SallyCat

I went screaming downhill to the fire station for a call yesterday, got to the first curve in the road and realized I was driving on summer tires. Dang weather went from summer to winter in like 12 hours. Some hard-charger in my neighborhood found the fast grass, though.

The Almanac only gets quoted when it predicts a good snow year 😀 Yeah, Blue still sends me season pass sales pitches this time o' year and it reminded me of PASR. Legal recreational weed up here just in time for ski season!

Lol, longest wait for punchline reaction ever! 🤣 We've got pretty warm weather here for the next week or so; it's still very much biking season in the central 8 0 2. Hunting season will put the kibosh on MTB in a couple weeks, and then we'll start itching for ski area openings and pretending that gravel biking in 40-degree weather is "fine." I'm not sure if Killington is making snow yet? I'm sure they're trying; we've had some frosts, but also warm, rainy days. Farmer's Almanac is making us all optimistic for the season.

Easy-peasy, just gotta stay in the same department!

Correct, though if you transfer to a different position within the same medical center, you apparently have to go through the whole screening process again. ☹️

Speaking as a resident of Vermont, where the state says it's legal to grow and share within certain weight limits and it's ubiquitous and generally socially-accepted: you still need to be careful about drug testing at work and federal laws and such. I just took a job across the border in NH and had to go through a 12-panel drug test. Their policy stated that they abide by federal law, regardless of the laws in the state where you live. So if I'd tested positive for marijuana (whew) I would have been denied the job. It can be easy to get a little complacent when you live somewhere where it's legal, so just an fyi.

October 24 and I still don't have a pass for this year. Not sure I'm going to buy one; weird. I heard that Epic pass sales have increased by some insane amount over last year. And last year I barely used mine because resorts were so horribly crowded. Plus, my work schedule changed so that I can mostly only ski weekends, so...ugh. The two resorts near me (Okemo and Sunapee) are notoriously awful on weekends. I think I may just earn my turns on the local mountain. Dog knows I need the exercise. Plus when there's fresh snow I really enjoy hiking up and snowboarding down. Maybe I'll do that and just see what sort of cheap day passes I can score when I want some lift service? If it's a shite snow year I may change my mind on the passes, but for now I'm freewheelin' into the season with no commitment! Yikes! Will report back on how it goes! Killington is making snow already, though it's been a lovely long, warm autumn up here.

That's what I've been saying and why I brought up the Granby Ranch accident. People keep saying it's not relevant because those victims fell but the chair did not. But witnesses said the CBK chair was swaying and bouncing, and the guy interviewed on WFMZ actually said the chair went nearly vertical and then the passengers fell off right before the chair fell. People who were there that day commented on the weird bouncing and swaying prior to the accident. My point was just that there seems to be some sort of surge or dynamic aberrance that the two accidents have in common. That doesn't explain why the CBK chair detached of course, but it does indicate that there was something significantly wrong not just with the chair but with the larger operating system.

The similarity I was pointing out was the surging drive, which caused bounce/sway and led to the accident. And that in some cases it seems that lift operators can in fact execute stops/starts from speed and at intervals that they normally shouldn't be able to do.

"Recent changes to a control system and rapid speed changes made by an operator led a Texas mother and her two young girls to be thrown about 25 feet off a Ski Granby Ranch chairlift in December 2016, state investigators said in a final report on the incident." https://www.denverpost.com/2017/05/11/ski-granby-ranch-ski-lift-death-final-report/

True, though a part failure that was setting off alarms and/or causing aberrant cable behavior and was ignored would be negligent. A lift operator making hard stops and fast starts too close together would be actionable. I don't mean that I want someone to take blame no matter what, just that there could certainly be negligence, or a combination of mechanical failure and negligence. Like everyone else I hope the final investigation provides clarity.

Yes, but it was a high-speed detachable, and the cause of the fall was massive swaying that caused the chair to hit the tower. Again, just speculating.

Obviously this is said with more curiosity than knowledge of lift mechanics, but it kind of reminds me of the Granby Ranch accident a few years ago in Colorado. It's the sudden stops and starts and (perhaps) consequent swaying that prompted the connection. It makes me think there could be more to it than random chance. Maybe. Was a liftie hitting hard stops and too-soon starts? Was there a fault in the motor that created the cable dynamic? I guess I'm curious because I find it more palatable/comfortable to think that there was a flaw or fault that could be corrected rather than it being just a crapshoot with pretty good odds unless it's not your day.

Since I've started working in EMS and also know a lot of patrollers I've been shocked at how many unreported deaths occur at resorts. It's not like it's a massive number, it's just more than you would think. There was one at Stowe this season that got some media attention, but the one at Okemo at around the same time got radio silence. I guess with HIPPA and everything it's pretty easy for a resort to keep that stuff quiet. But a lift failure isn't a confidentiality issue and it's pretty significant news, plus there were witnesses with cameras, so I'm really surprised that there's not been reporting on it, not just locally but in ski/ride media.

True. I think? that detachables have a back-up device that is supposed to keep it from falling if the main spring thingy fails so while fails happen, two pretty big ones had to happen at once for the chair to come off. I guess it's good that it's notable for being rare. A friend who was on the lift about 30 min prior said it was bouncing and swaying at that same spot. Not sure what to make of that.