Eastwind Quad Chairlift Removal

We received exciting news yesterday from our Mountain Manager Ron Crozier - "The Eastwind Quad Chairlift towers are being taken down!" It's not every day that you see humungous, heavy, blue lift towers being torn out of the ground - about 3000 pounds being torn out of the ground to be exact. So we grabbed our marketing cameras and headed to the backside of the mountain for all the action.

When we arrived, the crew was removing one of the last two towers on the less-steaper side of the slope. They had already taken the tower out of the ground and were moving it with a crane. We didn't know exactly how they got the towers out of the ground, so we had to stick around to see the last one removed.

How many different types of machinery does it take to remove one tower?

We were surprised to find out that they don't actually "dig" the towers out of the ground. The towers are separated from their ground base by way of cutting with a torch. First, of course, they attach the top of the tower to a crane so as soon as the cutting is complete, the tower can be lifted into the air and then placed on the ground.

Tower being taken away by an old groomer.

Only three lift towers remain, and they will be the trickiest. Sitting on the steepest part of the slope, the remaining towers will be removed with a much larger crane in a couple of weeks. Wait until we get pictures from that exciting adventure! We've heard it's going to be quite a site to see.