There's no snow on the hill, but Mount Sima is a hive of activity these days.

Demolition has begun on the ski hill's old chair lift and a second crew is in place preparing to erect the replacement.

The old lift's chairs lay dormant at the base of the hill and the old towers stand empty, stripped of their pulleys, the 12,000 feet of old cable spooled onto a giant reel.

Next week, a helicopter will come and pluck the towers from the hillside.

"The lift is disappearing pretty quickly,” Parker Hickey, Mount Sima's general manager, said in an interview at the hill on Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the crew constructing the new Dopplemayr fixed-grip quad chairlift has mapped out the sites of the new towers and plotted points for the new tripod base.

The new lift will arrive at exactly the same place at the top of the hill, but the departure base has shifted slightly so as to avoid a marshy area and give a little bit more room, Hickey explained.

Inexperienced skiers and snowboarders will appreciate the loading carpet which comes with the new lift.

The conveyor belt-like feature makes getting people onto the chair "seamless,” Hickey said. Making it from the waiting point to the loading point can be a "huge stress”, he added.

"A lot of people come and they don't come back because they're too stressed about getting on the chair,” Hickey said.

The new lift will mirror the ground better than the old model, which featured a very high section.

"There'll still be a high section but it's a different design, so it's able to follow the profile better,” Hickey explained.

Winter snow sports won't be the only activities benefiting from the new lift. The new structure will have 50-per-cent down load capacity so people can ride the lift back down the hill, two per chair.

"That's huge in being able to use it for summertime,” Hickey said. "With no down load, they have to walk down. Now we can run people up and down, which is great.”

Roll-on bike racks are also coming with the new lift, which will allow people to easily transport their bikes up the hill in summer months.

Another feature of the new lift is a more efficient motor, which not only uses power better, but is not affected by brownouts either.

Serious concerns over the safety of the old lift arose last winter, particularly during a full emergency evacuation last December.

The evacuation process on the new lift is much easier than with the old chairs, said Hickey, who will undergo intensive training on the new structure in Salt Lake City next week.

"An important part of a new installation is making sure all the training is in place,” he said.

The cost of replacing the lift is just under $3 million. The city announced earlier this year it's contributing $1.6 million.

As for where the rest of the money will come from, Hickey said plans are in the works.

"We have a couple of funding sources, but basically, we have a lot of people working very hard right now to get the funding really up and going,” he said.

"We're working on a sponsorship program right now for corporate sponsors.”

Hickey believes the new lift will give Mount Sima's business a lift.

Arriving in town in mid-winter last year, Hickey saw the effects of a worn-out lift on the community.

"I saw what the frequent breakdowns did to public confidence in the lift. I think it was pretty much at an all-time low,” he said.

"I think it will come back very quickly when people see the lift and see how comfortable it is to ride and how efficient it is and how well it does what it's intended to do.”

The new lift should be complete by Dec. 1, Hickey said.

By Gemma Karstens-Smith

Star Reporter