Liftblog.com has the link to the Tramway report. Except for the first few paragraphs, I haven’t read it. Chris above has the Snow Brains good summary of the report.
Suite 1350, Denver, CO 80202 P 303.894.7800 F 303.869.0235
www.colorado.gov/dora/dpo
SUMMARY OF THE COLORADO PASSENGER TRAMWAY SAFETY BOARD
INCIDENT DATE: January 25, 2026
INCIDENT TIME: 11:56 AM
INCIDENT AREA: Vail Resort
NAME OF TRAMWAY: Little Eagle #15
TRAMWAY CPTSB ID: VA-053
TYPE OF TRAMWAY: Fixed Grip Triple Chairlift
OF PASSENGERS INJURED: 0
This report complies with sections 12-150-105(b) and 12-150-115(4) of the Colorado Revised Statutes
(“C.R.S.”) and the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board Rule 23.3, which states “An investigation
of the occurrence may be initiated at the discretion of the Supervisory Tramway Engineering in
agreement with the Board Chair…” following “Any incident from a possible malfunction of a passenger
Tramway in which a person is injured or killed.” This report was prepared in furtherance of the Board’s
duty to investigate and report as set forth in sections 12-150-105(b) and 12-150-115(4), C.R.S. and
Board Rule 23.3, and does not, in and of itself, resolve any pending disciplinary complaints before the
Board.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
On Sunday, January 25, 2026, at 12:12pm, Brooks Beal, Supervisory Tramway Engineer (STE) for the
Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board (CPTSB), was verbally notified by phone call of an incident
by Phil Patterson, Lift Maintenance Director from Vail Resort. Mr. Patterson indicated that he had
been informed that a deropement had occurred at Tower 1 on the Little Eagle #15 Chairlift (VA-053)
resulting in two passengers being ejected from the chair who were identified as uninjured. At that
time, Vail staff were locking out the lift and preparing to begin a rope evacuation of the passengers.
Vail locked out the lift and initiated a rope evacuation at 12:40pm.
Brooks Beal, STE, arrived on site around 4:15pm. Conditions were overcast, snowing and cold,
approximately 6 degrees F. Upon arrival at Vail, the lift was found to be in a powered down and
“locked-out” condition. The lift had not been disturbed after the incident, with the exception of
locking and tagging out the equipment for the evacuation. The rope evacuation had been completed at
1:30 pm. It was reported that 40 passengers were on the ropeway at the time it stopped and had been
evacuated with no injuries.
TRAMWAY INFORMATION
Vail’s “Little Eagle #15” (CPTSB ID VA-053) is a Lift Engineering (YAN) fixed grip triple chairlift which
was originally constructed in 1975 as the Vail Sourdough #14 lift (VA-014). The grips, carriers, and
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support sheave trains were modified in 1990 when the YAN equipment was replaced with Doppelmayr
equipment. During that modification, the hold-down assemblies at the bottom terminal portal were
not modified and remained the original YAN sheave assemblies. The lift was relocated to the current
location in 2007. During the 2007 relocation, the original YAN 8HD hold-down A-frames were modified
to accept Doppelmayr sheave trains.
The lift is a bottom drive, bottom tension installation which has a rated capacity of 1,358 passengers
per hour utilizing 38 chairs at an operating speed of 400 feet/minute. It has 5 towers; Tower 1 is an 8-
sheave depression tower, and all other towers are support towers. Carriers are Doppelmayr Type E
chairs, with an empty carrier weight of 255 lbs. The counterweight at the lower terminal is 31,000 lbs.
