I was up at Roundtop today so I could do some Nastar runs and I heard from one the Mountain Safety Crew that the Minuteman lift broke down and Minuteman run was closed from the top.  That was around 2:30 in the afternoon.  I left Roundtop at 4 and it appears that the lift wasn't fixed at that time, and there was a bunch of skiers stranded on chairlift.  

Does anyone know if they were able to get the lift running again, or if not, how they got the skiers down from the chairs?

Here is a DCskier lookalike being helpped to exit the lift at Liberty. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSauiAG--4k

Says "closed" on 3/9 Roundtop lift/snow report!

The Colonel

MephitBlue wrote:

That was around 2:30 in the afternoon.  I left Roundtop at 4 and it appears that the lift wasn't fixed at that time, and there was a bunch of skiers stranded on chairlift.

 

I do not have info on this incident, but if folks were on the chair for at least 90 minutes, if not longer, that would be unusual, if not annoying. Further if no evidence of an active Lift Evac.

Lift evac, when needed, basically becomes an unplanned ropes activity for everyone involved. Patrol teams work out of an Evac bag and get a rope with a 'chair' at the end, and individually lower each person. It can go quite quick once in place. It's practiced before each season.

Lifts are mechanical and they can break. It's seldom something catastrophic and dangerous. But if it's going to take more than 30 minutes to get it going again, the Evac teams should already be in place and off everyone goes! Worst case, one hour sit...which still sucks.

..still curious myself.

Thats why you should always carry 150' of 7mm line.  Rap yourself off the chair or cliff you just skied yoself into.

Got an email from Roundtop saying they reopened the Minuteman lift.  The repair crew got it fixed up and the state has inspected it and gave them the clear to start running it again.