Gondola tower collapses at Whistler resort trapping skiers
THE CANADIAN PRESS
WHISTLER, B.C. - Rescue crews are trying to evacuate passengers stranded after a gondola tower collapsed at the ski resort in Whistler, B.C.
At least a dozen passengers were trapped inside three cars after the tower on the Excalibur gondola on Blackcomb mountain went down around 2:30 p.m. Police say there were no serious injuries, although five people were taken to hospital.
RCMP Sgt. Steve Wright said the fire department was trying to reach the skiers and snowboarders left dangling in the gondolas, which are attached to a long cables that run between towers up the mountain.
"They have their ladder trucks now, they're just setting up," Wright said as daylight was fading Tuesday afternoon. "We have victim services here with some of the families that have people on the gondolas."
One resort employee, who didn't want to give her name, said she saw one gondola car swinging wildly from side to side after the tower went down and another flip upside down. She said it didn't appear there were any passengers in the car that flipped.
The B.C. ambulance service immediately dispatched six ambulances and an air ambulance following the accident. Four ambulances and the air ambulance remained on standby at the scene.
Wright said the accident took place near Fitzsimmons Creek, between Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains.
He said a third gondola was left resting on top of a bus shelter at the base of the mountain.
"No gondolas have fallen. It's just the tower has collapsed partially. The line has sagged," Wright said. "That's why right now we only have two gondola cars affected."
Wright said there doesn't appear to be any danger of the gondola support falling further.
"There's a truck supporting the collapsed tower now."
It's not the first ski lift accident at the resort, which will play host to the alpine events at the 2010 Winter Games. All of the Games events will take place on Whistler mountain, not Blackcomb where the accident occurred.
A crowd gathered at the base of the mountain as word spread of the accident.
Many feared the collapse had occurred on the new Peak-to-Peak lift, connecting the peak of Whistler mountain to the peak of Blackcomb mountain. It's the highest in the world at 436 metres above the ground.
Victoria mom Moira Pittam feared the worst when she heard of the accident. Her daughter, 20-year-old Aja, was skiing at the Whistler resort on Tuesday.
"I called her and she returned my call immediately, thank God," she said. "She's fine, yes. I was concerned obviously, because she was up there."
She hadn't even heard about the collapse, said Pittam.
Amber Turnau, a spokeswoman for Whistler Blackcomb, said the tower that collapsed on the lower half of the lift. She said the cause is under investigation.
She said Tower 4, the one that went down, is only a couple of blocks from the gondola's start.
"The upper section of the gondola is independent of the lower section and was cleared of guests and shut down," she said.
It's not the first ski lift accident at Whistler resort.
A Dec. 23, 1995, accident on the Quicksilver ski lift killed two men and injured nine other people.
The high-speed lift was ferrying skiers to the top of a run when one chair slipped on a cable and slammed into another, setting off a cascade that sent four chairs crashing into the bush and rocks three storeys below.
A coroner's report said the accident was a result of systemic failure, noting problems with the lift system's grip mechanisms should have been detected in advance.
And in January 2006, two empty gondola cars at the Sunshine Village ski resort near Banff, Alta., plummeted to the ground after being dislodged from their cables by high winds. No one was injured.
