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Hey Guys, great reports as per norm and agree with what a past weekend it was!! Heres hoping we get blessed with some more snow while others seem to have been shut out this season. On a sour note, I have a question regarding the Duncan chair.......maintenance or lack thereof.

For a third time in two years, I have had the lovely souvenir of gear oil or grease sprayed all over the back of my jacket. This is now the second time in 5 weeks it has happened. Last year when it happened, i didnt notice till weeks later and never took up issue with Tremblant. I purchased a new jacket this year and again it happened. Customer service was pleasant and offered me three options.. a food voucher??? cleaning it myself and submitting the reciept or Tremblant cleaning it and picking it up 7 days later. I opted for them to take care of it. They did a very good job I must say.. I dont have the privelage this time around as I am leaving for a ski trip shortly and need my jacket. Again Customer service was good but I am ready to call it quits on this chair if the common answer is "sorry" its the "weather".

As you guys spend wayyyyy more time on that chair than most, I am certain this is a common issue and I am not just unlucky to have it happen this many times now. To be honest, im kinda sick of Tremblant blaming the "weather" for this. Does the Duncan chair sit in a different geographical location than the rest of the lifts at Tremblant because no other lifts have this issue that I am aware of. Being in a work trade that deals with gear oil, worm gear oil, grease etc, it sure seems like cracked seals or gaskets causing this issue. Yes I agree if it gets warmer, the viscocity of the oil thins but if all seals are functioning correctly, it wouldnt finds its way out and spitting onto chairs.

I doubt I will get an answer to this from SMT so maybe you guys have heard something on it!
Thanks and keep up the good work

Sorry to hear of the problem P.SC.

We've not had the problem ourselves, but that could be because
90% of the time we go in on the "singles" line so we can ride on the
outboard extreme sides in order to deploy the camera and hang the
telephoto over the side either way, so typically, we're out of the range
of any droppings.

We're not aware of any statistical data on any per-lift basis so it's
difficult for us to know what to say on that. We wonder if it has to do
with the volume of water the cable wraps may hold as any of the Big
Cables anywhere on any Mountain can be seen to be shedding water
over the pulley's if it's really wet out and that water can be kinda'
mucky looking sometimes. Almost any time we've ever heard of this
type of problem, it's associated with warm weather.

Duncan may get more water exposure than other lifts due to it's
"First In Line" exposure to any Southern Water bearing systems
that come from the South-east, but we have no scientific evidence
to support the notion that would actually translate to more Lubricant loss.

We seem to recall the prior situation you mentioned, and even now
while it's good to hear that they would kick in, it's unfortunate that
the timing is not good for upcoming departure.

We switched out of Grease-able U-joints for the T360 Vintage Race
Corvette team for exactly that reason, simply because they'er a real
pain and they throw grease all over, so we replaced them with Spicer
H/D Non-greaseable that take far more horsepower and have an 85%
or so service life, on top of which, you never touch them... for years.

On a practical note, a wild hunch, have you tried a tiny amount of
aerosol Brake Cleaner on a felt piece of cloth? Test A backside colour
corner of the garment first to ensure colour-fast it you try this.

It works brilliantly when it works at all.

Otherwise, you're doing exactly the right thing contacting Customer
Service, just bad timing for sure, on the departure conflict when we
would all wish to be able to "adjust" the hands of time.


.

Further to previous...

We had a moment and "Googled" several variations
of "Chair Lift Drip(S), Debris, Grease, Fallout," etc., etc.

Of course there were totals of thousands of references
from around the world, so it immediately becomes apparent
that this problem exists right across the whole industry.

One of the most common things we found was the "disclaimer"
found on almost all Ski area Web Sites...

Here's a sample from an American Ski Area in Indiana(we had no
idea there are Ski Areas in Indiana!), common to the industry...

"Under certain conditions, a grease-like substance may drip
from mechanical equipment on chairlifts. Perfect North Slopes
is not responsible for grease on clothing."

Setting aside the unfortunate coincidence of the repeat
incident, the bad departure timing...

...and from the standpoint that "Not Responsible" is the common
declaration, the willingness of Tremblant to assist as they
have, seems to set them above some others in that regard.

Briefly surveying our gang it turns out that over the years
there are a handful of similar experiences from different
Ski Areas we've all been to, and perhaps the most stoical
response we got was "I don't buy light or white anymore."

We know that doesn't make it any easier when it happens,
but evidently, it's a hazard of largely warmer conditions
that we will probably all run into at one time or another.

.