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SShore

Resident Curmudgeon
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Nov 12, 2015
Posts
556
Just got a notice from Big Sky that a power outage has caused the closure of all of the lifts on the north side of the mountain. Quite a fiasco especially after having the Six Shooter breaking on Thursday and being down for several days.
 

Doug Briggs

"Douche Bag Local"
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Yikes. Hopefully they can offload using backup power. There aren't enough patrollers and/or trained rescue personnel at ANY resort to make that evac go quickly enough.

When Breck's Quicksilver 6-pack stopped a week or so ago, they shut down a number of lifts to a) keep people from skiing on the trail that the lift was on and b) because with all the patrollers helping evac, they couldn't provide patrol services on all the terrain that had been open.
 

Coach13

Making fresh tracks
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Nov 15, 2015
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2,091
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No. VA
That does suck. In the mid-Atlantic my chair lift hell is a 30 minute wait, 3 minute ride and a 1 min run. The things you do for love.
 

Tricia

The Velvet Hammer
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Wow, that doesn't sound like fun.
 

BC.

NEPA ShopRat/Skier
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Lake Wallenpaupack, PA
Chairlift hell in NEPA is Elk, Montage, etc. slowest lifts evah....

It makes my chairlift rides while in NY/VT and out west remarkably fast....and so much more enjoyable.....lol
 
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Chef23

Getting on the lift
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Dec 17, 2017
Posts
402
Back in the late 80s I got stuck on a lift at Haystack for over an hour and a half when it was below 10*. We eventually got to the top skied down and called it a day. I think it was 11 am.
 

Core2

Making fresh tracks
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Nov 29, 2015
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AZ
I've been on two chairs when the diesel backup had to be used. I'm assuming all chairs have some sort of backup system? I'm not sure I want to know the answer to that question.
 

dbostedo

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75% Virginia, 25% Colorado
I've been on two chairs when the diesel backup had to be used. I'm assuming all chairs have some sort of backup system? I'm not sure I want to know the answer to that question.

Even if they do, it depends on what breaks and if it's safe to run it. If they can't, they belay people down off the chairs.

Here's an example :
 

UGASkiDawg

AKA David
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CO
I've been evac'd 3 times in 30 years of skiing. Hawksnest in NC, Breck and Vail. I've been stranded for 20 minutes or more ~7-8 times not including the evacs with most those being at Copper and Keystone. Did get stuck on Lenawee for >30 minutes on -12F day in the early 90's once. Thought I was going to die!
 

Tricia

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I've never had to be evacuated from a chairlift but I was a volunteer evacuation dummy for Alpine Ski Patrol about 7 years ago. That was interesting.
 

DanoT

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Sun Peaks B.C. in winter, Victoria B.C. in summer
I've been on two chairs when the diesel backup had to be used. I'm assuming all chairs have some sort of backup system? I'm not sure I want to know the answer to that question.

I am pretty sure that in Canada, by law all chairlifts are required to have a backup small diesel evacuation motor. At Sun Peaks they have 3 chairs that have a 3rd motor that is a diesel capable of operating at 80% of the speed of the electric motor during a power outage.

A few years ago the electric motor on one of the main chairlifts out of the SP village failed. The motor had to be removed and shipped from B.C. to a company in Pennsylvania to get repaired. The motor was gone for a month and the chair operated during that time on the 80% capacity diesel motor.

2 weeks after the rebuilt electric was reinstalled it failed so it was shipped back to Pennsylvania (this time under warranty) and it was back to running again on diesel. Without that 3rd 80% capacity diesel motor the ski season would have been a disaster but with it there really was very little inconvenience for the skiing public. I think it helps that Nippon Cable, owners of Sun Peaks, are also principle owners of Dopplemayr.
 

David

"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati"
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Oct 14, 2017
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Holland, MI
I got stuck on a lift for about an hour at Boyne Mt in 10° early in the morning in the 80's when the entire region lost power. Got our money back and went to the neighboring resort.
 

focker

Out on the slopes
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Oct 4, 2017
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My son got evac'd from Giants Ridge in northern MN last year one week after one of their brand new lifts opened up. The bearing on the top wheel that the cable goes over before going to the bullwheel failed and they couldn't run the lift at all. It was about 5* outside and he waited an hour to get down. They didn't have nearly enough patrollers to get everyone down quickly so parents of the kids there for the HS SL race that was going on stepped in to help evac the kids. Some of those kids were in SL speed suits with a jacket and no snowpants on! :eek:
 

Ken_R

Living the Dream
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Feb 10, 2016
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Denver, CO
Killington Vt 1986, I got stuck on the old and slow Northeast Passage Tripple Chair (gone for years now, remnants of the trails can be seen on a map). It was extremely cold, I though I was going to freeze in the 10-15 min I was there.
 

pchewn

Skiing the powder
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Apr 24, 2017
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Beaverton OR USA
I was evacuated from the Lenawee lift at A-Basin after sitting 2hrs on it. One tower had twisted, the rope came off the rollers on one tower going uphill and about 3 towers going downhill. Some people fell off. This was about 1971 or so??? It was very scary, but I was back a week or so later skiing again. The parallel lift helped a lot to get patrol to the lift that needed the evac. I can't imagine a whole mountain in lift failure and only snowmobiles to ferry the patrol up for the evac.
 

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