Column: Heated-seat lift was worth the wait

The people calling the shots at Vermonts Okemo Mountain would probably be good weather forecasters.

They chose this year to unveil a unique six-person bubble-faced chairlift that umm, yes, has a heater in the seat. They did it in a winter when the mercury rose above freezing only once this February.

Smart.

I was calling around to ski area officials Tuesday afternoon looking for comments about how the cold is impacting skier visits.

After calls to area mountains without success reaching the PR folks, I called Bonnie MacPherson at Okemo Mountain and she mentioned the new lift.

If there was ever a year to install a bubble chair with a heated seat, this was it, she said proudly. People love it. Its a game changer.

MacPherson said the lift, which replaced the main NorEaster lift, opened Thanksgiving weekend. She said she expected it to be busy at first and then fade.

But months later, probably due in large part to the cold, people are content waiting in lines to ride it.

You can almost ski up and get on any other lift any time because people will stand in line (for that one), she said. They say it feels like a shorter ride and its also very social.

Im hoping to get up for some runs at Okemo before winter is over and check out this lift, the only one of its kind in North America. Mount Snow has one, but without heat, she said.

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Column: Heated-seat lift was worth the wait