This area had a bad day!!

[drjeff]

Check out this pic of what happened to a lift tower at Silver mountain in Washington. Apparently, the tower was somehow perforated and filled with water and the freeze/thaw expansion caused this catastrophic failure which occurred at night when nobody was on it.

 

[Paul]

Yikes!!!

Good thing it happened at night. Could you imagine otherwise?

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Good lord, that's a very scary site. I wonder if it was a slow fall or just snapped down. Yikes

 

[Angus]

yeah, but look at the natural snow!

 

[billski]

yeah, but look at the natural snow!

always a bright side :grin: You're gonna have to skin it to get it!

 

[FRITOLAYGUY]

That is scary, ive only skied a couple of years but has there ever been any lift disasters with people on them?

 

[Paul]

always a bright side :grin: You're gonna have to skin it to get it!

Totally, its nice to see a guy with his priorities straight.


I s'pose you could gamble by taking a ride on one of their other fine lifts....

 

[gores95]

That is scary, ive only skied a couple of years but has there ever been any lift disasters with people on them?

Unfortunately there have been a few memorable ones. Try Google for more info. I seem to recall two....

One was in BC, perhaps Whister? Many people died.

The other memorable one was when one of the USA's fighter jets was flying to low in Europe and cut a tram/gondola line. Again quite a few people died and there was an international flap.

If I find the links I will post.

 

[gores95]

Not to get too morbid here:

http://www.notram.org/squaw1.htm

http://www.coloradoskihistory.com/chairlift/yan2.html

http://www.cnn.com/US/9903/04/marines.cablecar.03/

one close to home:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEFDA113CF931A35751C0A961948260

 

[bvibert]

Wow! Good thing it was at night. Looks like it just snapped to me, I don't see much deformation which I'd expect from a slow fall. That must have made quite the noise when it let go!

 

[ski_resort_observer]

Check out this pic of what happened to a lift tower at Silver mountain in Washington. Apparently, the tower was somehow perforated and filled with water and the freeze/thaw expansion caused this catastrophic failure which occurred at night when nobody was on it.

Sure you don't mean Silver Mt in northern Idaho? I am familiar with that one but not aware of a Silver Mt in Washington. Thanks

 

[drjeff]

Sure you don't mean Silver Mt in northern Idaho? I am familiar with that one but not aware of a Silver Mt in Washington. Thanks

SRO, you could very well be right. If I remember correctly it was a pic I saw over at skilifts.org and in my excitement to post one interesting pic, I very well may have subsituted the Evergreen State for the Gem State

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Check out this pic of what happened to a lift tower at Silver mountain in Washington. Apparently, the tower was somehow perforated and filled with water and the freeze/thaw expansion caused this catastrophic failure which occurred at night when nobody was on it.

Wow..I'm starting to realize why JD doesn't ride lifts..

 

[ctenidae]

The other memorable one was when one of the USA's fighter jets was flying to low in Europe and cut a tram/gondola line. Again quite a few people died and there was an international flap.

If I find the links I will post.

That Italian one, through a bizarre chain of events, actually led to the importation of Italian prosciutto into the US being banned. It all had to do with bananas from Costa Rica. INternational politics. Gotta love it.

 

[ripzillia]

Sure you don't mean Silver Mt in northern Idaho? I am familiar with that one but not aware of a Silver Mt in Washington. Thanks

It's Silver Mt.,Idaho. I have friends that work there and I ski there once a year. Well that's 2 lift failures this week!

 

[WJenness]

It's Silver Mt.,Idaho. I have friends that work there and I ski there once a year. Well that's 2 lift failures this week!

This failure happened almost 2 years ago (January 2007)...
Similar failure to whistler though, which is why this thread got dug up.

-w

 

[ripzillia]

OK I was worried about people I know up there. Thanks.

 

[RootDKJ]

Can you imagine being the first guy to find this in the morning.
"Uh boss, I need you to come over to tower 5....you're not going to believe this!"

pretty amazing

 

[drjeff]

Can you imagine being the first guy to find this in the morning.
"Uh boss, I need you to come over to tower 5....you're not going to believe this!"

pretty amazing

Boss's 1st reply to that over the radio "Umm, Cat operator, what were you smoking on your last break???"

 

[RootDKJ]

Boss's 1st reply to that over the radio "Umm, Cat operator, what were you smoking on your last break???"

"Er...yeah, about that, you might want to wake somebody up in lift ops. We're gonna need to have a safety meeting over here".

LMBFAO!