6 replies to this topic

[Peter]

Crazy day at Sugarloaf, Maine today. I was riding the SuperQuad around noon today when Tower 22 was struck by lightning. A storm with rain, snow, sleet and hail had moved in really fast. The lift stopped and maintenance had the diesel backup going in about 10 minutes. They got us all off and shut down for the day. I did not hear of any injuries.

Sugarloaf's Twitter updates:
12:07 pm: All lifts are on conditions hold @ 12:07 p.m. We're experiencing some heavy sleet at the moment, which should change to snow this afternoon.
12:48 pm: Lifts reopening @ 12:48 p.m: Double Runner East, Sawduster, Skidway, Snubber, Skyline.
1:18 pm: All lifts back on conditions hold as of 1:15 p.m.
2:35 pm: All lifts remain closed for the rest of the day today, due to lightning in the area.

[2milehi]

On March 23rd, 2005 I was working at Keystone and at 3:30 PM a freak lighting storm came out of nowhere and threw about 20 lighting bolts at the top of Dercum Mountain. Seven lifts came to an abrupt stop. There were about a thousand people stuck on the "dark side" for an hour.

Nobody hurt but man did that day suck!

This post has been edited by 2milehi: 25 January 2012 - 11:10 PM

[SkiLiftsRock]

2milehi, on 25 January 2012 - 11:09 PM, said:

On March 23rd, 2005 I was working at Keystone and at 3:30 PM a freak lighting storm came out of nowhere and threw about 20 lighting bolts at the top of Dercum Mountain. Seven lifts came to an abrupt stop. There were about a thousand people stuck on the "dark side" for an hour.

Nobody hurt but man did that day suck!

When you say the lift came to a stop, does that mean the lift operator stopped the lift, or does the lift have a lightning fault system?

Thanks

[Peter Pitcher]

The lightning stopped the lift, no lift operator was needed nor was a lightning fault system

[SkiLiftsRock]

interesting

Peter Pitcher, on 26 January 2012 - 06:51 PM, said:

The lightning stopped the lift, no lift operator was needed nor was a lightning fault system

interesting,

Thanks

[2milehi]

True - lightning either blew some fusing, causes a DC drive to not work, or cause electrical components to stop working (like CPSs and Pilz E-Stop circuit).

[SkiLiftsRock]

2milehi, on 27 January 2012 - 11:29 AM, said:

True - lightning either blew some fusing, causes a DC drive to not work, or cause electrical components to stop working (like CPSs and Pilz E-Stop circuit).

That makes better sense