Whistler gondola collapse blamed on ice

A rarely-seen build-up of ice is being blamed for the partial collapse of one of the gondola towers this week at western Canada’s popular Whistler Ski Resort.

Dozens of skiers were trapped for hours in unheated gondola cars, and 13 were injured, when one of the towers of the Excalibur gondola ski life buckled and bounced two of the lift’s cars off the ground, on Tuesday afternoon.

The resort, which is a major venue for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, said in a statement released on Wednesday that the buckling of the tower occurred because of an ice rupture. According to the statement water had seeped into a section of the tower, and due to an extreme drop in temperature, turned to ice – which ruptured a splice in the tower. The extremely uncommon occurrence is known as ‘ice jacking.’

The British Columbia Safety Authority has the responsibility of confirming these findings, but a spokesman for the ski resort expressed confidence that a safety inspection will find that there are no similar risks on any of the resort’s other ski lifts.

A spokesman said that all lifts were expected to be in operation by Wednesday morning, after the inspections were completed.

Sue Makinson-Sanders, a skier from Britain who was on the lift when it collapsed, said she thought she was going to die when her gondola car hit a building, bounced off trees and then dangled over a creek for several hours.

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