Mid-Atlantic Chair falls of lift at Camelback PA

[Philpug]

I remember the double char that this chair replaced and when it went in. I think it was one of the very first high speed lifts in Pa, @Lift Blog might be able to confirm that. This is unfortunate for sure and my heart goes out to the family and we hope for a full recovery.

 

[Philpug]

Where you a Camelback kid like Phil?

Yes, we were part of a "My mom will drive, if your mom picks up" gang of kids. There were about 6 of us, IIRC. Ron, Michael, Kevin, Paul, Andy, and myself.

 

[Andy Mink]

Where you a Camelback kid like Phil?

Yes, I was. Haven't skied there since 1981/82.

 

[Wilhelmson]

So is this a fixed chair? How do the chairs attach to the cable? What do the springs do?

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Read the Lift Blog post. It's a detachable chair. It seems to me that they have a pretty good idea of what happened.

I have one question you guys might be able to answer though, are they loading full chairs in PA or are they social distancing on the chair lifts there.

 

[BC.]

Read the Lift Blog post. It's a detachable chair. It seems to me that they have a pretty good idea of what happened.

I have one question you guys might be able to answer though, are they loading full chairs in PA or are they social distancing on the chair lifts there.

It’s been just ride with your “party”......at any place I’ve been this year.

 

[Rudi Riet]

I have one question you guys might be able to answer though, are they loading full chairs in PA or are they social distancing on the chair lifts there.

As @BC. says, it's "with your party." So some chairs are full. And folks became a lot more slack as the season progressed, it seems.

 

[GPetes]

Chairs seem to have 4 or 2 on them. Many are or have been ok going up together even of not in a group

 

[sparty]

...
I only being this up because in recent seasons there have been myriad chairlift incidents in PA at various resorts, from non-eventful (e.g. sheave wheels seizing or stripping off a tower) to dangerous (chairs sliding down and/or jumping off the haul rope). I wish the code were more clear in its objectives and requirements, more akin to what's seen in Vermont with license plates for each ski lift in the state.

I worked at a smaller Vermont resort. The lift mechanics and mountain ops manager—all of whom I generally thought to be pretty good at what they did—regularly bitched about the amount of oversight from the Tram Board. It made me feel much better about the Vermont ski areas where I didn't know the mechanics, for the same reason it makes me feel better about restaurants when one that I know to be operated well (and the kitchen kept clean, with employees observing good food safety practices) gets dinged for something on a health inspection. If the places doing things well are still getting told to do some of the minor stuff better, hopefully it's a sign that your inspections are effective.

Not every state is Vermont, though, with the install chairlift base and that level of economic incentive to make darn sure they operate safely.

On the original subject: that's scary, and I hope those on the chair are able to recover fully, both physically and mentally. I'd think getting on a chairlift again would be really tough to do.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

I just ask about loading because in the Lift Blog post it sounds like it could be a surging drive motor causing this. Was wondering if the lift was more heavily loaded than normal causing that issue or maybe the haul rope slipping and catching on the bullwheel which I imagine would have a similar effect. That would be why they sometimes run a lift with fewer people on it when there is icing on the haul rope.

 

[crgildart]

Well that's one way to reduce demand for ski hill resources.. Have people on the national news in tears talking about how horrific it was hearing the sounds kids screaming and bones crunching Piece on Good Morning America was not a good look for ski lifts.. Of course they did point out how extremely rare this is.. but the details given by the guy on the chair behind them drowned all that out. If my wife had seen stories like this back in 2008 there's no way she would have been OK taking the children skiing.

 

[Uncle-A]

We all realize that there is some potential risk that goes with skiing. Although most of us probably don't think of the risk as chair related. One of the things I have been curious about is what percent of the lift ticket price is the cost of the insurance and I may have talked about this in other threads. Many people complain about the price of our lift ticket, I would like to see a break down of the cost of a lift ticket. Maybe just insurance, operating costs, and profit. We probably have members that have some idea of these category's.

 

[tball]

Not every state is Vermont, though, with the install chairlift base and that level of economic incentive to make darn sure they operate safely.

I was also wondering about lift governance in PA. It looks like lifts are regulated, but not with the scrutiny of VT or CO.

Thanks to @Lift Blog for the great info:

Does Your State Have a Tramway Safety Board?

As we saw last week in West Virginia, it usually doesn’t take long after a lift-related accident for someone to bring up the issue of regulation. Operation of ski lifts and tramways in the U…

liftblog.com

 

[Tricia]

GMA covered the story this morning.

Video Family injured after ski lift plummets

A father and his two children are recovering after their ski lift chair fell 15 feet to the ground at Camelback Ski Resort in Pennsylvania.

abcnews.go.com

 

[crgildart]

GMA covered the story this morning.

Video Family injured after ski lift plummets

A father and his two children are recovering after their ski lift chair fell 15 feet to the ground at Camelback Ski Resort in Pennsylvania.

abcnews.go.com

Thanks for posting the link.

 

[Rudi Riet]

I was also wondering about lift governance in PA. It looks like lifts are regulated, but not with the scrutiny of VT or CO.

I actually spoke to this upthread. While the post from @Lift Blog covers the basics, it's a bit murky about who performs the annual inspections on lifts in PA. While the inspection regimen for elevators (under which aerial tramways are also governed) is clear-cut, the process for chairlifts isn't nearly as clear.

Check out the links from my post. Compared to states with a more regimented inspection schedule and process, it seems that PA isn't quite as stringent. Hopefully this will change given the number of preventable incidents that have occurred in PA over the past few seasons. PA's state leadership would be ill advised to not address this soon, because national PR about this Camelback incident is not a case of "any publicity is good publicity."

 

[James]

Of course they did point out how extremely rare this is..

They botched that one. She said “two percent”. What that means I have no idea. If 2 out of 100 lift riders were falling off chsirs, no one would ride.

Pretty scary. I always feel uneasyexplaining how a detachable chair works. Half the time I don’t think they believe it or it doesn’t sink in. I don’t do a check for understanding.

 

[johnnyvw]

An incident in 2017 at Tussey Mountain on opening day was blamed on weakened spring packs in the grips. I wonder if this might end up being the issue, since it sounds like the chair released after a big "bounce". That incident was despite testing done by a service and then inspection by the state a few months prior

 

[BS Slarver]

Not to make light of it but lucky for them it was only 15’ up. Have to say it was in the back of my mind riding the RC8 yesterday, those chairs are almost 2000lbs and at times are way high off the ground.

 

[kitchener]

Any updates on the family's condition?