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Of Freak Accidents & Heroes

BlizzardBabe

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
We witnessed a freak accident on a chairlift last weekend. Thankfully, all turned out well. A snowboarder was attempting to exit the chair at mid-station and ended up dangling by the neck eight feet from the ground. He apparently had lifted the safety bar with such force that it bounced back down and caught the hood of his hoodie between the handle and the seat. That left him suspended in mid-air and in big trouble. The alert liftie stopped the chair and flew out of the hut to retrieve a large safety pad which he positioned under the snowboarder. He then climbed on top of the pad and was, fortunately, tall enough to get under the snowboarder so the boarder could stand on his shoulders. Luckily, the guy was still conscious. The boarder was then able to extricate himself from his hoodie and the two of them fell onto the pad. No injuries to either person, thank gawd. Patrol arrived to assess and debrief and the lift was restarted. We followed the abandoned hoodie up the mountain, still caught in the chair and swinging in the wind.

Naturally, there were ghoulie witnesses who, instead of trying help, stood there videoing the action. Kudos to the long-time liftie who may have saved a life or at least prevented a serious injury.:thumbsup:
 

snoWYmonkey

Angel Diva
How scary! We all have hoods.
 

diymom

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
And just last week I was riding the lift with a young man who was old enough to know better (early 30's?), who had taken his hydration pack off to board the lift as instructed, but then put it back on as soon as we had the bar down. First off, Wachusett is small. And not that much above sea level. You certainly don't need a hydration pack. Ignoring the insurance ads, I proffered up unsolicited advice and told the young man that he was at risk of getting caught up wearing it. He informed me that the lifties at the top never say anything. Sooooo, how about the fact that he got caught up when his tube thingy got stuck on the rfid gates and he missed a chair or two?

I ceased and desisted and the rest of the ride was silent.
 

BlizzardBabe

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
And just last week I was riding the lift with a young man who was old enough to know better (early 30's?), who had taken his hydration pack off to board the lift as instructed, but then put it back on as soon as we had the bar down. First off, Wachusett is small. And not that much above sea level. You certainly don't need a hydration pack. Ignoring the insurance ads, I proffered up unsolicited advice and told the young man that he was at risk of getting caught up wearing it. He informed me that the lifties at the top never say anything. Sooooo, how about the fact that he got caught up when his tube thingy got stuck on the rfid gates and he missed a chair or two?

I ceased and desisted and the rest of the ride was silent.
I had a conversation with a kid about the fact that his helmet was unbuckled. He was probably late teens or early 20's. He explained that he "likes the look" of the dangling strap. If they think it is "cool" no amount of logic is going to change their minds. Cool is cool but it isn't rational.
 

Christy

Angel Diva
An unbuckled helmet--unbuckled to take a work call on the lift, then accidentally left unbuckled--is how my husband's former boss ended up with a traumatic brain injury. He fell getting off (forget the circumstances), slammed his head on the ice dismount slope, and wasn't right for a year.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
We witnessed a freak accident on a chairlift last weekend. Thankfully, all turned out well. . . .
We had just loaded that lift when it stopped abruptly for that incident. As we approached mid-station, saw the guy sitting down on the snow with patrollers around him and wondered what had happened. Then saw the pad moved back into the woods. A patroller walked back up to the unloading area with the guy and had the lift stopped again so that he could explain exactly what happened. I wondered why he didn't have on a jacket of any kind given how cold it was.

He's very lucky the liftie was on the ball! One of the best aspects of that hill is that long time employees.

I saw the guy sitting outside the lodge later in the day. The line on his neck was quite visible. One of his buddies asked if he would be okay riding that lift again. Sounded like he wasn't feeling bothered about the idea. Good to be young.
 

BlizzardBabe

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
An unbuckled helmet--unbuckled to take a work call on the lift, then accidentally left unbuckled--is how my husband's former boss ended up with a traumatic brain injury. He fell getting off (forget the circumstances), slammed his head on the ice dismount slope, and wasn't right for a year.
I told the kid he wasn't actually wearing a helmet. Rather, he was wearing a very expensive hat.
 

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