looking terminal as the bottom. Stowe is actually putting in the primary electric motor and two diesel backup motors. reason being if power is lost they can still run the lift and load passengers. at the top of the mountain, Stowe is also building a new patrol building where they will use heat from the lift motors to heat the building, i thought this was a really cool idea. Another goal for the top of the mountain was to use the space as efficiently as possible as they have a lack of space up there. A lot of space has been freed up durring the project making the lift unloading process a lot smoother and more efficient. Stowe's new lift will be a great inprovement for them an i hope to be riding it this coming season.
           After the tour of the new lift, the remainder of our day at Stowe was spent Dis-assembling Sheave assembly's. It was pretty interesting seeing the sheaves and towers up so close as we usually only see that stuff up in the air on the towers. overall the task was pretty simple esspecially because we had a whole class to do it, but still a good learning experiance. It was definatly cool to talk to Steve the lift mechanic about all he has seen over the years and how he got into this industry.