RANGELEY – A Sikorsky helicopter thundered up the side of Saddleback Mountain Tuesday morning, trailing a large piece of metal on a cable.

Any alpine skier would recognize the cargo: a crossbar for a chairlift tower, the part that supports the lift’s steel cable.

The chopper settled over a green tower, one of several leading up the slope.

After grabbing the two cables hanging from the crossbar, a crew of workers on the ground swung the crossbar into the proper alignment. Another man on the ground communicated with the pilot by radio to help coordinate the aerial ballet, and the crossbar was gently lowered onto the tower and then secured by two men harnessed at the top of the tower.

With its cable released, the helicopter rolled back down the mountain to pick up another crossbar, while the crew walked down to the next tower. Within a few hours, all 13 towers of the new Kennebago Quad had crossbars in place.

The lift is one of eight that Saddleback is looking to install over the next 10 years. Saddleback isn’t the only ski area in Maine making investments in its operation. (See related story for an update on Maine’s ski areas.) But its plans are some of the most ambitious, with new lifts playing a key role in the company’s efforts to enlarge and attract more visitors.

For a ski area, installation of a new lift is one of the most arduous, dangerous and expensive additions it can make, involving helicopters, high-wire manpower and technological innovation.

The $1.5 million, 2,709-foot-long lift rises 960 feet and will access 15 trails. While 12 of the trails will be for advanced skiers, the lift will also allow less expert skiers to finally see the summit of the mountain by accessing two intermediate trails and one easy trail.

The new lift replaces a 1980s-era T-bar with a reputation all its own. The pitch of slope, especially the top portion exposed to wind and weather, made the ride a difficult one, especially for snowboarders, as the track would often become glazed with hard-packed snow and ice.

“It was the Kennebago T-bar but it had a triple black diamond rating,” said JoAnne Taylor, marketing manager at Saddleback.

The dismantling of the T-bar began one day after the resort closed for the season on April 21. Jim Quimby, the mountain operations manager, said the parts will be used to sustain another T-bar on the mountain that provides access to easier terrain.

The chairlift follows the same line as the T-bar, although the cut up the mountain was widened in the process. A special excavator was hired to dig foundation holes for the towers. The holes are filled with a large volume of concrete, which forms a volcano-shaped anchor, with the base of the volcano 8 feet into the ground. The cylindrical top of the concrete volcano is set even with the ground, so the towers can be fixed level on the foundation. Five of the tower holes on the new lift required blasting to remove ledge.

Equipment for pouring the foundations was hand-carried to the sites due to the slope. The first air support came in the form of a smaller helicopter, which shuttled 100 loads of concrete for the lift tower footings.

Taylor said the larger Sikorsky helicopter could not be used during this process, as it was being used for operations related to Hurricane Ike and other emergencies.

After crews backfilled the foundations and prepared the anchor bolts, the towers were flown in on Monday using the Sikorsky, along with the drive houses and bullwheels – the giant pulley-like components that the cable is strung around at the top and bottom of the lift.

“The towers come fully assembled,” said Taylor. “We just have to put them in position.”

Quimby said the chopper made 37 trips on Monday installing the towers, communications building, and snowmaking tower guns.

Each tower weighs between 5,800 and 9,200 pounds and are 28 to 35 feet tall. Like the crossbars, they are installed one by one, lowered gently, aligned into place and then bolted down to the concrete footings with giant nuts.

Jared Emerson, head of the ski patrol and a lift maintenance worker, was one of the two workers installing the tower crossbars high up on the towers Tuesday. He wore a full-body harness that allowed his hands to be free to work.

Once the tower head was lowered into place onto an iron rod, two steel cables were fed through bolt holes.

“It’s a piece of cake, really,” said Emerson, crediting the man at the chopper’s controls. “He’s an extremely talented pilot.”

Further work will include the final tightening and alignment of the towers and stringing of the steel haul rope and communications and power lines. Seventy-four chairs, weighing 400 pounds apiece, will be hung by hand on the cable at the bottom terminal of the lift.

Emerson said inspectors and engineers will be on hand to observe a series of tests on the lift, including a load test that puts weight in each chair going up the mountain and some coming down.

The lift will be operational by the time Saddleback opens on Dec. 13.

Following Tuesday’s work, snow flurries steadily increased by midday, dusting the ground at the base lodge.

“We’re just waiting for this,” said Quimby, gesturing out the window. “Hopefully it gives us time to finish work.”