Holy Shit, skier death on Vail chairlift

[AK47bp]

That’s horrifying


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[powdork]

I still don't understand the mechanics of how it all happened. I get how he was asphyxiated, but not why he wasn't physically on the chair.

[TahoeBC]

“ Resort guests tried unsuccessfully to form a human pyramid to push up Varnish’s legs and feet, the report said, noting the operator initially said he could not reverse the lift without permission.”

Fuck permission, unbelievable

[nickel]

To be fair, running a lift backwards is not the matter of 10 seconds work in most cases. It requires at least a couple overrides and for the top station lifty to be aware.

Furthermore, people have been known to jump off the lift if it starts going backwards. I kid you not.

Lastly, most lifties are not trained to do this for the reasons above as well as others. They're glorified watchmen and women. They put the maze up and take it down, tend to the ramp and slow/stop the chair as needed. Anything more generally involves them calling for help. You can definitely make an argument that it shouldn't be that way and in many places (yurp?) it isn't that way at all. But that's the reality here.

Sucks for all involved but especially the guy who died and the underpaid/undertrained lifty who just got told it's his fault a man died. Heavy.

[Bunion 2020]

^^^ Thank you for saving me the trouble of writing that. At smaller areas many lift ops have been there for several years and have such training. At the Walmart's of skiing where they have 100+ lift ops and are turning them over constantly, what you described is reality.

[Core Shot]

Well said Nickel.

[snowaddict91]

I still don't understand the mechanics of how it all happened. I get how he was asphyxiated, but not why he wasn't physically on the chair.

Same. I'm having trouble putting together the chain of events to leave him hanging.

And well said Nickel.

[mmmm...pow!]

Saw somewhere in another article (don't remember where) that the seat was flipped up. The guy and his friend had to flip it down themselves, which caused him to end up outside the chair where he got snagged. This was an eyewitness account from someone right behind them in line.
Sounds like the lifty was doing his job - shoveling snow. I've never been a lifty, but it seems they do an awful lot of shoveling and raking, I'm guessing so it appears to their boss that they are busy. So it's not like he was just staring at his phone. Was there another lifty down there? Someone should have been paying attention.

[paulster2626]

Saw somewhere in another article (don't remember where) that the seat was flipped up. The guy and his friend had to flip it down themselves, which caused him to end up outside the chair where he got snagged. This was an eyewitness account from someone right behind them in line.
Sounds like the lifty was doing his job - shoveling snow. I've never been a lifty, but it seems they do an awful lot of shoveling and raking, I'm guessing so it appears to their boss that they are busy. So it's not like he was just staring at his phone. Was there another lifty down there? Someone should have been paying attention.

Been a lifty. 90% of my shovelling and raking was to just keep myself busy, and I just liked to maintain a pristine loading/unloading area for my own personal aesthetic reasons. There are a lot of sloooow hours running lifts. Lifty may not have been paying attention, but those chairs get off the ground quickly and it's not like any lifty anywhere is standing by the stop button watching every chair intently. Freak accident, and the blame (if any) is on many, IMO.

YSK if you're ever getting on a lift and you see some fucked up shit going down, you can just hit the stop button yourself. The yellow is the 'gentle stop' button. Red is the 'jerky sudden stop' one. See something, do something, or something like that.

[m2711c]

lift still gonna travel a ways after the stop is hit.

[k2skier112]

Been a lifty. 90% of my shovelling and raking was to just keep myself busy, and I just liked to maintain a pristine loading/unloading area for my own personal aesthetic reasons. There are a lot of sloooow hours running lifts. Lifty may not have been paying attention, but those chairs get off the ground quickly and it's not like any lifty anywhere is standing by the stop button watching every chair intently. Freak accident, and the blame (if any) is on many, IMO.

YSK if you're ever getting on a lift and you see some fucked up shit going down, you can just hit the stop button yourself. The yellow is the 'gentle stop' button. Red is the 'jerky sudden stop' one. See something, do something, or something like that.

If a guest hits a stop button, or any of the controls on a lift, I bet the resort would ban you for life

[k2skier112]

lift still gonna travel a ways after the stop is hit.

A fixed double travels 25-28 feet. Quite a ways away from the loading area

[SKIP IN7RO]

If a guest hits a stop button, or any of the controls on a lift, I bet the resort would ban you for life

That should be the last thing to worry about...possibly save a life>banned for life.

[Garfield3d]

A fixed double travels 25-28 feet. Quite a ways away from the loading area

25-28 feet after hitting the slow-stop button?

That should be the last thing to worry about...possibly save a life>banned for life.

True, surely anyone would hit the button once they knew someone was about to die (assuming they're familiar with where the button is located). But, part of the problem is the time it takes to assess what's happening and recognize your options. If someone has to consider getting banned for life as a possible punishment, then they're probably going to wait until they can assess serious bodily harm before hitting the stop button. That could add a pretty important delay that might be the difference.

[paulster2626]

If a guest hits a stop button, or any of the controls on a lift, I bet the resort would ban you for life

Not if it's because their employee isn't paying attention, they wouldn't.

I'm not suggesting hitting it willy-nilly, it would be a rare not-even-once-in-a-lifetime event. But honestly it's an emergency stop, not expressly for "employee use only". Plus, the lifty working is going to fix whatever 'holy shit' situation is happening and then restart the thing anyway. Reporting some jerry who hit the button and then trying to deal with your raging ass while someone with authority comes up on a snowmobile in 10-15 minutes is way above their pay grade.

Just, if you see something fucked-up happening, don't be afraid to act. It could be me up there - do it for the Paulster!

[m2711c]

+1 - Well said.

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

Yeah, if a faceless corp. is going to ban me for hitting the stop while trying to save some motherfucker's life, they can have their slope and fuck right off.

[smartyiak]

What’s going on here? I looked at multiple stories...where is this? What happened? What a weird story,

https://www.nydailynews.com/snyde/ny...mnm-story.html


Sent from my iPad using TGR Forums

[skuff]

What’s going on here? I looked at multiple stories...where is this? What happened? What a weird story,

https://www.nydailynews.com/snyde/ny...mnm-story.html


Sent from my iPad using TGR Forums

Sounds like it was at Aspen. That was one of my biggest concerns when my kids were small.

[frorider]

What’s going on here? I looked at multiple stories...where is this? What happened? What a weird story,

https://www.nydailynews.com/snyde/ny...mnm-story.html


Sent from my iPad using TGR Forums

I was on a site that had inside info: https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...k-Thread/page7