Every day, hundreds of people come to Schweitzer, click into their bindings and then plunk their tookuses on a chairlift – an amazing technical innovation that whisks skiers and riders to the summit in less time than it takes to get a latte at Starbucks.

But have you ever really stopped to appreciate these mechanical marvels that grace our mountain?

According to dictionary.com, a chairlift is “a series of chairs suspended from a power-driven cable for conveying people, especially skiers, up a mountain.” The idea was designed by Jim Curran, a Union Pacific engineer who was inspired by the banana lifts used in Central American to load fruit on to trains. In 1936, the first chairlift was installed on Proctor Mountain, in south-central Idaho.

Since then, chairlifts have taken on all kinds of styles and functions ranging from a single person chair to aerial tramways that can accommodate up to 200 passengers. Worldwide, there are 21,607 lifts in service with Les Portes du Soleil in France operating the most lifts with an astonishing 170 in service.*

Back in our neck of the skiing world, we’re pretty happy operating just 8 lifts on the mountain and one musical carpet to get our skiers and riders where they want to be. Sure, some may say that the ride on Snow Ghost can sometimes feel long (13 minutes) but when your legs are beat, that slow ride is perfect for getting you up 1906 feet and ready to attack Pucci’s Chute one more time.

Schweitzer is also home to the only 6-person chairlift in the state of Idaho and we love that Stella can whisk us 1550 feet in just 5 ½ minutes, on the to the saddle and our choice of another round of groomers in the Outback or a cat track back to the village.

At the heart of Schweitzer’s mechanical gems are the Basin Express Quad and the Great Escape Quad. Basin Express is our workhorse, providing a 4 minute ride to our front-side intermediate terrain and funneling skiers and riders during twilight skiing operations. The Great Escape offers exactly that - an escape to the summit of our mountain in both winter and summer months. It’s a ride with a view that can’t be beat in any season.

There is no doubt that chairlifts make the skiing and riding experience more accessible to anyone who wants to conquer the mountain and without our dedicated and amazing crew of lift mechanics and operators, winter would be a whole lot harder to deal with. So thank you from this ‘I hate to hike in ski boots’ skier to the incredible crew who fight rime ice, wind, snow, and other weather joys and ultimately, keep my happy tookus on the move every season.

*Thanks to skiresort.info and Doppelmayr for the chair lift facts and numbers!

This article first appeared in the March 2017 issue of "Neighbors."