Skilifts.org / SORT Forum

The first accident involving a Yan lift and a death was at Keystone in 1985. It was on the Teller lift, which was renamed Ruby after it was fixed up after the accident. What happened was the bullwheel fell off- never a good sign. 49 people were thrown from the triple chairlift and one person was killed. The accident was due to a faulty weld

Yan did most of his assembly in the resort parking lot, instead of in the factory

So what happened with the lift after the accident since it was in December

The Creekside base area was shut down I believe.

The attendance must has gone down in '96

Do you mean 1995? Because closing the Creekside base couldn't have done much harm to the mountain. And if you mean 1996, the general public probably wouldn't remember that there was ever a lift accident there, if they even knew. And the lift had been replaced by the Creekside Gondola by then anyway

Yep.

no memorial or anything

Nope. Kinda sad that they dont do anything

Nobody even talks about here either. They look at as like a car accident because it only killed two people.

Detached Grip:

Some United States owners also had problems meeting a code design of a flat profile as the carrier leaves the terminal. This area is to ensure the grip is actually seated on the haul rope before it enters a steep profile. The costs of changing profiles, along with grips was prohibitive.
Also time was a big factor, as most lifts were shut down or ran at a reduced capacity until new design was or wasn’t forthcoming.

More info on YAN grips:
Go to Tech Discussion – YAN Detach grip question by KZ – Reply by Ryan B.

It should be noted that plenty of accidents that have happened in the industry- the web started to takeoff about this time so there a bit easier to reference.

Ryan B
This post has been edited by Ryan B: 23 November 2003 - 09:23 AM

Yes, Yan is not the only lift manufacturer to have accidents on his lifts. Unfortunately, owing to rushed design, production, and construction, his lifts were more prone to failure than others. I say were because the remaining lifts have been retrofitted and redone to eliminate the original problems.

This is what I think me too. Ski areas purchased to many lifts from yan and they had a cheaper quality.

So, the accident happened on the way down ?

Do you know when that lift was built, because it's pretty the same as the Frindly Giant and Top of the world quad@ Lake Louise and those two didn't have any major problems like all the other Yan hsq.

I think more it's due to poor maintenance.

Pictures

TOTW quad

The lift was built in 1991 and I think it happend going up.

I don't think so because on Market Place they say that it was on the way down

It was on the way down.

Yep, definetly on the way down

Did The Friendly Giant retrofitted ?
I think it was not

All yan HSQ's were retrofitted, but the Friendly Giant probably only had only its detachable grips replaced with the Polar X grips.