A large gust of wind in Carrabasset Valley, Maine, brought down a ski lift at the Sugarloaf ski area. 5 ski lift seats fell 30 to forty feet. Over 100 skiers are stranded by the collapsed lift. Ski patrol and emergency reaction at Sugarloaf ski resort in Maine are evacuating the stranded skiers individually using climbing harnesses. I imagine the resort will probably take out a huge payday loan to fix their lift.
Sugarloaf ski lift failure
A huge gust of wind hit the Sugarloaf ski area at 10:45 a.m. on Tues. The cables derailed with the Spillway East Slope lift. This threw 5 chairs 30 to 40 feet down to the snow, injuring several skiers. The ski lift wouldn’t move. That meant there were about one hundred skiers stuck. Wind gusts at the Sugarloaf ski area had reached 20 to 30 miles per hour this morning. The temperature is hovering around 8 to 10 degrees, making cold the next large risk to the trapped skiers.
Small traumas occur at Sugarloaf with accident
There were a few skiers at Sugarloaf that ended up getting hurt. None of it was significant though. Sugarloaf was at a “condition yellow” according to Emergency Management for Franklin County, Maine which means there were no deaths or severe injuries. The ski patrol got some help from emergency management crews. This helped get the Sugarloaf Spillway lift clear of skiers. The guess was that it would be 90 minutes to two hrs before all skiers were taken off the lift. That was the estimate though.
About evacuation from the Sugarloaf ski lift
Ropes and harnesses were used to do the Sugarloaf ski lift evacuation. Teams are throwing ropes over the broken-down ski lift and harnessing skiers to slide down. They are describing the procedure as “much like rock climbing” and are belaying skiers off the lift, skis and all. The broken lift will take days or weeks to repair while the Spillway East can be shut down within the Sugarloaf ski resort for a while. This news is just probably the most recent heard about the East Coast blizzard which is doing much more all along the coast. Power outages, shut down cities and snarled traffic is seen throughout.
Articles cited
WMTV
wmtw.com/r/26299543/detail.html
CNN
news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/28/skiers-fall-from-chairlift-at-maine-resort/?npt=NP1
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