Marble Mountain putting chairlift back together after fire

Crews were at Marble Mountain on Wednesday to continue installation and repairs to the chairlift, after a lightning strike and fire earlier this year caused millions of dollars in damage.

Chris Beckett, general manager at Marble Mountain, said a helicopter was used to put some parts back together again.

• Marble Mountain lightning damage 'in the millions'
• Marble Mountain Ski Resort chair lift damaged after lightning strike

"We've got the helicopter here flying the sheave assemblies back onto the top eight towers. We took them off earlier in the fall, now they're all rebuilt ready to go back on so they're being flown back on today," he said.

A sheave assembly is the series of wheels on top of each tower of the chairlift. The lift cable goes across those wheels, and the part holds the cables and chairs in place.

Beckett said despite some heavy equipment being used in the repairs, things are moving ahead quickly.

"The lift manufacturer is very experienced at this. You'd think that it would take a long time, like threading a needle, but it's actually pretty fast."

Workers moved 16 sheave assembly pieces on Wednesday, and work is ongoing at the site, but Beckett said they are still on target to get the lift operating on time.

"At the moment, everything we can tell we are still on schedule to hit the middle of January, so it's looking good right now and hopefully we don't hit any delays and we can hit that," he said.

The next big job will be replacing the top terminal, which was burned out in the September fire. The parts should all arrive this week.

Marble Mountain is scheduled to open for the season on Dec. 26.