UNION DALE, Pa. — On Sunday, two ski resorts in our area had to evacuate chair lifts because of equipment problems.
Getting stuck on a chairlift and having to be helped down by ropes is not an ideal day for skiers, and it's happened three times recently.
Last week at Elk Mountain, a gearbox broke on the quad lift.
A different lift at Elk went down on Sunday, forcing an evacuation.
About the same time, workers at Montage Mountain in Lackawanna County had to rescue guests off the lift because it also broke down.
We spoke to Joe Marchioni, the state's assistant director of occupational and industrial safety, about what happens when there's an equipment failure and a lift shuts down, forcing a full evacuation.
"The equipment has components to it that monitor the safety of the equipment as its operating. If any of those components tell the equipment, 'Hey, this isn't right,' the equipment goes to a failsafe state, which is shut down," Marchioni explained.
These chairlifts have to pass several inspections and are serviced by mechanics often to ensure the lift is working properly.
Marchioni says it's a fluke when several chairlifts have to be evacuated in a short span of time, but the age of the equipment can't be blamed for the problem.
"It's just like a vintage car. If you have a classic car that more than likely doesn't have an anti-lock braking system on it, but it does have adequate brakes on it that function properly. So it would be an unfair statement to say that due to the age of the equipment."
Montage Mountain management says they hope to have repairs to their lift finished by Thursday.
Both chairlifts at Elk Mountain are being repaired. The quad lift is still shut down from last week, awaiting parts. Management at Elk hopes to have the other lift back up and running by Wednesday morning.
Inspections will be done once repairs are made to ensure the lift is safe to carry passengers.
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