A chair fell from the Sullivan Express at Camelback Resort in Pennsylvania today along with three passengers who were riding in it. Pictures posted to social media show a significant patrol response as well as ski and snowboard gear surrounding the chair on the ground. A local dispatch log notes a call came in at 3:39 pm for a 40 year old male with back and hip injury, a 12 year old male with an arm injury and a 9 year old female with an abdominal injury. The entire west side of the resort was closed for the remainder of the day. Weather in the area was reportedly good with sunny skies, light winds and temperatures in the 50s.
The lift involved is a 1995 Doppelmayr detachable quad with DS series grips. It operates in winter as well as summer for water park operations. While Doppelmayr detachable lifts have an excellent safety record, other instances of chairs falling have occurred. A 2015 incident on Mt. Bachelor’s Sunrise Express was blamed on component failure. At Thredbo, Australia, quad chairs fell in both 2016 and 2019 from the Gunbarrel Express due to windy conditions.
As of Monday morning, the Sullivan Express remains closed with the Bailey double operating in its place. Sullivan’s sister lift, the Stevenson Express, is operating normally.
Camelback released the below statement Monday afternoon:
Camelback issued a second statement the morning of Tuesday, March 23rd:
The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry confirmed to me it is investigating the incident but declined to provide further information. “The results of the investigation are not considered a public document,” an agency spokesperson noted.
Lift Blog 
Seems to be in the vicinity of the return (top) terminal based on the shadows.
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You’re correct prolly about 20-30 feet from return terminal
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Fell off right near the last tower. I just heard about this on Instagram, apparently a son and his dad are both in the hospital with serious injuries as they fell ~35 feet. PR is silent.
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PR is quiet… go figure. They just got sold to new owners like in the last year… don’t they do inspections when your selling or buying a huge resort? I hope all involved are okay.
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Ideally inspections happen regardless of ownership scenarios. I can’t speak directly for Camelback’s maintenance department, but there are a large number of things that are looked at on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis at every ski area. I too hope all involved recover.
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Wow crazy and scary, any more info?
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It may be too early to know but could it have been a grip failure? If it was have any other Doppelmayr DS quads have had this issue?
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Not sure. According to forums, there was zero wind that day. Basically leaves two possibilities, horseplay causing the chair to hit a tower or a catastrophic grip failure. If the victims are able to say truthfully that they were behaving normally and the lift didn’t hit a tower, Camelback has no excuse but to shut down both Sullivan and Stevenson temporarily while they investigate the issue.
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I’m not sure it’s possible for riders to swing a chair so much that it hits the tower. You really can’t bounce a detachable, especially near the top like that where the tension is high. Hopefully the cause is determined soon so that appropriate repairs can be made.
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It was said on reddit the whole system jolted and this was an unlucky chair
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I read earlier today where someone said they were just a few cars behind that they were able to see the car and there was certainly NO horseplay involved.
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One local news source here in the Poconos had a witness report that the chair “jolted” to an abrupt stop, swinging the chairs profusely. Upon that occurring, this chair detached. Saw that yesterday but the article seems to have been re-written since, so who knows how true that was.
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The DS style grips we have on our mt have 2 different spring packs, so if one system fails, the other will still hold the grip to the rope. Catastrophic failure indeed. If there was something wrong with the grip it shouldn’t have been able to leave the bottom terminal without tripping multiple safeties.
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Definitely, any grip failure close to this magnitude should have triggered grip force and grip profile faults for sure at the terminal. I am very interested to see what the cause of this incident is. For what its worth, a picture that Peter retweeted shows the grip in the open position with the traction plate slightly ajar (although both could also be from impact with the ground or I just misinterpreted the photo).
Thoughts and prayers to those involved. Hoping for a quick recovery.
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The secondary springs inside a DS are part of the grip force monitoring and not a backup for the primary springs which provide gripping force.
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Doesn’t make any sense what your saying
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Secondary does apply force to the grip jaw in addition to activating the swiveldog that would trip grip force.
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Redundancy is required on these. Seems like a lack of inspection.
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The Gunbarrel Express (mentioned in the article, a 1988 Doppelmayr CLD-260 quad w/ DS grips in Thredbo, Australia) has had two chair drops. The Sunrise Express (Mt Bachelor, Oregon, Doppelmayr UNI w/ DS grips) has also had a chair fall.
It’s most likely a coincidence though, many chairlift manufacturers have chair falls.
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Poma had a chair fall on a TB-41 at Timberline, OR.
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Dolppelmayer service bulletin D-09 ordered in 1997 that these grips have a defect and must be serviced or replaced. All resorts were required to be in compliance by the end of 2012/2013 season. This Bulletin was issued for DS series grips specifically and all of the DS series
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I viewed this 1 page service bulletin D-09. The bulletin makes reference to some other pages that don’t come up when you download the bulletin. Sounds like any modifications/repairs should have been done in the summer of 1997?? Don’t see anything about 2012/2013??
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See newer SB-12-09.
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Really scary stuff, is there any info on the two that fell and the extent of their injuries?
Thank you for your coverage of this, seems you’re the only one
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Thank you for correcting me. Glad to hear it isn’t as bad as I heard.
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Weather was perfect..no wind at all. Dad and two kids right before dismount so horseplay VERY unlikely.
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Grip in the photo appears to be locked open.
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I’m not sure how much force is needed to push that lever down, but it is possible that it is in that position because of the chair laying on the ground.
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That is quite possible, but substantial force is required to push that lever down. Then it has to lock open some how.
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I would say an EJ quad chair and grip impacting the ground from 35 ft up is substantial force…
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Dolppelmayer service bulletin D-09 issued in 1997 for DS series grips explains that it is. The rigid side of the detachable grip that fails due to metal fatigue, nothing to do to grip force it’s a spontaneous failure. Man maintenance teams have been bending and hammering to reshape the rigid side of these grips for years. As a former mountain ops. Technician at many VT resorts.
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The grip has an “over center” device and two actions are required to either open or close the grip. The arm is “down” and the other device is in the position for the grip to be open. The rollers all look good.
When that chair/grip left the bottom terminal it should have tripped the grip gauge brittle bar.
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I saw the whole thing. 2 chairs behind the incident. It was not horseplay. Probably human error in the lift control room. The family i found out is injured badly but alive
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Did the lift shut down just prior to you boarding Doug?
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I was also on the lift. But many seats behind. I did not see the accident happen, but did see the aftermath as I unloaded.
The lift was shut down for a few minutes before I loaded due to a boy missing the seat .
The chair continued for a few seconds then stopped and he was helped up and got on the next chair . It was off for maybe 2-3 minutes.
A coupe of ppl in front of me got on, Then I got on . A few ppl loaded behind me, then the chairs started bouncing and lift stopped. We sat for about 20 minutes or so before lift started slowly moving to unload passengers
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That was my little boy who missed the seat and was dropped (luckily only a couple feet) while we were loading. The chair lift was still moving and I was more focused on helping my other younger one on, so I did not have a good grip on my older son who was struggling (on the other side of my little one). I had to make the decision to drop him while we were only a couple feet out rather then let him dangle and fall further out. He was scared but not hurt. As you mentioned, he got on with the two nice gentlemen behind us since me (and my other little one) were already too far out and above ground to get off. We made it a quarter of the way up the mountain before it stopped. That was a very long 20 minutes as we sat there unaware of what was going on, and separated from my little one. I did see the rescue ski come down as we were waiting.
The aftermath of the chairlift was jaw dropping. My family was spread to 3 different chairs at the time so knowing we had to all go over that same point where it fell (at the tower) without knowing why it failed was slightly terrifying. There was technician who climbed to the top of the tower and was monitoring the reels as we were passing, but that didn’t offer much confidence.
Hoping the family is ok.
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,no……some one probably the controller, hit a hard stop on the lift and it sent us all flying. It happens a lot at CB. The father tried to save his kids. The chair hit the tower and popped off.
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Hmm so you’re suggesting the emergency stop caused the lift to pull a Yan detachable and jiggle the grip off the line. I’d see how that could be likely but it should’ve tripped a safety system in the bottom terminal.
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There are no normal circumstances where triggering any stop on a lift causes a chair to fall off. This wan’t due to someone pushing the E-stop button unless some other significant event happened.
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I’m a reporter with WBRE- looking to talk to some people who witnessed this. Can you send me an email? cforeback@pahomepage.com
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Not identifying the mobile jaw there either. Investigation should figure it out.
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I was about 5 chairs behind when it happened. I did not see the chair fall. Before the lift stopped we were bobbing up and down a lot on a lot of slack in the line. But nothin I haven’t experienced before in my 40 years of skiing. It was horrible seeing the aftermath. I hope they are ok.
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… now that I think more about it I could have been as many as 10 chairs behind.
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So scary. We were there when the lift stopped and then 10 patrollers and rangers jumped to the front of Sullivan to try to get on. Then lift maintenance comes and throws everyone out of the control room at the bottom and yells “Do not start the lift everybody out!”
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They have cameras near the top of the lift. Hopefully they will get some footage.
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Following
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I was riding the Sullivan all day that day and at one point in time in that same location at that Tower the chair stopped and we started bouncing up and down extremely then the chair started and as they brought us into the station the chair was rocking violently to the left and to the right I’ve been riding those chairs for 44 years and I’ve never experienced such a violent rocking sensation I was concerned and very glad once we got over the net I don’t know if that has anything to do with the actual chair that fell off later on that day but it seems very peculiar
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This was about 1pm and I was on the same chair. It was very scary. As we approach the landing we were still swinging wildly from side to side. We got close to hitting the tower on the right at one point. We had to decide whether to lift the safety bar and try to get off with the chair rocking or hold on the the bar so we don’t get thrown off. Luckily they stopped the lift when we got over the net.
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My chair was right in front of the chair that fall. Before this happed, the lift stopped for a moment and started and I could fell my chair shaking left and right violently to the point that I had to the pulled the safety bar down as I my 5yrs old was on the chair with me. The shaking was not because of emergency stop of the lift. This was the second time I experience similar shaking on this same chair lift. The first time was in January.
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We just got off the Sullivan chair maybe 2-3 chairs in front of the accident . The lift was unusually bouncy on the last 3 ways up for us, especially on the last stretch from the last posts to the top station making you hold onto the front safety bar and we didn’t lift it till the lift slows over the safety net. My husband skied down but I was still zipping my jacket and I saw in corner of my left eye something and heard the sound then saw the top operators running down . I skied to the scene of accident to lift the chair off the victims the last 3 feet. The first responders arrived from the top station already also.
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Appears the chair fell because It struck the tower. The lift was having problems with violent swinging earlier in the day. There was negligible wind. Any thoughts if cable roll was cause?
Maybe mis-aligned sheave assembly?
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I doubt either one of those is the cause. A misaligned sheave assembly will manifest in other ways and cable roll (or rope twist, as we call it) is trapped by the grips and isn’t noticeable until you watch the grip open in the terminal. I’m as mystified as you are and am waiting on the results of the investigation.
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I almost wonder if the drive was surging. An unevenly loaded chair + surging drive = sideways chair swing (really the chair swings in an almost a circular motion: left, forwards, right, and backwards).
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I think you have nailed the cause and effect. This is what lift mechanic/electricians nightmares are made of.
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Sound familiar?? Mount-Sainte-Anne in Canada crashed the Gondola twice last year due to some kind of surging malfunction, cabins hitting towers etc. before finally closing it. 1989 Doppelmayr lift.
Not saying that’s the cause, but interesting?
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Is there any difference between the DS-108 grips on the Mont-Sainte-Anne and the DS-104 grip other than the DS-108 being larger?
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Not that I’m aware of. Same design, different sizes and grip forces.
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Does Sainte-Anne have the DS-108 or the double-DS grip (DS-208?? don’t remember what that one is called) that Steamboat used to have on their gondola?
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IIRC, a similar incident occurred at Granby Ranch, CO a few years ago on their Leitner detachable quad. The drive surged, a chair was unevenly loaded (I think there were 2 or 3 people on the chair), and that caused the chair to swing far enough to hit a tower, and people fell from the lift.
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Didn’t they have a chair fall off the fixed grip Glen lift in 12-2008??
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https://www.poconorecord.com/article/20081206/NEWS/812060337
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They need to implement some sort of backup safety feature, like a strong metal ring around the top, which ensures that even if the arm detaches, the chair wont fall down. I honestly cannot believe that something like this isn’t already established.
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Theoretically, if the grip were to (somehow) open while the chair is on the line, and the chair is evenly loaded (or not loaded at all), the chair won’t just fall off the haul rope. It might slip backwards or get stuck on a combination or depression assembly, but it *shouldn’t* just fall off on its own or going over a low-angle-change supporting tower. Contraty to popular belief (not popular belief in the lift community, but to the general public) the majority of the grip’s surface area / contact with the haul rope is on the top of the rope.
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So if the majority of the grip’s contact with the haul rope is on the top of the rope, how exactly did the chair fall off the rope?
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The grip has 270 degrees of wrap on the rope when closed. 270 degrees of a 360 degree circle. But when the grip is open, the opening is wider than the rope.
A detachable grip can basically come off one of two ways. Assuming the grip left the terminal in the closed position.
1. The grip opening arm is mechanically forced open somehow. Possibly got stuck on something or swinging wildly and hit something making contact with the opening arm.
2. The grip is plucked/ripped off the rope in the closed position.
As stated above if the grip is open and not swing wildly, the carrier should slide backwards.
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TOO MANY MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACKS, INVESTIGATION WILL SHOW CAUSE AND NEW SAFETY MECHANISMS WILL BE IMPLEMENTED, NO NEED FOR ALL THIS SPECULATION
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Often times the information released in “the Investigation” of this type of accident is vague and not very detailed. There are plenty of people that maintain and operate this type of lift and grip that view this blog. Any information is better than no or censored information. Speculation is usually caused by no information from the source.
There are thousands of this type of grip in operation today. If something failed or malfunctioned it would be of the up most importance for operators of this kind of grip to know. Preliminary information with some speculation is OK. May take weeks for the official statement/report.
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This grip DS series had been in service since 1994 or 1995 there are several service bulletins from the manufacturer advising proper service and upgrades as early as 1997 and in 2012 advising not to run these grips fast then 1000fpm haul rope speed the. The lawyers for the resort already know there neglect. It’s common for resorts to run detachable chairs at 1400 to 1600 fpm bit with updated grips. Some dolppelmayer lefts even run Poma grips the DS grip is put of date and prone to failure
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1400 to 1600 fpm? I don’t think any lifts except 3S gondolas can run that fast.
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Not sure where you’re info is coming from but everything in your post is incorrect. No detachable of that era runs 7-8 m/s. DS grips are not prone to failure. They need maintenance and inspection like every other mechanical device. We have a lot of them in service since 1987, with very few issues.
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Actually the DS-104 has been in service since 1983. The DS-208 was introduced in 1986, and the DS-108 was introduced in 1988. IIRC, the maximum operating speed for the DS grip is 1000fpm, or 5.08m/s.
The technology to achieve 1400fpm (~7m/s) on a circulating monocable ropeway has only just become in the last few years by way of Doppelmayr’s longest D-line terminals; I don’t even think any have been built yet that run 7m/s. Most mountains tend to run their detachables between 800fpm and 900fpm most of the time.
Also, one does not simply mis-match parts from different manufactures on detachable lifts. It does happen on fixed grips often during relocations and retrofits (hence the frankenlifts that we see sometimes), but there are only 18 detachable lifts in North America with a substantial amount of parts from more than one manufacturer.
The DS series grip, though definitely outdated by today’s technology, is not prone to failure and has an unbelievable safety record; of the thousands that have been in service for almost 40 years, there have been few incidents (not enough that I’m aware of to need two hands to count). But, like an old car, they need a lot of new parts to function properly; maintenance is up to the owner of the machine, not necessarily the manufacturer. The manufacturer can issue service bulletins, but it is up to the owner to actually do the work along with regular maintenance; often times underwriters and government inspectors and regulations will motivate or require that the owners to actually do the work, but that is not always the case.
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Sir you are very mistaken
The DS series has been in use since 1983 with a very good track record of safety, the DS grip was phased out around 1995 with the introduction of the DT series grips.
There has never been an open carrier lift run at the speed you suggest as the pertinent tramway codes do not and have never allowed such operation on an open carrier lift.
Doppelmayr has never run a poma grip in their terminals.
Also you commented above in another post above that maintenance personnel have hammered back into shape the fixed jaws, NO MANUFACTURER OR RESORT WOULD ALLOW THIS as it causes work hardening of the metal and would cause embrittlement type failures to be more prevalent. Such repair as you describe would void any warranties and indemnities from the manufacture and would place all liability on the resort and person advocating such repair. Doppelmayr also supports the DS well and still supplies replacement jaws,springs, rollers etc.making the need for such a fix ridiculously unlikely.
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Perhaps I should clarify: if the letters Y, A, and N mean anything to you, then you know which 18 detachables I’m talking about that have a substantial amount of parts from more than one manufacturer.
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Max Hart I was probably writing my response at the same time as yours, it only posted after due to editing out some of my more choice comments before posting, I was not commenting on your post but am only commenting on RJNDESIGNVT posts; I am quite aware Yanmas, Doppelyans and other frankenstein lifts, I make my living in the modification market.
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I am surprised something like this would happen, but at the same time I’m not. I’ve ridden this lift a few times a couple years ago. All of the times I have ridden this lift it seemed to be running extremely fast, and I got to the top within like 2.5 minutes! This wasn’t even on a weekend either, it was on a weekday, Thursday to be exact. There was next to nobody there as well. I could see them running it this fast either because they well maintain this lift so they are able to confidently run it fast or the lift ops always run it extremely fast. I would probably think it would be the 2nd one, considering this incident. I would have never of thought something would ever happen. Really shocking to see.
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So reading all the comments, Did the lift continue to run after the chair fell? I read it stopped, then people rode over the accident to unload. Isn’t this odd? I’d think if a chair falls the lift is stopped and rope evacuation would happen.
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Though it seems kinda callus, is far safer to evacuate the lift under its own power than to rope evac, so, unless there is issue with a tower or one of terminals, the other chairs on the line should not be affected by moving the lift.
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I’ve been riding the Sullivan since it was installed. Some 15 years ago just before the top tower the chair came to a sudden stop. There were 3 of us onboard. The chair started to vertically bounce by many feet and then began a pendulum swing that had us at nearly 35°-40° out of horizontal. We were all slammed to the right side of the chair. We thought for sure it would derail.
Then a few weeks ago l was sitting in the center of a chair by myself. The chair had an unusual vibration from the time it left the bottom. The shaking was so disconcerting that l looked up at the grip. I reported this incident later.
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“The health and safety of our guests and associates is and remains our number one priority.” Yeah right. Regardless of what turns up with this investigation this place prioritizes money over safety. Just take a look at their Yelp reviews from this season. They oversell the mountain and don’t limit capacity. When I went there in December it was like COVID never existed. No enforcement of any COVID mitigation policies like masks in lift lines. Attendants didn’t seem to care. I wrote an email complaint to their customer service after my family’s experience there this winter. Took 5 weeks and multiple emails to get a response. Only reason I got a response was because emailed Pennsylvania Ski Resort Association complaining about them.
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That has nothing to do with the story.
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Fits with lousy safety culture there. Especially since new management took over.
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And what experience do you have with them?
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Camelback allegedly being cheapskates and poorly managed in recent times seems pretty relevant if you ask me…
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Anyone know if there’s a way we can help the family that fell?
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Here is a gofundme campaign that was started by a close friend of the family involved in the accident.
https://gofund.me/f8bab2fb
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Here’s a video I found of the aftermath.
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeDfnsyN/
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Unfortunately the state told me it does not expect the investigation report to be made public.
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It will be made public if there is a lawsuit. If there’s a settlement, maybe not. You could do a Freedom of Information Act request to pry harder.
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Doppelmayr better provide some information, there customers should demand it.
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Sometimes the manufacturer has no information to share.
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You mean will not share??
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Doppelmayr might not be part of the investigation, and will have no information unless it is provided to them. This may not be Doppelmayr’s choice.
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Will bet you a cold one that Doppelmayr is already heavily involved.
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I guess we’ll see.(if the inspectors release any information)
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A Go Fund me has been set up to help offset some of the costs related to the accident. More updates on the family’s condition can be found there.
https://gofund.me/34c6e22f
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It never ends with these people…
https://www.dailyadvent.com/news/88c1162157cdd5d50d0c05714326ca73-Camelback-Resort-employee-flown-to-hospital-after-being-run-over-by-snow-groomer
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