Sierra Nevada Accident

[katy]

One of the ski lifts "collapsed" today...at least 23 injured. Awful photos of mangled ski chairs.

Hope I am not boring people with bad news

[Jennifer]

H Katy,
Thanks for the info.
More info for those of us that don't have TV/Radio
Google sierra nevada ski accident

J

[Jennifer]

Hi,
BBC Link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7920149.stm

Any news from Ulli ?

J

[Colinm]

The webcams seem to show 'business as usual' !

Jennifer, you are right, it would be good to hear from Ulli

[Ulli]

Hello all,

Just thought I would pop in and say I am here safe and well. I was not in the lift at the time of the accident.
The mentioned "business as usual" we suspect is that either they froze the images from before the accident or the moved them, we still aren't sure...
The resort is open and for once something in Sierra is being dealt with severely. There are organisations higher than Cetursa dealing with this and looking into causes etc. Normally most things are dealt with on a local level and more often than not you are left with a feeling that it is "swept under the carpet". It is horrendous that it would take something like this for proper action to be taken in Sierra Nevada but then again, and it pains me to say this, I am not surprised having lived there for four seasons and seen what happens and how it is dealt with...

[Ulli]

I have just read in the paper that Cetursa (the ones that run this ski station) are to be taken to court officialy over this incident. Not by the ones hurt but by the formal governing body for these kind of places from what I understand. Now I can't remember exactly who it was but nevertheless this is fantastic news because I believe that is the first time there are ever real (let's wait and see...) reprecussions of something like this happening here. Hopefully this will have some effect and they will do a real revision of how they run things too!
Anyway, I am off to sport health and fitness section to do an update on Sierra if you are interested...

[scotty]

Have there been any updates on this incident or the follow up by government bodies / is anything happening ? My wife and kids normally ski there in february each year.

[Ulli]

So far I haven't heard anything but it looks like it is going to be a long process, for obvious reasons
Apart from that they have been doing revisions on most if not all the lifts which is good I guess...

Right now we have fabulous snow and no people... Well this week is not so fabulous as weather goes but looks like all week brings us bad weather but snow which means that next week will be empty pistes with great conditions which I am looking forward to!

If anyone has plans on going up this week please check the snowforecast first because this afternoon they closed and it doesn't look any better until sunday really. Of course weather is never guaranteed but better to be prepared...

[scotty]

Thanks for the reply Ulli. In february it was really great. We use the little spanish guy (Sanchez) that used to be an olympic skier. His instructors are really nice to my kids & he is friendly as well.