Vail gondola accident report—and answer
On June 10, Vail issued an answer which praised the thoroughness of the report, and “agreed with the agency’s findings that the resort operator’s documentation of maintenance operations needed improvement” and that they had already insituted additional procedures in this regard.
The Vail answer, however, disagreed with what VP James Bartlett called “the inferences drawn by the press from the language of the report, which questions the integrity of Vail Associates’ maintenance of Gondola II leading up to the time of the accident.” He cited discrepancies in the report whereby in one section there is a comment that Vail had failed to perform the necessary follow-up required by the Tramway Board inspection of September 15-17, 1975; yet in another section of the report it is stated that, “The deficiencies noted during this inspection were corrected by Vail Associates as noted in their letter.”
Bartlett added that, “We believe the discrepancies between these two aspects of your report should be publicly corrected to indicate that Vail Associates did, in fact, perform the necessary follow-up to the annual inspection, and the gondola was certified safe to operate that winter season.”
Bartlett concluded the Vail statement with the assurance that Vail was “taking every possible measure to respond to the findings of your report.
Lift evacuation publication released
The U.S. Forest Service has recently released a 36-page, illustrated publication entitled “Evacuation of Aerial Passenger Tramways and Ski Lifts.”
The information in it, which was prepared by Chuck Dwyer, chief Cableways Engineer for the Forest Service, is not intended to establish specific direction, restrictions or requirements, but rather to provide the ski area industry—and specifically the Forest Service permittees—with the most current technology and methodology.
Copies of this publication may be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. The title and its code (EM-7320-2 dtd. April 1976) should be given, and payment sent with order ($1.05 in U.S.; add 25 per cent for Canadian and foreign orders).
ACQUISITIONS
Big Sky and Steamboat change ownership
Two major destination resorts headed the list of ski area acquisitions this spring. The ski operations at Big Sky, Mont., including the mountain village,, complete with hotel and commercial area, together with the golf course and tennis facilities, were bought by Everett Kircher, creator of Boyne Country, Mich. Financial details of the transaction were not revealed.
The original shareholders as Big Sky Realty Co., hold the balance of the original operation.
In Colorado, LTV sold its Steamboat operation to an investment syndicate headed by Ware Travelstead, who has become chairman and chief executive officer. Glen Paulk remains as president in charge of operations.
ASSOCIATIONS
Canada West elects officers
Canada West Ski Areas Association, representing the ski areas of the 3 western provinces, has elected A.W. (Sandy) Boyd, Tillicum Valley Ski Area, Vernon, B.C. as president for 1976/77, succeeding past president J.D. Couillard of Paskapoo Ski Area, Calgary.
Other officers chosen at the annual convention just completed at the Capri Hotel, Kelowna, B.C. are: Vice-Presidents, John Ogilvy, Marmot Basin, Jasper, Alberta, and Gary Kiefer, Grouse Mountain Resorts, North Vancouver, B.C.
The association, with a current membership of 102 ski areas, was formed to promote and upgrade the standards of safety and operation of the ski areas of western Canada, and is involved with extensive training and educational programs for ski area management and staff, such as the summer course in ski area management which will be conducted for the association at Whistler Mountain B.C. by the British Columbia Institute of Technology. The recent convention at Kelowna featured seminars on ski area marketing and promotion, and on ski area safety and insurance.
ASAC meets and elects officers
The four-year-old Association of Ski Area Consultants held its annual meeting on May 5 in conjunction with the NSAA convention at Colorado’s Broadmoor. Jim Branch, of Sno-engineering, who has been president from the beginning, resigned, and now serves as a director. New president is Mel Borgersen of Seattle; Peter Alford of London, Ont., was elected vice president; and Ted Farwell, of Boulder, Colo. remains secretary/treasurer. Other directors are Bill Scott of Boulder, Skip Voorhees of Seattle and Phil Flores of Denver.
Welcomed as honorary ASAC members in recognition of their pioneering efforts to professionalize ski area consulting were Slim Davis, Sel Hannah and Willy Schaeffler.
One of the principal projects completed by ASAC this past year was the designing and evaluation of a hypothetical “Volkswagen” ski area for Senator Floyd Haskell. This was filed with the Senator on January 1.
A second ASAC project is to prepare a handbook of ski area planning to be published by the Urban Land Institute as a guide to potential developers.
Aerial Tramway organization meets
The North American Continental Section of the International Organization for Transport by Rope, OITAF-NACS, met May 5 at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.
Charles F. Dwyer, USDA Forest Service Chief Aerial Tramway Engineer, was re-elected president of the Continental Section; John G. Ogilvy, Canadian consulting engineer was named vice-president; and Selden L. Hannah, consulting engineer from Vermont, was chosen secretary-treasurer.
An aggressive program of activities was initiated. Cooperation with the European work committees is a primary concern, and the following coordinators were designated: N.1 Codes and Standards: John Fetcher of the U.S. and Robert Swanson of Canada; N.2 Characteristics and Inspection of Wire Rope: Robert McLellan of Canada; N.3 Technical Problems of Aerial Tramways: Robert Heron; and N.4 Juridicial, Administrative, Economics, and Statistics: Victor Hall.
Immediate steps will be taken to make English language translation of technical papers presented at the recent international congress available to the NACS members.
A committee representing North American operators of large cabin reversible tramways will begin immediately to identify problem areas associated with their operations. O.L. McKenney of Palm Springs, California, is committee chairman.
Charter membership in OITAF-NACS will be extended to those whose applications are received by July 30, 1976. Membership is open to those individuals having an interest in any phase of aerial tramway design, constructiion, manufacture, or operation; administrative, economic, and legal considerations are of concern along with the more technical considerations.
Inquiries regarding membership and other society activities may be directed to: Selden L. Hannah, c/o Dufresne-Henry Engineering, Precision Park, North Springfield, Vt 05150
Crighton resigns NSAA directorship
Richard Crighton, the supplier member of the NSAA Board, has submitted his resignation following the termination of his services with Bombardier.
Plans for filling this slot—NSAA By-laws require that, “One member shall be an Associate Member”—will be discussed at the September Board meeting.
Eighth annual ARTA meeting
The Association of Recreational Tramway Authorities held its annual meeting at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colorado, May 5, 1976. The following officers were elected for the coming year: President: Stanley J. Judge; Vice President: J. Edward Immergluck; Secretary-Treasurer: Gordon R. Linebaugh, P.E.
The Executive Board has been working closely with William Norton, B77 Committee chairman and president of the National Ski Areas Association, on ARTA co-sponsorship of the American National Standard Safety Requirements for Aerial Passenger Tramways, ANSI B77.1. In addition, ARTA is being considered for membership on the B77 Committee, and ARTA would be represented by two appointed members from ARTA. This will provide a platform for regulatory agencies for their input into the ANSI B77.1 Standard.
Information concerning ARTA is available from the secretary at: USDA-FOREST Service, 630 Sansome Street, San Francisco, California 94111
SUPPLIER NEWS
SMI appoints Raedeke
Snow Machines, Inc., manufacturers of the Snowstream 320 snowmaking equipment, have appointed Dennis Raedeke as distributor for the six-state region of Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North and South Dakota and Missouri. He is located at Wild Mt., Taylors Falls, Minn.
“Raedeke’s extensive experience in the ski business, including the successful operation of a ski area, will be of great assistance to SMI’s customers,” said SMI President, Jim VanderKelen.
Ski area consulting consortium formed
Jeff White has announced the formation of Delta Associates, a “permanent consortium of independent consultants.” Associates in the Delta group are: Jeff white, of London, Ontario; Ted Farwell, Boulder, Colo.; Harold Lang, Tempe, Ariz.; and Ron Peiluk, Calgary, Alberta. Home office is Box 2154, Terminal A, London, Ont.
“The basis of the Delta concept,” said White, “is a diverse, yet complete technical team capable of developing designs and plans for capital expansion programs and developments. This multi-discipline approach to service the recreation industry is designed to meet the complexities of modern-day resort design, development and economics.”
Hall appoints Gillis
Hall Ski-Lift Co. has announced the appointment of Gene Gillis as a sales representative for Colorado and the west. He is located at P.O. Box 50, Dillon, Colo.
In announcing the availability of spare parts in stock in the west, Victor Hall also pointed to Rene Thoeni for field service. Thoeni is located at P.O. 9, Enterprise, Oreg.
