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Selva Ciampinoi Gondola Incident

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Extremely windy today in Selva
A tree has fallen over the Ciampinoi gondola cable and just sitting there.
The lift stopped.
Fortunately the wind has dropped later in the afternoon.
A helicopter has lowered rescuers onto the roofs of the lower few gondolas.
The rescuers have opened the doors and got inside.
They have a rope hanging from each gondola to the ground and have been lowering people one at a time using a harness.
I can see that they have been evacuating three gondolas but they will be going for hours to evacuate all the gondolas.

I hope no snowheads are trapped.


Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Thu 5-03-15 20:45; edited 1 time in total
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Whoa!! Exciting. Very Happy

http://www.ilsecoloxix.it/p/italia/2015/03/05/ARGx4FjD-tragedia_sfiorata_cabinovia.shtml


Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Thu 5-03-15 16:51; edited 1 time in total
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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?
Yikes.
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mamma mia! Shocked
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I bet it was extremely windy in the gondolas too. Shocked
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Prrrppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Shocked

Sounds like everyone rescued OK, based on google translate of the linked article.

Wonder how long until its up and running again
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sounds like a pretty slick operation - which is reassuring.
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Imagine if it had been a chair. A lot less pleasant sitting outside in a gale. Puzzled
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@Peter S, Imagine if had been a poma. Would have just turned round and skied down Very Happy
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Unless yours had been the head the tree had fallen on, or the one sliced off by the wires flying around. wink
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I wonder how the Gondola stopped? A tree falling on the line would not necessarily indicate a derailment and would not therefore stop the rope before the next Gondola arrived. Sounds scary.
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@pam w, you watch too many horror films
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Peter S wrote:
I wonder how the Gondola stopped? A tree falling on the line would not necessarily indicate a derailment and would not therefore stop the rope before the next Gondola arrived. Sounds scary.


I would imagine they have sensors which detect any sort of abnormality in the rope feed and halt it automatically.
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I think they have sensors that detect the cable bouncing on the pylon rollers. These sensors detect movements of the cable less than that necessary for derailment.
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 Poster: A snowHead
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Well they detect derailment of the cable from the sheeve but not necessarily a 'bounce'. I assume in this case it did trigger a derailment but it makes you think about a situation where the tree falls more gently across the line ?
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@abominable, @alex_heney, No doubt these lifts do have their own fail-safe systems but I believe that on this occasion it was nothing more technical than a Marmotte - which had been nibbling pine nuts in the tree - being catapulted into the rollers and jamming the mechanism
.
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Quote:

you watch too many horror films

a couple of people were injured, one by the wire I believe, when there was a minor accident to a T bar in Tignes a couple of years ago. A tree would cause a lot more damage.

Do marmottes climb trees? In early March? Laughing
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Quote:

Do marmottes climb trees?


Do bears go to the lavatory in the woods?
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https://www.facebook.com/astor.selvavalgardena
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http://altoadige.gelocal.it/bolzano/cronaca/2015/03/05/news/duecento-turisti-bloccati-sulla-funivia-del-ciampinoi-1.10986163#gallery-slider=undefined
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Looks from the picture as though there is no derailment but the gondola does appear to have hit the tree. Perhaps there is some sort of overload sensor on the motor that may detect increased resistance on the line ?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31760605
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Interesting. According to the witness on the bbc item it didnt shut down automatically but was stopped by the operator who spotted the fallen tree. Thank goodness for that.
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As I recall, that gondola is not that far off the ground for most of its length. Can you imagine being stuck on the Penken gondola in Mayrhofen in high winds for a long period of time?? I've been on the penken when it stopped running for about 5 minutes and we were not far from the top station and way above ground level. Scary!!
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jimmybog wrote:
As I recall, that gondola is not that far off the ground for most of its length. !


Correct. for most of it's length it's within the a tree lined avenue. The last third goes steep.

As mentioned, I'm surprised that the first gondola didn't just push it off of the cable. The motors must be sensitive to sudden resistance and shut down. Leitner are a clever bunch of rich Swiss b*****s. Very Happy
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I remember looking at the ladder and roof hatch on the Marmolada Cable Car. I'm not wuite sure how they could swing the ladder down if there was a problem. It was so crammed there was no room to swing a gnat.
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cameronphillips2000 wrote:
I remember looking at the ladder and roof hatch on the Marmolada Cable Car. I'm not quite sure how they could swing the ladder down if there was a problem. It was so crammed there was no room to swing a gnat.


They'd probably have to open the doors to let some people out to create a bit of room.... wink
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 You know it makes sense.
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once they've disposed of all the rucksacks containing everything including the kitchen sink, the marmolada cable car will be half empty
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Anyone ever been rescued off a chair?
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cameronphillips2000 wrote:
Anyone ever been rescued off a chair?


I've fallen off of a few, never been rescued. The Wife usually walks away with a look of disgust. Confused
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And to think I was there a week ago Confused

@Mollerski, Think she's trying to say something?
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Funny the way media call people who go skiing as "holiday makers" as piece on Sky News just did. I consider it a more of a sport or activity trip rather than a holiday. And surely some of those in the gondolas would be locals.
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Leitner is 'rich' Italian company with out reach branches in Austria. They also own prinroth the piste grooming company.

moller ski it sounds as though it did not shut down automatically Sad
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I guess until they get the Ciampinoi gondola lift back in action after the incident the Sella Ronda anticlockwise link in Selva will be out of action?

(although I guess you could take the skibus from Selva down to St Christina and take the lifts from there up to the top of Ciampinoi)
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both the dolomiti superski and the val gardena website indicate that it is open
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Aigulle du Midi cable car caught fire a few years ago. Took all day to get the punters out via helicopter. Shocked

http://www.thelocal.fr/20130515/tourists-evacuated-as-mont-blanc-cable-car-breaks-down
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andy wrote:
both the dolomiti superski and the val gardena website indicate that it is open


In that case I guess they must have inspected the lift system after the incident and given it the OK.
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cameronphillips2000 wrote:
Anyone ever been rescued off a chair?
I was involved in something similar in February 1999 at Bruson, small ski area opposite Verbier. There had been a huge amount of snow and Verbier had been shut for skiing for 3 days. We heard that Bruson was open so headed over by ski bus and bought a day pass. Got on the slow old 2 man chair then after a short while a tree a short distance ahead of us toppled, weight of snow I guess, across the power line running close and parallel to the lift. The power cable was severed and sparked and lashed about in the air for a short while.

The chair lift stopped and we just sat there for a long time just waiting. Eventually the chairs stuttered backwards very very slow and intermittently until we reached the start where we we helped off the chair, given our pass money back and that was it.

The scary bit was when the power line was whipping about, had visions of getting fried if it had touched the cableway or a pylon😳
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nice
they usually have a back up genny for those cases
severed power shouldn't whip about arcing and sparking like in the movies, and indeed even if the live bit did hit the chairlift, it's instant short to earth. you wouldn't feel a thing.
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