The ski lift ropeway, which transports skiers in Georgia’s Gudauri resort, has been damaged.
According to local media, the defect to the lifts meant that it sped up to double the normal speed and threw people off of their chairs as it tried to ascend.
Whilst no serious injuries have been reported as of yet, people were left “shaken and shocked”, as the ski lift threw people off of their seats and into the snow.
Maybe they did after a while but why didn’t they shut the power off?
On coffee break.
That looks like a fun ride!
Thanks Bob for explaining that. I watched the video again and you are correct they are going backwards.
Guess the ‘electricians’ over there never heard of the mandatory Emergency Stop pushbuttons required at both lift stations. Top and bottom.
The motors that drive the cable should also have VFD’s, or variable frequency speed control, which can be programmed to prevent over speed.
Maybe they ignored those bulit in safety measures, to save money.
The bystanders are nuts.
If that cable snapped & still had force, that would slice a human in half in an instant. Wow.
Run it twice as fast and twice as many people can ride it.
..can we borrow the device and put politicians on the ride with the caveat that those who get thrown off are out of Congress…those who stay on get to remain in congress…..term limits solved……
This was at the Georgian ski resort of Gudauri. Haven’t skied there myself but I was in Georgia early on after the wall came down and just as the civil war had ended. Great country, wine culture not a vodka culture. Though the Moldavian wines are better IMHO. The Georgians are a fun people, lots of laughing, drinking, toasting and generally screwing things up. Took them 3-4 years to get runway lights and a terminal at the “international” airport in the capital Tbilisi. You would just land in a TU134 from Moscow with the lights from the cars of people picking up passengers, disembark and drive away. We had “toasts” from the pilots on several occasions. Drunk but not too drunk!
Mafia wasn’t even that bad relative to say Moscow or Uzebkistan though I did manage to get serious food poisoning twice at the Palace Hotel. Often in the early days power would go out and occasionally gunfire would erupt….more likely celebratory than confrontational. Good times.
You have to remember than stuff just doesn’t work in these developing/recovering countries like we are used to here in the USA. They probably bought the chairlift off some European resort who might have bought it used themselves. But….the folks did not abandon their fellow skiers, and yes Georgians are educated well enough to know about snapping cables…..they were there to help anyways. Try that in America. Parkland shooting! The skiers/boarders have new clothes and gear. Georgia has come a very long way in a short amount of time, cut them some slack. Awesome snow there, and only 90 minutes from the capital. I would ski there!
The chairlift did not over speed while ascending. The chairlift is running in reverse and picking up speed due to the weight of the skiers. The brakes failed after something happened to the drive. Last year in Colorado 2 lifts were shut down after a defect was found in one of the bullwheels during an inspection.
This is what’s called an uncontrolled rollback. One of the more deadly casualties that can happen with a ski lift. Normally there are 3 brakes on a lift: Normal, emergency and bullwheel stop.
What probably happened here is the brakes were faulty or non-functional. The coupling between the motor/gearbox broke. Gravity then takes over and the heavy side (the side with the passengers) starts moving backwards to equalize the load across both sides.
Here is a better angle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp3-q9lg21Q&feature=youtu.be
An engineering point of view….
Rob, I can’t see Bob’s comment you referenced.
Terry / Brian, your explanations and the videos are interesting and educational.
Seems like you’ve been involved with lift maintenance or design and testing,
with knowledge of lift mechanical operation and the potential dangers. The coupling, brake failure makes a lot of sense, now rollback does as well. Thanks for sharing that.