Sickening accident witnessed in Utah

[jaywbigred]

You guys are right, and I think this is a situation where perhaps the lift op wasn't paying enough attention, because there was a lot of screaming and from the drop-off area, where I took these pics, I could audibly hear people yelling "Stop It!!"

My thoughts were that 1 of 2 things happened: either a) the lifty didn't notice the situation until that point; or b) by the time he did notice, the protocol was to wait until the chair was even with the next lift pole to assist in the rescue process.

Either way, it wound up being not safe for her.

 

[bvibert]

I doubt they have any protocol that says they should stop the chair near a lift tower. In the unlikely event that they do it's a stupid one since it obviously didn't do any good.

I'm thinking that a more attentive liftie could have made this situation turn out better...

 

[MarkC]

I'm thinking that a more attentive liftie could have made this situation turn out better...

I would agree. Unless she fell out of the chiar after it had gotten out of the terminal this could have been prevented by the stop button. 3-4 minutes that close to the base should have been enough time for patrol to get out there with some sort of lift evac gear. It may not have worked but the simple issue that they did not even get it there bothers me. At my home mountain all of the patrol, ski school, and many of the mounatin operations people are trained in lift evac and practice at least once a season if not more.

 

[jaywbigred]

3-4 minutes that close to the base should have been enough time for patrol to get out there with some sort of lift evac gear. It may not have worked but the simple issue that they did not even get it there bothers me.

I completely agree. That is what bothered me too. A lot of man-power got there in time, but it didn't look like they had a real game plan.

Another question: Would it be part of protocol here to have Ski Patrollers (assisted by Ski School folks) make a sort of human net under her? B/c that is what they did, and though I coudln't see it from my vantage, apparently she feel right into them. Are employees instructed to sacrifice their own bodies to try to break her fall? That seems very violent. A ski boot to the head from 50 or 60 feet up could do a heck of a lot of damage I'd think.

 

[MarkC]

Another question: Would it be part of protocol here to have Ski Patrollers (assisted by Ski School folks) make a sort of human net under her?

I have never heard of that and think that it would be a horrible idea. The really is no specific protocol for somebody hanging from a chair other than prevent it from happening via an attentive liftie at the bottom to hit the stop button in time and or put the safety bar down. If these two things are done then this does not happen. If by some freak accident it does happen you would hope that they can hold on long enough to be either pulled back up or roped down.

 

[haines]

I saw a dog tumble down Tuckerman's Ravine

This white dog barrelrolled down the slope it was scary yet funny at the same time. It had a serious look on it's face while tumbling than it stopped and immediatly got up and started running around. I thought it was a goner.

 

[schifty]

I uploaded my photos. Here she is hanging. Unfortunately, my video does not show much more than this, and is not as zoomed in.

looks like she was loading with kids, if you think about having one child on each side
helping both load it would be easy to slide forward. your natural reaction would be to hold on when you should just fall of while it's still low. I never worried about lifts or the danger associated with skiing until my kids started.

 

[Paul]

looks like she was loading with kids, if you think about having one child on each side
helping both load it would be easy to slide forward. your natural reaction would be to hold on when you should just fall of while it's still low. I never worried about lifts or the danger associated with skiing until my kids started.

True. I'm sure if she had kids with her, the LAST thing she wanted to do was leave them on their own.

 

[haines]

Pretty surreal pic

True. I'm sure if she had kids with her, the LAST thing she wanted to do was leave them on their own.

One can really get a sense of panic like the movie Jaws

 

[bvibert]

I don't think she was loading with kids, their legs look too long and I think the other passengers are holding her up...

 

[ccskier]

As for the media there must be some kind of agreement because lot's of negative stuff slips under the radar.[/QUOTE]

Out west at the larger resorts these type of things probably happen all of time and it is not publicized. As for the safety bars I was in CO two weeks ago, 3 of the 4 resorts I visited each had a lift or two w/out safety bars. I had a small pack on and was really leaning forward. It was not too comfortable.

 

[drjeff]

I know from having been there a week ago, that at DV, if you're riding one of the quads out of the base area, that the staff will insist that young children possibly needing assistance getting on the chair sit on what would be left side as we're looking at that pic, which would be the inside as the chair comes around the bull wheel. That way one of the attendants would have an easier time helping the young child load the lift.

I know that what the attendant would do when my wife and I were taking my 3 year old up those lifts, was take my 3 year olds hand from where we were waiting in the que, and then walk my daughter from the que to all the way to the loading board and then assist her onto the lift. Often my wife and I would want our daughter to sit in between us, but they'd insist that it was safer/easier for her to ride on the inside seat with only 1 of us next to her and the side of the chair on the other.

 

[bosrocker51]

dangling skiers/lift evac

How could somebody who is dangling by their arms off a chairlift possibly click out of their skis?

How long was she hanging for? I know I can't hang off a chin-up bar for very long without dropping off, but then again, a substantial drop adds some incentive to hang on.

As for getting people off. I'd imagine the easiest, fastest way to get somebody off in an emergency would be some sort of rappelling setup such as what rock-climbers use to get down. Toss a climbing rope over the lift's support cable, hang on for dear life, and belay them down. I imagine you could get them down in a few seconds. Add some attachment to the rope for the person to hang onto or sit on, so that you're not having to grip "just" rope. I heard something similair to that was the "lift evacuation" procedure when I worked at Ski Liberty (in Pennsylvania), although maybe somebody was pulling my leg.

When I patrolled (long ago) we did lift evacs. But, getting a rope over a 50" cable is no picnic. And you have to have a rope. I only carried rope when doing evacs, but I'm thinking of packing climbing rope & carabiners so I can self-evac if I need to.

I've never seen a skier dnagle from a chair, and frankly, I hope I never do.