In 1990, Rocky Mountain Conveyor and Equipment, Inc.
(RMCE) was approached by a daycare in Breckenridge,
Colo., that needed a way to transport a group of kids up a
small hill in a confined space so the kids could be taught
how to ski.
This wasn’t a typical request. RMCE had been founded in
1982 in Denver as a mining equipment distribution company
and was building conveyors for an American mining industry
that topped out at five to six billion dollars. The company was
used to transporting coal and hard rock, not kids on a ski hill.
“Frankly, we built that first one and for the next two years,
we forgot about the product,” said Dave Kelly, president and
co-founder of RMCE, who admits the company was still fo-cused
on mining at the time.
Then, in 1992, Vail Resorts, Inc. requested three convey-ors
to move people on their own ski hills – having seen what
RMCE did for the daycare in Breckenridge – and the flood-gates
opened. Vail’s resort competitors followed suit and af-ter
a few tradeshow appearances, RMCE officially launched
the first model of what it called Magic Carpet® Lifts – The
Boardwalk®. Through their commitment to safety, technolog-ical
innovation and ease-of-use, Magic Carpet® Lifts/RMCE,
Inc. remains not only the originator, but a market leader in
this space, serving the U.S., Canada, and international clients.
Prior to Magic Carpet® Lifts, the only way to get to the top of
the smaller ski hills was to walk or use a rope-tow, but rope-tows
presented their own unique challenges.
“One of the issues when using a rope-tow were ACL inju-ries
to the instructors where one of the arms of the rope-tow
would come down and catch them in the back of the knee,”
said Kelly.
Before Magic Carpet® Lifts, ski schools were losing students
every year because of the effort it took to learn the sport. Few
people were willing to trudge up the slopes run after run, so
many just gave up, which, according to Kelly, significantly
impacted resort revenue. However, Magic Carpet® provides a
unintimidating, skier-friendly way to get up the hill – where
a moving belt is placed at snow-level to shuttle participants
at a moderate and relaxing pace – giving them time to catch
their breath before the next run. “One of the instructors at
Vail Resorts, Inc. told us that students were picking up ski-ing
about 30 percent faster once they started using the Magic
Carpet® lifts,” said Kelly.
Eventually, the demand for these lifts became overwhelm-ing
enough that by 2000, Magic Carpet® Lifts had overtaken
RMCE’s mining business. Now, conveyors are being used at
waterparks, either as launch conveyors, which are placed at
the top of a tower and will launch a tube or logride once ev-
LIFT TECHNOLOGY
THE INDUSTRY STANDARD FOR SLOPE LIGHTING
38 April 2020 | snowopsmag.com
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