Cool Agent G!

I live 2 miles from Vail, CO and my best friend is radio dispatch for the ski mountain. He said the splicer specialist for those cables are a unique lot. That is all they do is move from mountain to mountain and splice cables. The cables stretch and need to be cut, shortened, and re-spliced about every 3 to 5 years.

Vail and Beaver Creek have so many lifts that they replaced about three a year.

He said this year was interesting when the splicer was doing his work. They get the entire mechanics crew to help out and it takes about 40 guys. This year the splice let go just as they were putting a load on it and he said it started spinning out of the wire truck like a giant whale caught on a 400 ton fishing line.

When the splicer starts running from the truck and and shouting, everyone starts running.

In the end he said the cable twisted and jammed in the feed coming off the truck so it didn't get real bad but there was a very real possibility of a cable ripping a couple of guys in half.

That's a lot of work - but I'm sure those who would otherwise have to climb the slopes agree it's worth it. I never thought about how those things get there before. Cool!