 Poster: A snowHead
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Yesterday another ski lift accident happened in Austria, this time it was in Stubai Glacier.
One of the four-seat chairs simply broke away and started sliding back and hit the chair coming behind it.
Two skiers injured, including one German seriously.
The lift was stopped, 150 passangers spent two hours above the ground in the cold between 2600-3000 m.
Three helicopters were ready to rescue them, but finally they managed to bring down the chairs with the skiers in safe.
Doppelmayr and police are investigating the case.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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The lift seems to be called the Rotadlbahn, but different names and spellings are being given to it.
There were quite a few occurrences of this in the early days of detachable high-speed chairs, but they have been much more reliable in recent years, due to improvements to the engineering of the clamps.
Here's a report (in German) on Tirol Online.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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...oh.. great.. guess where I'm driving to tomorrow! *having flashbacks to Tignes last year!*
I suggest no-one goes to Serre Chevalier around xmas as one of the lifts is guarenteed to break a week before I get there... 
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Pah - last time I went to SC ALL the chairlifts were closed anyway - do your worst! 
Sounds horrible though - I always thought chairs were pretty reliable!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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In such a situation, presumably the rear of the chair sliding backwards would hit the legs/knees of the passengers on the chair behind, causing severe crush injuries or even severed limbs  . If the passengers saw this coming, could they raise their legs straight out so that the skis were vertical and then when the chair impacted at least there would be some absorption of energy as the legs flex (like on a ski jump landing). Or would it make the likely injuries worse. Any medic (Kramer?) care to comment.
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I have no idea how to protect myself when a chair is sliding towards me.
And in this situation you may have 5-8 seconds to make decisions and "discuss" it with the others on the chair.
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There's only one answer, I guess - get the bar up, get everyone to stick their legs out in front (skis vertical) and hope it's a sufficient bumper. That would need a pretty quick decision and action. The weight of the chair in front, loaded with skiers, would be substantial.
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It might be better to leave the safety bar in the down position as the back of the chair would hit that before it hit peoples legs, otherwise I could see serious knee and hip injuries if it were to impact peoples legs
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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maybe just getting your knees as far into your chest as you can without slipping off the seat is your best option.. make yourself into a little ball and get as much of you out of the way as possible. I don't think I'd want to try and buffer an empty chairlift (a four person one must weigh at least 250-300kgs), let alone one with potentially another 350kgs of persons on it!
You've instantly got 1/2 tonne of weight all trying to go in one direction.. through you...
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Luckily, this is now extremely rare, as far as I know. I wonder if the clamp on the chair was state-of-the-art.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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According to this site the lift was built by Doppelmayr in 1989. I imagine the authorities will be investigating maintenance work done over the summer.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I honestly have no idea on what the best position to adopt would be.
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Kramer, prayerful.
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You know it makes sense.
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If the chair is not full leave the bar down, and if time jetson your kit and get your feet on the chair, and hang on to the back, and be ready that your chair may slide on impact. If the chairs full, depending on terrain below and height, not to mention snow conditions, as with an uncontrolled roll back, BAIL!!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Winterhighland, Seems like a good option in the circumstances!
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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It really is astonishing that this sort of thing doesn't happen more often. When you think of the hundreds of thousands of lifts all over the world - not all for ski-ing either. You really hardly ever hear of major accidents. The percentage must be well under 1% at a guess.
One of the jobs of the lifties is to watch the cable and the chairs and try to spot any problems before they occur. That's another good reason for saying "hello" and "thank you" nicely to every lifties you come across. 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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easiski,
I hope the chances of it happening are a whole lot less than 1%!! I've ridden well over a hundred lifts and still expect my chances of being squashed by the one in front to be remote
I would imagine the lift equipment companies spend a lot of time designing and testing them to ensure this can't happen by design, rather than rely on attentive lifties. Then I guess it's down to good maintainance.
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what a scary discussion. my scariest chairlift story was the poor woman a few years ago who saw the chair in front, with her two kids on it, drop off. I think one child was killed and the other badly injured. Doesn't bear thinking about. I try to think of other things, when on chairs. Like how much safer one is on the ski slopes, despite the lifts, than hurtling around the roads, especially in freezing fog, and especially in France where the accident rate is still a lot higher than in the UK. Bonjour, Monsieur Liftie....
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Wow. nasty.
It does bring me to a conversation with a pilot friend about my flying anxiety (currently at a high level - I hate turbulence - but have to fly at least once a week - more frequently in winter ))
His point was basically why was I at all nervous about riding in a plane, extremely well serviced with immense saftey checks while I quite happily got on a chairlift where the safety checks were quite possibly significantly less and, frankly, I could slide under the bar and fall off.
Needless to say this has not helped my visceral dislike of being bumped up and down in an aluminium tube.
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