Power outage results in chairlift evacuation at Hoodoo

Tightwad Tuesdays at Hoodoo Mountain Resort are intended to give skiers a little more fun for less money once each week. Last week, however, about a dozen tightwad skiers got a lot more excitement for their money when they were evacuated from the chairlift using an emergency rope system.

"It's something we train for but hope to never do," said Hoodoo General Manager Matthew McFarland. "It doesn't happen more than about once every five years."

Last week's heavy snowstorm brought two and a half feet of snow to Hoodoo in just a few hours. It also brought widespread power outages throughout the region. Unlike the powder snow at Hoodoo, lower elevations experienced a wet and heavy snow that brought down trees, limbs, and power lines. Those power outages ended up affecting places farther up into the mountains - like Hoodoo.

McFarland said there were three power interruptions on the mountain, and it was the third that caused the problem. The initial power outage occurred in the early morning before the resort began operations. By the time the chairlifts opened at 9 a.m., it was believed that the power fluctuations had stabilized; and the resort was notified that there would be one final 60-second interruption.

"The problem resulted from misinformation from the power company as to how long the power outage would be," said McFarland.

As it turned out, the one minute interruption stretched out to an hour and a half.

The evacuation was necessitated on the "Ed" chair, or "red" chair, as most long-time Hoodoo patrons refer to it. McFarland said that the power fluctuations caused some damage to the backup power system that operates the red chair in the event of a power failure. The backup systems on other chairs were not affected. As a result, Hoodoo operations staff decided to use the emergency evacuation plan to remove skiers from the lift.

According to McFarland, 12 skiers were on the lift at the time of the power failure. All were removed from the lift chairs without incident.

"It was nice that things went as well as they did," he said.

One unexpected development involved the line-throwing guns, which use an explosive charge to propel the ropes over the chairlift cables. The guns showed a tendency to freeze up during the operation.

"We've trained for this under all conditions, but hadn't experienced this before," McFarland said.

The problem was resolved and McFarland attributed what turned out to be a manageable difficulty to an unusual set of circumstances that aligned perfectly. He explained that the cold temperatures and heavy falling snow combined to cause the problem. Otherwise, the operation went off exactly as practiced, and everyone was removed from the lift before power was restored.

McFarland said that repairs were completed to the backup power system before the operation was complete; but, since the emergency rope system was already deployed with lines in place, staff decided to complete the operation as planned.

Ski patrol members and lift operators undergo regular training to prepare for incidents such as this. McFarland said that everything went as planned, and even those stuck on the chairs took everything in stride.

"Everybody I talked to said that it was fun," he said.