Chair Falls from Lift at Attitash

Photo credit: David G. via X.

A quad chair detached mid-line on Attitash’s Flying Bear lift this afternoon, injuring one person. A photo posted to the Ski the East Facebook page showed the chair and skier fell around tower 6 and he was conscious before being taken down the mountain in a toboggan. A Carroll County scanner alerts Facebook page reported the 49 year old male was transported by ambulance with a lower back injury. Attitash’s lift status page showed the lift closed for the day. In a late afternoon statement, Attitash General Manager Brandon Swartz said “We can confirm an incident occurred on our Flying Bear chairlift today, Sunday, February 2, 2025. The safety of our guests is our top priority, and we are investigating the incident.” Attitash acknowledged one patient was transported to Memorial Hospital in Conway.

Photo credit: Erik Hanson via Facebook

Flying Bear is a Doppelmayr detachable quad constructed in 1995 and features DT-104 model grips. It runs nearly a mile with 82 chairs and 17 towers. In early December, Vail announced Attitash would share one general manager and an operations manager with Wildcat, a sister resort located 17 miles away which historically had its own GM. Attitash has been looking to hire experienced lift mechanic(s) since at least early January.

This is the latest mishap in a difficult season for Vail Resorts. On December 23rd, five people were hospitalized when two chairs collided at Heavenly. Four days later, the Park City ski patrol went on strike, causing major disruptions there over the holidays. Patrollers returned to work 12 days later and Vail offered guests 50 percent credits for next season as an apology. More recently, a number of lifts have suffered extended down time at Whistler Blackcomb, Wildcat, Seven Springs, Mount Snow, Keystone and Park City.

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Bullwheel Failure Injures 15 in Spain

Photo credit: Meteosojuela La Rioja via X

The top bullwheel detached from a chairlift in Spain this morning, injuring more than 15 people. The incident happened at Astún, a resort with 15 lifts located in the Pyrenees. Without a bullwheel retention device, the bullwheel came to rest vertically and the lift rapidly lost tension, causing chairs to contact the ground along the line. The lift de-roped on numerous towers and chairs could be seen mangled with an evacuation underway. The government said three people were seriously injured with helicopters shuttling people to hospitals. Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, posted on X that he was “shocked by the news of the accident at the Astún station” and offered full support to local authorities and the victims.

Photo credit: Meteosojuela La Rioja via X

The lift that failed is a 1989 fixed grip quad called Canal Roya. It was constructed by Spanish manufacturer REAC, which does not have any installations in the United States or Canada.

The incident appears similar to the 1985 Teller lift accident at Keystone, which killed two people and seriously injured 49. That lift was constructed by Yan and an investigation revealed a faulty weld caused the top bullwheel to detach.

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