Ground movement has impacted the only chairlift at Nitehawk Adventure Park, a community ski area located in Grande Prairie, Alberta. Multiple lift towers were caught up when the slide occurred around 3:00 am Tuesday.
Nitehawk staff had been monitoring slow movement this spring and preemptively took chairs and sheave assemblies off the lift. The ski area had also de-tensioned the Yan triple chair, which first opened in 1994. The lift started servicing a downhill bike park in 2007.
Nitehawk is operated by the nonprofit Grande Prairie Ski Club. “We’re thankful this event occurred when no one was on location,” said Board Vice President Whitney Wild in a statement. “Our Board of Directors and management are working with geotechnical professionals to determine next steps and possible solutions,” she continued. “Nitehawk is no stranger to facing and overcoming adversity. Operating a successful community ski hill in Northern Alberta is no easy feat. Our resiliency, along with the incredibly supportive community, will help us deal with this new challenge head on.”
On the bright side, nothing looks damaged … guess they just have to figure out if they can re-plant the towers …
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I remember a landslide like this happened to a remote BC ski hill called Big Bam in the 1980s. It totally destroyed their Doppelmayr T-Bar, and the ski hill never fully recovered from it.
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Im pretty sure thats a late mueller model. Correct me if i’m wrong.
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It’s definitely a Yan triple, relocated from somewhere else.
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Might be the former Fitzsimmons triple from Whistler Blackcomb.
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can we get a rip for this poor chairlift
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Drone photos:
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It appears their bike park is seriously damaged. They got lucky the landslide didn’t take out the bottom terminal though. I can also see lots of snowmaking pipes sticking out of the ground. It’s going to be a costly fix for them.
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