New Little Cloud quad passes final test

During the summer and fall of 2012, Snowbird Ski Resort installed a new $5.5 million four-person chairlift.

The new Little Cloud quad will follow the same tower line as the original Little Cloud double chair, built in 1977.

On Wednesday, Snowbird performed a simulated skier evacuation test, a process required by the American National Standard Institute on all new ski lifts before the lift can open to the public.

“The simulation was windy, we almost called it off,” said Tom Patton, the resort’s director of lifts. “As a staff we decided if we ever do need to evacuate this lift, it will most likely be because of a high wind event, so it was fitting to do the test with high winds.”

The evacuation was the fourth and final test the new lift had to pass to complete the inspection process.

The chairlift previously passed weight bearing, electrical and break tests in November.

In the event of an evacuation due to some sort of failure to the lift, the Snowbird Ski Patrol has developed a rescue protocol.

“The new Little Cloud lift has eight towers,” said Peter Schory, the resort’s winter operations director and member of the Snowbird Ski Patrol since 1973. “If we need to conduct an evacuation we will split the patrol into groups of four people and assign each group two towers to evacuate the chairs between them. We have four zones total for that particular lift.”

During a lift evacuation, one patrol member climbs a lift tower and strings a rope over the lift cable. Two patrol members on the ground belay one end of the rope while the fourth patroller walks the evacuation seat under the chair to be evacuated.

Once below the chair, the two patrollers who are on the belay end of the rope raise the seat up to the chair. The guests then place the evacuation chair under them and slide out of the chairlift.

The guest is then lowered from the chairlift to the ground by the two belaying patrollers. This process is repeated until all guests are evacuated off the lift.

Snowbird hasn’t had to perform a lift evacuation since the 2007-08 winter when the Peruvian lift had a mechanical failure.

“It doesn’t happen often but when it does we need to make sure we are prepared,” Schory said. “It was a good drill to get everyone familiar with what we do in that type of situation.”

The Little Cloud lift passed the evacuation test on Wednesday and is scheduled to open to the public Dec. 1.

The new Little Cloud quad transports guests more than 3,484 linear feet in three and a half minutes. The quad has the ability to transport 1,800 people per hour.

“As a resort we are very excited to open the new Little Cloud lift,” said Bob Bonar, the resort’s general manager. “The addition of this new lift helps us to meet the expectations of our guests. We don’t get guests from around the world that want to show up and ride a 35-year-old bumpy double chair. This is an upgrade to continue to make Snowbird the best it can be.”