Skilifts.org / SORT Forum

Mid-morning, I chose Spillway West based mostly on the fact that there was no lift line (but a little on the fact that I did get stuck on Spillway East yesterday for about 10 minutes after I felt some "lurching" a la King Pine's Bullwheel incident of last March). As I unloaded, I noticed a lift mechanic on a snowmobile creeping slowly past the terminal of Spillway West and, surprisingly, heading right down Spillway. He was driving markedly slowly, eyes glued to the tower sheaves (pulley wheels). I thought nothing of it really, deducing that he must be responding to the issues that I felt yesterday (Monday, 12/27). I skied down Spillway (which, mind you, was amazing, even though it was all crud bumps). By the time I got to the bottom of Spillway, East was stopped, so I jumped on West and headed up again. Obviously, something was up as I had completed the entire trip up West while East remained unmoved. Two towers before the West terminal, that same lift mechanic was clipped in to the top of the tower, straddling the East side "T". He had a large screwdriver out and was using it as a lever to twist some kind of tension screw device which connected to the upward tower sheaves. I'm not an engineer but it seems like he was trying to correct the stresses on the sheaves or their housing. I did not see him hammering anything in my 30 seconds of observation. He was simply twisting a large tensioning screw. There didn't appear to be anymore ice or rime on the lifts, towers, or sheaves than there normally is and, in all honesty, this was a modest windy day for Sugarloaf standards. I unloaded and headed down Winter's Way for another amazing run. Spillway East was still stopped so I headed down to the Superquad. That is when I noticed, from the distance of the base of the mountain to Spillway, a lot of people scattered about the trail, just about where the steeper pitch of Spillway begins. I thought it must just be a team of patrollers beginning evacuations. Little did I know that the sheaves on the same tower I saw the mechanic working on had given way and the line had dropped.
Upon closer inspection, it didn't look like the lift had "derailed", but that those tower sheaves and their housing had either tweaked outward and rotated so that the cable had nowhere to go but off. It took about 1-1.5 hours to get everybody who hadn't fallen off of the lift. I saw at least a half dozen evac. teams helping people off. Everyone from the patrol to mechanics, even ambassadors (wow, they do do something!). As the evacs. were happening, so, too, were the rescues of those hurt in the fall. I saw two sleds go down Spillway with people bundled on them who were clearly hurt. Also, the two Bullwinkle's Bombardier Cats were taking relatives up to the hurt and taking people down from the trail. I think the mountain decided at about 11:30 or so to begin shutting down all lifts (including T-Bar #3) that accessed the Spillway area. At 1:30, Superquad, DRC East and West, and the T-Bar were all running until closing. Spillway West remained shutdown for the remainder of the day. King Pine and Timberline were never opened due to wind. Whiffletree, Snubber, Skidway, and Sawduster were all open during this time. I'm not sure about Bucksaw.

Anyway, if you've read this far, congrats. Sorry it was so long. It was an incredible, terrifying, surreal, adventurous, emergency-filled, and bad day.

Report: High winds may have caused Maine ski lift derailment
By the CNN Wire Staff
December 29, 2010 12:37 p.m. EST

(CNN) -- High winds may have caused the derailment of a ski lift at Maine's Sugarloaf Mountain Ski Resort Tuesday that left eight people injured, according to an initial report issued Wednesday by the state's Board of Elevator and Tramway Safety.

Resort spokesman Ethan Austin said the "preliminary findings" suggest that "high winds are believed to be the cause" of the derailment.

Before the accident, high winds had delayed the ski lift's opening. Conditions at the time of the accident were windy, but not unusually so following a major snowstorm, Austin said.

Winds had diminished by mid-morning and resort personnel checked the lift prior to opening, Sugarloaf said in a statement.

Winds were gusting between 30 mph and 50 mph in the area at the time, according to CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras, and temperatures were well below freezing.

More than 200 people were trapped for up to 90 minutes following the derailment. The lift has remained closed while investigators look into the incident. The resort is located about 100 miles north of Portland, Maine.

Austin said the derailment on one tower of the Spillway East lift happened around 10:30 a.m. ET, when the lift's cable skipped over the edge of a pulley. Five of the lift's chairs fell 25 to 30 feet and hit the ground, he said.

"The chairs were pretty mangled, but the ski patrol was there right away," patron Ben Martin told CNN affiliate WCSH.

Robb Atkinson, a CNN employee who initially was trapped on the lift, said he saw skiers fall from the lift when it came to an abrupt stop during high winds.

"I felt a jerk," said Atkinson, who was riding the lift with his wife. He also described hearing "screams from skiers below" as he watched at least three chairs fall feet to the ground.

Matt Rolfson, 17, of Albion, Maine, was on a parallel lift with a friend and shot video from his helmet cam of injured skiers.

"People on the lift yelled to see if everyone was OK," said Rolfson, adding a portion of the Spillway East line did a "yo-yo."

He told CNN his lift was unaffected and he skied down later to offer assistance.

The media, not surprisingly, is all over the place with this. Here in Denver, a local news station said last night that wind is what caused this.

UPDATE 3: Sugarloaf Mountain Spillway East Incident Update - 4:00pm
Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Carrabassett Valley, ME (Dec. 29, 2010) – Inspectors from the State of Maine Board of Elevators and Tramways, along with mountain operations personnel and representatives from Sugarloaf Mountain are investigating the deropement of the Spillway East chairlift, which took place at approximately 10:30am on Tuesday, December 28.

The investigation, which is still on-going, began on the afternoon of Tuesday, December 28. Today, the State of Maine Board of Elevators and Tramways believes that wind was a contributing factor in the lift deropement.

“Our two primary concerns right now are for the rapid recovery of those injured yesterday and the safety of all Sugarloaf guests,” said Sugarloaf spokesman Ethan Austin. “We’re incredibly grateful for the help offered by local and state agencies.”

A detailed report will be issued by the State of Maine Board of Elevators and Tramways once the investigation is complete.

Timeline of incident; mountain personnel response
Sugarloaf experienced winds immediately following the major snowstorm which dropped 22” of snow on the resort this Monday. As a result, several lifts at the resort, including the Spillway East chairlift, were placed on wind hold at the start of operations Tuesday.

Winds diminished as the morning progressed, and Spillway East was evaluated by the ski patrol director of Sugarloaf Mountain and a chairlift mechanic.

That evaluation included towers, top and bottom terminals, and the completion of Sugarloaf’s standard safety checks. The chairlift was opened to the public at 9:55 a.m.

At 10:23 AM, the Lift Operations Department received a maintenance request for Tower 8 from a Sugarloaf ski patroller. Two chairlift mechanics were dispatched at that time. The chairlift cable was observed to be running toward the outside of the rubber liners of the sheave train (the wheels on which the cable is supported) on Tower 8.

At 10:30AM, one lift mechanic arrived at Tower 8 and another arrived at the bottom terminal of Spillway East. Working in tandem, the mechanic at the bottom terminal of Spillway East communicated with the mechanic on Tower 8 while he made an adjustment to the sheave train per Sugarloaf’s operating and maintenance procedures. The lift was slowly started to enable the cable to settle back into the correct location on the sheaves.

The realignment effort was unsuccessful. The mechanics repeated the procedure, again unsuccessfully. The mechanic on Tower 8 determined that it would be inappropriate to run the chair at normal operating speed and the lift should be closed.

Mechanics started the lift at a slow operating speed to begin off-loading the guests who were on the lift.

Shortly after starting the lift at reduced speed, the lift cable deroped from Tower 8, leaving the cable suspended between Tower 9 and Tower 7. Lacking the support of the sheave wheels on Tower 8, five chairs struck the snow below.

When the deropement occurred, the mechanic on Tower 8 immediately notified the mechanic at the bottom terminal of Spillway East about the deropement. The lift was immediately stopped and locked out from further movement.

Ski patrol was immediately notified of the deropement, and lift evacuation procedures began at 10:45 am. At 12:14pm all guests had been evacuated from the lift. Sugarloaf ski patrol estimates that 150 people were evacuated.

Members from ski patrol, grooming department, snowmaking department, resort ambassadors, lift maintenance personnel and the Carrabassett Valley Fire Department responded to the scene. In total, 54 people contributed to the evacuation of the lift.

Update on injuries:
Six people were treated for injuries and sent to Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington, Maine. A seventh person, who initially was cleared to leave the scene, was admitted later in the day. Today, Sugarloaf Mountain learned that an eighth guest, who was initially cleared to leave the scene, checked into Franklin Memorial Hospital.

Three patients were transported from Franklin Memorial Hospital to Maine Medical Center in Portland.

Due to patient and family confidentiality regulations, Sugarloaf cannot release information regarding the identity or nature of injuries to individuals. Further updates on the conditions of those injured can be obtained by contacting the hospitals.

Three guests who were unhurt requested to be transported to the base of the mountain after they were evacuated from the lift. One was taken via toboggan and two were taken inside a heated snow grooming tractor.

Status of the Spillway East Chairlift:
The State of Maine Elevator and Tramway Board has noted that there was some damage to lift components due to the deropement. All mechanical components remained in place after the incident and those components are currently being removed and will be analyzed further. The resort plans to replace the damaged parts with new equipment and go through safety testing and inspections prior to reopening the lift to the public.

Other lifts at Sugarloaf continue normal operations.

“Sugarloaf Mountain wishes the best for the people injured in the accident,” said Austin. “The resort remains committed to guest safety and its culture of safety instilled in every employee.”

Latest statement from Sugarloaf:



Shocking that the State of Maine would find wind as the primary factor in the accident with that description of events from the ski area.

It said that wind contributed to the factor, READ... Some of you 20 somthings should learn a litte about lifts. Just my 2cent. As a 30+ year mechanic I can see how all this took place.

"Doug Dunbar, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, says the state inspectors are still in the information gathering phase and have not issued preliminary reports or findings. Dunbar says the inspectors believe the wind played a contributing role in the accident, but they are continuing to investigate all potential factors."

It reads to me that the Resort is saying "Primary" and the State is saying "contributing". Big difference.
Dino

Sugarloaf officials say after meeting with the State of Maine Board of Elevator and Tramway Safety, they believe "the primary cause of [Tuesday's chairlift] derailment was due to gusts of high-speed winds".

I spend a lot of time working on a Borvig double double. Those lifts are rock solid. One media report said a "pulley" bent and fell to the ground. If you have ever changed a liner on a Borvig like that you know they just don't "bend". There is nothing to really bend except the outer flanges which can't be more than 1/4 above the liner. I've never seen one bent. The rope rolls on the liner if a chair swings. It won't bend even in lateral winds. Also sheaves, just don't fall to the ground. If that's what happened while the lift was running, good luck. The safety factor of ski lifts are insane. Bulletproof. In high winds you shut down, common practice. Even in the highest winds I have ever seen, I do not believe a lift would ever derail. Dangerous yes, but mechanically sound. Those chairs would smack towers before a rope would derail. By then any supervisor with 5% brain mass would shut down. It must be a slow media week. Lets see what we can blow out of proportion. Trying to re-rail a rope with people on chairs is a bad idea if that is indeed what happened. Too much to go wrong especially is high winds.

Cheers.

I didn't read: "bent pulley", though the inappropriate word "pulley" was mentioned. I gathered that it was some other assembly element that bent. All of this, of course, is based on the eyewitness accounts of technically-illiterate people.

Being a Borvig fan, your defensiveness is understandable. My limited exposure to Borvig machinery is not quite so rosy - but no matter. You're right about media garbage though - at this point, not very much is known about this incident. Hopefully, the "out-of-town-expert-consultants" will discover the facts.