“We go through these inspection intervals every
year, keep everything safe. That’s the biggest thing!”
Sitting in his office at the Red River Ski & Summer
Area, Nathaniel “Nate” Cook has been preparing since
early summer for another winter in the high country.
As Director of Lifts at the Red River Ski & Summer
Area, he’s the man in charge, and responsible for all the
lifts maintenance and operations, a role he has relished
in Red River since November 2019.
“My main job is preventative maintenance. There
are hundreds of components on each lift that we have
to disassemble, inspect, reassemble, and make sure are
proper .We inspect everything on the towers, the haul
rope, inspect the chairs, the braking systems.
“Every lift has a certain amount of redundancy, so
that if one system fails, there’s another system behind
that or two systems in order to prevent any catastrophic
failure or electrical failure. The newer lifts
have even more redundancy.”
Nate sites the Emerald Chair quad lift, on the backside
which accesses Moon Star Mining Camp and the
newest addition to RRSA lifts, as a good example.
“When I started it was the first Lietner built in the
US, so I’m told, in Angel Fire. That was one of the first
ones that I worked on that had computers that were
constantly checking all the safeties, all the towers, all
the stop buttons: all the computers that were making
the motors do what they do to make the lift go round
and round. That was a detachable quad lift.
“Now, it’s to the point where we have two to three or
more computers that are constantly checking each
other, constantly checking all the safeties, all at the
same time. You know, where Emerald has four different
drive systems, all these computers are constantly
(in) micro seconds going through and checking all of
these safeties while it’s moving, all day, every day!
“In the past the old Riblet chairs (computers) were
checking it only when something failed. When it
failed, the lift would stop running.
“Now if these computers disagree on what they are
seeing, the lift automatically stops. Whether something
is going wrong or not, if the computers disagree,
that’s enough to stop the lift.”
Calling Possum Kingdom Lake, TX, home, he is no
stranger to the high country. A water skier, he learned
to ski on snow at RRSA, but his first ski area job as a lift
operator was in Angel Fire “for a few months about 17
years ago.” He was promoted to Assistant Manager and
became involved in lift and gondola maintenance for
4+ years.
“I really loved maintenance,” he said with a smile.
He found the work “interesting’ and a “challenge” and
he fell in love with the mountains of Northern New
Mexico.
His credentials include a summer at the largest ski
area in New Zealand, Whakapapa, on the North Island
in the dual-World-Heritage Tongariro National Park.
He maintained lifts, snowcats and also worked as a deicer.
Returning stateside, he spent 4+ years in Bear Valley,
CA, before heading to Mammoth Mountain and
June Lake, CA, near the east entrance of Yosemite National
Park for about four years. From there he traveled
to Gatlinburg, TN, in the Great Smoky Mountains
to work for Anakeesta, a brand new mountaintop family
entertainment park and resort which featured a
scenic chandola – chairs and gondola – ride to the top
of the ridge.
It was there “just by chance” that he made a connection
that brought him back to New Mexico and to his
current position in Red River.
It was during a Rocky Mountain Lift Association
(RMLA)Conference attended by RRSA General Manager
Linton Judycki and Walt Foley that Nate heard a
familiar sound while he was preparing to send a load of
visitors on a short scenic ride.
“I actually heard Walt’s voice,” Nate says. “We
opened the lift early one day. We had these big military
trucks that we used to haul people up and down. I was
loading people onto the trucks when I heard Walt talking
behind me and I immediately recognized his voice.
“I had worked with him in Angel Fire for a year. He
recognized me and we started talking.
“He said they – RRSA – were looking for someone
to replace a guy who is retiring soon and I said ‘we
need to talk!’ We took it from there!”