1/30/13 Jeff Flood Express Chair Incident

RLK and Company, operators of Timberline Lodge believe it is our responsibility to be forthcoming in incidents regarding the public’s safe and enjoyable use of our facilities. It is with that core belief that we offer this account of an incident that occurred at the ski area today.

Chairlift operational malfunction
At approximately 11:20 a.m. on Wednesday January 30, 2013, Timberline experienced a mechanical malfunction on its Jeff Flood Express Chairlift involving the power take-off sheaves at the bottom terminal. This resulted in one chair failing to attach properly to the rope (or cable). All automated safety stops were effectively triggered.

Nobody was injured
3 passengers were loaded on to the one specific chair at the time. The one chair fell an estimated distance of 5 to 6 feet to the snow below. There were no injuries.

Chairlift Evacuation
Once an assessment of the situation was made, the Timberline ski patrol safely and efficiently evacuated the chairlift of all its occupants via rope chairs. The chairlift had 50 occupants on it at the time. The evacuation was completed at approximately 1 p.m. The inconvenienced skiers and snowboarders were brought via snowcat to the Wy’east Day Lodge where they were provided warm food and drink.

The Jeff Flood Express
The Jeff Flood Express is a state of the art chairlift manufactured by Doppelmayr CTEC. It was installed at Timberline in 2007. The detachable technology of the chairlift enables the individual chairs to detach and re-attach to the rope at the top and bottom terminals for ease of loading and off-loading.
Stats: Lift capacity: 1800 Speed: 1000 Length: 6784 vertical rise: 1215

Mechanical Response
Timberline is consulting with the manufacturer as well as USFS engineers. Timberline has also contracted with an independent chairlift engineer who is currently on site to inspect the lift and repairs before re-opening the chairlift.