Sickening accident witnessed in Utah

[jaywbigred]

I just returned back to the east coast from a long Weekend in Utah where we skied Deer Valley and the Canyons in 50+ degree sunshine weather (I have sunburn on my arms from skiing in a t-shirt).

Yesterday morning, my buddy and I were dropping the equipment off at the base of Deer Valley while the girlfriends went to get the lift tickets. As we were walking back to the car, we heard screaming coming from the liftlines of the 2 base quads, and eventually could audibly hear people yelling "STOP IT!" They stopped the lift, and we were scanning the scene, trying to figure out why, when we noticed about 8 or 9 chairs up on the Silver Lake Express quad, a woman's body dangling below the chair.

We could see her entire body from her shoulders down; I am guessing that others on the chair were holding her by her arms or that she was holding on with them, or some combo of the two. There was, noteably, no safety bar down.

Mountain workers scrambled to get to her, she was at the 2nd or 3rd lift pole, which had to be a minimum of 50 feet in the air, possibly 60. They got a big crowd under her, apparently trying to make a human net; two guys scrambled up the lift pole ladder, but could not reach her. They had her click off her skis, and I think they were trying to get the chair to swing towards the guys on the lift pole when she slipped and fell. From our vantage we could not see her land, but apparently they put her right on the girney.

Later in the morning we noticed considerable helicopter activity in the area, some of which we thought might be medivac.

I was wondering if anyone on the forum had any answers to some questions this sad incident raised for us:

1) Do ski resorts normally have a net or trampoline style safety device to spread beneath a chair in this type of situation?

2) I know I've heard of resorts using a "cherry picker" to reach people stranded on lifts for long periods of time; how do these machines work, and how slowly do they move?

3) Do lifts not have a "reverse" setting, such that her chair could have been slowly reversed to a much safer height closer to the lift?

4) Can anyone think of any reason why the local Park City paper and other media have not picked up on a story like this? Is it just an understanding they have with the resorts not to publish negative news about them?

I have pictures and video from my digital camera of the event that I have not had a chance to upload and review, so I cannot speak to their quality. I will post them if I think the quality is decent enough, and if I think we all can learn something about chair safety and emergency situations from them.

Thanks for any answers anyone has, we've been pretty shaken up by the whole thing.

 

[stomachdoc]

I saw the same thing happen at Waterville on "Quadzilla" about a month ago. A woman was dangling by her arm; the chair had gotten about 50 feet from the load station. That lift can run in reverse; which is what they did and quickly extricated her from the chair. She was OK....

 

[thetrailboss]

I've seen someone dangling from a chair at Pats Peak before. She was about 20 feet off the ground and was being held by her mother. The ski patrol and lifties were underneath her ready to catch her. She finally slipped from the chair and into the warms of the patrollers. All was fine. Scary scene.

 

[hammer]

I've seen someone dangling from a chair at Pats Peak before. She was about 20 feet off the ground and was being held by her mother. The ski patrol and lifties were underneath her ready to catch her. She finally slipped from the chair and into the warms of the patrollers. All was fine. Scary scene.

Which chair?

 

[bvibert]

Scary story, I hope the woman is alright. I can't answer all your questions with any authority, but I'll give you my take.

1) Do ski resorts normally have a net or trampoline style safety device to spread beneath a chair in this type of situation?

Not that I've ever heard of.

2) I know I've heard of resorts using a "cherry picker" to reach people stranded on lifts for long periods of time; how do these machines work, and how slowly do they move?

You would need a 'cherry picker' on a tracked vehicle to get it across the snow to the lift, depending on where it's stored in relation to the lift it could take a while to there, that's assuming the terrain below the lift is suitable for it to operate.

3) Do lifts not have a "reverse" setting, such that her chair could have been slowly reversed to a much safer height closer to the lift?

AFAIK most lifts don't have the ability to move backwards. As a matter of fact most lifts that I know of have several safety measures to prevent them from rolling backwards at all costs. I know there are some that can, but I don't know the specifics of how they work.

 

[downhill04]

I am far from and expert on the capabilities of lifts. That being said, a friend of mine was a lift attendant at Attitash. He has told me in the past that modern detachable lifts do have the capability to run in reverse. Older fixed grip lifts (again to my limited knowledge) do not have this option. These lifts were designed with safety mechanisms to prevent the lift from running in reverse. The idea being that once a lift started turning backwards, the weight from the uphill chairs would cause the lift to pick up tremendous speed coming down the hill and cause an ugly scene at the bottom bull wheel.

I will try to get more info from this friend the next time we talk.

 

[SKIQUATTRO]

the freaky thing about alot of lifts out west is that there is NO saftey bar at all...its an uneasy feeling being 100' over a ravine with no bar....

 

[bvibert]

I am far from and expert on the capabilities of lifts. That being said, a friend of mine was a lift attendant at Attitash. He has told me in the past that modern detachable lifts do have the capability to run in reverse. Older fixed grip lifts (again to my limited knowledge) do not have this option. These lifts were designed with safety mechanisms to prevent the lift from running in reverse. The idea being that once a lift started turning backwards, the weight from the uphill chairs would cause the lift to pick up tremendous speed coming down the hill and cause an ugly scene at the bottom bull wheel.

I will try to get more info from this friend the next time we talk.

That may be true about the newer detachable lifts being able to operate backwards, not sure.

What you mention about the fix grips is referred to as a 'roll back' and it's not just an idea, it's reality. If the service brake fails and there is no other device to keep a lift from rolling backwards it only takes a matter of seconds for a loaded lift to reach deadly speeds.

 

[KevinF]

They had her click off her skis

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.

 

[bvibert]

AFAIK that is pretty much the way a lift evac goes. The problem is that it's hard to get a person to attach themselves to a rope if they're already dangling from the chair.

 

[Paul]

I remember Trailboss writing a report about having to do a lift evac at Burke when the lift crapped-out. I'll look for it, but it did sound a lot like rapelling.

 

[downhill04]

If the service brake fails and there is no other device to keep a lift from rolling backwards it only takes a matter of seconds for a loaded lift to reach deadly speeds.

I can not even imagine how it would feel to go around the bull wheel at a high rate of speed. I get sore just going around the corner on the SRT lift at Killington.

 

[jaywbigred]

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

Well, I know it sounds amazing, but she did it, I watched her do it. She kicked at the back of her binding very gently, and the first one came right off. She had more probs with the second, but got it to go to, w/o much shaking or moving.

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.

I would say she was hanging for three to four minutes. I am not positive she was supporting her own weight; it is quite possible that people on the lift were holding her up by her arms or her jacket.

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.

The second of the two guys who went up the ladder on the lift pole had with him a long set of ropes, though I did not see him attempt to use these. It is quite possible that that was his ultimate goal though, but he arrived late in the picture.

 

[cbcbd]

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.

A friend of mine who works as ski patrol/instructor (he's also a rock climbing instructor) at Wildcat always carries a length of rope with him which can be used to escape from a chair if the need arises.

If you know how to Dulfersitz rappel you'd only need a length of rope the height of the chair. If you want to go safer you could also take a sling of webbing (to fashion as a harness), carabiner, and ATC, or belay/rappel device.

 

[bvibert]

I can not even imagine how it would feel to go around the bull wheel at a high rate of speed. I get sore just going around the corner on the SRT lift at Killington.

I've seen video of tests that someone ran on a decommissioned lift before it was taken down where they loaded up the chairs with sand bags to simulate the weight of passengers. It got spinning so fast in reverse with the safety devices disabled that the chairs were mostly ripping right off the haul rope and/or smacking into the lift structure and getting bent like pretzels. The sand bags simulating passengers were flying all over the place. IIRC the test got a little out of control and they couldn't even stop it once it got going, the only way it stopped was because one of the chair flew up into the bull wheel and jammed it up...

 

[downhill04]

I've seen video of tests that someone ran on a decommissioned lift before it was taken down where they loaded up the chairs with sand bags to simulate the weight of passengers. It got spinning so fast in reverse with the safety devices disabled that the chairs were mostly ripping right off the haul rope and/or smacking into the lift structure and getting bent like pretzels. The sand bags simulating passengers were flying all over the place. IIRC the test got a little out of control and they couldn't even stop it once it got going, the only way it stopped was because one of the chair flew up into the bull wheel and jammed it up...

Damn!!! I would like to see that video.

 

[from_the_NEK]

I've seen video of tests that someone ran on a decommissioned lift before it was taken down where they loaded up the chairs with sand bags to simulate the weight of passengers. It got spinning so fast in reverse with the safety devices disabled that the chairs were mostly ripping right off the haul rope and/or smacking into the lift structure and getting bent like pretzels. The sand bags simulating passengers were flying all over the place. IIRC the test got a little out of control and they couldn't even stop it once it got going, the only way it stopped was because one of the chair flew up into the bull wheel and jammed it up...

Do you have a link to one of these videos? :-o

 

[bvibert]

Damn!!! I would like to see that video.

Become a liftie at Ski Sundown. They show it every year during training...

 

[bvibert]

Do you have a link to one of these videos? :-o

Nope, sorry, the only one that I've seen was on VHS and it was pretty old...

 

[twinplanx]

I'am pretty sure ski areas must have some procedure for lift evacuations. Though I don't think cherry-pickers or nets are the standard, I'd have to say the procedure would envolve some type of emergency personel and rappelling.

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