Stuck at the Bush

[SnoBrdr]

WARREN — Markell Ripps, 27, of Hanover N.H. said she was on the Heaven’s Gate lift at the Sugarbush Resort Saturday afternoon when it ground to a halt.

“We were two thirds up the mountain when the chair stopped. After a minute it went a little bit and stopped again,” she said.

These kinds of stalls are normal at any ski resort, Ripps said. But then, she and two friends on her chair, and everybody else sat. And sat. The problem turned out to be more extensive than somebody’s small stumble.

It turns out a flange broke on the lift, which serves expert and intermediate trails on the resort’s Lincoln Peak, said Patrick Brown, the communications manager for Sugarbush.

The resort evacuated the 132 people on the lift during the two-hour long incident, which began shortly before 2 p.m. Saturday. Nobody was injured, Brown said.

To get everyone off the lift, Sugarbush ski patrol used a rope system to bring a sort of wooden chair with a metal part for people to hold onto. Ripps said the ski patrol instructed them to tie themselves onto the device with an orange rope that was attached to it. Then the patrol lowered people down.

“I was a little bit nervous, because I didn’t know what to expect,” Ripps said of the experience. “But the lift operators and patrol were very supportive,” she said.

Sugarbush workers positioned themselves at scattered spots along the triple lift, using several of the rescue chairs to lower people to the slope. The whole process took about two hours. Ripps said she was among the last people off the stalled chairlift.

Temperatures were near 30 degrees on the mountain and wind gusts occasionally swirled past. Despite the sun, it got cold, just sitting there, Ripps said.

“Most people were calm, but the people behind us were getting a little frustrated by how long it was taking,” Ripps said.

Once off the chairlift, everyone was given a coupon for a hot chocolate, Ripps said. Sugarbush also took down everyone’s name and address and promised to send a card, she said.

Brown said that card would contain a free day pass for all the people who were inconvenienced by the broken chair lift.

“I do think they responded professionally and appropriately,” Ripps said of the Sugarbush response to the lift failure.

About two hours after the Heaven’s Gate lift broke, and moments after everyone had been removed from it, the equipment was fixed, and the chair started running again, Brown said.

By then, the resort’s slopes were closing for the day and only some ski patrol members used the lift for their daily routine check to ensure nobody was still on the slopes after hours, Brown said.

As of noon Sunday, the Heaven’s Gate lift was working just fine, Brown said.

Contact Matt Sutkoski at 660-1846 or msutkoski@burlingtonfreepress.com. Follow Matt on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/vermontweather" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
View Comments (1) | Share your thoughts »

[mlkrgr]

Good to see they handled it well. Though, these incidents tend to be in older lifts. Replace the Snowdon and Glades triples before a Spillway incident happens.

[Humpty Dumpty]

Oh snap! My bad. I thought you were talking about Finn. It's like the Congo down there.

[Guy in Shorts]

Oh snap! My bad. I thought you were talking about Finn. It's like the Congo down there.

Good thing that you are a professional bushwacher keeping on top of the situation. Thanks for your frequent reports.

[Mister Moose]

Good to see they handled it well. Though, these incidents tend to be in older lifts. Replace the Snowdon and Glades triples before a Spillway incident happens.

The spillway incident IRC, happened for a number of different reasons:
● The lift had hanging sheave trains.
● Mechanics were adjusting the alignment with people on board
● Mechanics atempted a restart with alignment still out
● Mechanics attempted a restart with such poor communication that it took something like 20 seconds to get the lift stopped after failure.

From everything I read on the incident, it happened due to poor training on alignment and poor procedures on effecting repairs. There was no part that cracked or broke that day. There was continued operation with poor alignment which led to deropement due to the poor alignment.

I'm not sure what any of this has to do with those 2 triples.

[RustyK]

Speaking of Sugarbush. I have two Connecticut Ski Council (CSC) tickets for sale for Sugarbush. Will have to turn them in for credit if not sold.
Must be a CSC member to use them. PM me if anyone is interested.

[Finn]

Dump the hump dumpty... I wonder which administrator you are.
Let's all guess who it is? Probably a man and not a woman.
crawl back under your rock....you big dope. wow I heard you were on work release from prison last week...go back there and rotate!!
So glad you showed up at the K-zone party on Saturday..too bad you didn't choke and pass out like usual.

[freeski]

I'm new here and probably don't have the right to say anything but, I find Humpty's comments somewhere between tasteless and crude. I think K-Zone is entertaining and informative and he or she brings it down.

[iRock]

I'm new here and probably don't have the right to say anything but, I find Humpty's comments somewhere between tasteless and crude. I think K-Zone is entertaining and informative and he or she brings it down.

Oh, wait till the Summer, then things really get interesting with Humpty's "comments". He/she (or both) is believed to be a shared account by the admins and/or people close to the admins. Before you ask, I stalked the site for a while before joining in December.

[tyrolean_skier]

I'm new here and probably don't have the right to say anything but, I find Humpty's comments somewhere between tasteless and crude. I think K-Zone is entertaining and informative and he or she brings it down.

Oh, wait till the Summer, then things really get interesting with Humpty's "comments". He/she (or both) is believed to be a shared account by the admins and/or people close to the admins. Before you ask, I stalked the site for a while before joining in December.

To both you newbies, the administrators have nothing to do with Humpty and they have tried to figure out who it is for many years. Whoever it is, is very knowlegeable about the internet and disguising his origination point. Humpty has been around a very long time and IMHO I think it is a person who is nice otherwise but has a mean streak that shows up as Humpty.

If he bothers you, use the ignore feature.

[Humpty Dumpty]

I'm new here and probably don't have the right to say anything but, I find Humpty's comments somewhere between tasteless and crude. I think K-Zone is entertaining and informative and he or she brings it down.

Oh, wait till the Summer, then things really get interesting with Humpty's "comments". He/she (or both) is believed to be a shared account by the admins and/or people close to the admins. Before you ask, I stalked the site for a while before joining in December.

To both you newbies, the administrators have nothing to do with Humpty and they have tried to figure out who it is for many years. Whoever it is, is very knowlegeable about the internet and disguising his origination point. Humpty has been around a very long time and IMHO I think it is a person who is nice otherwise but has a mean streak that shows up as Humpty.

If he bothers you, use the ignore feature.

Why thank you Tyrolean. The Humptys are nice in person, but some of us just like to stir the pot on the forum to keep it interesting. Cull the herd.

Welcome newbies. Now tongue my balls.

Pepperdawg, out.

[Humpty Dumpty]

I'm new here and probably don't have the right to say anything but, I find Humpty's comments somewhere between tasteless and crude. I think K-Zone is entertaining and informative and he or she brings it down.

freeski, you have the right to say anything you want. Of course the Humpty's comments are tasteless and crude and have been for many years. Do you want to buy us some beers? That rhymes. Butt, seriously. do yout want to buy us some beers?

Starter Jacket, out.

[SnoBrdr]

I'm new here and probably don't have the right to say anything but, I find Humpty's comments somewhere between tasteless and crude. I think K-Zone is entertaining and informative and he or she brings it down.

Oh, wait till the Summer, then things really get interesting with Humpty's "comments". He/she (or both) is believed to be a shared account by the admins and/or people close to the admins. Before you ask, I stalked the site for a while before joining in December.

To both you newbies, the administrators have nothing to do with Humpty and they have tried to figure out who it is for many years. Whoever it is, is very knowlegeable about the internet and disguising his origination point. Humpty has been around a very long time and IMHO I think it is a person who is nice otherwise but has a mean streak that shows up as Humpty.

If he bothers you, use the ignore feature.

You don't really believe that do you?

With Admin rights it would be very easy to figure out who it is, proxy or not.

[Nikoli]

I'm new here and probably don't have the right to say anything but, I find Humpty's comments somewhere between tasteless and crude. I think K-Zone is entertaining and informative and he or she brings it down.

Oh, wait till the Summer, then things really get interesting with Humpty's "comments". He/she (or both) is believed to be a shared account by the admins and/or people close to the admins. Before you ask, I stalked the site for a while before joining in December.

To both you newbies, the administrators have nothing to do with Humpty and they have tried to figure out who it is for many years. Whoever it is, is very knowlegeable about the internet and disguising his origination point. Humpty has been around a very long time and IMHO I think it is a person who is nice otherwise but has a mean streak that shows up as Humpty.

If he bothers you, use the ignore feature.

You don't really believe that do you?

With Admin rights it would be very easy to figure out who it is, proxy or not.

How?

[SnoBrdr]

I'm new here and probably don't have the right to say anything but, I find Humpty's comments somewhere between tasteless and crude. I think K-Zone is entertaining and informative and he or she brings it down.

Oh, wait till the Summer, then things really get interesting with Humpty's "comments". He/she (or both) is believed to be a shared account by the admins and/or people close to the admins. Before you ask, I stalked the site for a while before joining in December.

To both you newbies, the administrators have nothing to do with Humpty and they have tried to figure out who it is for many years. Whoever it is, is very knowlegeable about the internet and disguising his origination point. Humpty has been around a very long time and IMHO I think it is a person who is nice otherwise but has a mean streak that shows up as Humpty.

If he bothers you, use the ignore feature.

You don't really believe that do you?

With Admin rights it would be very easy to figure out who it is, proxy or not.

How?

Not going to give away secrets to the masses.

Just believe that it can be done and is often done with the right software and knowledge.

No matter what anyone tells you there is no total anonymity anywhere.