Anyone been on a chair roll back?
- Thread starter Doc.Stomp
- Start date
270on420out
Active member
No, but my brother and several friends were once on a lift that caught on fire.
.Roockley.
Active member
thankfully not
if you were in a chair rollback, would you jump off or ride it? (things to take in to account: height of chair, how far up the lift you are, snakes)
if you were in a chair rollback, would you jump off or ride it? (things to take in to account: height of chair, how far up the lift you are, snakes)
13554151:.Roockley. said:
Definitely jump off. The chairs swing violently around the bullwheel when they get going fast. You'd easily get bucked off and who knows what your body would hit. At least when you jump you can anticipate the impact and stuff. Pop your skis off/unstrap your board and jump. Then roll off to the side so no one lands on you lol
FridgeBangers
Member
how to do roll backs happen exactly?
elliot.scribner
Member
13554195:FridgeBangers said:
They are more common on old school fixed line lifts. Basically what happens is the driveshaft or gearbox on the lift fails, causing all of the weight of the people on the upward slope to quickly rush down the hill because gravity is pulling all of their added mass down (since the other side has no mass on the downward facing lifts). Lifts have emergency brakes, but those can fail too, and they take a some time to kick in. Highspeed quads have much better technology behind them, nearly eliminating rollback risk.
OregonDead
Active member
It's happened to me a couple of times. Pretty freaky but we only rolled back and then stopped. Once we went backwards and stopped a few times. I was a ways up from the bottom terminal each time. No way is it smart to jump in that situation since you could die jumping and in my experiences no one got hurt by just hanging on.
13554823:Plankton said:
Nahh. I'll try to explain this better but if Daph dips in she'll be able to really say whats up. So when a chair rolls back it's because the brakes for the lift/cable fails and the lift/cable starts rolling backwards. When I said 9 chairs, I meant the cable/lift went backwards and 9 chair lengths went around the bullwheel(big wheel at top and bottom). So all the chairs went backwards, but we stopped the rollback after 9 chairs had gone back around the bullwheel, if that makes any sense.
Daph
Active member
NS's resident lift mechanic here to chime in based on responses
First off, lifts can roll back for a multitude of reasons. The highly publicized sugarloaf incident was due to a failure in the gearbox, the component that transfers the power from the electric motor and high speed shaft into the low speed shaft which turns the bullwheel. The first two failsafes which stop the lift if this happens failed so it didn't stop until the third failsafe deployed. Sometimes bearings fail, shafts break, lifts get overloaded, brakes don't do their job etc. Like someone said before, gravity is working against lifts. All the weight of the chairs and cable and whatnot want to go downhill, and more weight is on the uphill traveling side of a lift when people are loaded. Every lift has a bunch of safety mechanisms designed to stop the lift before the rollback gets as catastrophic as the one in that training video, that lift was a result of every safety and brake being removed and letting gravity do all the work. The sugarloaf incident is about as bad as it would ever get on a lift that is "safe for public" and I put that in quotes because there is a lot of debate in the industry right now as to whether or not that particular lift was according to code. I won't delve into that whole shitstorm because it's not my place, but simply put, if ski areas actually adhere to the current safety requirements, no lift should ever roll back faster or more distance than that one did.
Best way to handle a rollback is to not jump unless you are very close to the bottom (like less than a tower away). If you jump higher up you can derail the lift which would be even worse than a rollback in some cases. When you're near the bottom and can hop off easily with a small distance to the ground, that will not mess up the lift too bad and you don't risk being sent around the bullwheel. But like I said, rollbacks more than 50 ft are extremely rare. People always panic if there's a quick e-stop and the lift rolls back a few feet, THIS IS NORMAL. Don't panic unless the rollback exceeds 10 feet, and even then, the lift will stop before shit looks anything like the training video.
First off, lifts can roll back for a multitude of reasons. The highly publicized sugarloaf incident was due to a failure in the gearbox, the component that transfers the power from the electric motor and high speed shaft into the low speed shaft which turns the bullwheel. The first two failsafes which stop the lift if this happens failed so it didn't stop until the third failsafe deployed. Sometimes bearings fail, shafts break, lifts get overloaded, brakes don't do their job etc. Like someone said before, gravity is working against lifts. All the weight of the chairs and cable and whatnot want to go downhill, and more weight is on the uphill traveling side of a lift when people are loaded. Every lift has a bunch of safety mechanisms designed to stop the lift before the rollback gets as catastrophic as the one in that training video, that lift was a result of every safety and brake being removed and letting gravity do all the work. The sugarloaf incident is about as bad as it would ever get on a lift that is "safe for public" and I put that in quotes because there is a lot of debate in the industry right now as to whether or not that particular lift was according to code. I won't delve into that whole shitstorm because it's not my place, but simply put, if ski areas actually adhere to the current safety requirements, no lift should ever roll back faster or more distance than that one did.
Best way to handle a rollback is to not jump unless you are very close to the bottom (like less than a tower away). If you jump higher up you can derail the lift which would be even worse than a rollback in some cases. When you're near the bottom and can hop off easily with a small distance to the ground, that will not mess up the lift too bad and you don't risk being sent around the bullwheel. But like I said, rollbacks more than 50 ft are extremely rare. People always panic if there's a quick e-stop and the lift rolls back a few feet, THIS IS NORMAL. Don't panic unless the rollback exceeds 10 feet, and even then, the lift will stop before shit looks anything like the training video.
skierman
Active member
Yeah brah, more time to blaze it up, its awesome.
For everyone saying "JUMP OFF!" you're all idiots. There are many safeguards in place to prevent a dangerous rollback, with the last resort being a giant cement block that drops seizing up the lift from moving (or similar on other lift designs). Stay on the chair and enjoy the ride. Not once has a rollback happened like in that video where they removed all safeguards to show what could never happen. The only injuries reported from rollbacks are from the morons jumping off the lift.
Actually you know what? If you're stupid enough to think jumping off the chair is a good idea, go for it. Darwin in full force.
For everyone saying "JUMP OFF!" you're all idiots. There are many safeguards in place to prevent a dangerous rollback, with the last resort being a giant cement block that drops seizing up the lift from moving (or similar on other lift designs). Stay on the chair and enjoy the ride. Not once has a rollback happened like in that video where they removed all safeguards to show what could never happen. The only injuries reported from rollbacks are from the morons jumping off the lift.
Actually you know what? If you're stupid enough to think jumping off the chair is a good idea, go for it. Darwin in full force.
tris10radeka
Member
i was on a pretty scary one a few years back. i kicked my skis off in case it went back all the way. luckily i was close to the top and they got it under control quickly. Even though no one got hurt it was some scary shit
50Kal
Active member
13555000:skierman said:
The last full roll back in Colorado was 1987. Tie hack on buttermilk. People were thrown like those weights. it can happen but rarely does these days because of good mechanics. The rollback last year (can't remember the resort) is prime example when your machine is too old or poor mechanics.
Skibumsmith
Active member
A friend of mine who was a lifty at the time almost had to bail off a lift because the grip (it was a fixed grip) starting slipping while he was riding up.
Daph
Active member
13557862:Skibumsmith said:
Sketch!
The normal range for fixed grips to slip in a season is 4"-3', anything more is considered abnormal. We migrate the chairs back 18" every summer and slip test them using a ram and a compressed nitrogen tank. I've seen grips jump a tiny bit when slip tested but never a scary slip like you're describing. I would shit my pants if that happened to me.
Skibumsmith
Active member
13558252:YoungDaph said:
Ya that was definitely not supposed to happen. Maintenance had to spend the rest of the day double checking and tightening all the grips.
GayWolf420
Active member
13554950:Peter. said:
ur a big beautiful strong black woman who dont need no man, peter. keep on truckin
Anesteezia
Member
I had to get evacuated from a chair once and now I just expect them to fail every time I get on.
arnie_grape
Active member
13554195:FridgeBangers said:
basically lifts should have 3 brakes. a hydraulic service brake, a mechanical emergency brake, and a mechanical anti-rollback device. the only reason a rollback should ever happen is if the mechanics are shit and don't have their lifts up to code standards. which happens a lot in the states because they can perform major alterations without inspection and old lifts don't need to be altered when the code is updated.
SethPistol
Member
and then...
13905040:SethPistol said:
epic bump
firecrotch
Active member
13905040:SethPistol said:
hoooooly fucking hell some of those people got launched into the stratosphere
cadebucket
Member
13905040:SethPistol said:
Oooooooooof
1spliff2guinnies
Member
13554151:.Roockley. said:
No way do you stay on. Find the lowest point with a slope and Huck yourself off. I work Catskinner at Blackcomb and there is literally 2 spots to jump off so you'd get fucked if you missed them.
NinetyFour
Active member
Came here for the Georgia rollback. Fucking Jesus Christ:
13905086:GRaboneSnow said:
Nah fam just tranny the landings of any those three XL booters.
1spliff2guinnies
Member
13905118:TRVP_ANGEL said:
Yeah those are the spots I mean
13553957:Mingg said:
If it happens just make sure you jump jump, fixed grips will make you jump jump, rollin back will make you jump jump.
Idk somehow that made me think of Kris Kross.