That’s all I could think the entire time. How difficult would it be to voluntarily let your child go in that situation. The teenagers were brilliant, but from up there I imagine that looked like it was going to do absolutely nothing.
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The area uphill from the line of poles would be packed hard, probably machine groomed.
Looking at the video frame by frame, the kid was almost stopped as he hit the ground.
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So, these ski-lift thingies can’t be put in reverse, then. Seems an oversight.
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Judging by the shaky cam the phone cam was in the chair just ahead. But if you want to jump down and help go for it.
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The sense I get from kids is that, like these ones, they know the so-called responsible adults won’t be coming to help so they’d better handle it themselves.
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The negligence here isn’t the fault of the client to stay seated it’s the fault of the company employee(s) and management for creating an environment where the known dangers of operating aren’t noticed and acted upon. See the part of the story where it says the music was too loud for the operator to hear the screams for point 1. For point 2 see the part where the child fell upon boarding yet the operator failed to notice and act upon this common occurrence.
You cannot liability waiver your business out of negligence on the part of the business. That’s not how liability waivers actually work.
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The slipperiness of the seat probably wasn’t an issue. I’d bet the kids ski dug in somewhere just past the loading area and he would have fallen out entirely if his dad hadn’t grabbed him. Probably would have been better off if he did fall out at that point, but you can’t blame a parent for having quick reflexes.
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Brilliant thinking on these young teens part. Even had the forethought to tell him to remove his skis, I am very impressed with these youths.
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i’ve seen it happen, particularly if kids don’t, as you say, think or know to keep their skis up as the chair leaves the loading area. slippery seats only hasten the situation.
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I wanted to thank the person taking the video for not screaming the whole time. They had such a calm commentary.
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In at least one case the gondola deaths were caused by an “obnoxious cocky evidence-burning guilty-as-hell pilot”:
The Cavalese cable car disaster of 1998, also called the Strage del Cermis (“Massacre at Cermis”) occurred on 3 February 1998, near the Italian town of Cavalese, a ski resort in the Dolomites some 40 km (25 mi) northeast of Trento. Twenty people died when a United States Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler aircraft, while flying too low, against regulations, in order for the pilots to “have fun” and “take videos of the scenery”, cut a cable supporting a gondola of an aerial tramway. Joseph Schweitzer, one of the two American pilots, confessed in 2012 that he had burned the tape containing incriminating evidence upon returning to the American base.
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A group of similar aged kids often have their own view of the world and how to respond to it. Sometime you find if in sports but often as if you’re lucky enough you can watch these guys problem solve and innovate almost like a hive mind. I’ve adopted 7 sons over the years and have had the good luck to be grandfather to several more. Their play and interaction is joy to watch, spontaneous and often leaderless , they see what needs ton be do and do it. Probably accounts for the high of accidents n that age group but the kids have got a thing going that adults should learn from. Crazy little pups, the lot of 'em but so amazing.
edit sp/omitted words
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Oh, in this case yeah. I should have been clearer. But there are so many videos of awful things where everyone has a camera out. In this one, the people on the ground were providing tips on how to hold the kid too. All around pretty good.
No kidding!
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I’m convinced that an adult is more likely to second-guess themselves where a younger person would charge in. Caution is good in some cases, but it can lead to inaction when action is needed.
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Sometimes I want to complain about this, but it’s like … we wouldn’t be having this conversation if they hadn’t. You think this would make it past the local rag without footage?
There’s something very existentialist about wanting to improve the topic by it never existing.
Grouse Mountain is actually a pretty good local mountain for skiing. If that mountain and its facilities (or it’s two neighbours, Cypress Bowl and Mount Seymour) were anywhere other than an hour’s drive away from Whistler they would be seen as real destinations, particularly Grouse.
However, because they are an hour away from Whistler, it is seen as a ‘local’ hill, largely visited by locals who cannot be arsed to deal with $140 lift tickets just to get out for a few hours.
That also means it is staffed by local teens, with all the awareness and professionalism that one might expect from a 16 year old making minimum wage.
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Most of the time that’s for the best. What if all the people there tried all the solutions brainstormed here simultaneously?
There would have been a pile of snow for “soft landing” that interfered with the deployment of the fence-net solution that worked, while people crowded around with their coats off thinking of how to use them for something. The kid might have landed on one of the multitudes of rescuers and injured himself and others.
Considering the actual lack of danger the kid was in (20 foot drop onto plentiful snow? we did that when I was a kid, on purpose) I think standing around was a good solution to minimize danger.
I was under the assumption that humans had discovered a means of communicating before this video was taken
