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Partek Ski Lifts Timeline: 1996-2005

A Partek triple at Homewood Ski Area, California.

Partek Ski Lifts was a small aerial lift company founded by Hagen Schulz in 1996, the son of Gary Schulz, who was the founder and owner of Borvig Ski Lifts. When Borvig closed in 1993, Hagen Schulz was quick to act and started his own ski lift company.

Using a lot of Borvig's lift designs, Hagen was able to sell two chairlifts his first year to Jiminy Peak, MA and Shawnee, PA. In 2004, Partek decided that it wanted to enter into the high-speed detachable lift market. It's unclear on how far Partek got in its design process for its detachable lift before Doppelmayr CTEC purchased the company January 22, 2005. Along with the purchase of Partek, Doppelmayr CTEC also purchased all of Borvig's lift patents too. Hagen Schulz now works for Doppelmayr CTEC as a sales consultant and runs Ski Lift Parts Inc.

Schulz said of the deal, "It was becoming economically challenging to manufacture and sell new lifts without a complete product line which would have included developing a detachable grip lift. The cost to develop a detachable product would have imposed a significant financial risk to Partek when the ski lift market has little opportunity for growth. The high cost of liability insurance made doing business producing new lifts additionally prohibitive."

During its time as a lift manufacture, Partek was able to install 24 lifts in North America, with its last one being installed at Willard Mountain, NY in the summer of 2005.

A Partek triple chair.

A Partek triple chair.

Partek's carrier design.

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