 Poster: A snowHead
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Just wondered what's the longest anyone has been stuck on a chair or in a bubble because of a breakdown?
This photo from Samoens (Vercland eggs)....
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Yes, that probably exceeds a four-minute egg.
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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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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Once, grabbing a last sneaky run in the Dolomite with Mrs Ise's brother they turned the lift off while we were on it and it 10 mins before they noticed 
I've also seen lifties from several stations over at Combloux practising lift rescues which was interesting.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Always make sure there's a lifejacket under your seat.
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This february at Argentiere I was in the Grands Montets cable car when they got the cables crossed due to high winds. We were stuck for over an hour and were contemplating the possibility of climbing through the trap-door onto the roof for a helicopter rescue!
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| snowball wrote: |
| This february at Argentiere I was in the Grands Montets cable car when they got the cables crossed due to high winds. We were stuck for over an hour and were contemplating the possibility of climbing through the trap-door onto the roof for a helicopter rescue! |
Riding up the Solaise Express the other week in the wind was a bit hairy as well, felt like I was about to be blown off in the wind. A couple of summers ago I was up in the glacier in the Stubai and a massive gust of wind pushed the chair up about 45' just as we opened the bar nearly taking us all off. In fact I've had similar in the Grand Massif where the wind was incredible and the chair stopped a few metres short of the top rocking 30' back and forward, the lifties were grabbing and holding the chairs at the exit to avoid them blowing into the back of your head.
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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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50 minutes on exposed chair at Flaine - in howling gale and driving snow.....lifties cranking chairs up one at a time each time the wind dropped enough to move it a fraction of an inch....not an experience I'd want to repeat in a hurry!
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| homphomp wrote: |
| 50 minutes on exposed chair at Flaine - in howling gale and driving snow.....lifties cranking chairs up one at a time each time the wind dropped enough to move it a fraction of an inch....not an experience I'd want to repeat in a hurry! |
would that be going up to the Tete de Saix ?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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At their factory at Wolfurt in Austria, the ski lift manufacturers Doppelmayr have a video of a chairlift in very high winds where the chairs are spinning 360 degrees about their cable, needless to say with no passengers on board!
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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 got stuck for an hour in Andorra last year when there was a power cut, the conditions were fine, but there was a kid on the chair behind me who didn't know what to do - I think he wanted to jump! I calmed him down and the lifts started up soon enough after. I wouldn't fancy any of those high wind rides mentioned above!
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Reading all of the above it seems I've been quite lucky - never more than a few minutes of "stoppage time".
Last ski trip we skied with a fireman who spent the majority of each chairlift ride working out the best escape/rescue plan.....where the best place to jump from was.....how long it would take to get a scissor lift up here...etc etc
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You know it makes sense.
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And therein lies the potential danger of chairlifts.
Whilst most resorts busily replace their Pomas and Tbars with large chairlifts, I do wonder whether they have thought through the consequences of this.
A Tbar or Poma breaking down is not going to be life threatening, escape is usually straightforward. A chairlift is not so. Also if all your critical links are dependent on non surface lifts you become more vulnerable to being trapped on the wrong side of the system, facing an expensive taxi ride, or long walk back.
I can forsee the day when a chairlift stoppage or freak gust could cause a serious accident. The answer ? keep some critcal surface lifts or keep your chairs closer to the ground, where this is possible.
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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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| Peter S wrote: |
And therein lies the potential danger of chairlifts.
Whilst most resorts busily replace their Pomas and Tbars with large chairlifts, I do wonder whether they have thought through the consequences of this.
A Tbar or Poma breaking down is not going to be life threatening, escape is usually straightforward. A chairlift is not so. Also if all your critical links are dependent on non surface lifts you become more vulnerable to being trapped on the wrong side of the system, facing an expensive taxi ride, or long walk back.
I can forsee the day when a chairlift stoppage or freak gust could cause a serious accident. The answer ? keep some critcal surface lifts or keep your chairs closer to the ground, where this is possible. |
Exactly, drags are still more versatile in many ways in my opinion, they don't tend to get shut for wind for a start.
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Poster: A snowHead
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[quote="ise"]
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| Exactly, drags are still more versatile in many ways in my opinion,.... |
Unless, of course, you happen to be a boarder 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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And the queues can be awful as the capacity of drags is so much lower than a reasonable sized chair. I witnessed this first hand at Flaine this winter. We turned up on a Friday lunchtime when wind had shut the top lifts and only drags were opened. To start with we had a great time and then lunchtime ended and the queues were awful for short runs. The reason the drags were running was that they were low down and a chair would have been able to run and would have moved people faster. Also worth remembering how dreadful exposed drag lifts can be in bad weather 
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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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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A couple of years ago a client of mine was stuck for 3 hours on the Roche Mantel chairlift on the glacier. The cable came off the little wheels just by the big power wheel - very unusual. They tried to lever it back in place with a large digging machine, but there was too much tension, so eventually they had to rope everyone off as per PG's photos. Of course this starts at the top so the people near the bottom are the last. At least they gave everyone a free hot chocolate! It's a high lift & I'm glad I wasn't on it (I get vertigo!).
The staff at La Grave practise frequently, but if you've seen how high that gondola is ................
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Anyone been caught on the one between Punta Helbrunna (sp?) and Aguile du Midi (sp?)? I've seen how high that one is, and pictures of its construction (my brother-in-law's grandfather worked on it) and I'd rather not get caught there.
Also saw a bloke climb out of a car and work on the cross wire, once. That was scary enough.
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Chris , but surely chairs are much more exposed than drags ? I thought wind speed increases logrithmically with height above the ground.
Presumably the reason everyone was on the drags was because the chairs have a much lower wind tolerance and are more exposed.
I'm not sure what the Climate change scenarios are for central Europe but I suspect that the more vigorous low pressure systems forecast for the UK, could also increase windspeeds in the Alps.
Does anyone know if this was a more windy than normal season in the Alps ?
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| Peter S wrote: |
Does anyone know if this was a more windy than normal season in the Alps ? |
Not for sure, but now you mention it then anecdotally then I’d guess it might have been, I can count maybe 10 days or more in the Grand Massif where links were closed for wind but these pretty much coincided with large snowfalls so I didn’t really mind, there’s an upside since it keeps some people in or close to their base. I can think of another 5 or 10 days in other stations with high wind.
I rather like bad weather actually, especially the sort where there’s fresh snow, my all time favorite conditions to ski in are the tail end of storms, those fantastic moments as the clouds begin to clear and there’s fresh snow everywhere, just classic days. Like this:
http://www.pbase.com/ianspare/2004_01_29_-_morillon
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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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The trouble with wind is windslab, and sweep-and-drift in exposed places. And it tends to compact the new snow and make a crust. Off-piste skiers like me never have high hopes for snow that comes with high wind: you really have to be skillful to find the sheltered slopes which are also safe.
But I imagine you don't mean storms with high winds like that, Ise. I know just the light you mean and the revelation of the untouched world it brings. (The photos are nice, but they don't quite have that light.) Certainly in Val Cenis in mid February the more exposed resortss (eg Boneval) were unskiable off-piste due to wind crust absolutely everywhere.
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| PG wrote: |
Just wondered what's the longest anyone has been stuck on a chair or in a bubble because of a breakdown?
This photo from Samoens (Vercland eggs).... |
I assume the photo is from this incident?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Can't get your 'MORE' link to work...?
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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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| ise wrote: |
| homphomp wrote: |
| 50 minutes on exposed chair at Flaine - in howling gale and driving snow.....lifties cranking chairs up one at a time each time the wind dropped enough to move it a fraction of an inch....not an experience I'd want to repeat in a hurry! |
would that be going up to the Tete de Saix ? |
Who know's? I never know what they're called - I just ride 'em! My sense of direction is awful and I mostly just follow Mr HH round the mountain. Even by the end of a week I'll still be lost working out how to get home!!
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Peter S, I don't know for sure, but it seemed windier than usual here.
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You know it makes sense.
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| Quote: |
davidof
This photo from Samoens (Vercland eggs)....
I assume the photo is from this incident?
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Unlikely as the story talks about a cablecar not a gondola (I used watch the Krypton Factor just for the observation round!)
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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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Peter Ross, There are no cable cars at Samoens, only an old Egg and a brand new big gondola so my guess it is the incident 
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Poster: A snowHead
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I've never been there so I don't know! - here is the piste-hors article PG posted
"The cable car at Samoëns in the Chablais mountains broke down this morning trapping 200 skiers. Rescuers were lowered by helicopter to the car and then set up an abseil to lower the stranded holiday makers through a trap door in the floor of the car to the ski piste below. The rescue operation lasted from mid-morning to early afternoon."
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Peter Ross, davidof posted the article about the cable car, I just posted the original photo link (which looks like an old Poma egg to me)....
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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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Sorry  I didn't mean to destroy your reputation! Please don't sue me. I make a full apology.
Mr Pete Garwood Esq. did not, I repeat DID NOT post any article relating to a cablecar breakdown in Samoëns.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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So Ise are you saying it doesn't do what it says on the tin? I can't believe these marketing people.
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