Chair incident

[indiggio]

  On 3/23/2021 at 9:43 PM, enjoralas said:

Photo shamelessly stolen from ski talk.com, credit to Kitchener over there. Seems higher than 15 feet quoted in that GMA caption.

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That's the best picture I've seen that shows the final location of the chair in relation to the lift tower.
Many outlets have that guy and his son being interviewed and he said he saw the chair fling upwards, I presume due to the sudden stop.  However, that's hard to believe that it would fly up that high, given the speeds that these lifts operate.  They also said that it hit the support tower, which made me wonder which way it was swaying, back and forth or side to side?
My curiosity is piqued as to how it came off the cable. 
Supposedly someone has a video of it from a few chairs back, but I can't locate it anywhere (not to be morbid or anything, more to see what caused it to come off).

[toast21602]

  On 3/23/2021 at 10:04 PM, indiggio said:

That's the best picture I've seen that shows the final location of the chair in relation to the lift tower.
Many outlets have that guy and his son being interviewed and he said he saw the chair fling upwards, I presume due to the sudden stop.  However, that's hard to believe that it would fly up that high, given the speeds that these lifts operate.  They also said that it hit the support tower, which made me wonder which way it was swaying, back and forth or side to side?
My curiosity is piqued as to how it came off the cable. 
Supposedly someone has a video of it from a few chairs back, but I can't locate it anywhere (not to be morbid or anything, more to see what caused it to come off).

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Not morbid at all. I'd love to see what actually happened if there is video.

[SallyCat]

  On 3/23/2021 at 3:21 PM, Lift Blog said:

 

All of the stop buttons a lift operator has access to are designed to be used any time and stop the lift safely. Similarly, lifts which need a certain amount of time between stops for the rope to settle have that built in. An operator cannot start the lift until that set time has passed.

The lift operator title is a bit of a misnomer. People in that position are trained in very basic operation and customer service.

The only way I could see a lift operator being at fault is if something was clearly wrong with the lift and they failed to alert lift maintenance. Lifties are trained to call for help when they get faults or problems. If human error is found to be involved, it is more likely to be on the maintenance side than lift operators.

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"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/

[toast21602]

  On 3/23/2021 at 10:11 PM, SallyCat said:

"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/

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Being thrown off a chair, and a chair being thrown off are kinda different, though. 

[Schif]

If you use that guy standing under the lift as a rough guide and assume he's around 6 feet tall, that chair would have fallen around 35 feet. 

[EdBacon]

  On 3/23/2021 at 10:04 PM, indiggio said:

That's the best picture I've seen that shows the final location of the chair in relation to the lift tower.
Many outlets have that guy and his son being interviewed and he said he saw the chair fling upwards, I presume due to the sudden stop.  However, that's hard to believe that it would fly up that high, given the speeds that these lifts operate.  They also said that it hit the support tower, which made me wonder which way it was swaying, back and forth or side to side?
My curiosity is piqued as to how it came off the cable. 
Supposedly someone has a video of it from a few chairs back, but I can't locate it anywhere (not to be morbid or anything, more to see what caused it to come off).

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They actually have the tendency to swing in a circular motion. 

[RidgeRacer]

  On 3/23/2021 at 10:23 PM, Schif said:

If you use that guy standing under the lift as a rough guide and assume he's around 6 feet tall, that chair would have fallen around 35 feet. 

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That's what I was thinking...seems like more than 15 feet to me.

[indiggio]

  On 3/23/2021 at 10:52 PM, EdBacon said:

They actually have the tendency to swing in a circular motion. 

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I would guess so, since it sounds like the father was at one end of the chair.

[mute1080]

I saw liftie Bob today(Grateful Dead shirt at 6 pack at Blue) and he said those quad chairs have 1 pin that connects the chair to the grip like the oh shit pin on a helicopter. He thinks that snapped from wear and that’s why it was able to go uphill until the sudden stop made it detach. I was trying to tell on the picture of the wheels if you can see the grips attached but I can’t really tell.

[eaf]

  On 3/23/2021 at 11:32 PM, indiggio said:

I would guess so, since it sounds like the father was at one end of the chair.

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Yeah, that an interesting theory about uneven load, it was thrown on liftblog yesterday. Uneven load plus a surging drive, perhaps even in resonance with the swings. I fully expected the witness to shed some light on this, like father and two kids were packed on one end of the bench. Or father on one end, small kids on the other, anything just to test the validity of the theory. But nope. "Theirs shook so bad. It went up like this. Came down like this." So much emotions, so little useful info.

[RidgeRacer]

My mother, who lives in Florida, just called me to see if I heard about what happened at camelback. Apparently she saw the story on her local news.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

  On 3/24/2021 at 12:22 AM, RidgeRacer said:

My mother, who lives in Florida, just called me to see if I heard about what happened at camelback. Apparently she saw the story on her local news.

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Almost every non skier I know has asked me about this.  At this point I’m kind of bored of this story.  

[Kyle]

  On 3/23/2021 at 11:39 PM, eaf said:

Yeah, that an interesting theory about uneven load, it was thrown on liftblog yesterday. Uneven load plus a surging drive, perhaps even in resonance with the swings. I fully expected the witness to shed some light on this, like father and two kids were packed on one end of the bench. Or father on one end, small kids on the other, anything just to test the validity of the theory. But nope. "Theirs shook so bad. It went up like this. Came down like this." So much emotions, so little useful info.

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That’s all information that needs to/probably went to the appropriate parties and won’t be released to the public until the investigation concludes. There’s no need for any news station to release information like that regardless if he disclosed that information or not. 

[saltyant]

  On 3/24/2021 at 12:25 AM, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Almost every non skier I know has asked me about this.  At this point I’m kind of bored of this story.  

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I've seen some comments like "stay safe out there". Like what? How am I supposed to "stay safe" on a chairlift except by not riding said chairlift? 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

  On 3/24/2021 at 12:42 AM, saltyant said:

I've seen some comments like "stay safe out there". Like what? How am I supposed to "stay safe" on a chairlift except by not riding said chairlift? 

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Odds are so slim you’re more likely to get hit by lightning or get eaten by an alligator than die from a faulty chairlift. Still sucks for the victims 

[saltyant]

  On 3/24/2021 at 1:00 AM, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Odds are so slim you’re more likely to get hit by lightning or get eaten by an alligator than die from a faulty chairlift. Still sucks for the victims 

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Correct. And you're 5 posts away from 77777 ... that's a pretty lucky number. Good stuff! 

Edited March 24, 2021 by saltyant

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

  On 3/24/2021 at 1:04 AM, saltyant said:

Correct. And you're 5 posts away from 77777 ... that's a pretty lucky number. Good stuff! 

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Wow just wow thanks for noticing and again camelback is run by a bunch of assholes from the patrollers to yellow jackets to liftees to the ding dongs working the coasters. Asshole asshole asshole the camel is ok and asshole. 

[saltyant]

  On 3/24/2021 at 1:05 AM, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Wow just wow thanks for noticing and again camelback is run by a bunch of assholes from the patrollers to yellow jackets to liftees to the ding dongs working the coasters. Asshole asshole asshole the camel is ok and asshole. 

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I like the staff at Camelback. A yellow jacket got my pole for me after I dropped it on the lift. I talked to ski patrollers on the lift and they were cool. The one lift attendant gave me thumbs up a week ago for my badass slide into the lift queue in which I looked like a #pro. The camel is cool because it gave me a high five. The mountain coaster people were fine. 

The only worker I Truly disliked was Andrea. She could go to heck.

@AtomicSkier Truly talk.

Edited March 24, 2021 by saltyant

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

  On 3/24/2021 at 1:08 AM, saltyant said:

I like the staff at Camelback. A yellow jacket got my pole for me after I dropped it on the lift. I talked to ski patrollers on the lift and they were cool. The one lift attendant gave me thumbs up a week ago for my badass slide into the lift queue in which I looked like a #pro. The camel is cool because it gave me a high five. The mountain coaster people were fine. 

The only worker I Truly disliked was Andrea. She could go to heck.

@AtomicSkier Truly talk.

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You really dropped a pole off the lift WTF???  Why why why 

[saltyant]

  On 3/24/2021 at 1:23 AM, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

You really dropped a pole off the lift WTF???  Why why why 

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It was several years ago and I don't remember how it happened... 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

  On 3/24/2021 at 1:24 AM, saltyant said:

It was several years ago and I don't remember how it happened... 

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Do you sit on your poles???  I never have. 

[saltyant]

  On 3/24/2021 at 1:30 AM, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Do you sit on your poles???  I never have. 

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I do now. Won't be dropping any more poles. But a tree might eat my pole.

Edited March 24, 2021 by saltyant

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

  On 3/24/2021 at 1:32 AM, saltyant said:

I do now. Won't be dropping any more poles. But a tree might eat my pole.

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Just make sure you don’t end up with a ski pole up your ass. 

[pcklein31]

  On 3/24/2021 at 12:42 AM, saltyant said:

I've seen some comments like "stay safe out there". Like what? How am I supposed to "stay safe" on a chairlift except by not riding said chairlift? 

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I agree, for the most part we don't have a lot of choice in the matter.  However, I am one of the weirdos that prefers to pull down the safety bar. ( Probably my biggest gripe when forced to ride with another group when riding by myself as I don't want to intrude with pulling bat down.)

 

... But back your original statement, I have the same thought when people tell you to 'fly safe'.. ?? ,, Not really up to me...

[SallyCat]

  On 3/23/2021 at 10:12 PM, toast21602 said:

Being thrown off a chair, and a chair being thrown off are kinda different, though. 

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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.