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Boy's fall from chairlift broken by Snowmass Ski Patrol quick thinking

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
An 8-year-old New Zealand boy who slipped from a chairlift and was left dangling 8m above the ground has been saved by quick-thinking Aspen ski patrollers. They used a cushioned safety pad from lift tower to break his fall. The boy was riding the lift with his parents when he began falling out. The boy's parents clung onto him to stop him completely falling from the chair until the lift was stopped.
...The family's chair stopped near a lift tower, with the boy dangling above an 8m drop. Five ski patrol members heard the call for help, scrambled to the lift tower, unhooked the cushioned safety pad and positioned it under the boy. The parents then let go of the boy, and he fell safely on to the pad.
Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/4528061/Kiwi-boy-in-daring-chairlift-rescue
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Quote:

Five ski patrol members heard the call for help, scrambled to the lift tower, unhooked the cushioned safety pad and positioned it under the boy.

Shocked must have seemed like a long few minutes for the parents - and the boy.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
A propos the other thread, even his own parents couldn't keep the child on! Shocked
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I wonder if it was one of those crazy american chair lifts with no safety bar?
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Riding chair lifts is quite an art at times, I'm surprised we don't actually see more stories like this in the news.
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Barratschamonix wrote:
Riding chair lifts is quite an art at times, I'm surprised we don't actually see more stories like this in the news.


I suspect the reason we don't see more stories is that resorts do not like to broadcast them. Those US chairliftts without saftey bars scare the cr*p out of me, I'm sure there are incidents with them but they do not get reported.
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Is it not a bit worrying if they have cushioned safety pads at the ready all the time? I've never seen a lift with any. That must've been one short chairlift for 5 lifties to notice and get to anything that's going on on the lift...
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Mounta1nGoat wrote:
Is it not a bit worrying if they have cushioned safety pads at the ready all the time? I've never seen a lift with any. That must've been one short chairlift for 5 lifties to notice and get to anything that's going on on the lift...


The cushion was on a lift tower; they are on virtually every lift tower that it is possible to ski to to stop people colliding with the metal work. So, no, it is not worrying at all. Just quick thinking on the part of the patrollers.
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Mounta1nGoat, sah, most chair lifts will actually have a large piece of heavy duty fabric with handles cut to serve this purpose (for when there aren't any handy crash pads to use instead.
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parlor wrote:
Mounta1nGoat, sah, most chair lifts will actually have a large piece of heavy duty fabric with handles cut to serve this purpose (for when there aren't any handy crash pads to use instead.


I've seen these at the base of chairs in N America, never seen them on pylons; from the article this definitly seems to be the crash padding that was used.
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sah wrote:
I wonder if it was one of those crazy american chair lifts with no safety bar?


the article said it was a 6 person chair, so it would definitely have a safety bar/foot rest. 90+% of the local lifts have safety bars. The only chairs I see here in Colorado without safety bars are the very old double lifts.
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MEfree30 wrote:
sah wrote:
I wonder if it was one of those crazy american chair lifts with no safety bar?


the article said it was a 6 person chair, so it would definitely have a safety bar/foot rest. 90+% of the local lifts have safety bars. The only chairs I see here in Colorado without safety bars are the very old double lifts.


Ah, thanks for that. I have to admit I had only seen bar-less chairs on older lifts. Glad to hear that now ones are safer. I guess this article proves that nothing is 100% safe...
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Poor lad, glad he was ok.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Is it me or do most, if not all, of these 'slipping off chair' stories seem to come from the USA?
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
^I suspect it's more likely to get reported in America and being English Speaking we are more likely to pick up on it?
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Well
All's well that ends well.

I can understand how this can happen.
I have used chairs in France where kids with the ski schools are trusted to whichever adult happens to be waiting in line.
More than once I've had to grab one by the scruff or their waste band and haul them safely aboard.
On other occasions a sharp 'ASSEZ TOI' is needed to settle them in their chair.
In these occasions, however there has always been an instructor going last to watch and shout ARRETEZ if things don't look good.

Glad they went on to enjoy more skiing.
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Ghost Puppy (then 6 or 7) fell of a chair in Les Gets. I caught him but couldn't pull him back on. Liftie got under him and caught him for me.

I saw a kid fall of a chair in Alpe d' Huez as well, dropped 3m into deepish snow. He was fine but looked somewhat shocked. He was about 12.
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If lifts feel unsafe you behave more carefully.
Such falling off stories are a good way of making people more careful too.
Chair lifts just need to go low enough so kids can get on in the first place without us hurting our backs to hoik them on
I like the French attitude to kids - that the sensible will survive. If we cosset too much evolution won't get a look in and we'll develop into a species of imbeciles who don't know how to look after ourselves.
Basic safety levels are good all the same - such as the chair lift staying up!
Smile
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I'm surprised that two adults who were holding an 8-year old couldn't pull him up.
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8 metres is a chuffing long way. I have no problem with heights, but if someone asked me to jump 8 metres into a crash pad, I'd tell them to stick it. I've stood on the edge of several 8 metre high buildings (a lot of our warehouses were that height) and you wouldn't get me within 6 feet of the edge standing up.

Another nail in the coffin for "would you just look after this nice young lad on the chairlift please" from the ski school...
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laundryman, they may have been elderly grandparents, and the kid could have been 16st.

There's an unmanned 2-seater 'black' chair in Norquay that just keeps whizzing round, and there's a sign saying 'experts only'. I had the option to double-up, but I chickened out and did it solo. There are no staff nearby to catch us adults if we fail to sit properly. Crying or Very sad
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sah wrote:
MEfree30 wrote:
sah wrote:
I wonder if it was one of those crazy american chair lifts with no safety bar?


the article said it was a 6 person chair, so it would definitely have a safety bar/foot rest. 90+% of the local lifts have safety bars. The only chairs I see here in Colorado without safety bars are the very old double lifts.


Ah, thanks for that. I have to admit I had only seen bar-less chairs on older lifts. Glad to hear that now ones are safer. I guess this article proves that nothing is 100% safe...


But don't forget that most American chairs go up with the bar raised, even when it is installed. I've got used to it now, but when I first started skiing there it frightened the brown out of me, and I used to pull it down, invariably getting grumpy looks from everyone on the lift, of any age. It's weird, given that they're so fussy in other ways, but they really don't bother with the bar.

On the other hand, next time you're on a lift in heavy wind, take your skis off the footrest and arms off the bar. Now count the number of times you actually slide far enough that it needs to be there. Answer zero. On the other hand, slide your bum forward, and you'll fall out, bar or no bar. More so if you're small.
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We have just returned from Aspen/Snowmass two days ago and can report that we didn't,t discover any lifts that didn't have a bar on them. However the American customers were pretty 50/50 about using them. My wife and I lower them every time and the chaps we were on the lifts with always accepted our English ways!
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