29 replies to this topic

[NoPainNoJane]

Sunshine has apparently shut down their gondola after some high winds, upwards of 211 km/h caused this:

This post has been edited by NoPainNoJane: 23 January 2006 - 06:34 PM

[Lift Kid]

My gosh. That is scary. I had no idea that carriers could get knocked off the line for high winds. They must have been really fast and strong winds. Did anyone get injured in the incident? Were there passengers in the cars? Were there skiers bellow the cars when they fell?

[SkiBachelor]

Pretty much the entire lift line of the gondola is closed except for in a few spots so I doubt anyone was below the cabins at the time of the accident. Does anyone know if the cabins hit a tower because these two are right next to each other, unless it was the same gust of wind. Hopefully the cabins aren't too badly damaged and can be repaired.

Maybe Sunshine Village should think about adding another Omega detachable grip to each of its cabins since I think it only has one right now. That might have prevented this from happening but more needs to be known about the accident cause first.

This post has been edited by SkiBachelor: 23 January 2006 - 06:45 PM

[Whistler]

That is scary. I have to ask, where did you get that pic? Is there a news story to go along with it? What time did this happen at?

[edmontonguy]

Those cabins appear to have been knocked off the cable on the first stage of the Gondola, likely near the first mid-turn-station. I think the gondola is subject to high winds at times, however i didn't think it'd be often enough to need double grips. The lift line is relatively mild, so it might be an expensive prospect to retrofit all of the carriers, there are a LOT of them, with new double grips.

[SkiBachelor]

But those CWA cabins are like $20,000 a piece so it might be a good investment so no more cabins are ruined like this.

[WBSKI]

thats pretty amazing that the carriers would FALL off.

When did it happen?

[Kelly]

This part of North America did see a steep pressure gradient today – 1/23/06

Attached File(s)

•  Weather_map_for_web.jpg (101.75K)
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[Peter]

Very little wind today in the Washington Cascades at 7000 feet

[Allan]

Motherlode was closed due to wind for a good part of the day today...

[floridaskier]

Windy down south too. That's scary that cabins could fall off like that.
How is it decided whether or not to use double grips? The Flight of the Canyons gondola has them (double TB-104s) but that goes about 400 feet over a gorge, so I would hope it had double grips

[Jonni]

I know that both the Skyeship and the K1 at Killington both have double grips as their cars are supposed to be interchangeable. Though they could still have different grips on each lift because you could just take the one grip off the car you're moving and put another one on it.

[NoPainNoJane]

I saw the pic from another site, and there was no additional information except the cause. From what I understand though no passengers were on the gondola at the time of the incident.

[edmontonguy]

Quote

notice: ‘The Sunshine Village Gondola is closed on Tuesday January 24, 2006 due to repairs, we will provide an update as the repairs are completed. Thank you for your patience and patronage”

The only mention of something wrong, i bet they're trying to keep this as quiet as they can

[SkiBachelor]

News article about the accident

http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/2006/0...409340-sun.html

[Shawn]

UNBELIEVABLE! But shouldn't this be moved to another area of the board?

This post has been edited by boybud: 24 January 2006 - 11:54 AM

[arialropewaymillwright]

UNBELIEVABLE!!!!
I've heard stories about Sunshine Villages extreme weather but the forces involved empty cabins or not is crazy. Having been part of the construction for that particular installation all I can say is how surprising that the cabins apparantly were on the uphill side. The downhill side of the lift line on that particular section can reach up to 110+ feet as it travels above small rock georges and such.
If the grips were maintained correctly and the grip forces were what they should be there must be some noticible damage or scarring on the rope.
Simply incredible.
A.R.M. out

[alpha417]

More on this here: http://www.banffcrag...y.php?id=209176

[vons]

From the description it sounds like a grip attach failure since from what I can make out from the second article the incident occerd in the departure area of a triminal not mid span on line.

[WBSKI]

We have been experiencing wind on the local mtns recently, today and a couple days ago Sky and Midway Chairs on Cypress were closed because of this.