Sugarloaf ski resort evacuating lift right after wind blows it down

The Sugarloaf ski area is evacuating a ski lift. Carrabasset Valley, Maine emergency crews are dealing with the collapsed lift. The Sugarloaf ski lift brought 5 seats down forty feet and stranded one hundred others. Ski patrol and emergency reaction at Sugarloaf ski resort in Maine are evacuating the trapped skiers independently using climbing harnesses. I imagine the resort is going to take out an enormous short term loan to fix their lift. Source for this article – Sugarloaf ski lift collapses in wind gust; ski patrol evacuating by MoneyBlogNewz.

The failure of the ski lift in Sugarloaf

A huge gust of wind hit the Sugarloaf ski area at 10:45 a.m. on Tues. The cables derailed with the Spillway East Slope lift. This threw five seats 30 to forty feet down to the snow, injuring several skiers. There were about 100 skiers that couldn’t leave the lift. Wind gusts at the Sugarloaf ski area had reached 20 to 30 miles per hour this morning. The cold was a significant issue for the trapped skiers as the temperature was between 8 and 10 degrees.

Serious injuries not an issue at Sugarloaf

Nobody was seriously hurt at Sugarloaf even though many skiers were hurt. Sugarloaf was at a “condition yellow” according to Emergency Management for Franklin County, Maine which means there were no deaths or severe traumas. Skiers were being evacuated off of the Sugarloaf Spillway lift with ski patrol that helped emergency management teams. Estimates said that it would take between 90 minutes and two hrs to evacuate all of the skiers from the lift.

What the Sugarloaf ski lift evacuation looks like

Ropes and harnesses were used to do the Sugarloaf ski lift evacuation. Teams are throwing ropes over the broken-down ski lift and harnessing skiers to slide down. Skiers are getting from the lift with their skis and everything else even though the procedure is referred to as “much like rock climbing” by several. The broken lift will take days or weeks to repair while the Spillway East can be shut down within the Sugarloaf ski resort for a while. This news is just the most recent heard about the East Coast blizzard which is doing much more all along the coast. Power outages, shut down cities and snarled traffic is seen throughout.

Articles cited

WMTV

wmtw.com/r/26299543/detail.html

CNN

news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/28/skiers-fall-from-chairlift-at-maine-resort/?npt=NP1