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Georgia Ski Lift Failure

Zermatt

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Only 8 minor injuries? Hope that is correct. One person looked like they got caught in that heap of chairs at the bottom.
 

drjeff

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Catastrophic failure of the anti rollback mechanism for sure.... Or maybe in the Russian ski world, such safety features aren't required..

Videos like this are why I will never complain if mtn ops shuts a lift down because of some detected issue with something in the lifts operating mechanism....
 

drjeff

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Only 8 minor injuries? Hope that is correct. One person looked like they got caught in that heap of chairs at the bottom.

Agree, that one person who didn't jump off the lift looked to go around the bullwheel and into that building pile of chairs that were ripped off the haul rope!!!
 

drjeff

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Is Georgia breaking every bone in your body must be a minor injury.

The saving grace, for many, may very well have been what appears to be a decent amount of fresh powder that many people ended up landing in
 

ironhippy

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Yeah I had to stop when the chairs started derailing at the bullwheel, that just looked horrible.

The article described "minor" injuries but did say that people may need to be transported to a better trauma center.

Really surprising no one died.

Also 2nd the comment about lift maintenance. The other week people were complaining about the local hill not running the chair in high winds, I looked up and thought "there is no way I want to up there now"
 

drjeff

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Only 8 minor injuries? Hope that is correct. One person looked like they got caught in that heap of chairs at the bottom.

Agree, that one person who didn't jump off the lift looked to go around the bullwheel and into that building pile of chairs that were ripped off the haul rope!!!

After watching that video again a few times, it appears that that person in the red coat who went around the bull wheel by themselves, actually had a second person with them, who was sitting to that persons right, and tried to jump off the lift as it headed back to the loading area, but looks to possibly have been hung up on the foot rest, and they as well also got tossed :eek: :eek:

Pretty sure that most every Dopp fixed grip quad of that vintage is going to be closed for inspection in the very near future!!
 

FBGM

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Matter of time before something like this happens in this country. Lift maintenance and knowledge are so far behind at most resorts. Thanks Trump
 

MG Skier

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I feel awful for all those involved or even witnessed this. It is tough to watch. Isn't there a redundant system if one of the roll back systems doesn't work? Yikes!
 

BenedictGomez

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I'm surprised how many people in the, "catching a 200 pound guy in the head at 35mph zone" initially stood around watching from 20 feet away.
 

drjeff

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Another tidbit to take from this. If one is ever on a lift and a catastrophic failure of the anti rollback mechanism occurs, get your safety bar UP as you're heading back towards the terminal!! It appears that most of the people who looked to experience the most violent "ejections" from the chair as it went around the bullwheel, had their bars down, which probably both prevented them from jumping off earlier and also likely made their ejection from the chair more violent as their bodies and skies/boards likely encountered the safety bar in the process...
 

Zermatt

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Another tidbit to take from this. If one is ever on a lift and a catastrophic failure of the anti rollback mechanism occurs, get your safety bar UP as you're heading back towards the terminal!! It appears that most of the people who looked to experience the most violent "ejections" from the chair as it went around the bullwheel, had their bars down, which probably both prevented them from jumping off earlier and also likely made their ejection from the chair more violent as their bodies and skies/boards likely encountered the safety bar in the process...

I've been on lifts where the safety bar locks until the top terminal
 
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