There’s no doubt that when it comes to base terminal management, North America has a leg up on the rest of the world. Liftlines here tend to be better organized and more orderly, even civilized, compared to, say, Europe. But according to those who keep a close eye on such things, we still have a lot to learn, too.

Anyone who has skied in Europe on a holiday knows a thing or two about mismanaged mazes. Unless you stick your poles out, clamber over someone else’s skis and generally act like an Italian driver in Venice, you’re not getting to the lift.

Not that this is an aspect of the European experience North Americans should emulate. In fact, the opposite is true. “I think a lot of ski areas miss an opportunity to show the quality of their resorts by having messy mazes that are not presented professionally,” says Doppelmayr VP of sales Randy Woolwine. “Mazes have to be managed, they will not manage themselves.”

Management implies planning. Keep fundamentals in mind when siting base terminals or re-evaluating the effectiveness of your base areas in moving people up the hill, says Tom Clink, sales manager for Leitner-Poma. He suggests that operators create a plan for the design and layout of the lower terminal area, taking into account everything from elevation changes to distances from parking lots.

“Everything needs to integrate,” says Clink. “There needs to be enough room for people to get their skis on, but not walk too far.” Clink also cites such nuances as having the proper distance between wait and load boards, the placement of ticket checkers, and the use of 90-degree loading on detachables as key elements to maximizing lift efficiency on crowded days.

“The advantage of 90-degree loading,” says Clink, “is you have one less turn in the maze configuration to the load point. It’s a straight line and you avoid a lot of problems.” For instance, the incidence of knee injuries to beginning skiers is much higher with traditional loading than 90-degree setups. “A lot of operators don’t understand this,” says Clink, who admits that Leitner-Poma first saw the safety and efficiency gains of 90-degree load points at a Copper Mountain, Colo., installation a mere ten years ago.

In traditional loading situations, he notes, “beginners don’t move all the way forward, and as soon as they see the chair they try to sit down, and they end up on the inside of the chair. Because the chair is making the turn, it hits their knee on the side, which can result in injury.”

While complete statistics are hard to come by, Breckenridge’s Jon Mauch, who has been intimately involved in base terminal design and efficiency studies for more than a decade, argues that the gains are impressive. “If you are talking about 90-degree loading or whatever you want to call it,” says Mauch, “it gives you an additional chair length to work with the passengers who are loading. That’s time to pick up dropped poles, slow down the lift or do what ever you need to do.”

In addition to 90-degree loading, Mauch tags loading gates and loading conveyors as technologies that increase safety as well as efficiency at the bottom terminal. He concedes that some of this technology is expensive to install and requires a financial commitment to maintenance.

Loading gates are probably the least expensive means of gaining efficiency. “Loading gates are amazing,” says Mauch. “They give you the ability to index people and have it always happen, even if a lift operator has to do something else.”

For those with big budgets, Mauch is similarly bullish on loading conveyors. “The success rate with beginner and lower intermediate skiers is huge. If someone does fall, they are already moving, and the conveyor lessens the chance of getting hit by a chair,” he says.


Automated Ticket Scanning
For resorts looking to improve their maze and base terminal environments without breaking the bank, there’s another option: automated scanning systems. The cost of the technology is offset by a reduction in labor costs. While scanning systems have been available for years from Ski Data and others, there’s a new player in this game as well: Axess, which installed an automated scanning system at Alta last summer. Yes, at traditional, conservative Alta.

Alta’s Connie Marshall and Axess’ Larry Williams say that the system has been so successful that it was quickly accepted by the notoriously fickle crowd of Alta locals, who tend to resist any type of change. “Not only do the accept it,” says Marshall. “They like it.”

“It works well,” says Derek Taylor, editor of Powder magazine. Taylor, who spends his winters skiing Little Cottonwood Canyon, adds that “you don’t have to open your coat to get your ticket checked, which is especially great during those Alta powder days.”

One reason for the acceptance: Alta asked for, and received, several custom modifications. Axess developed a double antenna system to scan for a ticket anywhere between the guest’s knees and neck. It created a double-sided flap gate to replace the typical turnstile, to make the gate more comfortable to pass through. Axess crafted a web-based system so that skiers could update their passes online. A PDA allows ticket checkers to verify the pass holder by displaying the holder’s height, weight, gender, and name. And Axess made the system compatible with Snowbird’s barcode scanners, to accommodate the resorts’ two-area ticket.

“Alta did ask for a lot, but as a result we were given the opportunity to design a more user friendly system for the North American market,” Williams says.

Marshall says that, given the success of automated scanning at nearby Solitude and the ubiquitous nature of such systems in Europe, resorts across North America will adopt the technology.

Labors issues are one reason for this. “Resorts are finding it harder to find seasonal labor, and the cost of the labor continues to climb. RFID gates have become a good alternative,” says Williams.

Mauch agrees, but reminds that customers want automated scanning, too. “I think society is demanding it,” he says. “Think of ATMs and scanning your own groceries.” According to Mauch, the user-friendly aspect of these systems, particularly those which can read tickets through a skier’s jacket pocket, make the widespread adoption of this technology inevitable.

Those on a stringent budget with little room for major investments shouldn’t despair of improving the lift-loading experience. There’s still plenty of gain to be had from designing the maze well. Little things, like ensuring that you space your ticket checking staff far enough from where skiers need to load the chair to give customers enough time to prepare to board, having staff who can anticipate the needs of beginners and children, and utilizing the appropriate grading in maze areas (Clink says one to two percent is perfect), will make your base terminal function better. You’ll get more skiers up the hill and have shorter lift lines. After all, your clients came to ski on your mountain, not stand in line.