 Poster: A snowHead
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The News of the World has just released video footage of an emergency rescue from the highest cablecar in Europe - the Klein Matterhorn, Zermatt - on 2 January. The helicopter operation was filmed by Ben Andrew, a 27-year-old concert pianist from Leighton Buzzard, Beds, who had proposed to his girlfriend a day earlier.
Here is the report and video: Rescued from -27C cable car terror
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| Ben said: "We had only just started the descent when we heard a loud crunching sound and the cable car stopped - I honestly thought we were all going to die. I thought the cable car was going to go crashing down." |
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Wow, that's - for me - a very sobering video.
One goes on these things (I was on that one, more or less exactly a year ago) and treat them like a bus. At least I do. And I don't very often expect to be choppered out.
This year I'm asking questions, nay on this very site, to wit: "is it permissable to take a 22wk infant on a cable car?".
Goodness. Nice little wake up call.
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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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have never seen that cable car so empty - must have been a training exercise
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No, I don't think it was a training exercise. According to the report it was the last descent (as distinct from ascent) of the day, during the ski season, at -27C, for only those (presumably) who'd decided to go up without skis, probably in dimming light: a combination of factors which wouldn't suggest 'rush hour'. I'm surprised the cabin was as busy as it was!
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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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Yeah, none of which is relevant. It could just as easily have failed at maximum capacity, full of mediocre punters. Like me.
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No you cannot take a 22 wk infant on that one due to the height it reaches. We tried to get on it with a 6 month old and grandparents (we we skiing they were carrying daughter in a baby bjorn) and we were laughted (quite literally) out of the queue. Now we know the height it reaches and potential health problems we feel a little but sheepish.... You can only go as far as the mid station in Zermatt... Think from memory the height restriction was 3000 metres (Trockener Steg).
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Yes thank you. No not on that one. A general question about some other ones. Hence 'a cable car' not 'that cable car'. Oh never mind 
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Wow, what an experience...!
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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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Bloody terrifying! 
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We used that one quite a bit just before Xmas - well done for the rescue chaps 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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If the cable car remains in mid air I tend to feel it is more an inconvenience. From what I know about steel cables these things have a safety factor at least 7. That is to say if the cable car is fully laden with the maximum number of passengers at the worst blizzard and the strongest wind condition the cable would still experiencing 1/7 of the stress before it reaches the point where there is a concern structurally.
Being lifted in mid air should not be uncomfortable with skiers who ride chairlifts, especially who have visited Val D'Isere.
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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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Free chopper ride over the mountains? Sounds good to me  Some people pay hundreds for that kind of thing.
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Interesting that they left the paying punters 'dangling' when based on my extensive knowledge of seaside rescue (well from watching it on the box) the sea king boys tend to winch the punters up in to the chopper itself.
Any real experts care to comment on the differences in approach...perhaps the swiss boys were just moving the cargo a few '000 metres...
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You know it makes sense.
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bertie bassett, my guess is that the Swiss helicopter could not carry as many inside the cabin as suspended externally - so evacuation would have taken a lot longer (because more trips would have been required) if they had gone for recovering the evacuees into the helicopter. Plus I don't think anyone was injured, and all seemed well dressed to cope with the short flight.
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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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| bertie bassett wrote: |
| Any real experts care to comment on the differences in approach...perhaps the swiss boys were just moving the cargo a few '000 metres... |
I wouldn't call myself a real expert - more a fake expert - but, yes, the heli looks to have moved the evacuees to the base station of the cablecar (Trockener Steg), which is also at the base of the glacier skiing above Zermatt. There would be no need to take them further, because there are lifts from there back to Zermatt.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Intresting, when the Wengen cablecar was replaced with the new version I watched them practise safety evacuation by helicopter, however in Wengen they use a sort of net in th shape of a bell with a solid base, they bring it to the door and people get inside the bell, lets them take off more people at once I guess and less risk of people slipping out of the strops like they use in Zermatt, but still I would imgine it to be somewhat scary
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| bertie bassett wrote: |
Interesting that they left the paying punters 'dangling' when based on my extensive knowledge of seaside rescue (well from watching it on the box) the sea king boys tend to winch the punters up in to the chopper itself.
Any real experts care to comment on the differences in approach...perhaps the swiss boys were just moving the cargo a few '000 metres... |
I think they use the same choppers for cargo hence the bucket seat arrangement and fixed line setup, these guys know what they are doing with a helicopter, they are used to positioning huge parts of ccar towers so close the bolts fit straight through the holes, a large basket of people hanging off the bottom would have been a walk in the park for those pilots, and a scenario that will be very well practiced..
What a ride though, am I on my own by wanting a go on that.
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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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How reassuring that it was dealt with so efficiently. I couldn't believe what a smooth a ride it seemed to be in the winch - might have been different in high wind.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| ricfrench wrote: |
am I on my own by wanting a go on that
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Me me me me me me me me
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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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Sobering. Been on that cable car dozens of times. Was indeed Trockener Stegg they were dropped at. That's what yer get for going into a skiing area without ski's 
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| Ernst Goldsmith wrote: |
| bertie bassett wrote: |
| Any real experts care to comment on the differences in approach...perhaps the swiss boys were just moving the cargo a few '000 metres... |
I wouldn't call myself a real expert - more a fake expert - but, yes, the heli looks to have moved the evacuees to the base station of the cablecar (Trockener Steg), which is also at the base of the glacier skiing above Zermatt. There would be no need to take them further, because there are lifts from there back to Zermatt. |
Interesting, so after this ordeal is it really the case that they would have just jumped striaght onto another cable car to get 'back home ' to Zermatt ? That would for sure test their nerves. Is it not more likey that they would have travlled down on piste bashers or similar ?
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No wonder all cable car staff were a bit twitchy this last week! There was a day where it was stop/start during my visit, however I knew nothing about this!
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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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| v1cky24 wrote: |
haha.... the webfilter at work has deemed the link 'tasteless'
whatever that might mean :~/ :lol: |
It's on the News of the World site - so probably the site as a whole rather than that particular link.
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I wouldn't describe the News of the World as tasteless - it tastes disgusting.
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