Sugarloaf Chair -Breaking News-

[wa-loaf]

New facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dear-Boyne-Please-send-new-lifts-Love-Sugarloaf/180383608652805?v=wall

 

[ski_resort_observer]

Every large resort has very specific protocols regarding the closing of a lift due to wind. Any good liabilty lawyer will put everyone of them, whether it be Fed, state or in-house procedures, under a microscope to find any chink in that day's procedures. That's just for the wind issue. There are many others, as mentioned, that will be looked into. This could take years and I suspect some sort of out of court settlement will be result even if the Loaf performed admirably, which I feel it most certainly did, in this accident.

I assume CNL/Boyne will be happy to pay all medical expenses and other reasonable costs to the accident victims. I guess the defination of "reasonable" is the 800lb gorilla in this issue and will cost the insurance company millions to payout in the end. So glad the prognosis for everyone involved is a happy one.

Wonder what has happened since the gondola up at Whistler dropped a bunch of guests on the snow awhile back, some cabins rolled with people in them. Did guests sue? Did the gov fine them? There seems to be similarities although no one was seriously injured and it was a lift tower section breaking off.

 

[Puck it]

Free lifetime passes for them and family might go a long way.

 

[2Planker]

I've been a SR skier and (patroller) for over 35 years.... Don't recall us ever having a "double double" chair set up... We had adjacent surface lifts, and several chairs w/ drives located close to each other. Please enlighten me, if you can. Just curious, must have been prior to 1970, maybe in the first 10 years of operation...???

That design predates quads, which did not come about until the early 1980's. The "double-double" design allowed for a lift to have the same start point and different ending points.

Attitash, Burke (though not completed), Bromley, and Sunday River had similar lifts that were designed and built by Hall or Borvig.

 

[thetrailboss]

I've been a SR skier and (patroller) for over 35 years.... Don't recall us ever having a "double double" chair set up... We had adjacent surface lifts, and several chairs w/ drives located close to each other. Please enlighten me, if you can. Just curious, must have been prior to 1970, maybe in the first 10 years of operation...???

I was referring to the double at South Ridge. It may have been set up to handle a double-double but like Burke was not completed.

Fall Line is the chair (former chair). Note the towers are the "T" design with hardware only on one side:

It looks like a Borvig that was similar to Spillway.

 

[2Planker]

That was the old Lift #5, which was taken out about 4-5 years ago.... There never was a plan for a parallel lift there, as the two adjacent lifts (#7 originally a triple + now the Chondola, and #6) both accessed higher terrain. Lift #5 was put in after the ski school moved to South Ridge, and was purely intended for that purpose.

 

[thetrailboss]

That was the old Lift #5, which was taken out about 4-5 years ago.... There never was a plan for a parallel lift there, as the two adjacent lifts (#7 originally a triple + now the Chondola, and #6) both accessed higher terrain. Lift #5 was put in after the ski school moved to South Ridge, and was purely intended for that purpose.

Interesting. Odd that they used those towers then....but they could have come from another resort.

 

[2Planker]

Yup, and now I believe it has been recycled again.... by being shipped off to Boyne Highlands

 

[billski]

Old lifts never die, they just show up somewhere else.

'cept maybe a few chairs that land in peoples' back yards!

 

[marcski]

I think that is why, or we rather, pay for insurance. So that when accidents happen, as long as they are not negligent, then insurance pays for the injuries.

Insurance pays for one's negligent acts.....that's why we get it....it probably won't cover for intentional acts though....

 

[jerryg]

Interesting. Odd that they used those towers then....but they could have come from another resort.

Skip King's the expert on the original plans for the Falline Double, but it was not brought in from another resort, the lift was installed just prior to the South Ridge Triple and North Peak Triple. There was speculation that the unfinished side of the double-double was to go up North Peak, but they instead opted for the North Peak Triple to have better uphill capacity. Again, Skip's the expert on this (aside from Les, that is), but I recall this discussion coming up before on another board.

 

[jerryg]

It was the 80's. I thought it was higher up, but that was the end for the gondola. Later opened back up from the mid-station for a few years.

The gondola had more that one accident. The first was when they were about to open the upper section and when they sent the first cabin down the track, the drip didn't engage and fell off. I don't believe anyone was in the cabin. The same thing happened again when a grip tried to engage on a splice - again leaving the mid-station.

The most notable accident was in 85' or 86' a few of weeks prior to Feb vacation. The rope derailed on the lower part of the lift (Before it came out of the woods) and a man fell out of the cabin and injured his back. I looked for the story today as it made the newspapers and TV in Portland at the time, but there were never details about the man. The rumor was indeed about who he was with, but again, rumor. The lift was back in operation by Feb vacation. The lower half did not cease operation at that time, but yes, a couple of years later.

 

[Rothski]

I was at UMF when they shut down the lower portion of the gondola. If I remember correctly it was because the cost of obtaining parts was getting excessive or they were getting diffiicut to obtain and they started using the parts from the lower section to replacement parts for the upper section. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

 

[jerryg]

I was at UMF when they shut down the lower portion of the gondola. If I remember correctly it was because the cost of obtaining parts was getting excessive or they were getting diffiicut to obtain and they started using the parts from the lower section to replacement parts for the upper section. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Sure do. PHB had long since gone out of business and parts were to available for the sheaves and towers. In order to run the lift from the mid-station to the summit, parts were taken from the lower part of the lift. Aside from Poelig/Hall not being around, the only other option would be to pay to retrofit the lift and if you know about SL's finances in the late 80's/early 90's, you known that was not an option.

 

[billski]

And now, Whiteface

At around 11 a.m. on Wednesday the lift cable of Whiteface's Lift I, also known as the Freeway Lift, derailed from the sheave train at tower 22, the next to last on the lift. The sheave train is the wheel assembly that guides a chairlift's haul rope past a cable and suspends it above the ground. A cable catcher installed on tower 22 prevented the cable from falling to the ground and lift riders suffering a similar fate to those at Sugarloaf on Tuesday.

 

[TheBEast]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say this winter will be the winter of publicized lift evac/issues/situations....stay safe out there everyone!

 

[Breeze]

Is it worth mentioning in passing that inspection and licensing of lifts typically takes place in October/ November prior to any opening date? Or that an Opening Date hardly means every lift will be in service on a given Opening Day?

Lots of weather happens between licensing and opening. Fixed Grip chairs hang on the haul rope 24/7. A lift could sit essentially idle from a load capacity perspective for many weeks and weather cycles before the Holiday Hordes arrive. Yes, typically, Lift Ops will spin the idle lifts and monitor for issues periodically, but there will be nowhere near "max load" until the day "max load" arrives and loads.

I do feel badly for everyone on both sides of the cash register in this issue. Many of you remember the Halloween Opening of Wildcat end of October 2005. The Tomcat Triple was the only lift on mountain to have a current license to operate, and even with that VERY current license, it went down on Sunday afternoon of the weekend with a electrical issue.

Not everything in life is cut and dried.

Breeze

 

[deadheadskier]

lawyers retained by some of the injured

http://www.pressherald.com/news/skiers-hurt-in-derailment-hire-law-firm_2011-01-12.html#

 

[Skimaine]

One of the firm's partners (Dan Kagan) started a Facebook page about a week ago called "Dear Boyne, send us new lifts, Love, Sugarloaf" and is selling / distributing stickers with this catchy phrase. He also is quoted in the Portland Press Herald as saying "We've been saying for several years, it's not a question of whether, it's a question of when Spillway gives out". :-x

 

[riverc0il]

"We've been saying for several years, it's not a question of whether, it's a question of when Spillway gives out". :-x

That's true for every lift currently in operation.

:uzi:

Personally, I think they are entitled to money to compensate for injuries, medical, work time off needed, etc. I think an out of court settlement should include something for the "suffering" factor as well. But knowing the way these things go, I am sure that lawyer is going to be going after millions.