Zermatt
Active member
Who has the beta on what happened at Bromley yesterday? I heard a chair on Sun Mountain flipped over the cable from the wind. Full lift evacuation by rope.
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Bromley Lift Accident
- Thread starter Zermatt
- Start date
Jully
Active member
Say what now? Chances of that have to be SO low. Assuming no one was on that chair that flipped.
If this did happen I feel real bad for Bromley, chances of that are really really low assuming you're operating at even marginally unsafe wind speeds and coupled with the snowmaking fire...
Zermatt
Active member
It happened, I have photos. I believe the chair was empty and there were no injuries
I haven't seen anything mentioned in the media.
Zermatt
Active member
MEtoVTSkier
Active member
Flipped and caught a comm line?
MEtoVTSkier
Active member
Yes, reference to "maintenance", but nothing that refers to an accident. Looks like a chair did come off.
drjeff
Well-known member
That's always been a crazy windy spot in a stiff breeze at Brooklyn!! I can remember vividly as a teenager back in the late 80's riding the old summit double and having the top of down bar connecting the grip to the chair bang against what amounted to a deflector bar they had installed on the lift towers a few feet below the sheave trains to prevent the chairs from actually swinging into the tower!!
Was always an interesting last few hundred feet on that lift after it crested the pitch and was over the flat area at the summit before the top terminal on a windy day!!
Also as an aside after I showed this pic to my wife, she pointed out that there are no other chairs on the haul rope visible in this picture.... Seems kind of odd, as there's likely no way once this happened they could of kept operating the lift to get the chairs off the haul rope, and with the wind sensors on most towers these days, I'm guessing if Mtn ops knew it was gusting big time as it was yesterday, that they wouldn't just put 1 chair on the haul rope as a test????
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Was always an interesting last few hundred feet on that lift after it crested the pitch and was over the flat area at the summit before the top terminal on a windy day!!
Also as an aside after I showed this pic to my wife, she pointed out that there are no other chairs on the haul rope visible in this picture.... Seems kind of odd, as there's likely no way once this happened they could of kept operating the lift to get the chairs off the haul rope, and with the wind sensors on most towers these days, I'm guessing if Mtn ops knew it was gusting big time as it was yesterday, that they wouldn't just put 1 chair on the haul rope as a test????
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Last edited:
Zermatt
Active member
Look again, chair right next to the flipped chair. Spacing looks big, but I think the chairs are just out of frame. my source said 2 hours to evacuate the lift.
bdfreetuna
New member
If nobody was hurt it wasn't really an "accident". I don't blame them for not promoting an empty chair gone sideways.
slatham
Well-known member
First of all the chair in the pic is on the return side, hence nobody riding it. No injuries.
Freak gust pushes chair so far up that the haul rope jumps the sheaves (or gets tangled?) but doesn't de-rope. Bracket (or whatever they call it) is breached and the lift auto stops. Thus need for lift evaluation. Done in about 2 hrs.
Lift was moving today but not in service. Hoping tomorrow. Great pow still to be had.
Freak gust pushes chair so far up that the haul rope jumps the sheaves (or gets tangled?) but doesn't de-rope. Bracket (or whatever they call it) is breached and the lift auto stops. Thus need for lift evaluation. Done in about 2 hrs.
Lift was moving today but not in service. Hoping tomorrow. Great pow still to be had.
drjeff
Well-known member
Now that my closer to 50 than 40 eyes looked at your pic on my 22" desk top monitor vs my 5" smart phone screen, I can see that chair on the return line!!
Oh the joys of aging!! Lol
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Yeah, certainly not a good month for Bromley. Fortunately this did not result in any injuries....at least it doesn't look like it.
Zermatt
Active member
Yes, what happened was a BFD. Good design, but a lot of luck that it wasn't worse. Things like that should never happen.
Sounds like the lift is down again today as they await new parts. Who makes that lift and who has parts readily available to be installed in the middle of winter?
Bromley Mountain
New member
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Hi All,
Winds on 12/25 were blowing at about 40mph, and lift ops was monitoring gusts. At about noon, we experienced an extremely strong burst of wind for 15 to 20 seconds. The gust caused both the messenger cable (runs up the middle of the lift towers, stringing them together) and the chairs at the summit to swing, and the cable snagged a portion of the grip on a downhill chair (the empty side). This caused the hull rope to shift to the inside and derail that one empty chair. Safety systems engaged immediately and stopped the lift. Patrol performed a full evacuation of the 115 passengers, and there were no injuries. It must be the angle of the photo that makes it seem like there are no other chairs on the line, as all chairs are still loaded. We're currently awaiting parts to finish repairs, ETA this afternoon. Dopplemeyer put them on a plane from Salt Lake with a courier, and they'll be driven directly from Albany when they land - great service. Hope this clears up any questions.
Winds on 12/25 were blowing at about 40mph, and lift ops was monitoring gusts. At about noon, we experienced an extremely strong burst of wind for 15 to 20 seconds. The gust caused both the messenger cable (runs up the middle of the lift towers, stringing them together) and the chairs at the summit to swing, and the cable snagged a portion of the grip on a downhill chair (the empty side). This caused the hull rope to shift to the inside and derail that one empty chair. Safety systems engaged immediately and stopped the lift. Patrol performed a full evacuation of the 115 passengers, and there were no injuries. It must be the angle of the photo that makes it seem like there are no other chairs on the line, as all chairs are still loaded. We're currently awaiting parts to finish repairs, ETA this afternoon. Dopplemeyer put them on a plane from Salt Lake with a courier, and they'll be driven directly from Albany when they land - great service. Hope this clears up any questions.
drjeff
Well-known member
Since that's a relatively new lift in the lift world, Doppelmayr, the lifts manufacturer, will likely have parts fairly readily available in one of their facilities in the US, and if not and parts need to be acquired/made in their European facilities, then they'll express ship them. Installation wise, once the part(s) are one site, chances are the mountain ops guys at Bromley, maybe even without addtional help from the Dopp guys will be able to fix most things quickly, and then it's likely just going to be getting the lift inspector from the state of VT on site to green light the Sun Mtn Express again....
Smellytele
Well-known member
It is great when the mountain responds directly to clear up all of us just guessing. Thank you
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