Lift Served Carnage

[ScottP]

FwPP4i7ENvQ

[Argus]

That's terrifying. Especially knowing who is running the lifts usually.

[JayB]

Good reminder that chairlifts evolved from mining equipment...

[catbirdseat]

I heard a story from the mining days at Monte Cristo. There was a cook who worked in the head house at the Comet Mine, I think it was. He was tired of finding that most of the milk was sloshed out of the jugs, etc. from the mule ride that was the normal way it was brought.

 

He decided to ride into town on an ore bucket and bring the milk back himself. The buckets used to swing around quite a bit and could come close to the towers. Well, the cook made it back alive, but he lost an ear.

[frozen lifts]

Before you panic and turn in your season pass, keep in mind this video was taken from a destructive test being performed on a lift which was being removed. They were using that opportunity to test different senerios and caused this problem by bypassing many systems to allow the test to show the potential. Most ski areas actually have competant maintenance people who know this potential and work year-round to avoid these types of problems. When you look at ski lift safety, the number of accidents and deaths is much lower than most any other form of transportation.

 

The reason the lift got out of control like that was that they were rolling the lift backwards with the main low speed shaft disconnected. This meant that the normal service and rollback brake were essentially disconnected from the lift. As they did the test, one of the engineers inadvertantly pushed the normal stop button, which was disconnected and allowed the lift to build up speed in reverse without hitting the emergency brake. This is why there are other switches and devices to prevent this. Redundent systems are in place on ski lifts to prevent this type of accident occuring during operations.

 

Similar to climbing anchors, never trust you life to one piece.

[crmlla2007]

I used to work lifts when I was a kid, and my supervisor had to inspect the brakes and stuff every night and put it in the log before he could go home. Though I was a dumb snot kid, he was a heavy equipment operator in the summer and knew his way around hydraulics and such. I figure it's probably about the same everywhere.

[cstemley]

I was wondering how they get all the pads off the chairs.I like when the observers split. look ma no brakes

[Jens]

When I used to be a ski instructor at Hyak, one of the old timers told me that a rollback happened their many years ago and people died.

[AlpineK]

I remember that. I believe about 70 (I might have the # wrong)chairs with skiers on them went backwards through the bull wheel before they shut the thing down and rescued everybody else still sitting on chairs.

 

All the rad stuff happened at Hyak; I don't think anybody got very hurt. What's even more scary is the reason the Mountaineers high speed rope tow was shut down. All I'm going to say on that is do not wear a scarf while riding a high speed rope tow especially when riding by yourself at night.

[pindude]

According to the Snoq Pass wiki page no deaths, but a 14-year-old skier suffered "permanent damage":

 

"In 1959 a new ski area was developed on the north side of Hyak Mtn by 3 businessmen who formed the Hyak Ski Corporation. The company made some bad financial moves and in 1972 a ski lift accident that left a 14 year old skier with permanent damage, and subsequent lawsuit sent the area into bankruptcy in 1977. The area was purchased in 1980 by Pac West until they too filed bankruptcy in 1988. In 1992 the area was purchased by Ski Lifts, Inc who now owned all 4 local Snoqualmie Pass ski areas. In 1998 Booth Creek purchased the areas from Ski Lifts, Inc. and in 2007 sold all areas to CNL. Booth Creek signed a management agreement with CNL then in September 19, 2007 announced the management of the Snoqualmie Pass ski areas was sold to Boyne USA."

--------------

 

Here's a copy of an old newspaper clipping posted at hyak.net describing the rollback incident. Article dated 12-30-71: http://hyak.net/articles/12_71.html

 

 

[MisterMo]

The Mountaineers tragedy sparked an almost immediate change in the ANSII code. The specced rope height above the snow must now be maintained in the area between the stop gate and the in sheave.

[thelawgoddess]

fantastic!!!

[AlpineK]

It's been a long long time since I rode the high speed lift at the Snoqualmie Mountaineers. If I remember right the safety gate there was above your exit spot. If you didn't release and your scarf was around the rope I don't think the machine would shut down anywhere near fast enough.

 

The set up they still have at the Meany lodge seems a lot safer since you have to release the rope in order to slide through the gate to a flat exit.

 

If you've never been on a high speed rope tow you can get some idea about what I'm talking about from this picture.

 

 

The lift travels at about 20 mph and stays a few feet off the ground until you get to the exit spot where the rope has to travel to about 20' off the ground to travel through one of two blocks.

 

As a kid I remember being told time after time to wear thick leather mitts and not to wear a scarf or have long hair that you didn't put under a hat.

[MisterMo]

Feck

 

Code stopping distance on a rope tow is (and was at the time of that accident)no more than two/thirds the distance from the stop gate to the in-sheave under most adverse conditions. This ensures that a person tripping the stop gate will not travel into any machinery before the rope stops.

 

Code height for a rope tow is that 35 lbs of force up or down shall bring the rope to within 24" of the snow. This ensures that even a very small small child shall not be lifted into the air by the rope. This is the code section that changed after the accident, now requiring that rope height to be maintained for the length of the stopping distance past the stop gate.

 

At the area at which I work both these items are checked daily as part of opening inspection. If either is deficient the tow is not cleared and the item is corrected before clearance is given.

 

I was not at the Snoqualmie incident but was informed of circumstances through industry sources. It was my understanding that the Snoqualmie tow was in compliance with the codes then in effect.

 

Mo

[AlpineK]

All of my riding experience on the Snoqualmie tow is from the early 70s. I was a kid at the time. It was harder than hell to hold the rope down to a useful level for the lower third of your ride up the tow. I remember letting go and starting over many times. In fact a number of times as a kid I'd wait till somebody bigger grabbed the rope then I'd follow 30' behind.

 

I don't remember all the details of the accident. I seem to recall that it involved a young kid riding the tow by himself at night wearing a scarf.

[high_on_rock]

I have memory of being at the Meany lodge probably in very early 70's, and having a hard time keeping the rope down low enough for me to hang on to it. I remember putting it in my armpit to try to hold it down, but a couple times it got away from me half-way up and would shoot into the air feeling like it was going to rip my arm off. Wow, that is almost 40 years ago.

[Orlando]

I was there in 1972 the day the Hyak ski lift went in reverse out of control, witnessed it from beginning to end. No one was killed, but several injured including a permanent spinal injury. That day Hyak offered lift tickets to any skier donating a dollars worth of canned food for a food bank, remember this was during the Boeing recession in the Seattle Area, so the area was very crowded. The above video is very similar to what I witnessed. Fortunately most skiers on the lift were grabbed off the chairs before going around the bull wheel. However, the area had no method at the time to rescue stranded skiers remaining on the lift, and they remained stranded for many hours well into the dark.

[Fairweather]

Isn't this video similar to how snowboarders exit chairlifts at Mt Baker?

[cfire]

More carnage

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22491451/

 

 

[MPaul_Hansen]

RE: rope tows

Understand there have been deaths in WA State,

but will not give specifics here. Understand the

Meany tow is planned to be eventually? replaced once

funding is secured for a used replacement chairlift.

Believe the chairlifts, at least in the past, fell under

the jurisdiction of Elevator Codes & Regulations.

 

There are a number of incidents world-wide for chairlifts

and gondolas, including a fighter-jet in training that

sliced a cable. Quite a number of deaths in this European

tragedy occurred.