By Clare Ogilvie and Andrew Mitchell
Whistler Blackcomb went from the highest high with the launch of the Peak 2 Peak gondola on Dec. 12 to the lowest of the lows when Tower 4 on the Excalibur Gondola sheared off on Dec. 16, injuring 12 and trapping 53 riders for up to three and a half hours.
An investigation is underway by Whistler-Blackcomb and the B.C. Safety Authority, but it is now believed that water seeped into the tower and froze in the extremely cold temperatures. The expanding ice caused the top of the tower to sheer off at the flanges that connect the upper and lower parts of the tower, which were bolted and welded together.
The process is known as “ice-jacking” and is similar to what occurs when pipes freeze or lake ice shears due to expanding forces. There has only been one other case of ice-jacking on a ski lift, after a tower burst at Silver Mountain in Idaho in 2006. That incident happened at night and nobody was injured.
Whistler Blackcomb is not sure how water got into the tower, as it was supposed to be sealed. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that the lower tower was partially filled with concrete to provide more dampening, which allowed the water to creep up to the connection point.
The incident happened at roughly 2:25 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon as many skiers and boarders were downloading the mountain. Cabins dropped up to 10 metres, one coming to rest over Fitzsimmons Creek. Another cabin dropped onto a bus shelter, shattering the windows and damaging the roof.
Two cabins further up the line hit the ground in a parking area, which is where most of the injuries were believed to have taken place. A house was also damaged by the cable, which swept a chimney off the roof.
Graeme Bell believes he is just lucky to walk away after the gondola he was travelling in plunged to the ground.
“I was downloading on Excalibur Gondola at the end of the day and I just heard a big metal bending noise and all of a sudden our cabin was plummeting to the ground,” he said outside the Whistler Health Care Centre where he had been treated for his injuries.
“Our cabin bounced off the ground, our window popped out upon impact, the bench collapsed, my finger got broken and my head was banged.
“It was bouncing up and down for a couple of seconds and then it came to a stop, and we jumped out the window that had popped out as we were only about three feet off the ground at that point.
“It happened pretty fast and when it was over we gathered ourselves and decided to get out of the cabin, and then we started swearing.”
Tower 4 is just a few hundred metres from the village terminus of the two-stage lift that runs from the village up Blackcomb.
By 5:51 p.m. all 53 guests trapped on the gondolas were evacuated. The most serious injury is a fractured vertebrae, although all people were released by the Whistler Health Care Centre Tuesday evening.
Bell, 26, who has lived in Whistler for six years teaching skiing, working for Outdoor Adventures and as a cook at a local restaurant, sustained a level one concussion in the incident as well as a broken finger.
“It could have been worse,” he said, adding that a friend he was riding with was still being x-rayed as he spoke.
“We were very lucky to be able to walk away from that. Our cabin dropped 40 feet and bounced off the ground, pretty crazy.
“It is definitely not going to stop me from skiing. Skiing is my life, but I don’t know if I am gong to ride the Excalibur for a while.”
Lara Christensen’s stranded gondola was just a few feet off the ground, just a few metres from the station in Whistler Village.
“I’m about to have a panic attack,” she called out to the growing crowds who had gathered to witness the drama as it unfolded.
“There was a really big jolt. Then a massive one, then all the cars went crazy,” said the Australian who is here to work for the season.
Within minutes of the accident emergency responders were on the scene with ambulances and fire trucks working out how to reach those who might need help. Ski patrol and Search and Rescue were also on hand.
Roads and sidewalks were closed in both directions, as was Whistler’s main public transit bus loop, which runs under the gondola. Occupants of the gondola sitting on the bus shelter climbed to safety along a fire truck rescue ladder at about 4 p.m., once Whistler Blackcomb had stabilized the upper tower section and cable to prevent any movement on the line.
Anyone who could not be reached with emergency equipment was taken out with rope harnesses.
A full investigation by Whistler Blackcomb and the B.C Safety
Authority is currently underway to determine the exact of cause of the failure,
and the source of the water. They also conducted inspections of 17 or 18 other
lifts on Whistler and Blackcomb that use the same tower configuration, although
only a few lifts on either mountain have concrete in the tower tubes that would
allow enough water to build up.
Representatives from Dopplemayr, the manufacturer of most of the lifts on Whistler and Blackcomb, including the Excalibur, will also be part of the investigation.
“Preliminary inspection by B.C. safety officers has determined
that this was an isolated incident of water contamination in a tower tube which
caused a tower joint flange to fail due to ice jacking,” Greg Paddon, safety
manager from the B.C. Safety Authority, said in a release.
“There is no justification at this time that other
installations operating at Whistler Blackcomb have been affected by a similar
failure; the B.C. Safety Authority does not anticipate rescinding operating
permits on any lifts currently operating at Whistler Blackcomb other than the
upper and lower Excalibur Gondola.”
Whistler-Blackcomb lift maintenance staff and the B.C. Safety
Authority worked through the night and into the morning to inspect other lift
towers on the mountains, some of which opened on time at 8:30 a.m. As of 9:45
a.m. on Wednesday most lifts were running on Whistler, while available lifts on
Blackcomb were on standby and opened later in the morning.
The Excalibur Gondola was installed 1994 and goes through a
B.C. Safety Authority check every year to be re-licenced. The Excalibur was
last checked in October and passed inspection.
Doug Forseth, senior vice president of operations, says the first priority is to determine the source of the water, and ensure the safety of other lifts. He also said he was grateful that injuries were minor, and acknowledged the need to assure the public that their lifts, and all lifts in the industry, are safe.
“We have to work hard to restore confidence for people for who it has been damaged,” he said. “I have a great belief in the same system we have in place.”
Forseth said the investigation in the Excalibur incident will likely change maintenance and inspections for ski areas around the world, as it happened on a common type of lift tower.
One of Whistler Blackcomb’s main headaches has been dispelling false information. Some early media stories said the incident occurred on the Peak 2 Peak gondola, and that cabins detached from the cable. Other stories suggest the lift is somehow involved in presenting the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The intention is to keep the lift open during the Games but all Olympic alpine events will be on Whistler Mountain.
Many media organizations also brought up the fatal Quicksilver accident that occurred in 1995, which was later attributed to a combination of factors, including a faulty clamp system that eventually ruined the company. At the time Whistler and Blackcomb were owned separately, and the Whistler-Blackcomb entity did not exist.
It is not clear how long it will be until the lift is operating again. The upper section of the gondola could be operating by the end of the week if the other towers pass inspection.
The lift is insured, although Forseth said Whistler Blackcomb’s deductibles are high and there will be some costs to their operational budget. He could not put a dollar figure on repairing the lift tower and other damage.
The accident comes at a difficult time for the resort, which is battling to attract tourists in a global economic downturn. Less than a week ago Whistler Blackcomb staff were exultant with the opening of the iconic Peak 2 Peak Gondola which links the two ski areas in the alpine.
Asked if he was worried how this event might impact the resort
a somber Forseth said Tuesday: “Of course. You are always concerned about what
the public perception is.
“My worry always is that people make their own stories up
without knowing the facts, so we need to get the facts out and so we can talk
about it on that basis.”
With Christmas around the corner, Whistler Blackcomb has also
given some preliminary thought to operations. If the upper section of the
gondola is cleared to run they will use all 1,500 parking stalls available in
the Base II area, as well as push more people to utilize the Fitzsimmons Chair
on Whistler and the Peak 2 Peak to access Blackcomb.
At press time there were no plans to change spring operations,
which will involve keeping Blackcomb open until June and closing Whistler after
the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival in mid-April.
Forseth said he was happy with the response, and that the only
way he could see it improved would be to have a 25-tonne crane parked nearby.
He gave high marks to Whistler Fire Services, RCMP, ski patrol, lift
maintenance and others involved in evacuation.
When asked about the swing in emotion after the Peak 2 Peak
opening to the Excalibur incident, Forseth said he would rather be opening Peak
2 Peak again but that they would get through it.
“We’re going to be here, we have a lot to be thankful for, this is a great company and this is a great resort. We will not roll over and die, we’re going to keep going.”
“It is just so awful to have this happen after the amazing opening of the Peak 2 Peak,” Ontario’s Sara Miller said Tuesday as she rubbed her hands together in the -12 C degree weather.
“I’ve never heard of anything like this before. It is just lucky no one was killed.”
Three snowboarders from California, Michael, Danny and Dallas, had just boarded the upper section of the gondola when it shut down. They were informed that the top half would not be running, and after about an hour the lift resumed and brought them back to Base II, where buses were waiting to take them to the bottom.
“It was pretty cold actually,” said Danny. “I was anyway, playing flapjacks the whole way down (slapping his body for warmth).”
“I actually feel kind of sad for the gondola,” he added. “We’ll probably ski tomorrow, but we’ll have to find a new way up Blackcomb.”
“We’ll ski, but there’s no way we’re going to go on the Peak 2 Peak after the Blackcomb Gondola breaks like this,” said Dallas.
