Skier Suffers Serious Injuries after "Chairlift Incident" at Red Lodge (Second Lift Incident of the Day)

[thetrailboss]

Glad I am not skiing today! The second lift incident of the day next to the incident at Kicking Horse. Details are limited, but it sounds like this might be a fall from one of Red Lodge's Triples (that does not have a safety bar) either due to the windy conditions or perhaps due to a medical incident. Ski Patrol got him to the base. It was too windy for a helicopter so the skier was taken to the local hospital before being airlifted to Billings.

One Injured in Lift Incident at Red Lodge Mountain

A person was airlifted to a Montana hospital today following an incident on the Triple Chair at Red Lodge Mountain. “Red Lodge Mountain Patrol Dispatch received a call at 11:51am regarding an…

liftblog.com

 

[The Sneak]

Chairs without safety bars have never made sense to me. I thought I was fine with it til I had to ride that stupid double at June mountain, then some other sketchy one at Mammoth.

 

[Zand]

Chairs without safety bars have never made sense to me. I thought I was fine with it til I had to ride that stupid double at June mountain, then some other sketchy one at Mammoth.

I'm shocked to hear that California of all places still allows chairs without bars considering that state doesn't even let you wipe your own ass.

 

[4aprice]

One at the Purg in Colorado too (Kid falling off lift about 35 ft up). Too much lift news this year.

 

[thetrailboss]

One at the Purg in Colorado too (Kid falling off lift about 35 ft up). Too much lift news this year.

Whoa. I did not hear that one. And yes, there are too many lift incidents this year.

As to safety bars, when I first skied at Alta in 2010 NONE of the lifts had safety bars. That included Collins and Sugarloaf, both HSQs. Riding on a relatively new high speed lift without a safety bar was pretty weird. I normally put it down if I ride solo.

 

[abc]

I grew up riding lifts without bars. So I don’t even think about it. If my chair mates wants it down, it comes down. But if I’m riding solo, I often don’t bother bringing it down.

But occasionally, when it’s windy, boy, that reminds me to bring it down. And on chairs without bars, I wrap my arms around the side/center pole just in case.

 

[4aprice]

Whoa. I did not hear that one. And yes, there are too many lift incidents this year.

As to safety bars, when I first skied at Alta in 2010 NONE of the lifts had safety bars. That included Collins and Sugarloaf, both HSQs. Riding on a relatively new high speed lift without a safety bar was pretty weird. I normally put it down if I ride solo.

I never minded back in the days of the Riblet fixed grip center pole doubles, but now I always put the bar down especially the High Speeds. The American Flyer (bubble) at Copper scares the crap out of me because there is nothing to grab if that thing screeches to a halt.

 

[SkiingInABlueDream]

I'm ok with single and double chairs not having a bar. It wouldn't be my preference, but I'm ok with it because there's always something to wrap your arm around. Triple or larger, I would not want to be in any of middle seats.

I'm reminded of an old chair at I rode at Whitefish in 2019 which has since been replaced. The chairs were wide enough for 3 but didn't have bars. They labelled it as a double which I appreciated because that chair was pretty high up at one spot. I always wondered if it was originally a triple but got reclassified either because somebody fell, or someone just had good sense.

 

[BenedictGomez]

I'm shocked to hear that California of all places still allows chairs without bars considering that state doesn't even let you wipe your own ass.

 

[Smellytele]

Last month I was riding on that no bar triple in the middle. No wind though. Middle seats are sketchy on anything bigger than a double without a bar in the wind