What in the world is going on at wildcat…

[2Planker]

Snocat chair falls from the lift.

Chair Detaches from Wildcat Lift

Photo credit: Mic Murphy A triple chair fell near the base of Wildcat Mountain’s Snowcat lift this afternoon, sending one person to the hospital. The lift involved is a 1974 Riblet servicing …

liftblog.com

 

[ss20]

Snocat chair falls from the lift.

Chair Detaches from Wildcat Lift

Photo credit: Mic Murphy A triple chair fell near the base of Wildcat Mountain’s Snowcat lift this afternoon, sending one person to the hospital. The lift involved is a 1974 Riblet servicing …

liftblog.com

It's really a known issue...as the article mentions, several older Riblets with the grip-within-a-haul rope have failed recently. Kinda like a lot of lift failures in the past 15 years have been Borvig-related.

To blame Vail or not to blame Vail...that is the question. Vail is the one who's responsible at the end of the day. But...given Vail has only had two off-seasons at Wildcat I highly doubt that lift has been given a comprehensive inspection and/or rebuild as one would expect to occur every decade on a fixed grip chair.

Probably would've happened to whoever was operating the mountain...Vail, Peaks, an independent, etc.

 

[Newpylong]

The rib chairs gotta go industry wide.

 

[MadPadraic]

I could buy the "we inherited old infrastructure" and are dealing with issues "as they come up" IF this was year #1 of ownership. But they bought Peak Resorts 2 1/2 years ago, so this is the third winter of operation. And this is VAIL, with decades of resort Management and $1.5 bill of CASH.

Vail also built the Kensho Chair on peak 6. The chair primarily services blue terrain and is supposed to be a gateway drug for bowl skiing. The chair doesn't dump skiers and riders onto a plateau (though there is one there if they had built it further), but instead dumps them onto a precipice with falls off on two sides.

 

[drjeff]

The rib chairs gotta go industry wide.

Snowjournal folks will consider this statement complete blasphemy!

 

[xlr8r]

In recent years I have become hesitant to ride Riblet and especially Borvig lifts. These 2 manufacturers seem to have had the most incidents lately.

 

[snoseek]

I'm actually surprised they even are opening at all today. No summit lift so it's tomcat sufferfest. I can't imagine...

 

[2Planker]

Basically just 1 lift at both At/WC: Yankee & Tomcat

 

[thetrailboss]

In recent years I have become hesitant to ride Riblet and especially Borvig lifts. These 2 manufacturers seem to have had the most incidents lately.

The issue with the Borvigs was the bullwheel and braking systems. Most of those have been upgraded/retrofitted.

 

[xlr8r]

The issue with the Borvigs was the bullwheel and braking systems. Most of those have been upgraded/retrofitted.

They also have the hanging Sheaves, which caused the Spillway incident at Sugarloaf. And Spruce at Sunday RIver had its whole top Terminal fall over due to poor anchoring.

 

[machski]

They also have the hanging Sheaves, which caused the Spillway incident at Sugarloaf. And Spruce at Sunday RIver had its whole top Terminal fall over due to poor anchoring.

Spruce topple wasn't necessarily a fault with Borvig, it was the anchor techique used to mount the foundation to the bedrock. My understanding was that anchor technque was banned in VT tramway construction even then but still allowed in ME and NH. The technique was potentially used on several other tower footings impacting Poma and Yan installs at SR and those can now be identified with added top braces with new cable anchors into the bedrock bolted into the concrete tower footings. SR had Dopp rebuild the top return terminal of Locke due to similar construction and age and I believe Highland mountain bike park also had substantial rebuilds to their Triple as well. I'm unaware of any others that have done so however in either state.

 

[Newpylong]

In NH at least, after the Spruce incident, we had to provide documentation to the Tramway Board as to what method any towers were pinned to ledge if any. Specifically, what type of grout was used. There was a list of "bad" grout that apparently very soluble in water (what happened on Spruce). Luckily, we found someone at Poma who figured out that we were in the clear. Had we not been able to find that, we either had to proactively re-pin the towers, or do a pull-test. Neither scenario is any good.

 

[machski]

In NH at least, after the Spruce incident, we had to provide documentation to the Tramway Board as to what method any towers were pinned to ledge if any. Specifically, what type of grout was used. There was a list of "bad" grout that apparently very soluble in water (what happened on Spruce). Luckily, we found someone at Poma who figured out that we were in the clear. Had we not been able to find that, we either had to proactively re-pin the towers, or do a pull-test. Neither scenario is any good.

Fun. I do not know if ME tram board went that in depth, but I think SR thanked their lucky stars that topple happened overnight in the summer with no one in the path. Heard any foundation they couldn't confirm 100% in the clear, they re-pinned with the foundation cross braces (towers at least) or something with tension like the summit return, completely rebuilt foundation and up (Locke).

 

[tumbler]

All this Riblet talk is making me hungry...

 

[Smellytele]

All this Riblet talk is making me hungry...

McRiblet

 

[pinion]

Snowcat running today per the website.

 

[gittist]

Snowcat running today per the website.

Any parts falling off yet?

 

[eatskisleep]

Great selection of trails for MLK weekend!!

 

[pinion]

Storm will be a big win for those of us relying on WC as primary resort.

Bobcat skiing hard and fast today so at least I got 4x runs on it essentially alone every time before the crowds showed up at 9:30 - 10.

It’s sad here. But we all know what a good storm can do to Wildcat. Hopefully that doesn’t stop people from constructively criticizing Vail’s NH operational strategy.

 

[Mainer]

It’s been cold all week, I don’t think they have blown snow in weeks. 2 top to bottom runs for mlk would be nice. Let’s hope this storm delivers and opens things up, because vails not delivering