As baby boomers continue to retire in droves, ski resorts, like so many other employers, are dealing with worker shortages that threaten productivity.
Ski resorts face another challenge that has contributed to labor shortages, a factor that affects them more than it does most other industries: it’s expensive to live in mountain communities, which are generally in sought-after locations with great amenities, often with costly real estate. That makes entry-level jobs at ski resorts tough to fill and solid employee retention in those roles difficult to achieve.
The problem of worker shortages has led resort operators and the educational institutions to prepare students to engage in creative thinking and collaborative action. The Ropeway Maintenance Technician Level 1 Certification at Colorado Mountain College (CMC) results from such efforts.
Collaboration fast tracks program launch
Denver-based Alterra Mountain Company, owner of 18 ski resorts and heli-operations across North America, was exploring how to tackle recruitment and retention, leveraging its subject matter experts. Led by Hannah Barrego, Alterra’s director of operations, lift maintenance directors from the company’s resorts met to discuss how to build employees’ skills faster and retain them longer.
The lift maintenance directors developed a standardized career path that aligned with the National Ski Area Association (NSAA)’s Lift Maintenance Resource Guide and discussed how to outsource training that had been historically taught on the job. The team contacted CMC in Steamboat Springs to discuss opportunities to partner with a college-level lift maintenance course.
Ben Cairns, vice president and dean of two CMC campuses, Leadville and Salida, learned of the discussions between the Steamboat campus and Alterra, and offered to support the initiative with the vice president and dean of the Steamboat campus, JC Norling. Through this connection, the Ropeway Maintenance Technician Level 1 program was created and approved by CMC’s Curriculum Committee and the State of Colorado in nine months.
In addition to Cairns and Barrego, many individuals from CMC and Alterra collaborated to bring the program to reality. “This program had a lot of energy around it,” said Cairns, adding that industry’s need for the program was urgent and the college prioritized its development. After all, the increasing shortage of skilled workers was not the only impetus for the program.
“When the lifts don’t work, every hotel job, every restaurant job, every aspect of local economies is affected,” he said.
Program development and delivery
The curriculum development was a team effort by employees from Alterra resorts, Copper Mountain, NSAA and CMC. Expertise varied from lift construction to lift maintenance and participants from these different entities were quick to support the initiative. “It became a very beneficial partnership very quickly,” said Barrego.
The Lift Maintenance Resource Guide was used as the framework for program content, ensuring that it was applicable to all industry players. Other training materials and lift-manufacturer manuals also provided information, and expert input from team members. Selkirk College in British Columbia, Canada, provided guidance and materials from its own lift mechanics program. The outcome was a four-week, 12-credit, intensive-style program with both in-class and on-site.
The pilot program was delivered in May 2023, out of Alterra’s Steamboat Ski Resort. In May 2024, it was moved to CMC’s Leadville campus, which will be its permanent home base.
The college is planning to build a dedicated lift mechanics classroom at the campus and has started a capital campaign to enable that. Industry partners have made generous donations; in particular, Doppelmayr Group provided a decoupler and Copper Mountain has offered “very generous access to its lifts,” says Cairns. While the classroom is expected to be well-equipped, “we’ll never have a detachable lift on campus, 75 to 80% of the curriculum will be delivered on campus, but we will always have to go on-site for the rest,” said Cairns.
With about 200 ski lifts within 45 minutes of the Leadville campus, Cairns says that it will be easy to find resort partners.
The four-week program is an intense, but fast way to certification. It is generally intended for people who do not yet work in the industry. The team has developed a “hybrid model” in collaboration with Vail Resorts, which ran a successful pilot from January to May. This winter, the program will launch with other ski resort companies, including Alterra.
“It’s been inspiring to see everyone coming together. I’ve never seen anything like this in the industry before.”
Hannah Barrego, Alterra Mountain Company
Through the hybrid delivery model, CMC teaches several senior lift employees at a resort company to teach the program. Those employees then deliver the program online to the company’s students wherever they happen to be in the country. Students are assigned mentors at their home resorts and given weekly assignments. They participate in the program virtually one day a week for 16 weeks, and each week, they are asked to prove competencies at their home resort with their mentor.
“The hybrid model allows for the education of a far greater number of people at a time,” said Barrego. That will help resorts build their team members’ knowledge and skills more quickly than they have before and give employees a sustainable career in mountain communities.
What’s next?
A Level 2 program is currently in development. It is planned as a one-year program for people who have passed or tested out of the Level 1 program and gained hands-on job experience. Learning outcomes have been determined and are awaiting approval by the State of Colorado before content and skills-assessment tools are created. The Level 2 pilot will likely be held in the spring of 2025 and will be worth 24 credits.
Launching the Level 2 program will help ski resorts promote a career path to employees, which is useful in employee retention. Certification at Levels 1 and 2 could be associated with job promotions.
Finding professors for lift maintenance education can be difficult since the industry’s experts are already working full days, and the requirements to become an adjunct professor for CMC limit candidates to Colorado. However, thanks to collaboration with the industry partners, staffing is available to deliver the program.
Having a higher number of senior employees on-site also enables the college to open the classes to more students; maintaining a proper ratio of teachers to students is required to help ensure student safety when operating machinery. Employers who are involved gain an opportunity to gauge prospective employees.
CMC isn’t the only higher-education body in the U.S. that provides a lift mechanic program. Momentum has been building within the industry, and resort operators, colleges and lift manufacturers have expressed enthusiasm for the consistency across employers and resorts that collaborative efforts could engender.
For example, Oregon State University, Gogebic College and Vermont State are working together on aligning curriculum and programs to support this career path. The collaboration by competitors to create the programs, and their alignment with NSAA standards, could lead to industry alignment on career paths and educational standards, and alignment on program outcomes.
“This has kicked the industry into gear,” said Barrego. “We need consistency across the industry.” Cairns and Barrego are both passionate about the collaboration they’ve been a part of to develop these programs for the ski industry. “It’s been inspiring to see everyone coming together,” said Barrego. “I’ve never seen anything like this in the industry before.” She says that the scope of the challenge the industry faces made working together critical.
“We’ve built relationships that could set the groundwork for development of other programs. It used to be mainly through mentorship that people in the industry acquired skills,” said Cairns. “That won’t sustain us now as the baby boomers retire. We have a very acute challenge.”
Cairns is willing to share the new program content with other colleges across the country. “I’d be happy to host other educators and resort employees at CMC to share what we’ve developed.”
Anyone interested in learning more should contact CMC ahead of the next program session scheduled for July 2025.
