RIDING the rope tow was a rite of passage for those who learned to downhill ski on the North Shore mountains.
Grabbing a hold of a motorized rope and lurching uphill was how generations of beginner skiers ascended the bunny slopes of Easy Rider, Goldie or Paradise. But newbies didn't always get to the top and mittens rarely survived a season.
Mount Seymour's new magic carpet in its Goldie Meadows Learning Area preserves riders' gloves and dignity.
The new lift officially opened Friday and replaces the Goldie double-tow, originally installed in the 1950s and the last remaining rope tow in the Lower Mainland.
A glass canopy covers the new magic carpet so that skiers and boarders are protected from the elements during their easy 2½-minute ascent. The 134-metrelong lift resembles a conveyor belt that gently pulls passengers uphill and pushes them back onto the snow at the top of the run.
In addition to the new lift, Mount Seymour has recontoured the slope and created a larger space for the Goldie Meadows Learning Area.
Grouse Mountain replaced its last remaining rope tow, on Paradise Bowl, with the Greenway Quad chair lift in 2008. Cypress Mountain Resorts replaced the Sunrise Rope Tow in its beginner's area with the Easy Rider Quad Chair in 2001.
