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Chairlift Death

dlague

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What I find crazy is how many lifts in Colorado have no safety bars. Loveland lifts do not have them, A Basin Pali lift does not have any, some at Eldora do not have them. Gets a little freaky when the lift stops and the chair swings back and forth.

In any case sad to see this especially at a small ski area. This type of death does not occur often in fact 12 since 1973 across the country.

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Zermatt

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Any details as to what happened?

Really surprised more people don't fall off, especially little kids.
 

thetrailboss

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Any details as to what happened?

Really surprised more people don't fall off, especially little kids.

Sounds like nobody is talking. There were multiple "witnesses" but nothing reported as to what they saw.

A lot of chairs here without bars, but they are slowly getting safety bars added.


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Not Sure

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What I find crazy is how many lifts in Colorado have no safety bars. Loveland lifts do not have them, A Basin Pali lift does not have any, some at Eldora do not have them. Gets a little freaky when the lift stops and the chair swings back and forth.

In any case sad to see this especially at a small ski area. This type of death does not occur often in fact 12 since 1973 across the country.

Sent from my SM-G930P using AlpineZone mobile app

I quess you have softer snow out West LOL .

Very scary ! I was on a roll back when I was 14 ,scared the hell out of me . Went about 50' and stopped quickly my chair swung back and forth about 45 degrees both directions . I was looking down a 40' plus drop with the bar up . The kid I was riding up with insisted we leave the bar up , I cursed him out and have been pretty paranoid about keeping it down since.
 

kbird

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Wow very sad to read this. I doubt the mother left the bar up, I would be more inclined to believe they were bounced off.

That almost happen to a friend and I about 10 years ago when some kids in front of us started bouncing the chairs. We had to verbally threaten them to get them to stop, both of us almost fell 40+ feet! When we got to the top, we grabbed the kids and detained them until patrol arrived to escort them off the mountain.
 

cdskier

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Interesting article...although some parts are confusing and poorly worded I think (seems to have been written by someone that doesn't understand the difference between a safety bar being up and down on a lift). - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ss-saw-mother-two-children-plummet-chair.html

Here's some quotes from the article from a witness:
The witness, Allen McGirl from Greeley, who was three chairs back from the family, wrote on Facebook: 'I am so sad to have witnessed the 3 people fall off the chair lift at Granby Ranch this morning.

'If only the mother would have lowered the safety bar, this would not have happened.

...

He continued: 'I was three chairs back and saw everything and was warning my group I was with.

'Terrifying. Warning about the swaying side to side. No other chairs were swinging like that.

'The bar hit the sign on the pole and they dropped out. I can't get out of my head watching that moment and cpr for 5 to 10 min.'
 

skiNEwhere

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All ski areas except Loveland have slowly been phasing them out. Loveland bought a brand new, fixed grip lift a couple years ago; no bar.

I don't see a bar helping out a kid though due to their size other than giving them to grab onto as they slide under.

Terrible news, regardless. Condolences
 

Abubob

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What I find crazy is how many lifts in Colorado have no safety bars.

From the fuzzy photo posted it looks as this one does have safety bars - but no backs?

https://twitter.com/lancehernandez7/status/814593322199248896/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

C04ETuDWQAAG_qp.jpg:large
 

benski

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Snowbird has bars on all its lifts. Most of the lifts at Alta now have bars, though locals don't use them.
 
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