whistler
Tower Collapse at Blackcomb Mountain
On December 15, 2008 one of the ski lift towers at Blackcomb Mountain collapsed. Blackcomb Mountain at Whistler Resort will be the site of the Alpine Events for the 2010 Olympics. The tower that collapsed was the #4 tower on the Excalibur gondola. Vanoc did not yet have plans to use the lift as part of the transportation to or from any Olympic venues. The collapse is thought to be due to ice formation within the tower itself, with the expanding ice causing the tower to crack at the point where the upper portion of the tower was spliced to the lower portion of the tower. The lift was just 3 years old, and had passed inspections as recently as last October.
Fifty-three passengers were stranded in the unheated gondola cars for several hours during the evacuation. Twelve people reported minor injuries, the worst injury being a fractured vertebrae. One staff member was cut during the evacuation effort.
On Dec. 23, 1995, an accident on the Quicksilver ski lift killed two men and injured nine other people.
In 2002, a five-year-old girl fell about 35 feet from the Creekside Gondola at Whistler when a latch malfunctioned and the car door opened. Soft snow cushioned her fall and she survived.
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