NewEnglandSkier13 Before the lift incident, there was good skiing at Big Squaw. Because of an issue with the auxillary engine, they didn't get the triple going until around 11:15. Groomed trails had excellent packed powder and ungroomed terrain had about 3 inches of light powder on top of a deep base. Every trail was open and Saint John was yet again my favorite. It's such a unique and fun trail, I can never get enough of it. I was riding the triple around 1:00 when I noticed chairs coming down which had slid into each other. About 2 minutes later the lift stopped. We were told that there was a partial derailment on the downhill side near the summit (likely tower 9 or 10). I'm not sure what caused the chairs to slide into each other or why the lift didn't stop immediately. Maybe they were catching in something or hitting a tower. Everyone was evacuated by rope within an hour and the staff did a great job. They had three different teams evacuating people. We were given vouchers to use later in the season. We'll see what the issue ends up being that caused this, but I really hope that they're able to reopen this season. The timing right before school vacation was not good.
ciscokid Snowjournalist of the year! Was this your first lift evacuation Sam? Is that 3rd picture Exterminator?
NewEnglandSkier13 Snowjournalist of the year! Was this your first lift evacuation Sam? Is that 3rd picture Exterminator? It was my first real one, but I've participated in training at Bradford & BMOM. Yes, that's Exterminator with my first tracks down it. It's a fun run!
TomWhite In college I was a ski patrol trainee at a small area near Penn State. We did chair evac from the tallest point of the chair. We threw the rope over the haul rope. Sam, do you do that from the high point of the triple at Black Mt.? You must have have to throw a weighted clothes line or similar first. I could never throw a bull rope that high.
NewEnglandSkier13 In college I was a ski patrol trainee at a small area near Penn State. We did chair evac from the tallest point of the chair. We threw the rope over the haul rope. Sam, do you do that from the high point of the triple at Black Mt.? You must have have to throw a weighted clothes line or similar first. I could never throw a bull rope that high. They usually do training a little bit below the super high point at Black. They use a weight on the end of the line to throw it over. At Squaw, they used a handheld tennis ball launcher like you might use to throw a ball for a dog and they also had a gun of sorts which used an explosion to fire the line over the haul rope.
