JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) - Replacing a cable on a ski lift doesn’t require a mechanic, it requires an artist. Fortunately for Jackson Hole’s ski epicenters, a world-class cable splicer lives in Wilson.
The splicer’s name is Norm Duke, and earlier this month his workplace was Snow King’s Summit Lift. In a complex two-day operation the lift’s cable was replaced after 33 years of hauling skiers on the Town Hill.
The Wilson resident installed the original cable during construction in 1981. He was back at Snow King this past week to splice the new Summit cable and run tests on the Rafferty and Cougar lifts.
Duke’s geographic convenience wasn’t why he was the man contracted to do the job. He was hired because this is what he’s done for 34 years.
And he’s one of only a few people in the United States who can handle such a task.
“One splicer just died last week, back East,” said Duke, who is 64. “There’s only five of us now.”
The $100,000-plus standard procedure for aging lifts will secure the safety of mountain users for what Snow King officials hope to be another 33 years.
“After a period of time the cable wears,” Snow King General Manager Ryan Stanley said. “Every year we have inspections on the cable, required by our insurance.
“They come out and inspect it every year,” Stanley said. “We had only about a year of life in it, so we needed to replace it.”
The cable was installed, and a crew of about a dozen began splicing the ends. Splicing is an art, and Snow King called the one artist it knew could handle the job.
Four other people in the United States do what Duke does.
Four.
And he does it basically by himself.
“I don’t take anybody with me,” Duke said. “I call up and say I need so many people, and they provide the help.”
Duke goes from mountain to mountain across the globe as a one-man building team. He meets a crew of 10 to 15 workers hired by each resort.
Working with complete strangers on six-figure projects isn’t something that hinders Duke.
“It’s no problem,” he said. “It’s just ’Lift that, turn that, hammer that.’”
To use a hospital analogy, Duke is the surgeon, and the members of his crews are the nurses.
In an operating room everyone speaks the same language. But the globe-trotting Duke can’t always count on that being the base with his crews.
“I did a splice on a gondola in Barcelona, a sightseeing gondola, and nobody spoke English and I had 15 helpers,” he said. “There were a lot of hand signals.”
The travel isn’t why the former original Aerial Tram mechanic got into the business. But he has come to appreciate the mountainsides he’s seen and the crews he’s worked with.
“The best part is meeting a lot of people from around the world,” he said. “These guys are all great everywhere I go.”
And Duke has been everywhere.
“I’ve been to Tokyo, Barcelona, Mexico City, Switzerland, Toronto … but my main territory is the western United States,” he said.
Duke’s schedule takes him and his wife and business partner, Marva Duke, in and out of airports nearly eight months out of the year. He works nonstop until he is finally able to take a nearly four-month break starting in late November.
Duke said he was thrilled to be able to work at Snow King last week and sleep in his own bed.
“We were in Europe for three weeks, got home April 2, and we left April 4 and we just got home a week and a half ago,” he said. “We’ve been gone the whole time. So yeah, home is nice.”
After four months of skiing and relaxing he’ll be back to work next April. He will have the fortune of being able to return to Jackson Hole for work when he comes back next year to check on the newly installed cable at Snow King.
“It will probably stretch, I’m guessing about 0.3 percent times the length of the cable,” Duke said of the new Summit Lift cable. “It will probably be shortened by next year is my guess. Then after that it will go for a long, long time. Years.”
Duke has learned a lot in more than 30 years of being one of the nation’s top splicers. He doesn’t know how many more years he’ll do it but said he hopes it’s not too many.
“I’ve kind of got the perfection down,” he said, “but now I’m all worn out.”
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Information from: Jackson Hole (Wyo.) News And Guide, https://www.jhnewsandguide.com
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