John Bowers
John Bowers
 on 10/13/2021

Yep, you read that right! After a summer of being grounded at the base of Teton Village for scheduled maintenance at the top dock, both Big Red boxes are back on their trusty cables and taking pre-season trips to the top of Rendezvous Mountain in preparation for winter. Earlier this summer we caught up with Tram Maintenance Manager, Mike Vase, to get the low down on the scheduled maintenance and learn why both trams were offline for a full summer. If you didn’t catch that article, you can still read it here. Now that the tram is flying again, triggering an exciting buzz around the village, we tracked down Mike again to get another update before the season starts. 

What is the current status of the tram?
Mike: The tram is running. We will be ready to spin whenever the snow allows. Besides a little basic routine pre-season maintenance between now and Thanksgiving, Big Red is back. 

How did the project go from the last time we talked to now?
Mike: It went great. It was a big push to get things done. We were expecting a few delays but we gained some time in the end. Everything is buttoned up at the top dock and our team got the repairs that were scheduled to get complete on time. We were really pushing against mother nature, not so much as a calendar deadline, but we wanted to get the heavy equipment off the summit before the snow hit. 

Snow covered Tram coming back up to the top

Big Red, caked in a thick layer of rime, travels up the mountain on 10/13.

Any surprises in the project?
Mike: No surprises at all. Everything was what we expected going into it. We knew that it was a very labor-intensive job and took a lot of sub-contractors to get the job done and it was a solid four months of work. 

How is your team feeling now that the job is done and Big Red is back on the cables? 
Mike: We are definitely sleeping a lot. Everyone is pretty relieved and excited to see the cars spinning. That was the ultimate goal and that is where we are at right now. We have been so heavily involved in the project that it hasn’t really hit us that we are done. Everyone feels really good that we crossed the finish line. 

Tell us how you are going to feel when you see people loading the tram on the first day it opens. 
Mike: Between COVID, limited capacity on the tram last season, and this project, it’s going to be nice to see a full tram dock filled with stoked people getting the goods. 

With Big Red back on the cables and the first serious blanket of snow at the summit, we took a trip to the top of Rendezvous Mountain to see just how much snow fell over the last few days. After a quick 10min ride, we were quickly reminded that winter is just around the corner. If you’re in the planning stages of your winter travels, please take a peak at a few of our lodging promos, $300 Air Credit, Golden Ticket 50% lift ticket deal for season passholders to any other resort, and everything about this winter.