Lift fail leaves skiers stranded
It was supposed to be a formality, instead it became a literal uphill slog.
For most of the past decade, skiers at the Broken River club field near Arthur’s Pass have enjoyed accessing its slopes via the Tyndall Tramway, a funicular railway lift that ferried them up in the morning and down in the afternoon, six at a time. On a busy day it could make 90 or more trips. However, the club’s first snow report of 2018 hinted at a problem: a ‘‘temporary issue’’ meant the lift was unlikely to be running for a couple of weeks.
Skiers were advised to dust off their tramping boots. Weeks became months. Then the entire winter. Anyone who wanted to ski Broken River this season was going to have to walk there from the car park.
The problem was the tramway didn’t have the required safety certification and couldn’t operate without it. The engineer who had done it since the 1980s, back when it was a goods lift, had retired since last winter. Club management, anticipating a slightly longer process, started looking for another engineer in April, and ended up having to go to the North Island to find someone. That was only the start of it, though. ‘‘We were naive,’’ Broken River club president Ross Campbell said.
‘‘The engineer needs to have a full understanding of the system, including the design. He can’t just take the fact that it’s been certified the last 15 to 20 years as gospel. He has to do basically a bottom-up assessment for himself.’’
That came at a price. The club estimated the certification bill at between $20,000 and $40,000. The alternative was to wait until next season, and cut costs by doing some of the prep work for the engineer itself.
It was the lesser of two evils. A subcommittee, headed by an engineer club member, is already collecting documentation. ‘‘It was just a commercial decision, really,’’ Campbell said, ‘‘We’re obviously disappointed we didn’t have it to run this year but we’re pleased [the new engineer is] taking the approach they’re taking. Their neck’s on the line if they certify it.’’
The response to the lift closure from skiers was encouraging, Campbell said, even though the club was heading for an operating deficit this year. Numbers were down by about a third on usual for the early part of the season. This was offset some by a spike in stays at the club’s onsite accommodation, up 20 per cent.
This week, possibly the last of the 2018 season, skiers will again make the uphill trek, zigzagging through beech forest. Any self-respecting weekend warrior should be able to make it in 20 minutes, but few will mourn its demise. The tramway will definitely be back in commission next season, Campbell said.
‘‘Oh yes . . . We’ve learned our lesson.’’