Ski Resorts
More on the Excalibur Gondola Tower Collapse in Whistler
Well, that was quick. Almost everything is back online, and the source of the problem has already been discovered.
According to Whistler Blackcomb, here is what’s going on: both mountains are expected to be fully operational by mid-day following lift inspections by the British Columbia Safety Authority (BCSA), which follow inspections by lift staff at Whistler Blackcomb. The exception is the Excalibur Gondola, which failed yesterday. It will remain closed.
The culprit, the resort said, were a few factors related to ice-build up:
“Several factors converged to cause the tower failure. The structure of the tower is such that two parts are spliced together. Water had seeped into the tower which had turned to ice with the recent extreme cold temperatures. The ice build-up caused the tower splice to rupture, an extremely unusual situation referred to as ‘ice-jacking’.”
The resort also provided a summary of events:
- The incident, described as “a structural failure on tower 4 of the Excalibur Gondola” which “caused the gondola to cease operation”, occurred at about 2:30.
- “A number” of gondola cabins dropped 30 feet.
- Two cabins hit the ground, injuring several people.
- 12 people were treated at Whistler Medical Clinic, and all left on their own accord later that evening.
- 53 people were evacuated.
- The evacuation was complete by 5:51.
You can read the whole statement here.
For those of you not too familiar with Blackcomb’s Excalibur gondola and the terrain it serves, check out the graphic accompanying this article at The Globe and Mail. You can also catch a glimpse of the loading station using the Village webcam. Based on my own experience at Blackcomb I would imagine it is the most popular way to get up Blackcomb Mountain. According to Whistler Blackcomb, the lift was installed in 1994.
Several people have already asked me, “will this change your trip plans?” The answer is a resounding absolutely not. In fact, I would guess this is probably the safest it’s been to ride a gondola in quite some time; I would think that Intrawest, as well as other resort operators, is now scrutinizing every gondola tower on their hills. Still, I will certainly think about it every time I step into another gondola or sit on another lift.
Discussion
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Still. This is scary.
It’s funny, the other day my friend was saying he wanted to ride the Peak to Peak. And my other friend said, “You probably don’t want to do that, let it run a couple months while they sort out any failures etc”. My friend argued that the Peak to Peak was less likely to fail than the older gondolas.
How true that turned out to be!
Anyway, I’m still going to go to Whistler. Still going to ride the gondola. This sort of thing happens everywhere all the time.
I’m just glad no one got seriously hurt, and hopefully this doesn’t mar the upcoming Olympics at all. (Last thing we need is the province to do another “investigation” and end up spending a billion dollars on gondola tune-ups or something)..
Hey, if gondola tune-ups can make that damn Whistler gondola ride a little faster I’m all for it! *grin*
My gondola needs a tune up