Liftlog News

Writer’s note for reading this article: If you know Dave, you’ll understand that is written just as he speaks .. loaded with his humble, wry humor. Bill Merk bought a Tucker Snowcat and trailer to carry people up the mountain for skiing. A small building with a center fireplace and a gravel floor served as… Read More »

Professional Engineer and life skier on today’s ski lift culture, lift projects, and his take on differing ANSI Standard interpretations. “The mid-eighties was my ten-year career mark in civil, structural, ski lift and tramway engineering — the engineering I loved the most. At this point in time, I decided to venture out on my own… Read More »

Win a Skytrac hat! Last June, LeRoy Shultz, Engineer and past chairman of the ANSI B77.1 Committee received the Jan W. Leonard award for exceptional contribution to the Committee. We caught up with his wife Dana who sent us this wonderful picture of Leroy accepting his award. Thanks Dana! But WHO’s the rugged ivy-leaguer-looking guy… Read More »

Generations of Advice from Mountain Wire Rope Services. Is your team prepared for your upcoming splice or will you fall back on old habits? JT and Whitney Walters-Anderson give us the basics for Splice Day that often get overlooked. Pre-Splice Day Mountain Wire Rope will ask for the original splice report, original rope specs and… Read More »

Karl Kullberg sits a bulldozer visually surveying the resort around him as he has done for the past twenty-six years. While he talks, he points out all the qualities and features about the mountain; he knows every detail. Mt. Peter is a family-owned ski resort and when there is an opportunity to talk to long-time… Read More »

Among others honored, the late chairlift engineer Jan Leonard was inducted into the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame this past September 21 at the Alf Engen Museum, home of the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame. “Leonard founded one of the most recognizable ski-industry companies in the world. A 1968 graduate of Penn State, he was… Read More »

In 1938 when the Mellon’s developed Laurel Mountain as a private ski club, the Ligonier Valley was a playground for the wealthy with fox hunting, trout fishing, and the Rolling Rock Club. This valley was where the Westinghouse, Carnegie and other famous Gilded Age families mixed socially for holidays away from the city heat and… Read More »

What were you doing 18 years ago?  Comparing ski industry notes and some personal ones, from 1998. You’ve been an engineer in the ski resort industry for 29 years; that’s nearly three decades of your neighbors watching you put your skis in your car when heading to work. You got your start in the wire… Read More »

Nicholas is a snowboarder. When comparing any climate that has chairlifts, maintaining a tramway in a desert area doesn’t have as many differences as you would anticipate. When talking about the lifts in Southern California, our hot weather here is equal to the snow and cold of somewhere else. It’s all relative. Most of us… Read More »