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Black Mountain has fixed one of two broken chairlifts
Mountain officials worked "around the clock" to get the double chairlift running.
Skiers and riders at New Hampshire’s Black Mountain could once again ride to the summit on Tuesday after officials fixed one of two chairlifts that broke down over the weekend.
The Jackson ski area’s two chairlifts — the Summit Double Chair and the East Bowl Triple Chair — were both closed on Monday. Both lifts experienced “critical component failures” on Sunday within a 90 minute time span and visitors were manually evacuated from the double lift.
On Monday, only the mountain’s three surface lifts were available for visitors, with officials taking ski school students up the mountain on a snowcat. Season pass holders were offered free uphill equipment rentals.
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“In less than 48 hours, we diagnosed, removed, transported, rebuilt, and reinstalled the primary drive motor for the Summit Double,” wrote Erik Mogensen, president and general manager of Black Mountain, on the mountain’s website on Tuesday.
The double lift reopened for skiers and riders at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, according to Mogensen.
The triple lift, which had “a complete failure on the top bull wheel bearing,” according to Mogensen, is still broken. The part, which has a 10-year lifespan, was on its eighth season.
“We are still unsure of the exact specifications of the bearing that failed,” he wrote. “We have one set of bearings in Tennessee, and a set with slightly different specifications in Massachusetts. We bought both sets, and both are en route.”
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Once the bearings are secured, Mogensen said his team will work “nonstop” until the triple is running again.
“Many people worked around the clock over the last 48 hours to get the double running as we know your time is valuable, especially over this holiday vacation week,” wrote Mogensen. “This was not a straightforward fix with on-the-shelf parts, and it would have been reasonable to expect a fix taking weeks, not hours. Thank you to everyone who made it happen. It is time to ski.”
The mountain’s NYE Torch Light Parade on Wednesday will go on as scheduled.
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