Whistler Gondola Tower Collapses

Lori Culbert And Mary Frances Hill And Jennifer Miller, Canwest News Service/Calgary Herald, December 17, 2008

Ten people have been injured after skiers and snowboarders were evacuated Tuesday from gondolas that tumbled when a support tower at 2010 Olympic site Whistler-Blackcomb snapped in half.

None of the injuries are believed to be life-threatening, said Whistler RCMP Sgt. Steve Wright.

More than 50 stranded skiers and snowboarders at the resort were rescued. The evacuation took several hours on one of the coldest days this season.

The accident happened on the Excalibur Gondola, which carries skiers to the top of Blackcomb Mountain from Whistler Village, which is co-hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics along with Vancouver.

The organizing committee for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics is not planning on using the Excalibur, said spokeswoman Renee Smith-Valade.

Rescued snowboarder Logan Swayze said when his gondola car stopped abruptly, passengers "didn't think anything of it at first. . . . But the time drew on." Only after he made a phone call to a friend did he learn that a tower had collapsed.

After an hour's wait, Swayze's car was moved slowly to the base, where he saw fire and ambulance crews stretching ladders to the cars to bring skiers to the ground.

"We saw a lift tower had broken in half and the gondola was hanging. There were still people in the bottom half" of the gondola, he said.

There was a delay before anyone could be taken off as rescue workers had to secure the fallen tower, said Doug Forseth, a spokesman with Whistler-Blackcomb.

Forseth said no one yet knows why the tower snapped.
None of the gondola cars came off the cable. One of the cars came to rest on a bus shelter, and fire officials using a fire truck's hydraulic ladder began unloading the passengers from that one first.

In all, 15 to 20 cars on the lower base of the gondola were stranded.

© The Calgary Herald 2008