Maker

Heavy Lifting

Placing huge towers up a mountain is just the start to reaching Troy Caldwell’s ski-resort-on-a-budget dream.

By Dale Dougherty

S IXTEEN YEARS AGO, TROY CALDWELL went to buy 10 acres from Southern Pacific and got a sweet deal on 400 acres of land, most of it mountainous, near Lake Tahoe. A ski bum who left college to learn the sport, Caldwell eventually became part of the U.S. Ski Team in the 1970s, and he says he’s been part of the ski industry (which he pronounces “SKI-in DUS-TREE”) ever since.

Caldwell’s dream is to build his own private ski facility. Lacking the big bucks, he decided to build it himself, and he’s been working the past six years on designing and constructing his own chairlift. Some of the work has been bartered as “Tahoe trade-

outs.” He made office cabinets in exchange for the structural engineering of the chairlift.

Last fall, he placed 17 towers up the mountain, with the help of a helicopter and 30 volunteers who hope to ski on the property one day. The towers, which weigh up to 3,000 pounds, were built in his garage using a series of pulleys and hoists. This allowed him to move these heavy objects himself, as he built stairs and platforms and welded them to the large pipe. “You have to do the towers right,” Caldwell says, “because you don’t ever want to have to do them again.”

Caldwell has been challenged by lawsuits that drain his bank account but not his enthusiasm. “You want your mind to be focused on the positive things

Photography by Dale Dougherty

38 Make: Volume 08