Crews have been hard at work getting ready for the upcoming season at Maine’s Saddleback Mountain and that includes working to splicing new haul ropes to ensure the lifts are running smoothly and safely.
Splicing is how the two ends of a ski lift’s haul rope are woven back together after shortening or replacing a section. Tension, wear, and weather can stretch a line over time, leading to the required work.
In order to splice these haul ropes, crews work to carefully untwist, align and reweave thousands of steel wires. The wires are twisted into strands, and every inch must be done with perfect precision to ensure the splice glides through the lift towers and grips without any problems.
For this specific splicing, Saddleback had Justin Knight from Knight Equipment to help run through the process. Staff with mountain ops, lift maintenance, grounds, ski patrol, and lift operations all worked together to get the process done.
Saddleback’s opening day for the 2025-2026 season is still to be determined and will depend on the ongoing weather.
