These days, there’s a Yamaha Mountain SRX 700 for each guy on the shift, even though they often ride two to a machine.  Orange toboggans covered with tarpaulin glide along behind, filled with tools and hoses.  When Bob McCarthy was a snowmaker and a Mountain Operator, he just sprayed the back of his rubber suit with water.  In the time it took him to walk up the mountain to where he was working, the water would freeze into an ice slick, and he could slide down on his back, steering himself with his feet.

The guys operating the T Bars and the pommel lifts invented a similar trick.  In deep powder or heavy slush, the hill beneath the lift would develop deep tracks where dozens of skis ran over the snow.  On the way up, the lift guys shoveled snow into these tracks to get packed down, and on the way down, in order not to punch holes in the snow with their boots, they would jump on the concave side of their shovels and ride to the bottom, using the handle as a rudder.

Eventually, Holiday Valley did away with T Bars and rope tows in favor of new high-speed detachable quads.  The first chairlift on Mardi Gras took so long that the attendants handed out blankets at the bottom of the hill.  Now, the ride takes about six minutes and even in the sub-zero January winds, a Thinsulate softshell windbreaker over a recycled microfleece baselayer will keep you toasty.