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Leitner
Quickdraw at Granby Ranch to Reopen Following “Rare Dynamic Event”
For the first time in 24 years (and post-Lift Engineering) an electrical or mechanical problem has led to a fatality on an American ski lift. The Quickdraw quad at Granby Ranch will re-open Tuesday after the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board reached an interim operation agreement with the ski area. The news comes almost two weeks after the December 29th accident, in which a mother and her two daughters fell from a chair. Unfortunately, the agreement notes that a “rare dynamic event” due to issues with the electronic drive/control system caused the riders’ fall. Environmental factors, weather and/or rider behavior were not to blame.
The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, which oversees the tramway board, conducted extensive testing in addition to interviewing witnesses and engineers over the past 10 days. Mother Kelly Huber and her two children were riding chair number 58 when it came into contact with tower 5 due to irregular line dynamics. The lift had been load tested less than four weeks prior, on Dec. 5th.
The operation agreement with the CPTSB is stringent. Quickdraw’s electronic drive must be disconnected (this particular lift has two diesels – auxiliary and evacuation.) Lift mechanics, operators and ski patrollers all must perform a line check prior to operation each day. Additional visual line and ground checks will be required to be documented every two hours. For the first three days, the lift will only be permitted to move 600 feet per minute, even though the diesel auxiliary is rated for up to 900 fpm. After two additional days at 700 fpm, Granby Ranch will be permitted to operate the lift at 800 fpm for the rest of the season. Presumably this summer the lift will get a completely new drive.
The operation agreement is not a final report and does not identify any acts or omissions leading up to the accident, but merely outlines the conditions under which the lift can re-open. In a press release dated today, Granby Ranch echoed its condolences to the family of the victims and affirmed its commitment to safety. “The Quick Draw Express has been operating safely at Granby Ranch over the 16 seasons since its installation,” the company noted. “Granby Ranch has followed all prescribed protocols in operating the lift.”
We haven’t heard the end of this one. Hopefully the final report will provide some insight into how this type of event can be avoided in the future.
Update 1/10/17: Apparently a third-party company installed a new ABB drive last summer that ramped up and/or down too quickly, leading to the dynamic event.
News Roundup: Dangling
- Rope evac goes smoothly at Rabbit Hill, Alberta.
- Bridger Bowl’s new Virginia City lift sounds like a go for 2017.
- Leitner’s newest urban gondola system makes the New York Times.
- Sundance Ski Patrol rescues a second child in as many weeks dangling from Ray’s lift, which has four unload ramps.
- The CPTSB is still investigating at Granby Ranch and Quickdraw remains closed.
- Bruno’s lift at Timberline had a rough day today.
- Eaton Mountain won’t open for skiing this winter, but the dream still lives.
- The brand new LST Valar T-Bar at Cannon Mountain also remains closed, apparently due to multiple problems.
- Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley are doing their best to weather Winter Storm Helena.
- Across the board, North America had a hugely successful holiday week.
- And yet another crazy dangler story from Colorado.
News Roundup: Underway
- With construction progressing ahead of schedule, Mi Teleférico in La Paz will open its 4th, 5th and 6th gondolas in 2017 – to be named the Orange, Blue and White lines.
- Costa Rica to study urban gondolas, along with Guanajuato, Mexico.
- Al Jazeera English tours Mexico City’s new gondolas that are improving the lives of working families.
- Doppelmayr to build another 3S carrying 80,000 passengers daily across Kilindini Harbour in Nairobi, Kenya from mid-2018.
- Two new gondolas in Austria – Giggijochbahn (Doppelmayr 10-MGD) and Eisgratbahn (Leitner 3S) – join the ranks of the most capable lifts on the planet.
- Bartholet’s first urban cable car opens in Brest.
- It was a $9 million summer at Cascade Mountain.
- Magic Mountain sale closes.
Eisgratbahn 3S Opens Today in Austria
The 2.8 mile 3S gondola Eisgratbahn, believed to be the world’s most expensive lift, debuts today after two long summers of construction. The two-stage system features 49 32-passenger Symphony cabins transporting up to 3,014 passengers per hour 4,000 vertical feet. The goal is to reduce the frequency of wind closures versus the former gondola lift. Congratulations to Leitner Ropeways and Stubaier Glacier on completing this monster project.
News Roundup: Vacation
Hello readers- for the next two weeks I am floating the Grand Canyon without access to the internet. I’ve scheduled a few posts for my absence, otherwise lift blogging will resume Nov. 5th –Peter from Flagstaff, Arizona.
- Ski season launches tomorrow at A-Basin. COO Al Henceroth is also looking for one of the resort’s original single chairs.
- Silver Mountain reportedly sells for a fire-sale price of $5 million. The resort’s gondola, formerly the world’s longest, cost $8 million in 1990.
- Doppelmayr goes to Moscow, Poma goes to Barcelona and Orlando.
- Wire Austin gets a website.
- Take a ride on the newly-named Hexago six-pack at Le Relais.
- In case you missed it, Gregg Blanchard of SlopeFillers fame interviewed me about Lift Blog.
- Woman sues Aspen Skiing Company over loading incident at the Snowmass Village Express.
- Vail Resorts to debut $100 million in capital improvements for 2016-17 including four new lifts. With Whistler-Blackcomb now Epic, the company will likely invest even more in 2017.
- 9News profiles the CPTSB.
News Roundup: Leitner
- Michael Seeber takes a ride on Berlin’s new mile-long gondola built for the International Garden Exhibition.
- Guests can now view bears and gorillas from gondolas with glass floors in Spain.
- Paris launches study of 2.8 mile, €120 million urban gondola.
- The press takes a tour of the Partek-built State Fair Flyer in North Carolina.
- Regional district approves rezoning for Valemount Glacier.
- The future of the Grand Canyon Escalade will likely be decided Oct. 17th, construction could be complete by 2020.
- Follow this thread to see LST’s very first detachable lift take shape in La Plagne.
- NewEnglandSkiIndustry.com posts a grim progress report from Sunday River.
- Waterville Valley cuts the lift line for Green Peak.
- Good news for Leitner-Poma: Ruapehu Alpine Lifts in New Zealand plans another quad chair for 2017, gondola in 2018 that will likely be built in Colorado.
- The Teleférico do Alemão in Rio unexpectedly shut down Thursday for at least six months following the discovery of abnormal wear in the haul rope which now needs to be replaced.
- As Snowbird plans for construction in Mary Ellen Gulch beginning in 2018, environmental group takes the media on a tour of abandoned mines there. The 500-acre expansion will likely include a two-stage gondola, Sunday Saddle lift and a new, longer Mineral Basin six-pack.
- Jan Leonard, of CTEC and Skytrac fame, will be inducted into the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Park City tomorrow.
- Big Sky posts lots of pictures as their new lifts near completion.
- Grouse Mountain is for sale, including two aerial tramways and four quad chairs.
- Doppelmayr signs agreement with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme to collaborate on mobility solutions worldwide.
- Yet another city in Mexico – El Marqués – looks at building a gondola.
Mexico’s Big Urban Gondola to Open in October
Commuters in a Mexico City suburb will take their first flights on a two-stage, $26 million gondola system called Mexicable in a few short weeks on Monday, October 3rd. State of Mexico Governor Eruvio Ávila announced the city of Ecatepec will join the growing list of cities in the Americas building ropeways over congested neighborhoods. The Governor’s Facebook Live test run video has been watched more than 461,000 times. Mexico joins Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela that operate (or will soon open) gondolas for urban commuters.
In Ecatepec, two loops will combine to serve seven stations and up to 3,000 passengers per hour in each direction. The State of Mexico and its private operators Grupo IUSA and ALFA Group awarded Leitner Ropeways a contract to build the two gondolas in January 2014 and construction began later that year. The lifts were largely completed in 2015 but station build-out and testing took longer than expected and the opening comes a few months late.
The new lifts will transit three miles over 32 towers in 17 minutes, replacing a bus line that takes 45 minutes. 185 10-passenger Sigma Diamond cabins painted in Mexico’s national colors will move up to 26,000 commuters each weekday. Line speed is 5 m/s and the span of service will be 17 hours per day. A ticket will cost eight pesos (43 cents) and the line will complement the Mexibus line 4, a 20-mile Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line currently under construction.
News Roundup: Champagne
- Doppelmayr is reportedly working on a concept 3S gondola that can switch between being cable-driven and self-propelled along elevated guideways.
- The Mexican coastal town of Manzanillo plans to build a sightseeing gondola in 2017.
- Videos of child falling from a six-pack in New Zealand make the rounds.
- Transport for London wants to serve champagne to riders aboard the Emirates Air Line.
- Newly-named Arthur’s Seat Eagle unveils innovative gondola cabins with removable windows.
- Les Otten talks about what he hopes will become the largest ski resort in the Northeast.
- The Green Peak expansion is progressing rapidly at Waterville Valley.
- A new, longer Sunrise lift from Park City’s Canyons Village will likely be built next summer.
- The Rio Grande National Forest seeks public comments on the Meadow lift at Wolf Creek, also likely to go in next summer.
- A progress report from Suicide Six where Leitner-Poma is building a new quad chair.
- More than 32,000 people submitted comments to the Navajo Nation last week regarding the proposed Grand Canyon Escalade.
- Sweetwater Gondola is on schedule at JHMR.
News Roundup: Co-Op
- A movement is afoot to turn Saddleback into a Mad River Glen-style cooperative.
- Red Mountain seeks to raise $5-10 million through crowdfunding.
- Leitner Ropeways launches interactive map of installations since 1996.
- With the haul rope being pulled, Mi Teleférico anticipates an early 2017 opening of the Blue Line in La Paz with 5 stations, 38 towers and 208 gondola cabins.
- Killington renews permit for the Pico interconnect to include four chairlifts and 110 acres of new terrain.
- BMF wins a contract for an 8-passenger gondola and six-pack at a new venue for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. The company is currently building 5 lifts in Switzerland along with ones in Val Thorens and Moscow.
- New York University gets behind the East River Skyway as a solution to the looming L-Train subway closure in NYC.
- Public gets a sneak peak inside the Banff Gondola’s new $26 million top station.
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