Chair evac

[Sparky]

This question is for any outdoor employees of ski resorts, instructors,ski patrol, lifties.etc., do you practice chair evacuations at the beginning of every season?

 

[dmc]

They do here at Hunter... It's really cool to watch..

 

[bvibert]

I'm assuming you're talking about evacuating people out of a stopped chair. At Sundown ski patrol is in charge of that, they practice (in the off-season I believe) they also involve full-time members of the mountain staff I believe. Lifties don't get involved in that sort of evac. As far as running customers off the chair using the Auxiliary Power Unit in the case of the Primary Mover becoming disabled, the lift supervisors practice that before the season starts. The lift operators are trained how to do it and are instructed to start the procedure in case of a problem, but to not actually start running people off until their supervisor or some other member of the staff comes to the lift to over see things and to coordinate with ski patrol at the top of lift. I'm sure every mountain handles it slightly differently.

Why do you ask?

 

[Sparky]

I'm assuming you're talking about evacuating people out of a stopped chair. At Sundown ski patrol is in charge of that, they practice (in the off-season I believe) they also involve full-time members of the mountain staff I believe. Lifties don't get involved in that sort of evac. As far as running customers off the chair using the Auxiliary Power Unit in the case of the Primary Mover becoming disabled, the lift supervisors practice that before the season starts. The lift operators are trained how to do it and are instructed to start the procedure in case of a problem, but to not actually start running people off until their supervisor or some other member of the staff comes to the lift to over see things and to coordinate with ski patrol at the top of lift. I'm sure every mountain handles it slightly differently.

Why do you ask?

Where I work we do it at the rehire clinic. It seems like a good idea, I guess I was just wondering if it was a state law or an insurance requiement or just good sense.

 

[bvibert]

Where I work we do it at the rehire clinic. It seems like a good idea, I guess I was just wondering if it was a state law or an insurance requiement or just good sense.

Like rope evacs? Everyone does it? It does seem like a good idea, so that at least everyone knows what's going on in case one has to be performed.

 

[Marc]

If I ran a ski resort I'd just have people jump. Pansies.

 

[dmc]

If I ran a ski resort I'd just have people jump. Pansies.

Larry David stuck on a chair..

 

[thetrailboss]

I think it is a requirement if not by the State, but by the resort's insurance carrier.

 

[dmc]

I think it is a requirement if not by the State, but by the resort's insurance carrier.

Probably also depends on weather the resort is state owned or not...

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

Where I work we do it at the rehire clinic. It seems like a good idea, I guess I was just wondering if it was a state law or an insurance requiement or just good sense.

We do it the same way at Whiteface. The same day you fill out paper work, watch the state mandated employee safety video, first aid updates, you also practice lift evacuation.

This past winter there was a lift evacuation at WF; it was the first one in 25 years. It was pretty cool to be a part of.

The only exception is Gondola evacuation. That’s a team of rock climber types who are on call 24-7. They have to practice 4 times a year. They are also “unpaid employees”. Volunteers can’t be called volunteers anymore because of workman’s compensation issues.

 

[BushMogulMaster]

I don't have the code in front of me, but I believe annual rope evac drills are required by ANSI B.77, the national standard for aerial ropeway operations and maintenance. Most states with skiing choose to enforce this standard, including Vermont. Can't speak to the other New England states, as I have not researched their ski law much.

 

[TheBEast]

As a Patroller at Berkshire East we do this every season during our mountain operations refresher going over onhill protocals and such. Everyone is required to get out their equipment and show proficiency. Just a good risk management practice in my opinion.

 

[BushMogulMaster]

A lot of mountains will do evac practice and training throughout the season. The hill I worked at last year usually practiced twice a month. Just one or two chairs, but enough to refresh everyone's memory. Not only was patrol involved, but the VP Ops, Mt Ops Mgr, Lift Mgr, and some of the lift department came to help or watch, just to make sure everyone was on the same page.

 

[Trekchick]

At Caberfae, I've watched them do this practice, and I've also participated during a school outing with evac.

By participate, I mean, I walked up and down the hill under the lift and talked to kids to calm them down, and alerted the crew to those who were freaking out the most.
Some of the kids are tougher than others, and some of the girls are tougher than the boys.
It was an interesting night on the hill, for sure

 

[catskills]

DMC - Awesome video. ROFLMAO

All ski areas that I am familiar with practice at least one chair lift evacuation every fall. Ski Patrol is in charge of most lift evacuations. Ski instructors and maintenance also practice every year to assist ski patrol. During a real lift evac ski instructors and maintenance do a lot of work making the whole process go a lot faster.

In many cases its the night shift snow maker that has the most experience with lift evacuations. Its very common for snow guns under a lift to cause problems during the night that requires a lift evac of one or two snow makers stuck on the lift.

NY State Law Article 18 - search for word evacuation.

 

[Telemechanic]

At Loon most employees participate in a mock rope evacuation at the beginning of each lift operation season.

For winter this means patrol leads a few sessions in November to accommodate the many departments. They are usually held during the various orientation weekends the seasonal departments hold. The training tends to focus on departments that work outdoors. Two methods are practiced, one for the gondola and another to cover detachable and fixed grip chairs.

Full time employees hold a evac refresher twice a year. In addition to the winter ops session we also practice gondola evacuations in May or June prior to the summer gondola ops season. For the summer, various experienced employees and the patrol director run the refresher.

A specialized training for rope ascending to assist passengers with evacuation is held a couple times per year, sometimes on the summit obs tower or East Basin when its closed, for interested patrollers and other employees. I like this kind of training

I believe the State requires us to maintain a evacuation plan and to train and refresh employees how to perform evacuations.

 

[Jonni]

At Sunapee we do rope evac training in all on-mountain departments at least once a year and twice a year with core mountain operations personnel. At the beginning of the summer we also usually do evac training on the downhill side of our HSQ that we use for sky rides. Only had to use the training once, and when we did it, everything went very smoothly.