Eaglecrest Ski Area closed due to water line break; repairs delaying opening of Ptarmigan lift
- Mark Sabbatini
- 10 hours ago
- 2 min read
Holiday season with daily operations was set to begin Friday, but resort closed for at least a day due to pipe break; lift to top of mountain will be ready soon, general manager says
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
Eaglecrest Ski Area’s 50th year is getting off to a rough start as a mainline water break forced the resort to close on Friday — the scheduled opening of its daily holiday-season schedule — and the Ptarmigan lift that accesses the top of the mountain is undergoing longer-than-expected repairs, according to officials.
An announcement at Eaglecrest’s Facebook just before 8 a.m. Friday announced the ski area is closed for the day due to the pipeline break, which means no water is available at the lodges.
"We will be closed today for the safety of our guests and staff," the post notes. "We are working with crews to resolve the issue and will provide updates when more information is available."
The ski area has suffered other recent setbacks as well, including the water line for the snowmaking system freezing, preventing it from working, General Manager Craig Cimmons said in a video posted on the resort’s Facebook page at about 7 p.m. Thursday. He said there has been ample snowfall during the past week and there is a solid snow base due to persisting cold temperatures.
However, the Ptarmigan lift is still undergoing extensive maintenance, he said. He said repairs that started out with replacing a gearbox have resulted in the discovery of more problems that are still in the process of being resolved.
"We as a team made the decision not to put worn-out parts back in and to fully replace them," he said. "Fully replacing them takes a lot of time. The lift is old. Those parts are old. They're hard to find. One part in particular took about four months to find. The other one we spent about a month finding it and then we had to end up finally just building it from scratch. So all that to say because we chose to get that lift in its best possible working order it's just taking longer to get to that point. But it's going to be safer in the end, operating better than it has in a long time, and these problems that we are addressing now are less likely to cause issues mid-winter, and then therefore shutting down that lift in the middle of winter."
"We're about done with it, it’s got to get inspected and once it's inspected we should be ready to go as soon as there's snow to open it."
Eaglecrest opened the Porcupine lift and the beginner hill runs it serves last weekend. Cimmons said that lift will continue operating when the resort reopens. The opening of the Hooter chairlift that provides midmountain access is not yet known.
The ski resort is scheduled to be open daily for whatever lifts are operating until Jan 4, but will be closed Christmas and New Year’s Day.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
