[Transcend]

The excalibur gondola on Blackcomb is down. One of the lift towers snapped in half. The CBC is saying that rescue efforts are underway, but that one gondola is hanging over the river and nother is sitting on the top of a busstop.

The article is terrible as they didnt point out that it is NOT the peak to peak that broke (4 towers etc). Sloppy story.

Crazy stuff though.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/12/16/bc-gondola-tower-snapped.html?ref=rss

 

[schwaaa31]

Holy cripes.

 

[Motoking16]

scary...

 

[MattP.]

Wow....

 

[tfree120]

I wish that was just a little more in depth. Or at least a couple more pics. Crazy anyway.

 

[yesimaddicted]

i want pictures. at least in these days when 'everyboby' has either a camera or a camera phone

edit: say some one the cbc link up top

 

[DirtMcGirk]

 

[rico]

Video on BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7786967.stm

 

[boogenman]

I heard the back end of this story on the radio this morning.
I was also wondering if the peak 2 peak broke. Then again there would be massive numbers of dead people if that went down.

 

[danielsapp414]

they should implement some sort of built in parachute into the peak to peak cars...either way i'm not planning on riding on that thing.

 

[jonnynails]

Yeah, that's the first thing I thought too, that it had to have been the peak to peak to collapse. That would have been nasty if one of those towers broke. Hell no am I riding in that thing.

 

[boogenman]

I am planning on taking a trip across the valley when I go there. If it fails it will be one hell of a ride to my death

 

[FlipFantasia]

some crappy dark pics, I got there late, the one day I left my camera at home.....hearing 4-5 days to have the tower replaced and gondy running again, so glad no one was seriously hurt, this could've been very bad......and for the record, the peak to peak is super stable, rode it sunday in gusty winds and it didn't blow around at all.....

 

[MTB R&D]

That is just crazy. When I worked for American Ski there was a lift at the Canyons that the Lift Ops refused to ride. The splice on the line was the ugliest thing I had ever seen.

 

[CRoss]

I wonder what caused it to fail? I have seen pictures of lift towers that filled with water and froze, they busted apart like a banana.

That looks like a fairly clean break, must have been welded at 4:00 on a Friday.

 

[DirtMcGirk]

Cable cars make me edgy, especially when its just you and the cabin over 3000' of air and opportunity. When I worked at Squaw I was very leery of using it. Sometimes we had to, but I wasn't fond.

And here's why:
* August 15, 1960: between Castellammare di Stabia and the Monte Faito, near Naples, Italy.
* August 29, 1961: A military plane splits the hauling cable of a cabin railway on the Aiguille du Midi in the Mont Blanc massif: six people killed.
* 1963: Cabin of the renovated PKB crashes at the valley station, one person killed, several injured.
* December 25, 1965: Power failure on the aerial ropeway at Puy de Sancy in central France causes abrupt cabin halt, cabin wall breaks. 17 people fall, seven killed.
* July 9, 1966: A cable breaks on a cabin railway at Aiguille du Midi in the Mont Blanc massif: three cabins fall, four people killed.
* December 6, 1970: Five people killed at Merano, Italy.
* July 13, 1972: 13 killed at the crash of a cab in Bettmeralp, Switzerland.
* October 26, 1972: During a test at an aerial tramway at Les Deux Alpes in France, two cabs collide, nine people killed.
* July 9, 1974: Hauling cable breaks on the aerial tramway at Ulriken, Norway. One cabin fell, four people killed.
* March 9, 1976: In the Italian Dolomites at Cavalese, a cab falls after a rope break, killing 42. (See Cavalese cable-car disaster (1976))
* March 26, 1976: Damage to the carrying rope leads to crash of multiple cabs of the aerial tramway at Vail, Colorado, USA. Four people killed, five injured.
* April 15, 1978: In a storm, two carrying ropes of the Squaw Valley Aerial Tramway in California fall from the aerial tramway support tower. One of the ropes partly destroys the cabin. four killed, 32 injured.
* February 13, 1983: Two cabs collide in Champoluc, near Aosta (Italy), 11 dead.
* January 13, 1989: Eight people killed during a test of the French aerial tramway Vaujany in the Alpe D'Huez area.
* June 1, 1990: 15 people killed after a rope break in Tbilisi, Georgia.
* 1995: Operator error causes the cabin of Muttereralmbahn near Innsbruck, Austria, to crash. No casualties or injuries.
* February 3, 1998: U.S. military aircraft severs the cable of an aerial ropeway in Cavalese, Italy, killing 20 people. (See Cavalese cable-car disaster)
* July 1, 1999: 20 people killed at the crash of an aerial tramway at the Bure observatory in the French alps.
* July 6, 2000: Entering the middle station of Nebelhornbahn, a cabin fails to brake. 23 people injured.
* October 19, 2003: Four were killed and 11 injured when three cars slipped off the cable of the Darjeeling Ropeway.
* October 9, 2004: Crash of a cabin of the Grünberg aerial tramway in Gmunden, Austria. Many hurt.
* November 14, 2004: Empty cabin of tramway in Sölden, Austria, falls after becoming entangled with rope. No casualties, 113 people rescued from other cabins
* April 18, 2006: New York's Roosevelt Island Tramway experiences a power failure, leaving 69 passengers in two trams stranded over the East River for approximately seven hours, just eight months after a similar incident in which trams were stranded for 90 minutes. No injuries or fatalities occurred in either incident.
* October 31, 2007: The Flaine lift Les Grands Platieres or DMC broke down for six hours and was evacuated.


If my dumb ass is going to be that high up built in the mountains, I want a parachute to get out with.

 

[CBJ]

I wonder what caused it to fail? I have seen pictures of lift towers that filled with water and froze, they busted apart like a banana.

That looks like a fairly clean break, must have been welded at 4:00 on a Friday.

Official press release info:

Several factors converged to cause the tower failure. The structure of the tower is such that two parts are spliced together. Water had seeped into the tower which had turned to ice with the recent extreme cold temperatures. The ice build-up caused the tower splice to rupture, an extremely unusual situation referred to as “ice-jacking”.

 

[Transcend]

Cable cars make me edgy, especially when its just you and the cabin over 3000' of air and opportunity. When I worked at Squaw I was very leery of using it. Sometimes we had to, but I wasn't fond.

And here's why:
* August 15, 1960: between Castellammare di Stabia and the Monte Faito, near Naples, Italy.
* August 29, 1961: A military plane splits the hauling cable of a cabin railway on the Aiguille du Midi in the Mont Blanc massif: six people killed.
* 1963: Cabin of the renovated PKB crashes at the valley station, one person killed, several injured.
* December 25, 1965: Power failure on the aerial ropeway at Puy de Sancy in central France causes abrupt cabin halt, cabin wall breaks. 17 people fall, seven killed.
* July 9, 1966: A cable breaks on a cabin railway at Aiguille du Midi in the Mont Blanc massif: three cabins fall, four people killed.
* December 6, 1970: Five people killed at Merano, Italy.
* July 13, 1972: 13 killed at the crash of a cab in Bettmeralp, Switzerland.
* October 26, 1972: During a test at an aerial tramway at Les Deux Alpes in France, two cabs collide, nine people killed.
* July 9, 1974: Hauling cable breaks on the aerial tramway at Ulriken, Norway. One cabin fell, four people killed.
* March 9, 1976: In the Italian Dolomites at Cavalese, a cab falls after a rope break, killing 42. (See Cavalese cable-car disaster (1976))
* March 26, 1976: Damage to the carrying rope leads to crash of multiple cabs of the aerial tramway at Vail, Colorado, USA. Four people killed, five injured.
* April 15, 1978: In a storm, two carrying ropes of the Squaw Valley Aerial Tramway in California fall from the aerial tramway support tower. One of the ropes partly destroys the cabin. four killed, 32 injured.
* February 13, 1983: Two cabs collide in Champoluc, near Aosta (Italy), 11 dead.
* January 13, 1989: Eight people killed during a test of the French aerial tramway Vaujany in the Alpe D'Huez area.
* June 1, 1990: 15 people killed after a rope break in Tbilisi, Georgia.
* 1995: Operator error causes the cabin of Muttereralmbahn near Innsbruck, Austria, to crash. No casualties or injuries.
* February 3, 1998: U.S. military aircraft severs the cable of an aerial ropeway in Cavalese, Italy, killing 20 people. (See Cavalese cable-car disaster)
* July 1, 1999: 20 people killed at the crash of an aerial tramway at the Bure observatory in the French alps.
* July 6, 2000: Entering the middle station of Nebelhornbahn, a cabin fails to brake. 23 people injured.
* October 19, 2003: Four were killed and 11 injured when three cars slipped off the cable of the Darjeeling Ropeway.
* October 9, 2004: Crash of a cabin of the Grünberg aerial tramway in Gmunden, Austria. Many hurt.
* November 14, 2004: Empty cabin of tramway in Sölden, Austria, falls after becoming entangled with rope. No casualties, 113 people rescued from other cabins
* April 18, 2006: New York's Roosevelt Island Tramway experiences a power failure, leaving 69 passengers in two trams stranded over the East River for approximately seven hours, just eight months after a similar incident in which trams were stranded for 90 minutes. No injuries or fatalities occurred in either incident.
* October 31, 2007: The Flaine lift Les Grands Platieres or DMC broke down for six hours and was evacuated.


If my dumb ass is going to be that high up built in the mountains, I want a parachute to get out with.

So they average 1 accident a year, worldwide, and you won't ride them???

 

[DirtMcGirk]

So they average 1 accident a year, worldwide, and you won't ride them???

I've never been afraid of heights. I've sky dived, cliff jumped, BASE jumped, bungee, etc.

Something about the whole thing just left me unsettled, which was a strange sensation.

When I get that feeling, I listen.

 

[CRoss]

So they average 1 accident a year, worldwide, and you won't ride them???

I bet he gets in and drives a car everyday.

 

[-C-]

I've always had those "what if" thoughts. Normally its been on the shonky old lifts in the Alps. Also the big red Telecabin out of Champery had me a bit on edge.

Worst one of the lot was this year actually. There was a problem with the lift which meant it was stopping violently every 30 meters or so. Combined with a steep climb & large gaps between the towers the bubbles were swaying about all over the place! I thought my bike was going skydiving that day!

Wost bit was after finally getting near the top having been on the thing for 45 minutes (7 minute lift), literally just past the final tower, it stops again, and swings so much, the cabin I was in actualy hit the tower & punched a hole in the side of it

Had a little sit down before I made my way down the track. It scared the cr*p out of me.

 

[nowlan]

^ Thats wild.

 

[Jm_]

While I think it's pretty dumb to just stop riding lifts, I wonder how many other lift-towers could have the same problem?

Anybody remember the debacle with Yan lifts? That guy couldn't design a lift for sh*t, and although he came up with one of the first high-speed designs, nearly everyone that bought the lifts had to eventually replace them (high speed versions) or replace all the chairs and mechs (normal versions).

Go look up Yan lifts if you have some time, it's quality stuff, like the Karpiel, Lahar, and Ellsworth stories...

 

[boogenman]

Official press release info:

Several factors converged to cause the tower failure. The structure of the tower is such that two parts are spliced together. Water had seeped into the tower which had turned to ice with the recent extreme cold temperatures. The ice build-up caused the tower splice to rupture, an extremely unusual situation referred to as “ice-jacking”.

That does not sound very safe at all. It also sounds like it does not take much for that to occur.

Hell, I will still ride them, one tower isn't going to do much unless it is the peak 2 peak.

A bad splice on the other hand is creepy as hell.

 

[DirtMcGirk]

My theory goes like this:

There are a limited number of gondola/tram lifts in the world. If it only happens once a year, it still has a chance of happening where I am standing at about 2000' above the ground.

Just my inner control freak.

Oh yea, and I've been on a lift that has had the cable derail. Old school double chair, 55' to ground, all of the sudden we're going down. Stopped about 5' off the ground, then bucked us both off. Busted both collar bones through the skin.

Since then, I get paranoid.

 

[Morgan]

^ wow, scary

 

[General Lee]

Cable cars make me edgy, especially when its just you and the cabin over 3000' of air and opportunity. When I worked at Squaw I was very leery of using it. Sometimes we had to, but I wasn't fond.

And here's why:
* August 15, 1960: between Castellammare di Stabia and the Monte Faito, near Naples, Italy.
* August 29, 1961: A military plane splits the hauling cable of a cabin railway on the Aiguille du Midi in the Mont Blanc massif: six people killed.
* 1963: Cabin of the renovated PKB crashes at the valley station, one person killed, several injured.
* December 25, 1965: Power failure on the aerial ropeway at Puy de Sancy in central France causes abrupt cabin halt, cabin wall breaks. 17 people fall, seven killed.
* July 9, 1966: A cable breaks on a cabin railway at Aiguille du Midi in the Mont Blanc massif: three cabins fall, four people killed.
* December 6, 1970: Five people killed at Merano, Italy.
* July 13, 1972: 13 killed at the crash of a cab in Bettmeralp, Switzerland.
* October 26, 1972: During a test at an aerial tramway at Les Deux Alpes in France, two cabs collide, nine people killed.
* July 9, 1974: Hauling cable breaks on the aerial tramway at Ulriken, Norway. One cabin fell, four people killed.
* March 9, 1976: In the Italian Dolomites at Cavalese, a cab falls after a rope break, killing 42. (See Cavalese cable-car disaster (1976))
* March 26, 1976: Damage to the carrying rope leads to crash of multiple cabs of the aerial tramway at Vail, Colorado, USA. Four people killed, five injured.
* April 15, 1978: In a storm, two carrying ropes of the Squaw Valley Aerial Tramway in California fall from the aerial tramway support tower. One of the ropes partly destroys the cabin. four killed, 32 injured.
* February 13, 1983: Two cabs collide in Champoluc, near Aosta (Italy), 11 dead.
* January 13, 1989: Eight people killed during a test of the French aerial tramway Vaujany in the Alpe D'Huez area.
* June 1, 1990: 15 people killed after a rope break in Tbilisi, Georgia.
* 1995: Operator error causes the cabin of Muttereralmbahn near Innsbruck, Austria, to crash. No casualties or injuries.
* February 3, 1998: U.S. military aircraft severs the cable of an aerial ropeway in Cavalese, Italy, killing 20 people. (See Cavalese cable-car disaster)
* July 1, 1999: 20 people killed at the crash of an aerial tramway at the Bure observatory in the French alps.
* July 6, 2000: Entering the middle station of Nebelhornbahn, a cabin fails to brake. 23 people injured.
* October 19, 2003: Four were killed and 11 injured when three cars slipped off the cable of the Darjeeling Ropeway.
* October 9, 2004: Crash of a cabin of the Grünberg aerial tramway in Gmunden, Austria. Many hurt.
* November 14, 2004: Empty cabin of tramway in Sölden, Austria, falls after becoming entangled with rope. No casualties, 113 people rescued from other cabins
* April 18, 2006: New York's Roosevelt Island Tramway experiences a power failure, leaving 69 passengers in two trams stranded over the East River for approximately seven hours, just eight months after a similar incident in which trams were stranded for 90 minutes. No injuries or fatalities occurred in either incident.
* October 31, 2007: The Flaine lift Les Grands Platieres or DMC broke down for six hours and was evacuated.


If my dumb ass is going to be that high up built in the mountains, I want a parachute to get out with.

hate to break it to you, but your odds of dying are way higher with a parachute. and if that doesn't get you about 250 people die in avalanches every year so you might not be safe when you land either. and just when you think you are finally safe, 3000 people choke to death annually.

but i hear ya, sitting 1000ft off the ground suspended by a cable is not exactly my favorite thing to do. but statistically i'm probably more likely to die from tripping on the way out of the tram and slicing my neck with the edge of my skis so i'll take my chance.

 

[NJMX835]

Cable cars make me edgy, especially when its just you and the cabin over 3000' of air and opportunity. When I worked at Squaw I was very leery of using it. Sometimes we had to, but I wasn't fond.

And here's why:
* August 15, 1960: between Castellammare di Stabia and the Monte Faito, near Naples, Italy.
* August 29, 1961: A military plane splits the hauling cable of a cabin railway on the Aiguille du Midi in the Mont Blanc massif: six people killed.
* 1963: Cabin of the renovated PKB crashes at the valley station, one person killed, several injured.
* December 25, 1965: Power failure on the aerial ropeway at Puy de Sancy in central France causes abrupt cabin halt, cabin wall breaks. 17 people fall, seven killed.
* July 9, 1966: A cable breaks on a cabin railway at Aiguille du Midi in the Mont Blanc massif: three cabins fall, four people killed.
* December 6, 1970: Five people killed at Merano, Italy.
* July 13, 1972: 13 killed at the crash of a cab in Bettmeralp, Switzerland.
* October 26, 1972: During a test at an aerial tramway at Les Deux Alpes in France, two cabs collide, nine people killed.
* July 9, 1974: Hauling cable breaks on the aerial tramway at Ulriken, Norway. One cabin fell, four people killed.
* March 9, 1976: In the Italian Dolomites at Cavalese, a cab falls after a rope break, killing 42. (See Cavalese cable-car disaster (1976))
* March 26, 1976: Damage to the carrying rope leads to crash of multiple cabs of the aerial tramway at Vail, Colorado, USA. Four people killed, five injured.
* April 15, 1978: In a storm, two carrying ropes of the Squaw Valley Aerial Tramway in California fall from the aerial tramway support tower. One of the ropes partly destroys the cabin. four killed, 32 injured.
* February 13, 1983: Two cabs collide in Champoluc, near Aosta (Italy), 11 dead.
* January 13, 1989: Eight people killed during a test of the French aerial tramway Vaujany in the Alpe D'Huez area.
* June 1, 1990: 15 people killed after a rope break in Tbilisi, Georgia.
* 1995: Operator error causes the cabin of Muttereralmbahn near Innsbruck, Austria, to crash. No casualties or injuries.
* February 3, 1998: U.S. military aircraft severs the cable of an aerial ropeway in Cavalese, Italy, killing 20 people. (See Cavalese cable-car disaster)
* July 1, 1999: 20 people killed at the crash of an aerial tramway at the Bure observatory in the French alps.
* July 6, 2000: Entering the middle station of Nebelhornbahn, a cabin fails to brake. 23 people injured.
* October 19, 2003: Four were killed and 11 injured when three cars slipped off the cable of the Darjeeling Ropeway.
* October 9, 2004: Crash of a cabin of the Grünberg aerial tramway in Gmunden, Austria. Many hurt.
* November 14, 2004: Empty cabin of tramway in Sölden, Austria, falls after becoming entangled with rope. No casualties, 113 people rescued from other cabins
* April 18, 2006: New York's Roosevelt Island Tramway experiences a power failure, leaving 69 passengers in two trams stranded over the East River for approximately seven hours, just eight months after a similar incident in which trams were stranded for 90 minutes. No injuries or fatalities occurred in either incident.
* October 31, 2007: The Flaine lift Les Grands Platieres or DMC broke down for six hours and was evacuated.


If my dumb ass is going to be that high up built in the mountains, I want a parachute to get out with.

I'm pretty sure I was there the day this one happened (I was 9), I think the cars that fell were right at the top before it went into the building so they weren't far off the ground at the time.


11 HURT IN SKI LIFT ACCIDENT:
E-MAIL Print Reprints Save Share
LinkedinDiggFacebookMixxYahoo! BuzzPermalinkPublished: February 2, 1987
LEAD: Ski Patrol members helping trapped skiers from gondolas on Saturday at Mt. Snow Ski Area in West Dover, Vt.

Ski Patrol members helping trapped skiers from gondolas on Saturday at Mt. Snow Ski Area in West Dover, Vt.

Eleven people were slightly injured when two of the gondola cars fell from the cable and others were stacked up against a lift tower. The management of the ski area says that the lift will remain closed until it is examined by the state and a cause of the failure is determined. (AP)

 

[MTB R&D]

...Anybody remember the debacle with Yan lifts? That guy couldn't design a lift for sh*t, and although he came up with one of the first high-speed designs, nearly everyone that bought the lifts had to eventually replace them (high speed versions) or replace all the chairs and mechs (normal versions)...

I have worked with them all. Yan, Ctec, Poma, Dopplemeyer...

It was a Yan lift (Quicksilver) at Whistler-Blackcomb that killed two people and injured 70.

 

[RideRMB]

Cable cars make me edgy, especially when its just you and the cabin over 3000' of air and opportunity

The P2P is the highest gondola in the world, and it is only 1,440 feet high.