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Whistler Gondola Collapse Traps 53 In Mid-Air

After a support tower snapped in half at about 2:30 pm Tuesday, 30 gondola cars on Whistler's Excalibur lift were stuck in mid-air, most dangling about 30 feet above the ground, including one perilously stuck over a frigid creek. At least 13 people suffered minor injuries, but a crane was quickly brought in to stabilize the lift as skiers were rescued one-by-one by fire truck ladder. Everyone was safely back on the ground by 6 pm.

The lift, which was built in 1994, gets a safety check every year, Whistler says. Tuesday night and into this morning, mountain staff and British Columbia Safety Authority officials were out rechecking every lift at the resort. While skiing is scheduled to resume as usual today, the Excalibur lift will remain closed.

What caused the failure? Whistler's latest statement:

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."

But there's still one very, uh, urgent question that remains unanswered: What happens if you need to hit the head while stuck on a ski lift for more than three hours?

Related Stories:
· Whistler Blackcomb Operations to Resume Following BC Safety Authority Secondary Inspection [Official Site]
· Gondola Tower Collapses at Whistler [AP, via MSNBC]

[Photo: somenice]