Katie Collette and Sydney Petrie await “rescue” from a “stranded” chair during a ski lift evacuation drill held at Black Mountain.

Mountain conducts lift training session

RUMFORD – Black Mountain of Maine held the first of its annual lift evacuation training sessions on Oct. 7. Each year ski patrol members are required to practice for lift evacuation in the event a ski lift cannot be run on its main or back-up motors.

The training is also part of the certification process for national ski patrol members. Practice is conducted a number of times throughout the fall and winter to help patrollers maintain their skills.

At this first training, patrollers Bob Arsenault, Trinket Fergola, Barry Miller, Gary Petrie, Peter Koch, Vic Collette and Dennis Moore split into teams and practiced lowering “stranded” skiers from the chairlift.

The three-patroller lift evacuation team consists of a team leader, a belayer who lowers the skiers and a back-up belayer who helps the belayer control the decent of the skiers.

The evacuees were made up of volunteers David Adley, Jon Petrie, Sydney Petrie, Katie Collette and patrollers Gary Petrie and Barry Miller. Mountain operation’s Matt Fuller was on hand to run the chairlift and provide technical assistance.