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I do remember skiing at Canaan Valley as a kid when they had that ancient double. The capacity was way too low and it seemed like the lift line started about 25 feet ABOVE the return terminal
, so you had to walk uphill just to get back in the lift line. I'm exagerating of course-- but not by much. Anyway, they "stretched" the capacity by running that thing wide open. It went about as fast as a detatchable quad... only no detatch. The people in front of you sat down, you ran like hell to get into the loading position and before you even came to a stop the chair would crack you in the back of the knees at speed, scoop you up (if you could hold on), and start you on your way up the hill. You actually had to hold on tight for about 30 seconds, waiting on the chair to stop swinging fore and aft violently, to keep from being "dumped out". Lots of newbies got dumped. Sometimes several feet off the ground! You either got damned good at getting on and off the lift, or you quit after being pummelled with snowballs for screwing up the flow.The restraining bars were real masterpieces as well. If they weren't frozen open by rime, they were really hard to close because of corrosion. Well, at least they had ski rests on them. That was nice. The thing was, since the bars were largely inoperable, it was common practice not to use them at all. Normally that would not be much of a problem. Not ideal I know, but not a HUGE problem. At this point I take you back to my previous paragraph about "stretching" capacity. What happens when you overload a lift, speed it up WAAAAY past what it was intended to do, and have to slam on the brakes frequently for fallen passengers who couldn't quite get there in time or were knocked off thier feet by a chair traveling at 15 (or whatever-- I had bruises) miles per hour? Well, all that momentum yanks the counterweight up at an alarming rate of speed... sometimes actually banging against the rigging on the terminal... the catanary dips by 12-15 feet in places, and the whole haul rope bounces up and down by as much as the counterweight jumps up and down like a freakin' yo-yo. You could actually watch the bull wheel slide back and forth by 6 or eight feet (I'm guessing)... this was nearly 30 years ago. Its a wonder I'm still alive. Hell, its a wonder no one was KILLED now that I think about it. I'm sure you guys think I'm exagerating and I wouldn't blame you because it does sound like such a SERIOUS safety breech, abuse of old, outdated equipment and blatent disregard for human life that it seems like total BS. I promise you on my honor as a skier-- may I never ski again if I'm lying-- this really happened.
Matter of fact, I was in just the wrong place when the brakes were slammed on once, the rope dipped so far and fast that I slid out of my seat (frozen safety bars remember) and dangled by my right arm with only the crook of my elbow holding on to the chair. I lost my poles of course but I managed to claw my way back into the chair. I probably soiled my long johns but if so I've blocked it out-- thank God.
You know, now that I think about it, the lift ride up the damned hill at Canaan in those days was FAR MORE DANGEROUS than anything I did on the slope! I just never realized it at the time.
Jason
Y'all keep 'em straight up there!
