day in the life of a ski lift mechanic

Brad Clayton · March 27, 2011

Working as a mechanic at a dealership Is comparable to being an independent contractor. Once you have taken on the job of repairing a vehicle in your bay, it is up to you to get the job done. I could stay in my bay and have very little interaction and absolutely no supervision all day. With the advent of intranet and interdepartmental e-mails, I can get a quote from parts and sent it to the service advisor while never leaving my bay. Now, that is not to say that I don’t communicate with people face to face. I deal with a lot of people one on one and talk to my fair share of customers on the service side and parts retail side. Comparing myself to an independent contractor, then it is up to me to police myself. If I turn my 8 or 10 hours a day then the dealer is happy. But it’s up to me to be on time, not to go over on my lunch break, clean my bay if it’s dirty, and buy tools that will make my job easier, and so on.

Working at a ski resort is a totally different animal. I work part time at Okemo Mountain as a lift mechanic (not a technician, a mechanic!). There is very little solo work and most work is completed in teams. I am always given a specific set of instructions and time frame to get a job completed. Anytime a problem arises or even a scheduled task is being performed, there is a lot of communication back and forth with its involvement. All jobs are singed off and dated by the mechanic and logged. If a lift fails and causes injuries, we have data all the way back to the early ‘80s that can be called up.

With that said, I have two goals in mind every time I go to work on the mountain. The first is not to get my snowmobile stuck and second is not to make my boss mad. My boss is a good guy, but he is firm. Two of the best ways to get into hot water, don’t do what he asks of you and set out to do a given task without full understanding of what was asked of you. Simple enough right? Well, I usually get my sled stuck at least once a year and it’s always on a deep powder day. I haven’t worked on a day that snowed heavily yet, so I am good there so far. Buuuuttt, I did manage to get myself in trouble for the first time this season. It was Sunday and we had been dispatched our jobs for the evening. Most lift maintenance happens before the mountain opens or after it closes. This is due to the lifts having to be shut down to do most repairs. One of the most mundane jobs we have involves seat repair. If you have never skied, imagine a porch swing that seats four people across and then suspend that 50 feet off the ground. Now you have yourself a chair lift. Cover the seat with some cheap vinyl and then jab it with ski poles all day and the seat pad needs to be repaired or replaced. We do all seat pads in house and they must be unbolted from the chair lift frame and carted to the shop. To get them back and forth involves laying the seat across a snowmobile seat and then sitting on top of it and taking off. You kind of look like an airplane; it looks real strange when you stack about 8 of them up and then head down the slopes. So the guy that is under me for seniority had to replace one seat pad and I watched him fumble around trying to get out of the shop yard while not clipping anything with his new found wings. I thought I was glad to have got out of that job, as all I had to do was change one tire at another lift near the lift needing seat repairs.

Well my job ended up kicking my ass. I fought with that tire and the bolts holding it on were way too tight. I then dropped one of the 4 lug bolts in the snow and couldn’t find it. I had to go all the way back to the shop to get a new bolt. The tire got completely covered in grease due to being in close proximity to a greasy part and I had to strap that nasty fucker to my sled. All removed parts go back to the shop for repair or analysis. So now I am ready to get back and go home. As I am motoring up the hill I see a sled in front of me carrying none other than a seat pad. Now keep in mind the mountain is closed and there are no skiers on the hill. I see a golden opportunity to blow by my counterpart and smoke him on the way back to the shop, eh eh eh.

I move over to the left side of the trail and squeeze the thumb control completely flush with the hand grip. The sled rockets past my buddy and I am catching air over some of the snow drifts that accumulate thru the day. I approach the top of the trail and have to take a 90 degree turn to get down an intersecting trail that leads to the shop. I barely let up on the throttle and lean way off to the right of the sled hanging my knee out towards the snow like a rider on a sport bike at the Isle of Mann TT. I get straightened up with the new trail and lift the front end a little as I hit the throttle hard again. As I approach the shop, I lock the brake and drag the track and slide my sled into the entrance to the shop lot. The entrance is a steep downhill grade and then a hard left to the back of the shop. The adrenaline is flowing and I am waiting to see Ozzy’s face when he finally gets to the shop. When I look to see the sled coming down the hill, it ain’t Ozzy. It’s my boss and he is carrying a seat pad.

Oh shit is the first thing that crosses my mind. I just blew the doors off my boss and probably sprayed him with a serious rooster tail of snow in the process. He weren’t happy at all, and he let me know this. What a way to end a perfectly good day. I must admit that after I received my lashings, I laughed about it during the drive home.

Brad Clayton · April 17, 2011

Welp, it's my last day on the mountain for the season. This means I get my Sundays back. It's a piss poor day thought, it's raining out, that means no bikini skiers. Posted Image

mrbudge · April 18, 2011

So if you don't mind me asking, how's the pay compared to being a "technician", and do you get any perks from the mountain?(lift tickets, etc) What type of maintenance is done through the summer? I always dreamed about moving out west, doing lift maintenance, and being a ski bum. (yeah, bikini skiers!)