Nutcracker Rope Tow - a bit of history!

Last year the Resort Management of Mt Buller announced the addition of a new 6 man chair lift to replace the old Abom lift from Helicopter Flat to Baldy. The project has just been completed and is ready to go for ski season 2008.

Obviously transporting people up to the ski runs is certainly an ongoing issue as the popularity of skiing, and especially snowboarding, has increased. And in order to give people maximum time on the slopes, the bigger and faster the transport, the better.

It made me wonder at how skiiers used to get up the mountain before the invention of the chair lift, or even the pomma and the T-bar, and our club is named after one such obscure method that is actually still used extensively in the NZ ski fields. The Nutcracker Rope Tow.

This is a picture of Mt Bullers main ski run, called ‘Bourke Street’, in the 1960’s. On the left of the picture, you’ll see that the skiiers are being pulled up by a rope tow. This, and the t-bar, were the only methods of getting up and around the Mt Buller slopes.

For those who know Mt Buller, the nutcracker rope tows ran up the left side of Bourke Street Run, from Helicopter Flat to opposite where Blue Buller One currently stands. Tyrol Run, from the half way loading point of where the current Tyrol T-bar is to the top of the run. Kofflers Hute to the top of where the current Howqua chair lift is (this was mainly to assist skiiers who haunted Kofflers Cafe!). And on the length of Chamois Run. There are still a couple of rope tows on the mountain, located on Canyon Trail that links Chamois Run to Standard Run, and just off Burnt Hutt Run. But Nutcrackers aren’t required on these tows anymore.

If you aren’t familiar with the Mt Buller terrain, you can have a look here.

The use of nutcracker rope tow dates back to the early 1900’s, and were used in many resorts, but mainly in Switzerland and Austria.

The rope tow itself can be quite long, sometimes hundreds of metres. The rope is carried by a series of pulleys to prevent the rope from dragging in the snow, with the ‘return’ rope above height level. There is also a thin wire that runs along the lift line that serves as an emergency stop, and you pull it like you would pull a bus or a tram cord.

The rope tows were driven by a variety of motors, usually a car motor driving a winch system, others used a tractor, minus the wheels, most are now powered by electric motors.

Back then ski gloves were made of wool and got very wet from the rope, so a device called a “nutcracker” was used to grip the rope. The nutcracker looks like a large ‘walnut’ cracker. It has two handles divided by a clamping area and a hinge so it swings open and clamps hold when enclosed around the rope. The Nutcracker was attached to a towbelt by a cord or rope that would sit around your waist.

When you approach the rope tow you grip onto the rope with one hand and use your free hand to swing the nutcracker under and around the rope and it clamps hold. (The reason for swinging the nutcracker under the rope is that it allows a safe release from the tow when you get off! ). When you want to get off the tow you simply let go of the top handle and the nutcracker will unclamp.

The Nutcracker was designed to go through the pulleys so this eliminated the need to hold the rope tow in any way.

One of our founding members, Lee Chapman, who has helped with some of the information in this post, wore a nutcracker to use on the existing Canyon Trail Rope Tow a couple of years ago. Whilst Lee was skiing under the Howqua Char Lift a couple of older skiiers noticed the device and commented “There’s a guy wearing an old Nutcracker”! Lee’s comment to that was that they didn’t realise Lee is an old Nutcracker!

Thanks for the help Lee, and here ends the story on Nutcracker Rope Tows!