Incidents & Accidents

Tower Crossarm Falls from Helicopter in Big Sky

Peter Landsman42 Comments

Several Doppelmayr construction employees escaped injury in Big Sky today when a crossarm fell from a helicopter and crashed to the ground. The Boeing CH-47 Chinook and its crew, working to assemble towers for Madison 8, were also unharmed. “During construction of the Madison 8 chairlift, a cross arm assembly fell during installation due to a rigging failure,” said a Big Sky Resort spokesperson in a statement. “Fortunately, there were no injuries, and the flight teams were able to resume operations shortly after the incident.” The helicopter is owned and operated by PJ Helicopters of California.

It was not immediately clear whether the mishap would delay opening of Madison 8, set to become the longest eight seat chairlift in the world this winter. Doppelmayr typically manufactures crossarms for its largest D-Line chairlifts in Austria and ships them to the United States via ocean container. “The resort is working with our partners at Doppelmayr to mitigate any construction delays, and both organizations are optimistic that the impacts are minimal,” said Big Sky’s statement.



Rigging failures and helicopter incidents, though rare, have happened before during lift installations. In 2022, a helicopter pilot setting a lift at Cypress Mountain, British Columbia, jettisoned a tower in thick fog. The same year, crane rigging failed during installation of one of Snowbird’s new tram cars, destroying it. In both cases, Doppelmayr manufactured new equipment to replace what was dropped.

Fire Reaches Mountain High; Resorts Threatened Across the West

Peter Landsman22 Comments
Mountain High East, California

The Bridge Fire made a run through Southern California’s Mountain High Resort this afternoon, inflicting unknown damage. The resort’s own webcams showed extreme fire activity with flames surrounding both fixed grip and detachable lift terminals. An online fire map showed nearly the entire resort potentially impacted. The resort posted that San Bernardino County Fire was on the scene and to stay tuned for updates.

Mountain High West, California

Unfortunately Mountain High is not alone being threatened by wildfire. Snow Valley and Mt. Baldy in Southern California; Mt. Rose and Sky Tavern in Nevada and Tamarack, Idaho all face evacuation orders this evening due to wildfires. Mt. Baldy is under a mandatory evacuation order due to the same fire that impacted Mountain High.

Snow Valley, California

Snow Valley, part of Alterra’s three mountain Big Bear Mountain Resort complex, is being threatened by the 28,000 acre Line Fire. Snowmaking guns could be seen dampening lift terminals this afternoon.

Mt. Rose, Nevada

Further north near Lake Tahoe, the 5,600 acre Davis Fire reached near Mt. Rose and could also impact nearby community ski hill Sky Tavern. Sprinklers could be seen spraying Mt. Rose base areas before webcams were turned off.

In Idaho, Tamarack Resort shut down operations until further notice due to a “Set” evacuation status, one level below “Go.”

Mountain High, California

Gondola Collision Kills One in Colombia

Peter Landsman10 Comments

A serious incident occurred on the world’s second largest urban gondola network early this morning, killing one person and injuring twenty others. A gondola cabin reportedly hit another cabin as it entered one of the elevated stations of Medellín’s Metrocable Line K. The second cabin then fell onto a car on the street below. The incident occurred at an intermediate station called Popular, one of four stations on the line. After the incident, about 200 people remained stuck in other cabins before being evacuated. The deceased individual was identified as John Jairo Londoño Arango, age 55.

Line K is the oldest of six gondola lines that make up Medellín Metrocable aerial network, which is fully integrated with the city’s subway, streetcar and bus system. The system was built by Poma and opened in 2004 with 93 cabins connecting four stations. The lift’s cabins were manufactured by Sigma and carry up to 2,800 riders per hour in an 8 seated, 2 standing configuration. The system reached 100,000 operating hours in 2019, running seven days a week for 19 hours per day. It was recently closed for a multi-day maintenance period at the end of January.

Line K will remain closed while the incident is investigated. “Services will be suspended until the causes of this tragedy are clearly identified, the pertinent corrective measures are taken and the safety of the users of the system is guaranteed,” said Mayor Fico Gutiérrez. Other lines of the Metrocable system continue to operate.

Shedhorn at Big Sky Evacuated Following Chair Collision

Peter Landsman59 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 Landsman9 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

Peter LandsmanLeave a comment

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.