Chairlift out for season

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 18, 29 September 1987, Page 1

Chairlift out for season

Turoa Skifield's Giant Chairlift is not expected to operate again this ski season according to Turoa's managing director Tony Wright. A major gearbox failure in late August put the field's Giant Chairlift out of action. "The full extent of the damage has been assessed and it has been decided to substantially modify the drive machinery to avoid this happening again. This is a major task requiring a new gearbox to be freighted from overseas and at least several weeks work with heavy machinery to complete the installation," Mr Wright said. The gearbox failed while the chairlift was in use transporting members of the public. The operators were unable to run the cable for safety reasons which forced an evacuation of the lift. This evacuation involved lowering more

than 150 people from the . chairs, using a rescue technique adapted by Turoa. The new Doppelmayr quad chairlift has played a critical role in the skifield's operation since the gearbox failure. Mr Wright says that without the Movenpick the Giant Chairlift breakdown would have caused a major problem providing access to the popular T-bar slopes. "One of the reasons for the installation of the new quad chairlift was to provide a back-up to the Giant and Park Lane chairlifts in the event of a breakdown. Now, even without the Giant we can still provide access to the upper slopes via the Movenpick chairlift and Jumbo T-Bar". Turoa presently has a good snow cover down to the skifield carpark and is expected to operate through until its official closing day on 5 November.