Guests at a Chinese ski resort recently went through a traumatizing experience.

The South China Morning Post reports that a chairlift stopped rapidly due to a malfunction, leading to the chairs rapidly swinging with passengers onboard. The ski resort wasn’t specified by the Post, but it’s located in western China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. The resort was able to safely evacuate everyone that was on the chairlift. The ultimate cause of the malfunction was abnormally cold weather.

Image/Video Credits: South China Morning Post

Back in 2018, one of the worst chairlift accidents ever happened at Gudauri in Georgia. The rollback, which was reportedly due to human error, resulted in eleven injuries.

For those who wondering more about the context of the incident, Dark History broke it down in thorough detail. The video explains the events during that day, how the weather impacted the rollback, who was at fault, and how the workers were punished.

The video from Dark History is below.

Image/Video Credits: Dark History

One of the scariest chairlift accidents ever occurred at Gudauri Ski Resort in the country of Georgia back in March of 2018.

Videos of skiers being tossed from the chairlift spread like wildfire on the internet as skiers and riders across the globe looked on with horror.

Clips from the original video have been embedded below. Fair warning to those of you that have not seen it before, it’s pretty hard to watch:

At least 11 skiers were seriously injured in the incident.

The accident was initially believed to have been caused by voltage fluctuation or brake issues, but a French investigative firm determined it was human error that led to the terrifying incident:

“However, after the chairlift was stopped, the operator had to introduce specific sequence of procedures and after implementation of the certain actions, the operator had to switch the chairlift on to the diesel generator power and bring the tourist to the safe site where they would have left the chairlift.

Unfortunately, according to the current conclusion, the operator made a mistake. The combination of the actions that he should have had carried out were not implemented in compliance with the relevant instructions – it was a human error.”

Essentially, the chairlift operator failed to turn on the backup generator, which caused the lift to rollback.

Georgia’s Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development suspended the lift operator, and launched an investigation into the resort. Here’s an excerpt from his statement back in 2018:

“Prior to the completion of the investigation, the authority will be suspended to the operator being on duty when the chairlift accident occurred. Issues related to charging of other liable persons will be detailed after completion of the official investigation.”

The incident remains a seminal moment in chairlift safety for ski resorts across the globe.

Multiple gondola cars at a ski resort in Bulgaria slammed into powerlines, and a vehicle’s dash camera recorded the entire incident.

Watch closely on the left side of your screen as two gondola cars moving from right to left snag the power lines. The second one actually gets stuck for a few moments as the lift continues to run.

Check out the video:

“Occurred on December 23, 2022 / Sofia, Bulgaria Vitosha lift cabin in Simeonovo almost fell.”

Thank goodness nobody was on the gondola when the incident occurred. Anybody riding in those cabins could have been seriously injured or killed.

On a personal note- I’ve watched this video a half a dozen times and I’m still confused how the lift continues to move while the car is stuck on the line.

Can somebody with a deeper knowledge of lifts let me know?

We’ve seen plenty of chairlift evacuations in our day, but this one might take the cake for the worst execution. It’s unclear how the skier dangling from the chair ended up in this situation, but it’s pretty easy to say that holding up a ladder to rescue him was less than effective.

The video below shows an angle captured from behind the incident. It cuts out before the skier falls, but you can see that happen in the second video.

Comedian, and passionate skier Chelsea Handler commented on the post: “What a hot mess.” What a hot mess indeed Chelsea.

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Here’s the 2nd angle that shows the skier slamming in the snow. What in the hell were these people thinking using that ladder? First, the ladder is too short. Second, what did they think that skier was going to be able to do if he could get ahold of the ladder?! Did they think they were going to be able to support his weight?

What a disaster. Hope the guy who fell was okay.

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A chairlift incident at Wildcat has left a man seriously injured. WMUR9 reports that a snowboarder fell nearly 10′ from Wildcat’s Snowcat Triple Chair on Saturday afternoon. The chair was unproperly loaded, began swinging, and hit a lift tower causing it to fall from the cable. The man suffered serious injuries to his ribs, according to officials.

The video below was taken by Niki LoBiondo at Tussey Mountain Ski Area, PA back in 2017. It shows an absolutely crazy incident where 4 chairs slid down the haul rope before coming to a stop against the 5th chair.

The incident left multiple people with non-life-threating injuries, and all had to be evacuated from the lift.

I’ve seen quite a few videos of haul ropes derailing, chairs derailing, and lift roll backs, but I can confidently say that this is the only time I’ve seen chairs collide and pile up along the haul rope. Somebody clearly messed up when securing those chairs to the haul rope. Crazy.

Here’s the original video:

The video was picked up by Good Morning America after it happened. They ran the news segment below reporting on the incident:

A ski lift malfunction at Gudauri Ski Resort in Georgia that happened back in 2018 is arguably the most shocking lift malfunction ever captured on camera.

The lift went into a terrifying rollback that was found to be caused by a lift operator error.

The incident injured many, and WARNING the footage can be hard to watch.

I can’t lie. Watching chairlift malfunctions gives me anxiety every time I sit my ass down on one… I know accidents like these are extremely rare, but I can’t help but to have a nagging scary thought from time to time.

Hopefully this footage has brought more attention to chairlift maintenance and safety training to prevent something like this from happening again.

I also know that I’m flinging myself off the chair before it reaches the terminal if I’m ever in a situation like this…

What’s the scariest thing that’s happened to you on a chairlift?

Featured Image Courtesy: Blue Hills Ski Area Facebook, 12/23/20

A 7-year-old boy was seriously injured after falling 35′ from a chairlift at Blue Hills Ski Area in Canton, MA. Here is an official statement from the ski area posted to their Facebook page last night:

Witnesses reported that the boy was skiing with his family, and was wearing a helmet. Local paramedics stated that the boy had suffered serious, but non-life threatening injuries. He was airlifted to a local Boston Children’s hospital for further treatment and evaluation.

Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the injured child.

Featured Image Courtesy: Lift Blog

Various sources are reporting that a chair derailed at Indianhead Mountain in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Lift Blog states that a chair on the Leelinaw Lift detached and fell on January 9, 2020.

Specifics on the skiers or riders injured in the incident have not been reported by the resort or local health officials.

The only report available, at this time, comes from a local skier who posted to the ‘Ski The Midwest’ Facebook Group:

“Update from Indianhead: Two people injured when their chair detached from the rope on the triple. Word is that it was either swinging or loaded incorrectly. The chair made contact with the halo on tower 4 (top of the first headwall) and the chair broke away from the rope, as it’s designed to do. Not sure on injuries, but the male is thought to have broken his back and pelvis. The female is in better shape, just banged up, but both left in ambulances. The lift will need to be repaired and recertified before it can be put back into service. This could have been much worse as the fall was only about 25 feet. If it was any further down the hill, they would have fallen down the “ravine”.

Lift Blog notes that the Leelinaw Lift was one of the first triple chairs in the world. The Riblet chair debuted at Indianhead in 1964. A similar incident occurred at 49 Degrees North earlier this season on their Riblet chair.

Stay here with Unofficial Networks for any updates regarding this story.