CARRABASSETT VALLEY — Skiers gathered around the base of Spillway East on Monday as word spread that the chairlift would open.

The chairlift that failed in late December, dropping several passengers to the ground and injuring eight, reopened to little fanfare just before 2 p.m. Monday. It had been closed since the incident on Dec. 28.

For about 45 minutes, a crowd of about 30 built up as the chairlift underwent what Sugarloaf spokesman Ethan Austin described as the routine checks that every lift gets prior to opening. When the lift finally opened at about 1:45 p.m., skiers and snowboarders rushed to board.

Jeffrey Schipper, a chef from Caribou, was the first in line Monday. He said he was waiting in the same line on Dec. 28 when a sheave train on tower 8 of the chairlift failed, dropping several skiers. He said he was excited to get back on the lift, which services several expert trails and takes skiers to just below the snow fields.

“It’s been a little, at times, difficult to navigate the mountain,” Schipper said. “But it’s been fine.” Schipper said he owns property near Sugarloaf and spends a lot of time there.

Mark Israel of Boston said he was riding the lift when it fell. He was about 15 chairs behind tower 8 where the lift dropped, and had to be lowered to the ground with a rope and pulley.

“I’m scared of heights. They talked me down,” Israel said of Sugarloaf staff. He said he was cold after waiting on the stopped chairlift, but after some warming up in the lodge he and his friends were back on the slopes that day.

It’s been a lot of work to get the lift up and running. On Friday, resort maintenance staff, members of the Maine State Board of Elevator and Tramway Safety and independent lift engineers oversaw testing of the lift, using lined boxes filled with water to simulate the weight of a fully-loaded lift.

Sugarloaf’s investigation to the Tramway board hasn’t been released yet, and Sugarloaf has not offered a timeline of when they’ll release it.

“We’ve literally gone through every moving part on this lift over the last six, seven weeks,” John Diller, general manager at the resort, said Monday.

Diller was the first skier to ride to the top Monday, along with Communications Manager Ethan Austin.

Austin said that after the lift failure on Dec. 28, the resort had hoped to repair and reopen the lift within a month. That didn’t pan out as strong winds on the mountain delayed work. With February vacation week beginning, the repairs finished at a good time for the mountain.

“It’s important to get it going, obviously,” Diller said. “We’ve got the biggest part of our year ahead of us this week.”

Austin said it’s hard to tell whether the chairlift failure has affected business. He said business is up slightly over last year, but the weather this season has been much kinder to the ski industry than the 2009-10 season.

Austin said maintenance unrelated to the fall has been conducted on Spillway East, with sheaves on other towers replaced. A sheave is a wheel that keeps the chairlift wire in line as it travels up the mountain.

He said the loss of the lift has made traveling hard for skiers. The lift is popular for skiers who want to return to the difficult terrain higher on the mountain rather than ski or snowboard the easy and intermediate trails leading to the base lodge.

“It’s sort of a crucial lift for the flow of traffic around the mountain,” Austin said Monday.

Austin said replacing the lift has been a priority since the Sugarloaf announced its 10-year plan last summer. “We’re still working toward that goal.”

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