MISSOULA — It hasn’t always been smooth skiing at Snowbowl as there have been a variety of safety issues over the years, especially with chairlifts.
Soon Snowbowl's mountain north of Missoula will be covered in snow. However, resort skiers and snowboarders might not be able to enjoy it unless Snowbowl fixes their chairlifts.
Snowbowl representative Megan Morris told MTN, “Safety’s paramount. We wanna have a great, happy, healthy, safe ski season this year.” She continued, “I put my kids on these lifts, I definitely want them to be safe.”
Morris is hoping the 2023-2024 season has no lift safety issues.
Snowbowl is allowed to operate because of a special use permit from the Lolo National Forest. The permit was signed in 2004 and expires in 2044. At any time, the Forest Service can suspend or take away that permit if there are issues at the ski area.
“This time of year we’re normally going through some inspection processes, some monitoring, looking at their lifts and their operations and making sure they’re in compliance with industry standards which is required in their permit," Lolo National Forest Supervisor Carolyn Upton explained.
Upton says this year they did a bit more than usual, “We asked [Snowbowl] to have a comprehensive inspection of all of their lifts because of some of the issues that have happened in the spring and in recent years.”
The U.S. Forest Service and Snowbowl are working together to ensure safer chairlifts.
“We do have some experts in ski area operations and in chairlift operations from the Forest Service who will be on the mountain with their engineers looking together at all of the lifts and the operations to ensure that the standards are being met," Upton shared.
Morris explained staff have been busy on the mountain lately due to chairlift inspections.
“Earlier this year we had a lift inspector come, a third party lift inspector come, and they inspected the lifts and did comments and recommendations which we’ve done." She detailed, "Then this week we had more lift inspectors come and we haven’t gotten the reports yet. And then we will have one more before we open which is our annual lift inspection.”
There has been special attention paid by outside inspectors to the Snow Park chair, which closed last season after a 4-year-old was thrown from the lift.
Snowbowl shared the following in a press release:
"This spring we also sought and hired an experienced independent tramway engineer to inspect all of our lifts to ensure we are in compliance with the new American National Standard Institute B77.1 standards. Additionally, he evaluated what caused the incident involving the Snow Park lift last March. He spent several days evaluating our lifts this summer and fall, and all the corrections that he recommended have been completed. In addition, all the lifts will be inspected again this fall by a second tramway engineer as part of our normal annual pre-opening preparations."
Snowbowl took advice from Forest Service experts.
“We’ve added extra training for our staff, changing in protocol for the procedures of loading, and we’re also gonna use new tools and technologies so that we’re able to see and document the loading process. Know we’re doing every step to make [chairlifts] safe as possible," Morris stated.
Morris believes that Snowbowl will be open weather permitting on Dec. 8, 2023. If they do not open, Snowbowl shared in a release, "Naturally, we will refund, in full, all pass and coupon purchases if the Forest Service does not allow us to open for the season."
The ski area maintains, "The safety of our employees and public is always our first and foremost concern. We will continue, as we have for four decades, to work together with our staff, community partners, and the Forest Service to ensure Snowbowl remains a ski area dedicated to the safety and enjoyment for our entire community."
