Stowe life evac

[Coach13]

No worries about me doing a self evac! Much like @Kevin F said, send me some food (and beer) and I’ll wait it out and make the best of it. And..I’m not afraid of heights, it’s the sudden stop at the bottom of said heights that I fear.

 

[newfydog]

I've been working at Stowe for 17 years, this is the 2nd lift vac that I know of in that time. I'm not sure that this is a common enough problem that we need to be prepared for it.

By we I assume you mean the skiing public? When I joined the ski patrol at Bachelor the director told us that sooner or later, you'll be involved in a lift evac, and a fatality. We will prepare for the worst.

Every year we had mandatory October lift evac and CPR refreshers. We took laps getting evacuated, and evacuating others.

Sure enough, my first full year we had a lift evac. We emptied a 28 tower chair in a little over two hours, with no injuries or freak outs.

However, unlike my father's generation, none of them jumped, or climbed up to get in one more run.

 

[James]

Our mt used to involve ski school in lift evac training. That hasn't happened in 20 yrs.

 

[Tricia]

The lift at Stowe broke down on March 5 1943. My father was there and wrote home:

Well I had finished two runs and was waiting in line to go up again when it happened. The lift stopped short. At first the report was that it would start again in ten minutes, then one hour, then the next day. My lunch was up on top of the mountain and I was down below. SO what did I do? That's right, I started climbing. A fellow I had met named Bob and I started up the nose dive. Well after 2 hours and a half we finally reached the top, much more dead than alive. I didn't have the right equipment to climb, skis are made to go down hill anyway. It was by far the hardest mile and a quarter that I have ever seen, but somehow we made it although I'll never be sure just how. On the top was a very selected group of people. Most of them had been on the lift when it stopped. They had jumped off and climbed up. Some of the jumps were 30 ft. and the people that had jumped there had sunk down in the snow up to their shoulders. A few timid persons had to be rescued from the lift by rope ladders. All in all it was a lot of fun.

I'm reading that with Garrison Keillor's voice in my head.

 

[Tricia]

Every year we had mandatory October lift evac and CPR refreshers. We took laps getting evacuated, and evacuating others.

The first fall I lived in Tahoe I was lift evacuation dummy for a practice day at Alpine Meadows. Josh Masur asked me to do it. It was interesting. . They gave all the volunteers a voucher for a day ticket

 

[Erik Timmerman]

By we I assume you mean the skiing public?.

Yes, I don't think we need to start carrying ropes and survival gear for our lift rides.

 

[mdf]

I'm 48.

Wow, a mere child. Does your Mom know you are hanging out with us older kids? We might be a bad influence.

 

[James]

The lift at Stowe broke down on March 5 1943. My father was there and wrote home:

Well I had finished two runs and was waiting in line to go up again when it happened. The lift stopped short. At first the report was that it would start again in ten minutes, then one hour, then the next day. My lunch was up on top of the mountain and I was down below. SO what did I do? That's right, I started climbing. A fellow I had met named Bob and I started up the nose dive. Well after 2 hours and a half we finally reached the top, much more dead than alive. I didn't have the right equipment to climb, skis are made to go down hill anyway. It was by far the hardest mile and a quarter that I have ever seen, but somehow we made it although I'll never be sure just how. On the top was a very selected group of people. Most of them had been on the lift when it stopped. They had jumped off and climbed up. Some of the jumps were 30 ft. and the people that had jumped there had sunk down in the snow up to their shoulders. A few timid persons had to be rescued from the lift by rope ladders. All in all it was a lot of fun.

That's a great story. Reminds me of a story told to me by Paul Fehrenbach, who taught skiing till about 84 or 5. They made him retire when he walked into first aid after a bad fall. Complained of neck pain. Turned out he broke his neck. Anyway, he was talking about someone he knew of likely your dad's generation. Was trying to get a job teaching at Aspen and he was from the east somewhere. Told the guy proudly he'd made five runs in one day on a mountain I forget. "Five runs in a day? That's nothing!" The guy says.
"Really? We couldn't hike up much faster each time."
He got the job.

you can turn upside down if you’re inexperienced and possibly fall out of the harness,

I've done that indoors on a climbing wall. Freaked out my belayer.

At some resorts (like Breck and maybe Copper) and lifts (gondolas), rescuers slide down the cable from towers, which can make for a really fast response.

I've seen it done in Switzerland. Very quick, they only had like 4 or 5 guys on one side of the lift. On the other side,(it's a two direction lift with a right angle turn at the top), they were also using a helicopter. It was a combo chair/gondola. They had to cancel the chopper because of wind. Still, I think 65 people took close to three hours.

 

[Tricia]

I've done that indoors on a climbing wall. Freaked out my belayer.

Did you fall on your head?


Its all coming together now.

 

[Josh Matta]

 

[Dwight]

We practice once a year. Most likely it would happen at night during the week, with only 3 patrollers. Pretty sure it would take longer 1 hr for 50 some chairs. The best thing, each lift has a diesel back up engine to get people off loaded. Works unless you have a cable issue.

 

[CalG]

A quick look through posts suggest the early season lift evac at Whitefish took about the same time for a similar number of folks.

 

[LiquidFeet]

I have recently ridden up that lift at Whitefish that got evacuated. The landing area near the cliff is quite --- ummm --- interesting.

 

[Living Proof]

Close to 40 years ago (damn, it is vey hard to say that phrase) I was evacuated from the single chair at Mad River Glen. On a sunny day, I had my arm around the bar, just getting a mid-winter tan, when the chair just dropped down and stopped forward motion. The counterweight blocks reintroduced tension in the line and we were shot back up. It took a few long minutes to quiet the apprehension that the lift would collapse. There were about 6 people ahead of me that were ejected and just laying in the snow in pain. I still had the safety bar latched, and, was the first person not to be ejected. The good news is that I was the first to be evacuated. Bad news was the run under the chair is a MRG feared bump run, not where anyone wants to ski following being lowered to the ground. Somehow, the line came off the bull wheel at the top of the lift, so no option of waiting it out.
@Kevin F - When your time comes, you will do it. I'm not comfortable in heights, and, sure did not like the option of being lowered, but, staying is just not an option.

Never been back to MRG, never will!

 

[stan51]

LP-You are aware that the current single MRG chair is almost an entirely new lift....

I have been evacuated from a lift where I now patrol. It was cold, but fortunately not windy. The problem was associated with the drive train, not the propulsion, so the aux power was not an issue.

Since then, I have been on both ends of evac practice//training. No matter how you slice it, it is not a fast process.

Some patrollers at my mountain carry self-evac gear. I don't, but that is my personal preference.

 

[James]

LP-You are aware that the current single MRG chair is almost an entirely new lift....

Yes and the bumps are all new too. Summer keeps killing them but they just grow back.