“A lot of people joke that if you can ride this chair lift, you can ride any chair lift in the country. Its got that middle stem in the middle of the chair, people have been knocked down by that chair more than once, then of course you’ve got to unload that chair.” – Dan Grider
After 40 years of shuttling skiers up the icy slopes of Great Bear Ski Valley in Sioux Falls, The Old Red Chairlift will be retiring from service on March 15th. She’s a handsome piece of machinery and I’m sure locals will be wistful to see her come down. Dig this local news report by Keloland who dug through their archives and pulled some incredible footage of Old Red through the years. If you’re wondering about the namesake color, in 1981 it came from the factory red and they just kept it that way. Bit of a shame the replacement will be white and have some galvanized steel with some blue trim but if folks want to keep Old Red alive at home, earmark some extra dough because a public auction is already in the works for the fall. So long Old Red, she was a beaut.
p.s. whoever came up with ski-limbo is brilliant.
