Tremblant Gondola Accident

[2planks2coasts]

Gondola Incident at Tremblant

Two injured. Article says cabin hit by construction equipment. Situation still "evolving."

 

[rebel1916]

Gondola Incident at Tremblant

Two injured. Article says cabin hit by construction equipment. Situation still "evolving."

Now saying 1 dead, 1 critical. Awful. Seems like a failure in their processes, if construction equipment that could knock people out of a gondola was operating while the gondola was in use.

 

[jimmywilson69]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1680723562825408512

 

[crystalmountainskier]

Tremblant/Alterra say it was a third party contractor. Not that that matters a whole lot when they are operating on your mountain under your lift.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1680738934513635328

 

[thetrailboss]

CBC is reporting that the equipment in question was a drilling rig. The operator, a subcontractor, was moving it into position for a job that was supposed to start on Monday. Apparently he thought he was "saving time" by moving it into position on Sunday. The unit hit two gondola cabins. They've identified the deceased as 50-year old Sheldon Johnson. They also stated that the drilling rig operator is in the hospital due to nervous shock.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/gondola-investigation-mont-tremblant-1.6908688

 

[BodeMiller1]

I've ran rock drills. Fairly dangerous, hearing protection and masks. So, it's easy to understand how it happened.

This was not an accident. This was straight up negligence. Always assume your rig is going to fall over.

1) Don't let the rig fall over.
2) Repeat.

 

[thetrailboss]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/sheldon-johnson-mont-tremblant-gondola-incident-1.6910102

 

[BenedictGomez]

Seems like the drill company is trying to make it sound like it had a Mont-Tremblant approved route. My guess is this wont be successful.

"For reasons as yet undetermined, the gondola in which they were riding was struck in motion by the mast of a drill rig that an employee was moving from the site, along a path prescribed by the owner of Mont-Tremblant."

Curiosity question for our proud ski lift dork community, if you're not drilling for ski lift towers or foundations, why would a drill be on a ski slope in summer?

 

[cdskier]

Seems like the drill company is trying to make it sound like it had a Mont-Tremblant approved route. My guess is this wont be successful.

The route could have very well been approved...just not for use at that specific time/day. So yea, I'll agree that likely won't be a successful argument.

 

[drjeff]

The route could have very well been approved...just not for use at that specific time/day. So yea, I'll agree that likely won't be a successful argument.

Agree.

I wonder if that lift was operating on a weekend only schedule? If so the approved route for the Monday the project was scheduled to begin may not have been an issue with a moving lift

 

[drjeff]

Seems like the drill company is trying to make it sound like it had a Mont-Tremblant approved route. My guess is this wont be successful.



Curiosity question for our proud ski lift dork community, if you're not drilling for ski lift towers or foundations, why would a drill be on a ski slope in summer?

Might of been something where the piece of equipment was being moved across a trail from an access point that the equipment could easily be dropped off by a flatbead truck to a job site that is unrelated to ski area operations such as building construction for something be developed in the expansive Tremblant base area village/development.

For some reason, based on the few pictures I have seen online, I get the impression that this accident happened near the base of the lift, not higher up on the mountain. I could be 100% wrong on that

 

[thetrailboss]

Curiosity question for our proud ski lift dork community, if you're not drilling for ski lift towers or foundations, why would a drill be on a ski slope in summer?

Snowmaking towers or power line tower. Something like that.

 

[thetrailboss]

Agree.

I wonder if that lift was operating on a weekend only schedule? If so the approved route for the Monday the project was scheduled to begin may not have been an issue with a moving lift

It seems that the big issue was that the driver was moving the machine on a Sunday to get ahead of schedule. He was not expected to be there at that time. I, too, am curious as to how far up the liftline this took place.

 

[machski]

Snowmaking towers or power line tower. Something like that.

Could also be support towers for A-Netting. Not sure they need that for the ladies tech races being held for the first time this coming season or not.

 

[drjeff]

Could also be support towers for A-Netting. Not sure they need that for the ladies tech races being held for the first time this coming season or not.

Tech races don't need A-Netting unless specifically specified in the homologation documents for the race hill. Just one to multiple sets of B-Netting depending on what the homologation documents specify.

If tech required A-Netting you'd see Superstar lined with it rather than just lined with snowguns!

 

[crystalmountainskier]

Drilling for blasting? Pretty common purpose (holes for dynamite)

The gondola runs every day all summer so not sure it would have been any better on Monday.

 

[drjeff]

Drilling for blasting? Pretty common purpose (holes for dynamite)

The gondola runs every day all summer so not sure it would have been any better on Monday.

Wondering then if one of the issues was the time of day that the equipment was being moved? If the plan was to move the drilling rig on the Monday prior to the gondola operating for the day, then probably less of an issue. If it was a complete break down of communication between the drilling rig operator with the height of the boom and the resort on the vertical clearance of the gondola along the planned movement route, that's an entirely different thing. Such a tragic accident

 

[cdskier]

Drilling for blasting? Pretty common purpose (holes for dynamite)

The gondola runs every day all summer so not sure it would have been any better on Monday.

Running every day in general is irrelevant. If the resort planned to allow the equipment to be moved on Monday, they likely either gave a specific time or were planning to temporarily stop the gondola while the equipment was being moved and crossing that path.

 

[BenedictGomez]

I feel like the date/time is a red herring. HTH do you not know you're crossing a giant gondola path? Even if it was midnight on a Tuesday presumably this would have at least caused some significant damage.

 

[cdskier]

I feel like the date/time is a red herring. HTH do you not know you're crossing a giant gondola path? Even if it was midnight on a Tuesday presumably this would have at least caused some significant damage.

A couple things as I'm not familiar with this specific gondola...
1) The cabins could be off-loaded and stored at the base terminal while the work was being done
2) Cabins aren't spaced THAT closely together. You can stop the gondola with the cabins in position so they're not directly in the path of the road the equipment is crossing...

Moving cabins vs stopped cabins also makes a big difference. You should be able to at least see and maneuver around a stopped cabin, whereas a moving one would require very careful timing (and the drill may not even be able to move fast enough to make it through the crossing no matter what if the cabins are moving).