Heart attack victim falls from chairlift

A snowHead

A 51-year-old skier fell to his death from a chairlift in the North American resort of Snow Trails on Wednesday following what's believed to have been a heart attack.

William Kegley Jnr was seen to collapse and slump in the chair before falling. What is not explained in this report from Mansfield News Journal is whether the chair had a safety bar. Maybe it didn't, or maybe it wasn't closed. Whatever, it is certainly an unusual incident.

At least he died doing what he enjoyed, and didn't kill anyone else on landing. But 51 years is not a long life.

A snowHead

Makes you think, doesn't it? At least, as you say, he was enjoying himself at the time of his demise.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

As good a place to go out as any I can think of but sad when he was still fairly young Sad

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When in La Plagne earlier this year, I was talking to one of the instructers and he was saying they had already had 2 deaths and this by end Jan. Turned out that both where men in their 50's who had heart attacks brought on by higher altitude. Seems all the talk we hear before the season on getting fitter may not be such a bad idea after all...

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Hmm. I did notice that in the US, even on chairs which have safety bars, lowering them seems to be an option many forego, rather than the norm as in Europe. As many have remarked, weird that for once the Americans are less safety-conscious.

When I was in Jackson Hole a few weeks ago, a chair stopped because of someone who had a heart attack on it...sadly the guy died despite being given medical help at the top station.

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We've had a discussion about safety bars on the SCGB forum. Personally, I don't like the idea of chairlifts without safety bars, particularly if the seats are snowy/icy. I know it wouldn't have saved this man, but it would have saved him the indignity of falling off. 51 is too young.

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Beverley, if you don't like chairs without bars, then Alta is not the place for you. No bars (or footrests) on any of its lifts.

After all it is free

That sounds utterly crazy Shocked

Beverley, I'm not sure about that. It seems that an unconscious person would likely slide off under the bar.

Also, I skied for years and years using chairlifts without "safety" bars, and never saw anyone inadvertently fall off (although, I admit, a few of us did jump off!). Safety bars, at least in my opinion, are more a matter of emotional comfort (it feels better to have it there when one is hanging over a 40 foot cliff!) than real "safety" (have you ever fallen off a porch swing?!). Of course, the footrests can be useful for those who overski their legs! NehNeh

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I did much of my early skiing at Alta with no safety bars on the chairs and thought nothing of it. However, now I find foot rests helps my tired legs and when I don't take my rucksack off, the safety bar provides significant comfort.

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ssh, I'm sure you're right that people wouldn't fall off chairs without them, but there's no way you'd find me going up chair lifts without safety bars!!! Even if it is only 'emotional comfort' I need, it's still 100% essential as far as I'm concerned! And the most useful thing about the footrests is that I can keep my feet firmly on them until I'm happy to lift the bar up - everyone else always wants to lift it up miles before the lift station and it scares the life out of me!!

Call me a big girl if you like, but that's the way it is!!

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Obviously ssh there are no small fidgeting children using the lifts you frequent, having sat on lifts beside such creatures from hell I have in the past been both grateful for and anoyed by the fact that the saftey bars are there without them I can think of several incidents where the little darlings would have fallen off the chairs.

Matthew , I'm with you - apart from the fact that I need the foot rest to rest my feet, I'm paranoid that I'm going to knock one of my skis off if I have to start moving my feet before the catch netting Very Happy

You know it makes sense.

Porch swing? Confused

You're right in that if you just sit there, you won't fall out, I've only ever fallen off a chair forwards when it was on of those slippery ones on the tube platforms. But the chairlifts I was on last week you couldn't slip underneath them. They had little, iron loops where each seat would be.

I think you would have to go some to fall out of modern chairlifts, but not some to fall out of others. The bars enable you to lean forward and look under the chair (to watch someone ski underneath), whereas doing that without one would probably mean you'd join them.

There is/was a chair at val d'Isere that had a safety bar but no footrests (so you could slip under, if you wanted), by the top my legs were more knackered than after skiing.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

D G Orf, DG, don't you know? Babies bounce! Wink

OK, I'm joking. However, again, there were a lot of years of skiing as a young kid with my friends and we knew better than to fall off a chair. Maybe that's why they kept us on the rope tow and Poma for a while, tho.

A snowHead

skanky, in the US there are many chairs with bars but without foot rests. Also, there are many chairs without bars at all (probably fewer each year, but still enough that I notice). I certainly understand the usefulness of the bars; don't get me wrong. It's just that I can't imagine the absence of a "safety bar" on a lift keeping me from 2000 vertical feet of fresh pow! I'm going to take the lift that gets me to the terrain, regardless of whether or not it has one of those things.

If it frightens you, just reach your arm around behind the seat and hold on!! Twisted Evil

A snowHead

I'd happily take a chair without a bar, I'm just less happy about one without a foot-rest for the reason stated above. I still take them, though. But then I like T-bars. Wink

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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The thought of the little 'ewoks' sat on a chair with no bar is unthinkable. It's bad enough when they start wriggling forward when the bar is lifted.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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As a kid, we had one on the front porch that hung from the roof. We'd get that thing going high enough that we'd kick the roof. Never fell off it, though... Laughing

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ssh not many porch swings to be found in the UK as the climate isn't right and the land prices are too expensive to have big porches like the US, when I say expensive I'm serious a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house of say 1100 sq ft in my area works out to approximatey $500,000 or more oh and the garden is probably only 1500 sq ft, conservatories are more popular here due to the climate

After all it is free

We used to get pretty high on the playground swings. I did fall off once...What was that Calvin cartoon: "Houston, we have a negative on that orbit trajectory."

D G Orf, you mean you don't all live in houses like I see in this copy of The English Home that's on our kitchen table? Smile

I hear you, though. I did live in Silicon Valley for a while, and it was right along those lines. Boulder's getting up there, too, but not quite so bad as that.

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Heart attack victim falls from chairlift

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