Incidents & Accidents

Shedhorn at Big Sky Evacuated Following Chair Collision

Peter Landsman36 Comments
Photo credit: retailarbitrage via Reddit

Big Sky Resort conducted a rope evacuation today after two chairs collided on the Shedhorn high speed quad. A witness wrote on Reddit that one loaded chair slid back into another loaded chair just uphill of the bottom station. Big Sky declined to specify the nature of the mechanical problem but said in a statement, “This morning, Shedhorn lift experienced a mechanical issue at approximately 11:40am. Lift maintenance, along with ski patrol, responded immediately and determined that a rope evacuation would be the quickest resolution to clear guests from the chairlift.”

Today was a powder day in Big Sky with 14 inches of new snow and it took until just after 2:00 pm to clear all riders from the lift. Some guests resorted to hiking out of the Shedhorn area due to its remote location. Because of the patrol resources needed for the lift evacuation, the Lone Peak Tram was also closed for a time.

Shedhorn is a 1991 Doppelmayr detachable quad with DS104 grips. The lift opened in its current location in 2018 as a relocation from the Andesite side of the resort. In its statement, Big Sky thanked lift staff and patrollers for their efforts today and noted “Lift maintenance is working to resolve the mechanical issue and intends to reopen the Shedhorn lift as soon as possible.”

Photo credit: retailarbitrage via Reddit

Gondola Tower Collapse Kills One in Turkey

Peter Landsman8 Comments

A tripod style tower collapsed on a Turkish gondola lift yesterday evening, leading to a delicate overnight rescue operation. The scenic lift was fully loaded with approximately 180 passengers, eight of whom fell to the ground when their cabin was hit by the falling tower around 6:00 pm. A 54 year old Turkish man was killed and seven others were injured. Helicopters and hundreds of first responders worked all night to evacuate remaining stranded passengers. The Antalya municipality which owns the lift said it may take 24 hours for the last riders to be rescued from the steep, rocky lift line.

Opened in 2017, the Tünektepe Teleferik carries up to 1,200 riders per hour on 1,967 vertical foot scenic ride. The detachable gondola was likely built by STM, a Turkish manufacturer using Carvatech cabins. The lift’s 36 cabins travel at 5 meters per second to reach a mountaintop restaurant.

Update 4/13: Nearly 24 hours after the incident, the line was cleared of all passengers. Turkey’s Minister of Justice said 17 people were injured, some a result of the evacuation rather than the initial crash. Preliminary indications are the “incident occurred due to the insufficiency/corrosion of fasteners at the connection points of the cable car’s poles and damaged pulley systems on the poles.” The operator of the cable car apparently did not have an adequate evacuation/emergency action plan in place. A criminal investigation has been opened and a detention order issued for 13 employees.

Mudflow Shutters Marble Mountain, Newfoundland

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The largest ski resort in Atlantic Canada shut down Sunday and will remain closed through Thursday following a severe storm with heavy rainfall. Marble Mountain’s main base-to-summit high speed quad, the Lightning Express, was buried in multiple feet of mud and debris, rendering it inoperable.

Thankfully, the Leitner-Poma detachable was not damaged and cleanup work is progressing well. Approximately 550 tons of mud has been removed so far and work will continue over the next two days. “We’re incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made thanks to the dedication of our operations team and the invaluable support from JCL Construction, who have been instrumental in the removal process,” the mountain said on Facebook.

The Lightning Express has a bit of a wild history with natural disasters. In August 2014, lightning struck the top terminal, setting it ablaze to the point that the lift’s haul rope snapped. Leitner-Poma spent all fall and the following winter rebuilding the lift with new terminals, chairs, grips and haul rope. The old lift was refurbished and now operates as the Flat Top Flyer at Powderhorn, Colorado.

Marble Mountain plans to reopen with top to bottom skiing on Friday.

Deropement Leads to Lift Evacuation at Brian Head, Utah

Peter Landsman16 Comments
Photo credit: Simon Balazs

Skiers and snowboarders had to be roped down from the Giant Steps Express at Brian Head yesterday following a tower deropement. The incident occurred on the heavy side of tower 1, immediately adjacent to the bottom station. Witnesses reported the lift was nearly full and the rope evacuation lasted a number of hours. “At approximately 12:05 pm the Giant Steps Express chairlift experienced a mechanical issue that resulted in a lift evacuation,” the resort said in a statement. “Mountain operations teams quickly responded and safely evacuated all guests without incident or injury in less than 2 hours.”

Photo credit: Zack S.

Giant Steps is a Doppelmayr CTEC high speed quad manufactured in 2005. The UNI-GS series detachable originally operated at Tamarack Resort in Idaho before being installed at Brian Head in 2014. The incident is the third deropement leading to a rope evacuation in the last four days. On Thursday, the Aurora Quad at Sunday River de-roped near the bottom terminal and 200 plus riders were roped off. Then on Saturday, a deropement caused chairs to fall from the North Chair at Snow Ridge, New York, leading to another evacuation. All three lifts remain closed today.

Deropement Causes Chair Pileup at Snow Ridge, New York

Peter Landsman10 Comments
Photo credit: Bob Bennett

Snow Ridge has had a tough year. An EF-3 tornado tore through the small Upstate New York mountain last August, damaging all four of the mountain’s lifts. A number of other ski areas, volunteers and resort staff joined forces to put the mountain back together all fall. North Chair, the final lift to reopen, just returned to service last Saturday. Unfortunately today the lift deroped on both sides of tower 6, causing two chairs to fall to the ground and four additional chairs to stack up on the light side of the tower. Thankfully none of the impacted chairs were occupied and no one was hurt. According to a post by Bob Bennett on Ski the Northeast Facebook Group, the mountain had just opened for the day and only one person had to be rope evacuated. The incident follows just two days after a significant deropement at Sunday River, Maine required 200+ skiers to be rope evacuated. No one was injured in that mishap either.

North is very old and contains parts from multiple defunct manufacturers, primarily Hall. According to New York Ski Blog, the double chair was just inspected and cleared by the State of New York to operate on February 16th. It was not immediately clear why safety systems designed to stop a lift after a deropement failed to do so for at least four chair lengths this morning.

Ski Santa Fe to Reopen Lift Tuesday Following Grip Slip Incident

Peter Landsman12 Comments

A full triple chair slid into another chair carrying three people at Ski Santa Fe, New Mexico Saturday, leading to a partial rope evacuation of the Tesuque Peak lift. No injuries were reported and the lift was taken out of service. “Ski Santa Fe experienced a mechanical issue on the Tesuque Peak triple chair, resulting in a prolonged stoppage of the lift,” the resort posted to social media. “Patrol crews responded quickly to evacuate the affected chairs and all other riders were unloaded from the lift.”

General Manager Ben Abruzzo told the Santa Fe New Mexican an investigation revealed the affected chair had been removed over the summer for nondestructive testing and incorrectly reinstalled. A subsequent pull test on the grip did not catch the mistake.

Tesuque Peak is a 1983 Doppelmayr fixed grip triple with 163 chairs. Over the past few days workers removed and re-checked the 20 percent of chairs that were removed last summer and completed a visual inspection on the rest of the lift, which is expected to reopen tomorrow at 11:00 am.

Chair Falls From Lift at Bittersweet, Michigan

Peter Landsman20 Comments

An unoccupied chair fell from Bittersweet’s new Snow Flyer lift today according to a post on Reddit. It appears one of the lift’s communication lines became entangled with several chairs, causing one of them to detach from the haul rope. No injuries were reported and the lift was evacuated by ski patrol and closed. Weather at the time was unsettled with high winds and snow.

Snow Flyer is just over one year old. The Leitner-Poma detachable quad rises 319 vertical feet with 40 chairs.

Gondola Crash in Austria Injures Six

Peter Landsman5 Comments

Falling trees caused a gondola cabin to fall to the ground this morning in Austria, seriously injuring three people and critically injuring a fourth. Two others in an adjacent cabin suffered minor injuries. The accident happened in the town of Oetz on the Acherkogelbahn, an eight seat gondola built by Doppelmayr in 2000. The lift features 66 cabins with DT-108 grips. The carrier fell from a height of approximately 23 feet about half way up the line in a steep, wooded area. The injured were evacuated via helicopter and the rest of the lift was cleared of riders without incident.

This is at least the third lift accident in the past year caused by falling trees. Just before Christmas, trees fell on a detachable quad in Italy, causing chairs to stack up and injure riders. A year ago at Park City, Utah, a ski patroller was killed when falling trees violently shook a triple chairlift during a heavy snow cycle.

Following Storm, Lee Canyon Closes for the Season

Peter Landsman3 Comments

Remnants of Hurricane Hilary dumped nearly 10 inches of rain on Nevada’s Mt. Charleston last weekend, causing major infrastructure damage to Lee Canyon. “In light of the limited initial assessment, it is with a heavy heart that we announce the end of our summer mountain operations,” the ski area announced this afternoon. “We understand the anticipation and excitement surrounding this season, and we will be reaching out to our mountain biking day pass and season pass holders with information as soon as possible due to this unforeseen closure. Trails, chairlifts, and essential facilities that encompass our summer offerings have borne the brunt of this unexpected occurrence,” the statement continued.

Photos posted to social media showed lift terminals buried up to haul rope level and tower footers undercut. As soon as road access is restored, crews will begin working to repair the ski area for the winter season. Adding to the work load, Skytrac is currently part way finished with the mountain’s new Ponderosa Quad, which is still expected to open this winter.

One Dead, One Injured in Gondola Incident at Mont Tremblant

Peter Landsman5 Comments

One person has died and another is in critical condition following a collision between a gondola cabin and construction equipment at Tremblant, an Alterra-operated resort near Montreal. The gondola car struck a drilling rig part way up the mountain, causing two adult riders to fall to the ground at approximately 11:30 this morning. The cabin remained attached to the haul rope. Both people were transported to a hospital where one later died. Other riders on the lift were evacuated with no further injuries.

The incident occurred part way up the Panoramic Gondola, one of three gondola systems at Tremblant. The lift involved was built by Doppelmayr in 1998 with cabins supplied by Gangloff. A photo later emerged showing half of a cabin completely sheared off where there would normally be a bench seat.

“Due to an incident on the Gondola today, July 16, we regret to inform you that we are canceling the remainder of the Tremblant Blues Festival and closing our activities for the day out of respect for those involved,” the ski resort wrote in an afternoon statement. “We thank you for your understanding.”

The Quebec Ski Areas Association also issued a statement: “We are saddened by the accident. Our hearts go out to the families and the Mont Tremblant team. An investigation is in progress and we offer our collaboration to the authorities,” the association wrote.

By evening, Tremblant issued a statement clarifying that the construction equipment was operated by a third party and offered condolences to those involved, who were visiting from outside the region.

On Monday, Forage M2P Inc. said one of its drilling rigs operating on behalf of Tremblant on an approved route struck both the gondola cabin with two riders who fell and another empty gondola. A 30 year old operator was repositioning the drill at the time of the incident and he was also hospitalized.