Bircher reflects on 30 years as lift mechanic

Oly Bircher has a direct view of Big Mountain from his property up Haskill Basin. On a clear day, he can see the crossarms of Chair 1 glimmering in the sun as the lift spins thousands of skiers an hour to the summit.

For more than 30 years, Bircher has been responsible for keeping Chair 1 and all the lifts at Whitefish Mountain Resort in prime working condition. At age 67, he decided this winter to retire from the trade he’s worked in since he was a young man growing up in Switzerland.

Bircher was born and raised on a farm in Adelboden, a small mountain village in the Swiss Alps at the base of no less than a dozen ski lifts.

He took up the lift maintenance trade in Switzerland, which led him to a job with Mueller lifts in Canada. He then worked as a logger in Washington state for 10 years before finally landing in Whitefish in the 1980s.

Mountain manager Steve Spencer hired Bircher as a lift mechanic at Big Mountain Resort in 1984. He later became maintenance manager and finally the supervisor of lift maintenance — a title he’s held since.

“Oly has kept that place running for 30 years,” current resort mountain manager Chester Powell said. “He oversaw everything. We’ll miss him for sure.”

Bircher has played an integral role in more chair lift projects on Big Mountain than he can remember.

His first big installation came in 1989 when the Chair 1 high-speed quad lift was installed.

“That was all done in house,” Bircher recalled.

He also helped move the original north side lift into Hellroaring Basin, moved the Chair 3 terminal to make room for Kintla Lodge, installed Chair 6 in 1991, and more recently helped put up the Badrock double chair and install the zip lines.

“He built the zip line trolleys, did the tower work, the layout, strung the cable,” Powell said. “A lot of those skills go back to his logging days.”

Bircher’s final installation project was the Flower Point lift that opened this winter.

But installation was only a small part of his work on the mountain. It mostly involved lift maintenance in the summer and some crunch-time emergency repairs during ski season.

“The pressure is on in the winter if something breaks down,” Bircher said.

Skiers can get rowdy on a powder day when a main lift hits a snag. The best thing a mechanic can do, Bircher said, is to ignore them and get the job done.

“You can’t let it get under your skin,” he said.

Most of the heavy lifting is done in the summer when each lift tower and chair is inspected.

“If you do your stuff in the summer, in the winter you can relax a bit,” he said.

Bircher spent his share of days suspended from lift towers.

“The old Chair 7 had 261 chairs on it,” he said. “I knew I’d be there for two weeks.”

But Powell said Bircher’s work ethic served him well.

“Whatever it takes, he was there,” Powell said.

Technology has changed quite a bit over three decades as fixed-grip lifts made way for high-speed quads with computer-based electronics. Bircher says the quads require four times as much work to maintain.

“And we never had an electrician,” he said. “We did it all in house.”

His favorite part of the job was being outside in a beautiful landscape.

“Like they always say, you’ve got to do what you love,” Bircher said.

He enjoyed working with his crews and various bosses over the years and is well known among resort employees for the pig roasts he often hosts at his property.

In retirement Bircher plans to work a bit from his workshop doing odd jobs, but at his own pace. Last week he was finishing up the installation of a flat bed on a pickup.

“I don’t have to punch a clock anymore,” he said, smiling.

While he’ll spend more time at his workshop, he’ll still know every morning if the lifts are spinning when he steps outside, coffee mug in hand, and looks toward the mountain where he built a career.

“It’s been good,” he said, simply.