Broken Hydrant vs Chairlift

[Ben]

I may be missing context, but:

1) How long does it take to hit the main or an emergency shutoff for the water supply?

2) What is going on with the lift operator? Don't these guys have radios or cell phones? First a chair is stopped directly over the geyser, then the lift starts moving again, which I get if you want to get those first people to medics at the expense of spraying others with freezing water for a second or two. But then the lift stops again, with a chair directly over the geyser.

https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2022/01/10/watch-broken-snowmaking-hydrant-below-a-chairlift-at-the-beech-mountain-resort-sends-two-skiers-to-the-hospital/

https://youtu.be/gztOP0tmH_U

[HeroHog]

HELLO lawsuits!

[Fly320s]

I may be missing context, but:

1) How long does it take to hit the main or an emergency shutoff for the water supply?

Could be a long time.  Who knows where the shutoff is?

2) What is going on with the lift operator? Don't these guys have radios or cell phones? First a chair is stopped directly over the geyser, then the lift starts moving again, which I get if you want to get those first people to medics at the expense of spraying others with freezing water for a second or two. But then the lift stops again, with a chair directly over the geyser.

Lift operators are often low skilled/paid people.  They don't know what is going on.  For example: Last year I was skiing at a local hill.  A kid went off a jump and got really hurt.  Hurt enough to call for ski patrol.  I happened to be on scene soon after his crash, but it took 20 minutes for the ski patrol to arrive even though the lift operator was in sight and another kid went to tell the lift operator to call ski patrol.  The lift operators had no clue what to do or who to call.

https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2022/01/10/watch-broken-snowmaking-hydrant-below-a-chairlift-at-the-beech-mountain-resort-sends-two-skiers-to-the-hospital/

https://youtu.be/gztOP0tmH_U

[French G.]

Lifties... well let’s just say pre employment screening isn’t much.

[Perd Hapley]

Could be a long time.  Who knows where the shutoff is?

Once you find it, there could be mud and rocks in the shaft.

[Ben]

Once you find it, there could be mud and rocks in the shaft.

Yeah, but it's all pressurized, yeah? Shouldn't there be one of those big red buttons somewhere visible to cut off electricity? Which still doesn't explain the chairs over the the geyser. One of those went on long enough that someone could have run to the lift booth to tell them to move it ten feet, let alone radio it in.

[dogmush]

Yeah, but it's all pressurized, yeah? Shouldn't there be one of those big red buttons somewhere visible to cut off electricity? Which still doesn't explain the chairs over the the geyser. One of those went on long enough that someone could have run to the lift booth to tell them to move it ten feet, let alone radio it in.

That is (one presumes) on a mountain.  If there's a big lodge full of water at the top of the mountain and that's the pipe that feeds the water up, it could all gravity feed back down with no electricity.  Someone would have to find the upper cutoff valve.

[Ben]

That is (one presumes) on a mountain.  If there's a big lodge full of water at the top of the mountain and that's the pipe that feeds the water up, it could all gravity feed back down with no electricity.  Someone would have to find the upper cutoff valve.

Okay, I'll concede that. I don't really know anything about snowmaking systems.

[Hawkmoon]

That is (one presumes) on a mountain.  If there's a big lodge full of water at the top of the mountain and that's the pipe that feeds the water up, it could all gravity feed back down with no electricity.  Someone would have to find the upper cutoff valve.

I don't know how they do it in North Carolina, but ski mountains in the northeast use water pumped at high pressure for snowmaking. It's pumped up from the base of the mountain, there aren't any gravity tanks at the top.

[dogmush]

I was thinking like a lodge with a restaurant, bathrooms, maybe some hotel rooms, stuff like that.  Wouldn't necessarily have gravity tanks, just a bunch of water in pipes and stuff that, if the pipe ruptured down the mountain, would flow down and out the rupture.


I have no idea how snowmaking works.

[French G.]

Lots of air compressors are how snowmaking works.