McCall, ID (CBS2) — Brundage Mountain Resort started work on the Centennial Express after the resort closed for the 22-23 season in mid-April. With just a few short weeks before the 23-24 ski season starts Brundage is giving a behind-the-scenes look at the process of installing the new lift.

In August a Blackhawk helicopter made over 50 trips to airlift the 16 towers and sheave assemblies for the new lift into place on to the new concrete pads.

This week crews from Doppelmayer hoisted a 55-thousand-pound haul rope into place with the help of a 75-ton crane and a gas-powered cable hoist.

The crew of 30 people spent two and a half days threading a sandline - a smaller cable- through the sheaves on each tower where the haul rope will eventually rest. The sandline was then attached to the haul rope to pull it through. Once the haul rope had tension on it and was in place the ends of the cable were spliced together to form a loop.

“There are literally only about four people in the entire country that can do what’s happening today,” says Brundage Director of Mountain Operations, Dustin Johnson. “Our guy Jorg he’s one of those guys. He comes in, he directs the crew of 30 people, made up of both resort and Doppelmayer crews and it’s about an eight-hour-long process of taking the six strands from each side of the rope and weaving those together in a pattern that ensures that it will hold up to 150,000 pounds of tension force when it all comes down to it.”

“He comes in and takes two ends of each strand up and down the center where the two cables come together,” says Johnson. “It’s basically about 150 feet of splice area where the cables intertwine with each other and go in different directions. So it’s like finger cuffs holding you together – holding that cable together.”

The haul rope was then lifted onto the final tower and will be good for at least the next 10 years.

The final steps for getting the new Centennial Express lift ready for the upcoming season include several weeks of motor programming and electrical work, the chairs can then be put on the line and extensive safety testing and training will take place just in time for the public to experience the comfort and sped of the new lift.

“The BlueBird detachable lift was installed in 1996, the technology back then and the infrastructure was a lot different. Our guests who are going to be riding this lift this winter are really going to notice what that technology has done over the last 30 years,” says Johnson. “The comfort, the reliability, the speed the ease of loading, you name it, it will just be an all-around upgraded experience to what we’ve seen in the past.”

ncG1vNJzZmihlJa1sLrEsKpnm5%2BifK%2Bx1qxmpaeTlrlwrYybnKGhnpl6tbTEZqqcnZ6awG64zqiiZpmkYsGpsYyipayskaG5osDIqKVmp5Zir7PBzZ2YoJ1dory2utOaoKerXaOyuHnCoZiiql2htqfA