Since 1964, the Jasper Tramway has been ferrying visitors up more than 3,000 feet to the top of Whistlers Mountain. Each year in the summer, thousands of people reach the summit to take in the views and enjoy a drink and a meal. You’d think that this would be the Tramway’s busiest season, but it’s not.  

When the Jasper Tramway shuts its doors to tourists for another season, a maintenance work crew, switches into overdrive.  Todd Noble, the Tramway’s sales and marketing manager, lamented that most people think they have the winters off and are always asking what they’re up to.  

During the operating season, “there’s more day-to-day preventative maintenance,”  said Nick Hutscao, one of the members of the maintenance crew. They do things at night, such as cable shortening, to get the tram ready for the next day, he said.    

Down at the bottom is where most of the work takes place over the winter. Each year, the Tramway has to apply for an operating license and everything has to meet code, said Patrick De Gaust, the Tramway’s jack-of-all-trades maintenance manager. The structure, rope, cars and drive all have to be in peak operating form, he said.  

It is a surprisingly complex and almost-scientific process relying on ultrasound, for instance, to check the integrity of the cables. There are also motor changes, bearing changes and the cars are taken apart, said Hutscao.  

The long days begin at 7 a.m., but the view from the top of Whistlers makes it worth it, said Hustcao and Leo Gold, the second man on De Gaust’s work crew.  But Mother Nature can wreak havoc on the work schedule. “We can’t fly past 45 km/h,” said De Gaust. 

This winter, the upper bathrooms are being completely renovated, but the work crew cannot get up every day to do the work.  “For my job interview, I was stuck up there for six hours,” said Gold.  

The work crew also has some international flare. James Munns, who was listening to the Ghost Busters theme song when the Fitzhugh caught up with him, is from England. Munns was working on the deck, updating and building new storage areas, “smartening it up” for next year.  

On a more supernatural note, both Hutscao and Gold are convinced and emphatic  that the upper station is haunted.  People go up to the top to spread the ashes of loved ones.  “Last week we were up here and we heard footsteps,” said Hutscao.  “You put down a tool and it’s moved.”  “You go for a startup in the morning and you’ll hear talking,” said Gold, “but you’re the only one here."