UKC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-21434338

In reply to snowboarder:

Sorry to hear of the injuries. It must be very unpleasant to be left stranded on a chairlift. I've been on them when they get stuck for a few minutes and you get cold very quickly. The Austrians are pretty geared up for rescue though and I hope they weren't stranded for too long.

Headline changed to Six injured' and 36 rescued

In reply to Trangia:

Except it was in Scotland. (I thought same at first glance)

In reply to snowboarder:

Shocking? How on earth does a catastrophic engineering failure like that happen in the western world?

In reply to Trangia:

It's a scenario rehearsed by the MR teams located close to the Scottish ski centres too.

S

In reply to snowboarder:

I happened to be there all day. Having skied all over Europe I thought the chair lift looked very old to the ones I've used in the Alps and Iceland. In fact me and a friend were sat on it trying to figure out how long it would take something like that to fatigue to the point of stress failure. Pity we found out. Sounds like no one was seriously injured however.

In reply to snowboarder: certainly on alpine and Scandinavian ones I've seen the white spray type paint left over from NDT work. But I was in chamonix when the midi broke twice one summer, but that was human error with the cabling and controlling the cabin.

Who hadn't had the thought of could I jump from here when ascending on a chairlift.

The Gondola on Aonach Mor terrifies me. I am desperate to go to Cham etc but watching the videos of the midi brings me out in a cold sweat.

In reply to summo:

Very much so and debated it at length when on chairs.

Investment is needed in Scottish skiing but well done to all at The Lecht for dealing with this so quickly and calmly.

In reply to summo:

There used to be a lift at Stubai that went low over a big powder field, with a big hole in the snow where people jumped out. Closed now I believe.

In reply to Trangia:

Lecht, not Lech. Two rather different resorts.....!

In reply to Carolyn:
Yes, theres no Cartier diamond shop in Abderdeenshire.

In reply to Milesy:

I wouldn't go near the one man lift on the Marmolada then.

In reply to Mike_Watson_99:

Or from Roche de Mio to the Bellecote glacier in La Plagne - that surprised me a bit on the first trip!

In reply to Mike_Watson_99: Those yoghurt pot things you have to run after to get in? Scared the bejeebus out of me - getting off is even worse!

Does anyone know what the rescue plan is for a cable-car that gets stuck over an abyss for example the Klein Matterhorn one. People are packed in like sardines so I doubt opening the door would be an option. Everyone through the roof!?

In reply to MG:

Have you not seen Where Eagles Dare?

In reply to toad:

No - is all explained?

In reply to MG:

Yup, and if you have gun it makes it a lot easier. Bring them up through the roof hatch, shoot them and they fall off removing the nessessity to lower them off.

In reply to MG: Lots of silly jumping from the roof of one to another by Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton. 2 1/2 hours of silliness with a telepherique centre stage ('cept of course it's Austrian)

In reply to toad: Ah, I see! And in the real world!?

In reply to summo:

I have often wondered about this on long chairlifts. Would it be worthwhile carrying a short length of 5 or 6mm cord for quick abseils if you get stuck? I have thought about that, but never bothered to carry any. My solutions without the option of abseiling would be:

1. If low enough consider jumping. Maybe use spare clothing or rucksack straps to clamber down to reduce the height of the drop.
2. Climb up to cable then go hand over hand to the nearest pylon
3. If in a wooded area with nearby trees, consider jumping for the top of a springy looking tree.

Obviously waiting for rescue is also an option, but much less interesting.

Any better solutions?

In reply to summo:


There's a chair in Val D'Isere over a ridge and back down the other side. The drop at the top isn't that small, but a fair few people still jump off and ski down.

In reply to M0nkey:

The thought of it suddenly starting up again just as you are about to reach the pylon brings tears to my eyes!!

In reply to victim of mathematics: it used to be much more feasible when it was a slow & rickety 3 man chair, but it got replaced by a super speedy 6 man lift a few year back and is now a bit higher & a lot quicker.

In reply to victim of mathematics:

Saw folk doing this on the Gentianes chair at Flaine last week. The drop is quite short but the target area is fairly narrow: http://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/galerie/albums/photos_utilisateurs/1021...

In reply to victim of mathematics: Been there done that. It was only a few feet so not a big deal, it's a bit different now.

In reply to MG: youtube.com/watch?v=Tt5TH08_RZA&

In reply to Blinder: I was at Glenshee last year and went up in the chair on the West side. I sat in it looked ahead and saw the warning sign to drop the safety bar, but surprise, surprise, NO SAFETY BAR. A few years ago, one of the chairs fell off the wire at Nevis Range. You do wonder if there is a maintenance programme. The only comforting thing about Scottish ski lifts is that there are relatively few Italian fighter jets around.

Does anyone know how old The Lecht chairlift is?
Was it 2nd hand when installed?

In reply to Michael Griffith:

Actually the incident in Italy you are thinking about involved an American fighter jet.

And 2 of them crashed into Macdui about 12 years ago!

In reply to snowboarder:

I think it was. I have a vague recollection it was bought from some East European ski resort.

In reply to snowboarder: It was second hand but has been running fine for more than ten years. HSE coming to the Lecht on Monday.
Lecht has great snow cover at the moment and will be open again tomorrow.

In reply to Blizzard:
I would suggest that this is not really a 'catastrophic engineering failure'.

Something went wrong and it was dealt with. It happens everywhere.

Just imagine if you were in an Italian cable car when an American fighter jet slices through you; that's proper 'catastrophic'!

In reply to Michael Griffith:

The Nevis Range gondola incident was due to operator error, not maintenance.

The Poma lift at the Lecht came from Courmayeur I heard.

In reply to snowboarder: my step-dad's former father in law (if that makes sense), and old school KMC hard man, once allegedly jumped off a chairlift because he'd dropped his fags.

In reply to Saor Alba:

I want to know who made the button lift on the Harrier. I want to sue them cause I've been singing treble in the choir since I used it.

In reply to toad:
An alternative cable car escape technique is also demonstrated by Roger Moore in Moonraker above Rio de Janeiro. It involves sliding down the cable on a chain, whilst a man with metal teeth bites through the cable.

Perhaps there will be another demonstration from Mr Bond in the Rio Olympic opening ceremony

In reply to Milesy:

I dunno, chairlifts used to get to me when I was skiing but the Midi doesn't for some reason. I'm far too engrossed in trying to spot the line up the Frendo and/or wondering at the sheer ambition of the engineering.

That said, somebody I met told me he was once on the upper Midi lift when they decided they needed to re-tension the support cables mid-journey. That involves lifting the hundred-ton concrete weights that provide the tension out of their shafts at Plan de l'Aiguille, changing where the cables are attached, and lowering them back down. Obviously, that means the gondola cars getting pretty cosy with the Frendo...

Also scary is the amount of drilling and tying that has to be done to stabilise the rock around the summit of the Midi. The joke goes that the Helbronner lift started out as a project to stop the Midi falling over (by tying it to the Gros Rognon), but I'm not sure it's very far from the truth.

In reply to snowboarder:

On getting off broken-down chairs: In France I've seen them slowly winding a cable backwards, presumably by gravity and a brake, to bring people back to the lift station where for some reason they disembarked them into the bucket of a JCB just outside the station. Couldn't work out why they were doing that.

In reply to snowboarder:

Just as a plane has flotation aids, couldn't they figure out a way to allow people to descend from the chair in an emergency?

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant: Of course. Now, how much do want to pay for days skiing?

In reply to Saor Alba:

Think may have changed a lot since last week, but I'm not aware of any skilift manufacturer based in Courmayeur

In reply to Luca Signorelli:

May have meant it was second hand from courmayeur?

In reply to Luca Signorelli:

Have you skied in Scotland? If not you'll know what I mean when I say there is a fair amount of heritage equipment! I actually think it came from Courchevel not Courmayeur. It's a Poma delta lift I think and you seem them in many places in the Alps.

In other words I mean it's a second hand life bought from Courchevel and not manufactured there.

In reply to Saor Alba:

The old joke was that the Swiss bought new lifts, then sold them to the French who sold them to the Italians. I hadn't realised that the Italians flipped them on to the Scots.

Or maybe the Italians wised up and so you lot got them straight from the French third hand