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Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Ben on January 10, 2022, 08:02:14 AM

Title: Broken Hydrant vs Chairlift
Post by: Ben on January 10, 2022, 08:02:14 AM
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
Title: Re: Broken Hydrant vs Chairlift
Post by: HeroHog on January 10, 2022, 05:55:04 PM
HELLO lawsuits!
Title: Re: Broken Hydrant vs Chairlift
Post by: Fly320s on January 10, 2022, 06:56:22 PM
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
Title: Re: Broken Hydrant vs Chairlift
Post by: French G. on January 10, 2022, 07:10:36 PM
Lifties... well let’s just say pre employment screening isn’t much.
Title: Re: Broken Hydrant vs Chairlift
Post by: Perd Hapley on January 12, 2022, 11:38:49 PM
Could be a long time.  Who knows where the shutoff is?

Once you find it, there could be mud and rocks in the shaft.
Title: Re: Broken Hydrant vs Chairlift
Post by: Ben on January 13, 2022, 08:11:23 AM
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.
Title: Re: Broken Hydrant vs Chairlift
Post by: dogmush on January 13, 2022, 08:29:43 AM
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.
Title: Re: Broken Hydrant vs Chairlift
Post by: Ben on January 13, 2022, 08:33:30 AM
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.
Title: Re: Broken Hydrant vs Chairlift
Post by: Hawkmoon on January 13, 2022, 09:40:00 AM
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.
Title: Re: Broken Hydrant vs Chairlift
Post by: dogmush on January 13, 2022, 11:20:49 AM
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.
Title: Re: Broken Hydrant vs Chairlift
Post by: French G. on January 13, 2022, 12:26:25 PM
Lots of air compressors are how snowmaking works.