Chair lift incident at Sugarloaf

[nutmegfriar]

Due to high winds?

[nutmegfriar]

Due to high winds?

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/28/skiers-fall-from-chairlift-at-maine-resort/?hpt=T2

[HoarfrostHubb]

Weird... that would suck. Why couldn't they just keep the lift running until everyone was off?

[nutmegfriar]

Weird... that would suck. Why couldn't they just keep the lift running until everyone was off?

CNN on phone with two stuck in chair.

[Baroclinic Zone]

Weird... that would suck. Why couldn't they just keep the lift running until everyone was off?

Risk of more chairs falling off.

[Cold Miser]

Weird... that would suck. Why couldn't they just keep the lift running until everyone was off?

The cable was "derailed". I don't think you can run the lift effectively without risk of further derailment.

[bobbutts]

The line came off the towers and fell to the snow.. No more running this lift, probably for quite awhile.

[#NoPoles]

that's my biggest fear when i ride a chair lift...even the sky-ride at canobie lake park...looking at those pics makes my stomach do somersaults...hope everyone is ok!

[Ginx snewx]

The line came off the towers and fell to the snow.. No more running this lift, probably for quite awhile.

Holy sh it nightmare scenario holiday week.

[HoarfrostHubb]

The cable was "derailed". I don't think you can run the lift effectively without risk of further derailment.

Did not realizew it was derailed... I thought just 1 chair had tipped or malfunctioned. This stinks

[nutmegfriar]

I hope it was alright to start this thread on the weather side.

[DeVries]

Luckily for the people it looks like the chairs weren't extremely high off the ground. Some lifts get way up there.

I once jumped off a lift without injury...

[Ginx snewx]

I hope it was alright to start this thread on the weather side.

Absolutely weather related, huge wind gust derailed it, this storm is halfway to Europe and still producing heavy winds.

[Typhoon Tip]

Actually, it is up in the outer Maritimes rotting and weakening considerably.

[Tropopause_Fold]

let me hike up my slacks and adjust my pocket protector before i tell you it's up in the outer Maritimes rotting and weakening considerably.

:hitler:

[Ginx snewx]

I always wondered what would the rescue be like for those on the steep cliff face there at Sugarloaf, some of that terrain below that chair is sheer cliff and probably five foot deep Powdah, what is shown in the pics is from the trails, off trail has got to be hairy.

[Baroclinic Zone]

:hitler:

[larvay]

I like how it appears to be "business as usual" on the lift next to it.

[JBG]

I am an avid skier but I must admit this thought has occurred to me.

[HoarfrostHubb]

Looks like 6 were injured enough to be hospitalized. This as per the Boston Globe website...

Of course in their photo section on this, they title it Sugarbush... clowns

[NECT]

Spillway East is 35 years old, and has had some issues over the past several years. There was a report that there was a mechanic working on that lift tower before the cable derailed. By Loaf standards, it was windy, but not out of the ordinary - they know down to the wind direction and speed when it's time to shut down the lifts, and they do it quite frequently, as it's a windy place.

Luckily, it was not on a really steep part of the lift line. For those familiar, once the lift gets near the Sluice headwall, it's much steeper then it's on to rocks and nasty little pine trees.

[Cold Miser]

Wow. Crazy pics. When I saw this story, I said to myself, "I bet someone's got a video or photos of this" Sure enough, in this day and age, even on the ski slopes, in the cold weather the camera phone comes out.

[ski MRG]

Great afternoon of skiing today, back at it tomorrow. Whose with me?

[NECT]

I'd love to hit the slopes at least once this week. However, the minivan is going into the shop tomorrow. May try a trip with the 3 kids to Berkshire East Thurs.

[Ginx snewx]

Spillway East is 35 years old, and has had some issues over the past several years. There was a report that there was a mechanic working on that lift tower before the cable derailed. By Loaf standards, it was windy, but not out of the ordinary - they know down to the wind direction and speed when it's time to shut down the lifts, and they do it quite frequently, as it's a windy place.

Luckily, it was not on a really steep part of the lift line. For those familiar, once the lift gets near the Sluice headwall, it's much steeper then it's on to rocks and nasty little pine trees.

Yep that's why I said that earlier, those must have been hairy chairs to rescue, now about your telling me how much better SL is than SR, LOL

[powderfreak]

This is why lifts go on WIND HOLD. At Stowe we get tons of people who just don't understand why you can't run a lift in high winds. I tell them, trust me, you don't want to be on the lift in high winds. Most of the time we could run it, but there's the chance something like this happens. If you are ever at a ski area and a lift is on wind hold, don't question it... they are not joking.

Last season at Stowe we de-roped our FourRunner Quad chairlift in high winds... just like what they did except due to safety mechanisms on the newer high-speed lifts, the chances of the lift falling are very, very, very small. This lift was obviously old and may have been grand-fathered in with regards to new safety regulations...but that's speculation. What happened at Stowe last year was that high winds coming across the line (perpendicular to the haul rope line) caused the downhill chairs to swing. Usually the downhill chairs swing a lot more than the uphill chairs because, well, there are no bodies in the chair to weigh them down. Anyway, a downhill chair swung so much that the footrest hooked the com-line (the communications line is the fiber-optic cable that usually runs from tower to tower between the haul rope) and the chair was then pulled into the lift tower's catwalk and got lodged, while damaging the top of the lift tower.... causing the lift to de-rope from the tower.

No one was injured in that incident (though I'm sure people in the chairs going uphill soiled their pants while watching this happen on the downhill side) though the resort obviously had to evacuate the lift. I was on the lift when it happened and was one of the last ones rescued after around 75 minutes on the lift. If you ever get stuck on a ski lift, just pray you don't have to go to the bathroom, haha.

Lift accidents aren't very common at all, but at the same time, probably more common than people think. You only hear about them when people are hurt, which is luckily no where near as often as incidents themselves. There have been some big fatal accidents like the Yan manufactured lift in Whistler years ago that fell to the ground killing people.

[powderfreak]

Yep that's why I said that earlier, those must have been hairy chairs to rescue, now about your telling me how much better SL is than SR, LOL

I'd still take Sugarloaf over Sunday River any day of the week, lol. So much better terrain... not even a question.

Sugarloaf is sort of like Stowe/Mansfield in that its a very windy, gnarly mountain weather-wise. The mountain operations team and lift maintenance team knows what they are doing so I wouldn't blame them for what happened at all... though knowing the internal decisions that sometimes go on during these vacation (high volume, high money) times, they might have been pushing the envelop a bit. People get irate when lifts go on wind hold because they just don't understand... and there's a chance that had this been any ordinary Tuesday that lift might have been on wind hold. That's pure speculation but I know there can be a bit more pressure during these vacation times to keep things running for the tourists who for whatever reason just can't understand why a lift can't run in hurricane force winds.

[Ginx snewx]

I'd still take Sugarloaf over Sunday River any day of the week, lol. So much better terrain... not even a question.

Sugarloaf is sort of like Stowe/Mansfield in that its a very windy, gnarly mountain weather-wise. The mountain operations team and lift maintenance team knows what they are doing so I wouldn't blame them for what happened at all... though knowing the internal decisions that sometimes go on during these vacation (high volume, high money) times, they might have been pushing the envelop a bit. People get irate when lifts go on wind hold because they just don't understand... and there's a chance that had this been any ordinary Tuesday that lift might have been on wind hold. That's pure speculation but I know there can be a bit more pressure during these vacation times to keep things running for the tourists who for whatever reason just can't understand why a lift can't run in hurricane force winds.

Terrain wise yep, operations wise nope. That lift scared the crap out me twice, not surprised that piece of sh it failed. Bad judgement, wind holds are a fact of life butt threshold wind limits are established, should never have happened . My impression it was mechanical failure within wind guidelines, bad judgement to keep a crappy lift operational.

[NECT]

Yep that's why I said that earlier, those must have been hairy chairs to rescue, now about your telling me how much better SL is than SR, LOL

lol - we all know it's about personal preference, and where you've spent more time. I've been going to SL since '77 or so, have lots of good memories, and love the terrain. Please tell more people to go to SR.

[Ginx snewx]

lol - we all know it's about personal preference, and where you've spent more time. I've been going to SL since '77 or so, have lots of good memories, and love the terrain. Please tell more people to go to SR.

Just kidding ya but dude that lift sucks.