My first chairlift rescue after 50+ years skiing.

[Zirbl]

Saw this on @Lift Blog Twitter

Must be pretty good cocoa if it's worth 3 hours' skiing.

 

[Jersey Skier]

Must be pretty good cocoa if it's worth 3 hours' skiing.

Vail priced cocoa.

 

[raisingarizona]

This happened at Beech Mountain NC last year.. They stopped the lift BECAUSE of the snow gun hydrant failure :-(



They were there for awhile too

I hope they got a voucher for some hot cocoa

 

[raisingarizona]

And please, tell us, how does patrol get up to the chair to secure anyone without standing directly under it? (Or are you suggesting patrol just throws the rope up and issues verbal instructions? Talk about absurd.)

well, you could refuse the service and see what happens.

 

[Fuller]

Email from WMR today:

Dear Friends and Guests,

We have had a bit of a run with a couple of our chairlifts recently. Thank you to all of you who have been very patient and supportive of our team throughout. We appreciate that support and will continue to work hard for you. That said, we know it is not OK to repeatedly ask for patience and support — that is not lost on us at all.

In the interest of transparency, I want to address a couple of specific issues.

Regarding yesterday's evacuation events, we made the decision to evacuate Chair 4 out of a great deal of concern for the safety of those on the chair. The issue itself was related to the braking mechanisms. From a desire to establish a better baseline from which to operate that chair came the decision to not run that chair today. We will work with the manufacturer's engineers and have that chair open again, and I expect that will happen very soon.

Chair 4 is a brand-new piece of machinery and so I can assure you there are no deferred maintenance issues of any kind. It is a relatively complex chairlift that was manufactured and installed by an industry leader during one of the most difficult years (labor shortage, supply chain issues, etc.) in anyone's memory in the chairlift construction industry. The difficulties of the lift installation season are well documented as some very big household resort names have experienced many of the same things we have. These challenges hampered the comprehensive support and training our manufacturer is accustomed to providing upon opening a chair. However, they are committed to providing that support and two of their engineers are on their way here as I type this note. This should mitigate many of the issues and challenges we have faced thus far with that chair.

There is also the ongoing concern about Chair 2 and the challenges we have faced with that chairlift this year. We fully expect to have that chairlift operational again tomorrow (Friday). That chairlift is in need of a comprehensive mechanical upgrade which we plan to complete this summer. It is not the kind of project that can be undertaken during the season. That lift will run throughout this season but has and will continue to require a great deal of time and energy on the part of our lift mechanics.

That leads me to our lift mechanics. I will not stand for or listen to any questions about their abilities. They are excellent at their jobs. They take a great deal of pride in providing lift access to all of you. As such, they take it personally when things go wrong. That team was dealt a tough hand of cards this season, but they are pros and continue to work their tails off on your behalf.

There are many factors that led into all of the above — some known and many unknown. Nobody at this resort was more aware of those factors than I was. We have had to make a number of difficult decisions this season and I will stand behind all of those decisions and the teams that have had to implement them. That is all to say: If you are looking for a place to point a finger, I'm your guy. Not our lift mechanics, not our guest service staff, not our ski patrol or lift operations team or anyone else.

You are the best ski community there is, and this is not the kind of note I want to be sending to you midseason. On the positive side, the skiing has been fun, we have a lot of it left and we will continue to make it the best possible experience for you.

Sincerely,
Nick Polumbus
President, Whitefish Mountain Resort

He was doing pretty well but got a bit defensive at the end. I think he could have supported his staff and buffered them from unjust criticism without taking quite that tone. But I'm glad they got at least some info out there.

 

[Sibhusky]

He was doing pretty well but got a bit defensive at the end. I think he could have supported his staff and buffered them from unjust criticism without taking quite that tone. But I'm glad they got at least some info out there.

I think there was a letter last year that was just as "Whoa!" about something.

 

[KevinF]

Chair 5 was evacuated after it first opened a few years back. Very steep, rocky terrain. Many of the areas below would only have been for the best skiers, not sure what mere mortals did once they were down. Some spots MAYBE you could travererse out, but not all. You have to watch this in YouTube.

Suffice it to say, Whitefish is racking up more lift evacuation experience than any mountain wants to pay claim to.

I would never leave the ground again if I had to get rescued off of that.

Stowe, Vermont had a lift evac a few years ago that I narrowly missed being part of. Their double goes over a long sustained steep bump run with some ledges, etc. I was thinking that would have been "entertaining" to get people off of (nothing like standing on uneven terrain for a rappel?) but that's nothing compared to what's shown in that video.

 

[Tom K.]

Email from WMR today:

Thanks for the heads up! That went straight to my (never checked) spam folder.

well, you could refuse the service and see what happens.

In my patrolling days -- far behind me, and I never had to do an actual evac -- we were trained that there would be people that were resistant to being evacuated. We were told to simply say in a calm and professional manner:

I understand your fear. We'll be back to discuss it further after we get everybody else off the lift.

He was doing pretty well but got a bit defensive at the end.

True, but I wouldn't have wanted to write that email. He DID point the finger directly at himself.

Without exception, I've not seen one single bit of anger directed at employees during these problems. I suppose it has been a different story at the guest services desk in the lodge.

IMO, the Poma engineers that are on the way should have been here awhile ago, before the problems escalated to the point of needing an evacuation and shutdown.

 

[bitflogger]

I was a volunteer at Alpine Meadows back in 2010, during a training day for patrollers on lift evacuation. @The Dad was (I think still is) a patroller and asked me to volunteer.

The lift they used goes over some interesting off camber terrain that was definitely a good training ground.

I really appreciated this because it helped patrollers get training/practice, and it was enlightening for me to undersetand how it works.

I hope they learn where I was - that particular spot at the resort - and IMO @pais alto probably has the right assessment. @Dwight expressed knowing about this small resort owner and now I've had this recent experience combined with more to know who the guy is and hope he matures and is successful.

My sincere hopes from this are the skiers and owners/patrol know the risks plus practice and supervision needed. It is not easy. I know that from my day job that has to handle risk with a lot of people and the public. It could be my bad to assume a lot more places and ski areas have a good culture for training and improving processes.

Where I worked we used the upside-down J shaped tube you can find on this web page.

Advanced Lift Evacuation Kit

Rescue someone stuck in a terrible predicament with our ski lift evacuation kit. This chairlift evacuation gear includes a rescue seat, safety rope, and more.

cascade-rescue.com

View attachment 191232

We used a light line that was easier to toss or gun over the haul cable, and used that to haul the rescue rope (11 mm) over the haul cable. That J shaped rope saver was located near the end of the rescue rope (like on the website picture) so it would go over the cable quickly and protect the rope from wear against the cable.

FYI the ropes were inspected regularly for wear, also after every use, whether for training or emergency use. The results were recorded in a rope log, with dates.

You‘re right about the time involved and the location difficulties. It’s a bitch to deal with, especially because everyone is cold and cranky, and doing things like calling 911 expecting the fire department to rescue them. But where I worked we practiced often, and trained as many employees as possible.

I did notice that the longer it took rescuers to get to someone, the easier it was to talk them into taking the ride down.

Yup, my days ago 2.5 hours watching them and one finally getting to me. I was 3rd to last down. I'm an old man and I think it is clear became a slightly unhappy but forgiving old man from watching their struggles and getting a horrible response from a few. I sincerely hope the ski area learned a bit.

Don't freak out over the matter but honestly, do realize being prepared for sitting on a lift for 2.5 hours is worth considering.

 

[Hankj]

Thanks for that video of the cliffside evacuation. Hopefully the resort tuned that guy's skis for free.

I like the hooting from the peanut gallery - skiing is skiing!

Also, the issue about people not being able to ski out of the terrain is real! It makes me think about the picture at Whistler again, not just high and over a bunch of crazy cliffs, but you get to popular green and blue runs. It would be an absolute s*** show dropping all those people onto double black even in the best of snow conditions.

 

[Idris]

The OP's story sounds a little scary to me. In France we have a max of 2 hours from deciding (they only have 30 min for that) to get everyone off a lift - responsability is top down of course, Director, Ops manager etc way before anyone like me. So to avoid any faux pas we are all trained. This is my first year on patrol in Megeve and I've done lift evac training twice this season. We have more rescue kits than any lift has pylons (I think). We have more trained personel on duty than we have rescue kits. The basics of how a rescue works (and I think this goes for anywhere in europe) for a telecabine (gondola) or Chairlift. Team of three, You go up the pylon trailing a rope (you have an automatic safety line for the pylon), a series of clip in points to work your way to the cable on the lower side of the pylon. The trailing rope is secured by your team on the ground (one in a harness the other to add weight if necessary). You have a big pully n clip that goes over the cable + a antifall rig (like an automatic belay at a climbing wall) clipped into the cable. You carry 2 triangle onesize fits all harnesses. Atached to the pully thing you also have a belay device and 5 m or so of rope. your team lowers you along the cable to the first chair. You lower yourself with your belay device till your feet are on the safetybar. You pull your now slack backrope over th pylon so it goes to the ground, up to a clip over the cable and down to you. With the saftybar down you put the harness on the first person to be evaced, clip them into the rope and have your tem blew take up slack. You get everyone to put an arm over the back of the chair and step off the safety bar and staddle the person about to be evaced. You lift the safety bar, with agreement from your team below you pull the person towards you, they are now suspended by the rope, but they haven't droped anywhere. They are then lowered to the ground with the third team member making sure they land on their feet not arse. When you have evacuated everyone form that chair, you climb back up to the cable, using your belay device and your two team mates on the floor pulling the rope to help. With the rope over this chair you can procede to the next chair using it as an anchor as you had the pylon at the start.

 

[AmyPJ]

Email from WMR today:

Dear Friends and Guests,

We have had a bit of a run with a couple of our chairlifts recently. Thank you to all of you who have been very patient and supportive of our team throughout. We appreciate that support and will continue to work hard for you. That said, we know it is not OK to repeatedly ask for patience and support — that is not lost on us at all.

In the interest of transparency, I want to address a couple of specific issues.

Regarding yesterday's evacuation events, we made the decision to evacuate Chair 4 out of a great deal of concern for the safety of those on the chair. The issue itself was related to the braking mechanisms. From a desire to establish a better baseline from which to operate that chair came the decision to not run that chair today. We will work with the manufacturer's engineers and have that chair open again, and I expect that will happen very soon.

Chair 4 is a brand-new piece of machinery and so I can assure you there are no deferred maintenance issues of any kind. It is a relatively complex chairlift that was manufactured and installed by an industry leader during one of the most difficult years (labor shortage, supply chain issues, etc.) in anyone's memory in the chairlift construction industry. The difficulties of the lift installation season are well documented as some very big household resort names have experienced many of the same things we have. These challenges hampered the comprehensive support and training our manufacturer is accustomed to providing upon opening a chair. However, they are committed to providing that support and two of their engineers are on their way here as I type this note. This should mitigate many of the issues and challenges we have faced thus far with that chair.

There is also the ongoing concern about Chair 2 and the challenges we have faced with that chairlift this year. We fully expect to have that chairlift operational again tomorrow (Friday). That chairlift is in need of a comprehensive mechanical upgrade which we plan to complete this summer. It is not the kind of project that can be undertaken during the season. That lift will run throughout this season but has and will continue to require a great deal of time and energy on the part of our lift mechanics.

That leads me to our lift mechanics. I will not stand for or listen to any questions about their abilities. They are excellent at their jobs. They take a great deal of pride in providing lift access to all of you. As such, they take it personally when things go wrong. That team was dealt a tough hand of cards this season, but they are pros and continue to work their tails off on your behalf.

There are many factors that led into all of the above — some known and many unknown. Nobody at this resort was more aware of those factors than I was. We have had to make a number of difficult decisions this season and I will stand behind all of those decisions and the teams that have had to implement them. That is all to say: If you are looking for a place to point a finger, I'm your guy. Not our lift mechanics, not our guest service staff, not our ski patrol or lift operations team or anyone else.

You are the best ski community there is, and this is not the kind of note I want to be sending to you midseason. On the positive side, the skiing has been fun, we have a lot of it left and we will continue to make it the best possible experience for you.

Sincerely,
Nick Polumbus
President, Whitefish Mountain Resort

Is chair 4 a Leitner Poma? Snowbasin had a Leitner Poma installed last year and it's had it's share of mechanical issues. The new chair going in this summer is also a Poma.

With that, I'm a little hesitant to ski Whitefish in March!

 

[Fuller]

Is chair 4 a Leitner Poma? Snowbasin had a Leitner Poma installed last year and it's had it's share of mechanical issues. The new chair going in this summer is also a Poma.

With that, I'm a little hesitant to ski Whitefish in March!

WMR Chair 4 was back in action today although we didn't use it (or need to).

Today on a different chair I was chatting with a local who's daughter dates one of the lift mechanics. According to this fellow the reason the chair was evacuated was that the back up mechanical braking system was damaged or came unbolted. The primary system has been plagued with software glitches and they couldn't risk running it at any speed. I have no idea if any of this is true but I did "hear it on the chairlift" so it must be true!

 

[AmyPJ]

WMR Chair 4 was back in action today although we didn't use it (or need to).

Today on a different chair I was chatting with a local who's daughter dates one of the lift mechanics. According to this fellow the reason the chair was evacuated was that the back up mechanical braking system was damaged or came unbolted. The primary system has been plagued with software glitches and they couldn't risk running it at any speed. I have no idea if any of this is true but I did "hear it on the chairlift" so it must be true!

If you heard it on the chairlift, that's as good as reading it on Google!

 

[Tom K.]

With that, I'm a little hesitant to ski Whitefish in March!

Nobody should come here to ski (except you and @utskier).

Be afraid!

Be very afraid!!!

 

[Sibhusky]

Fortunately, there's nothing you can get to with that chair that you can't get to just as easily from another chair.

 

[James]

The OP's story sounds a little scary to me. In France we have a max of 2 hours from deciding (they only have 30 min for that) to get everyone off a lift - responsability is top down of course, Director, Ops manager etc way before anyone like me. So to avoid any faux pas we are all trained. This is my first year on patrol in Megeve and I've done lift evac training twice this season. We have more rescue kits than any lift has pylons (I think). We have more trained personel on duty than we have rescue kits. The basics of how a rescue works (and I think this goes for anywhere in europe) for a telecabine (gondola) or Chairlift. Team of three, You go up the pylon trailing a rope (you have an automatic safety line for the pylon), a series of clip in points to work your way to the cable on the lower side of the pylon. The trailing rope is secured by your team on the ground (one in a harness the other to add weight if necessary). You have a big pully n clip that goes over the cable + a antifall rig (like an automatic belay at a climbing wall) clipped into the cable. You carry 2 triangle onesize fits all harnesses. Atached to the pully thing you also have a belay device and 5 m or so of rope. your team lowers you along the cable to the first chair. You lower yourself with your belay device till your feet are on the safetybar. You pull your now slack backrope over th pylon so it goes to the ground, up to a clip over the cable and down to you. With the saftybar down you put the harness on the first person to be evaced, clip them into the rope and have your tem blew take up slack. You get everyone to put an arm over the back of the chair and step off the safety bar and staddle the person about to be evaced. You lift the safety bar, with agreement from your team below you pull the person towards you, they are now suspended by the rope, but they haven't droped anywhere. They are then lowered to the ground with the third team member making sure they land on their feet not arse. When you have evacuated everyone form that chair, you climb back up to the cable, using your belay device and your two team mates on the floor pulling the rope to help. With the rope over this chair you can procede to the next chair using it as an anchor as you had the pylon at the start.

I saw this once done in Verbier when the La Chaux express went down. That lift has chairs and gondolas on it, and goes up and down with a right angle turn. I only saw a chair evac and it’s what you describe.
It was so more efficient seemingly than what’s done at our mt in the US.
They also had a helicopter flying on the other side, but I think it was too windy. Not sure what they would do with one.

 

[chris_the_wrench]

. I have no idea if any of this is true but I did "hear it on the chairlift" so it must be true!

I think it was thursday someone told me they heard from ‘a very solid source’ that the problem was rolling blackouts on the mtn and as a result chair three would only be run at night. Next day 3 was running again. I think i heard 6-7 totally different stories that one day. I love the shat people come up!

Be afraid!

Be very afraid!!!

Yes be afraid!!!, the lifts break, the fog will make you think your upside down, the parking is full, the city water tastes horrible, Texans are crawling all over, ummm thats about it…

 

[Fuller]

Yes be afraid!!!, the lifts break, the fog will make you think your upside down, the parking is full, the city water tastes horrible, Texans are crawling all over, ummm thats about it…

Don't forget the grumpy locals - from Florida.

 

[Tom K.]

Don't forget the grumpy locals - from Florida.

I'm telling Mrs. Fuller you called her grumpy!