Gondola at whistler collapses!

[Dr D]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28268812/?gt1=43001

under engineered or lowest bidder:eek::eek:

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

NOTE: Not the new Gondy, it is the OLD Excalibur. See posts below.


This ain't good.

Hope their are no fatalities.

Set back for sure.

"Wright said there doesn't appear to be any danger of the gondola support falling further and that a truck is supporting the collapsed tower"

[dredman]

I hope all are safe and sound. That had to be very scary!

I bet there will need to be some long underwear thrown away tonight.

[xy9ine]

it was actually the old excaliber gondy that had the mishap...

http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20081216/600_bc_mynews_gondola_081216.jpg

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2008/12/16/bc-081216-gondola-ugs-FULL.jpg

[shawndoggy]

NOT the *new* gondola:

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=1083212

[Dan]

I saw a comment on a Canadian site that someone crashed a car into a gondola tower -- the collapse wasn't due to faulty engineering.

(at least, not faulty gondola engineering...but maybe faulty automotive engineering)

[Dr D]

the story said between whistler and blackcomb so I just assumed it was the new one! thanx for the clarification:biggthump

Wright said the accident took place near Fitzsimmons Creek, between Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains.


hows this for possible soiled undies

A bartender at the Longhorn Saloon and Grill said other staff in the infamous Whistler pub saw a gondola car flip upsidedown, and then she witnessed it swinging wildly from side to side for quite some time.

There did not appear to be anyone inside the car, although she did hear ambulance sirens responding to the scene.

[Dr D]

anybody have a visual aid? I am having a hard time picturing how a car got involved with a gondola tower.

Is this from a parking area to the hill or through some residential area or something? Its not just a lift from the base to the summit or something.

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

it was actually the old excaliber gondy that had the mishap...

I sure hope it wasn't the new one. I want to ride it real BAD!!!


"Police said there were no serious injuries, but the passengers are stranded as emergency officials work out a plan to evacuate them from the gondolas on the resort's Excalibur lift."

[mr_roboteye]

IT'S NOT THE NEW GONDOLA.





anybody have a visual aid? I am having a hard time picturing how a car got involved with a gondola tower.

Is this from a parking area to the hill or through some residential area or something? Its not just a lift from the base to the summit or something.

It's the excalibur gondola built in 1994. It starts at village base, across village square from the whistler gondola, passes over a bus loop, through a whole bunch of condos into its' midstation, and continues up onto the mountain.

The part where it collapsed, there is a road that winds under it about four times on it's way up to where glacier residence Whistler Blackcomb / chateau whistler staff housing and the 18 below daylodge are.

later,

Dave R.

[Hotbeans]

One witness heard a man who was apparently injured, screaming "MY SCHTUBBY!"...

[Loc]

I'm in Whistler right now. It's a scary sight, especially since it was one of the lifts I could've taken down to end my day. You guys can read a blog report about it here (and he has great weather reports)

http://whistlerblackcombsnowreport.com/blackcomb-excalibur-gondola-collapses-325.htm

[Kex]

that really sucks, but at least, for the sake of the passengers, it was a gondola, not a ski lift. Can you imagine being thrown out of a ski lift? there would have been many more injured (especially since many of us don't put down the safety bar), and the passengers that were stuck on the lift would be ice cubes by now

[Fleaman]

One witness heard a man who was apparently injured, screaming "MY SCHTUBBY!"...

I just snarfed my rum and coke. Thanks for the laugh:lol:

[trailertrash]

IT'S NOT THE NEW GONDOLA. MODERATOR PLEASE REMOVE THE WORD "NEW" FROM THE THREAD TITLE AS THIS IS GROSSLY INACCURATE


really, no need to yell.

[chewy]

I have been at that bus stop while working at base 2 rentals and was wondering what would happen if a truck hit that pole
now I know

should not be an affect on ski-board access, taking a bus from the village to base 2 midstation will get you up blackcomb

CBC news is saying collapsed....no car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gleb]

One witness heard a man who was apparently injured, screaming "MY SCHTUBBY!"...


best post ever!

[dano]

should not be an affect on ski-board access,


"Is that a ski-board?"

[corey_dyck]

Picture:
http://i41.tinypic.com/10zztdy.jpg

No car did that! That's a clean fracture at a weld.

More details:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/gondola_collapse_strands_passengers.html
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/36265939.html


WHISTLER, B.C. - A rare type of ice build-up is being blamed for the partial collapse of a gondola tower on Blackcomb Mountain in Whistler, B.C., that left dozens of passengers stranded for hours.

Local health officials say 13 people were slightly injured among the skiers and snowboarders trapped for hours in the unheated cabins after a tower on the Excalibur gondola buckled Tuesday afternoon.

The Whistler Blackcomb ski resort released a statement Wednesday saying the tower failure occurred when water seeped into a splice on a section of tower four on the lift.

"Water had seeped into the tower which had turned to ice with the recent extreme cold temperatures. The ice build-up caused the tower splice to rupture, an extremely unusual situation referred to as 'ice-jacking,"' said the statement from the resort.

Resort officials say all the gondola cabins remained on the line but a number of them dropped about nine metres as the line sagged after the collapse. Two of them bounced off the ground, injuring several people.

Dropping 9m (~30 ft) in a gondola would be my definition of a bad day... It's amazing no one was killed!

[mr_roboteye]

really, no need to yell.

Well, it did get your attention didn't it? Thanks for acquiescing.

later,

Dave R.

[lowrider]

isn't this the senario that got intrawest control of everything (whistler & blackcomb):barf:

[lowrider]

ice buildup inside base of tower caused top section which was a smaller diameter to break welds and pop open if you are riding on lifts with segmented towers and the snow guns are pointing at the towers tap them with your pole or buddies coiler and see if they are hollow or ready to do the freezie push up . it takes tons of force to budge one of these towers utube (chair lift destruction) to get an idea of the forces involved

[b0ardski]

That pic looks like it's a compression tower, the forces on the tower are upward. The tension on the cable is trying to pull the tower out of the ground. it makes sense that the tower failed in that way.

[C5 Golfer]

This is from the Blackcomb web site

http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/media/news/season_2008-09/081218.htm

[Rob Stevens]

The comment from the Doppelmayr guy on CBC was "I don't know how water managed to get in there?"

I suspect that leaving it outside in British Columbia, year round for 10+ years might have something to do with it.

They'll probably have to shut down every segmented tower style lift, for a retrofit with sensors inside the clamped sections. Brutal.

I was just on that thing about 10 days ago during our CASI precourse there. I usually wear a helmet and a jockstrap, though, so I would have been fine.

[yyzcanuck]

Thanks for acquiescing.

Eloquent.

[lowrider]

They can't keep water out of condos how would they keep it out of a hollow tube outside. if any promo people are looking for guinea pigs to ride the lift after repairs let me be the first to volunteer,any other takers?:):)

[rhaskins]

They get me a plane and lift ticket and lodging and I'm in for a 100 test runs. Min.

Rick