Skiers forced to rappel from Kirkwood chairlift
By Kathryn Reed
For the second week in a row Kirkwood Mountain Resort ski patrollers were tested. Saturday skiers had to evacuate Cornice chairlift because it derailed.
No one was injured in the afternoon incident that took nearly two hours for everyone to rappel from the lift to the slope.
Resort spokesman Michael Dalzell said no one was injured when the lift, which goes to the top of the mountain, came to an abrupt stop at 1:30pm April 7.
Last Sunday it was an inbound avalanche that caused the entire resort to close for the day.
Dalzell said crews on Saturday night were still inspecting the cable.
“We’re not likely to spin the chairlift (Sunday),” Dalzell told Lake Tahoe News.
Ski patrol simultaneously worked both ends of the chairlift to bring people down. Dalzell said everyone was calm during the evacuation.
He did not know what the highest point was for someone to rappel down, but this is an advanced lift that in places is at least 50 feet off the ground in places. Dalzell also didn’t know how many people had to be evacuated.
The cause of the derailment was the air bag from the terrain park being launched by a gust of wind into the cable of Chair 6. The air bag is something people can jump into as they learn tricks in the park. This is the first season it has been used at the resort.
don’t drug test the crew that set up the air bag, you may not like what you find. it is called “Kirkweed” afterall. Vail has a lot to fix over there.
Haunted Kirkwood–An avalanch closing the lifts for a couple of hours is predictable. But the power house burning down, many,many stops of chair 6 do to other power issues or whatever and now the just purchased air bag blowing into the lift cable and de-railing it. Is Kirkwood haunted? Is Vail buying a mountain valley ski resort inhabited by nasty munchkins? Pretty freakish stuff happens at The Woody!
Wow – Cornice really IS an advanced lift if guests had to rappel off. Kirkwood is so hardcore!
At other resorts guests usually get lowered by patrol.
the air bag is 100′ x 100′
the K factor
the accident was way more serious then this article makes it sound
as I told you before the Resort is a ship with a hole in it’s side
I heard this year it was “shroomwood” as well as kirkweed
Haunted–
“The airbag traveled underneath Chair 5, but did not make contact with the lift according to eyewitness statements. One lift operator described the airbag’s movement as a hovering motion.”
See, it is haunted, or was this a “shroomed” operator?
Hola to you all,
We did have to close Chair 6 yesterday as reported. We have reopened Chair 6 this morning with 100% of our terrain open.
We did evac chair 6 yesterday and our Patrol had the lift evacuated 100% in 1.5hrs. There were no injuries, no “twirling chairs”… Our Airbag feature pulled from the moorings and did drift into Chair 6. We will address and review the procedures we have in place to secure the Airbag in place.. Thanks to Patrol & Lift operations crews that responded quickly, safely to evacuate Chair 6.
Stay Thirsty my friends,
Coop
Ten years with a Season Pass, with weekends and holidays,Kirkwood was the best.
Sorry to read some of the above responses
Kirkwood is the best, and since no one was injured, might as well have some fun with it. Great to see chair 6 was up and running again today. I have been sking at The Woody for 25 years and it remains the best. Thanks for all the updates Coop, here and on facebook.