Show 4 s Section f jTJ J Sunday January 12 2003 I Pogel The Herald Journal ————— BHAVl-MOUNTAIN— “It's cost a little retirement money let's just pul it that way" said Beaver Mountain Ski' Area owner Ted Seeholer Secholcr a Cache Valley icon with d his glasses and his susthe knows urea around Beaver penders Mountain better than probably anyone else in the world He “knows and remembers almost every detail about the ski area — like the fact that the first motor used for a rope low up the mountain was powered by a WX Buick He knows that a new triple lift will offer a whole new experience to the Beaver Mountain faithful And he knows that getting the lift operational has cost both a pretty chunk of retirement change and a iotta lost sleep The new lift which Seeholer had hoped would be operational before the snow fell or shortly thereafter has been delayed for various things throughout the past year Now that the new lift is just a couple of weeks from being operational Seeholer can see the forest for the trees “It's going to he beautiful and give people quite an experience" he said While skiers and hoarders will enjoy new runs at an old favorite place they may not realize the behind work it lixik to get a lift operational for part of the past week Seeholer hlack-rimme- has relied on KJ Knight and his son Justin and a crew of volunteers to work on splicing and braiding the thick steel rope that runs the chair lift The rope measures I 5X inches thick and has a breaking strength capacity of 24()(XK) pounds Knight who is from Bowling Green Mo is one of only six people in America who knows how to splice and braid cable like this If each of those six people were to suddenly disappear from the lace of the earth tramways ski resorts and amusement parks would soon grind to a literal screeching halt Knight's father had been a cable splicer hciiic him Though there are only a handtul of people who can do what Knight docs he nonchalantly talks dow n his cru't "It all depends how quickly you pick it up in the Held" Knight said “Probably five years something like that The only criteria for a cable splicer anyhow is a sie three hat and a sie IX shirt" going to give you credit for a five hat” Seeholer added Knight has to weave this plastic-cor- e d rope together so that it is nearly seamless One strand is woven and tucked so tightly so seamlessly that the actual splicing points have to be marked with chalk so they can he “I was sie stccl-hraidc- detected Measurements and rope braiding have to be precise to make the rope work Too long and there will be too much slack in the system Tixi short and the rope could fail ‘This type of rope is tough to do w ith' a solid plastic core" Knight said “The You solid plastic gives it less stretch have to work at this every day to gel fairly good at it" “He's a helluva mechanic” Seeholer said The rope must be one continuous lixip and has to have a uniform diameter in order to run through the wheels pulleys and lift stations You cannot just go to Home Depot or Lowe's and pick up about 2(X) feet of ski lift cable “People can cable splice after four or five years Where it gets really tough is at the individual cable lucks have to be so close That's where the fine tuning coincs in” Knight said The cable is spliced once and then six individual cable strands arc tucked liven the stoic Seeholer cannot help but let a little emotion break through when talking about the new lift "Oh lord yes we're excited We've been waiting and all the skiers have been wailing They've been patient and we want them to use this lift” Sceholz-e- r said “It will he good to get it done" Top photo: RJ Knight right and his son Justin join the two pieces of cable to be spliced together earlier this week at Beaver Mountain ski resort in Logan Canyon The cable new triple chair lift “Marge's Triple will “ support the chairs on Beaver's Story by: Darrell Edward Ehrlick Photos by: Mitch Mascaro i Above right: Volunteers from the ski patrol turned out to assist Reynolds in manipulating the cable during the splicing process Left: RJ Reynolds breaks apart strands of cable which were then unwound and spliced into the other end of the cable Reynolds is one of only six people in the country who splices cable Above: A strand of cable is wound into the main cable during the splicing process SBSSS ¥ SaffiSKBM W vtnHh V |