Tussey Mountain Ready to Reopen

By Geoff Rushton and G. Kerry Webster

Tussey Mountain will reopen on Saturday after being closed for the past week following a ski lift malfunction.

The Boalsburg ski area has replaced the part of the system that was responsible for the malfunction and the lift has passed state inspections, marketing director Aaron Weyman said. The slopes and the tubing area will open at 9 a.m. on Saturday. Check the Tussey Mountain website for a schedule of upcoming hours.

Shortly after 10 a.m. on Dec. 16, opening day for the season at the ski resort, a chair carrying skiers and snowboarders slipped along the haul rope and slid backwards, hitting the chair behind it and causing a domino effect resulting in four slipped chairs.

Five people sustained non-life threatening injuries and the system was immediately shut down, necessitating the evacuation of about 50 people who were stranded on the lift. Emergency responders were called to the scene — including area EMS, police and fire — to attend to the injured and assist ski patrol with evacuations, a process that involved using ropes and harnesses and took about two hours before the final skiers were brought down.

The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry’s Bureau of Occupational and Industrial Safety Elevator Division was immediately notified and agency staff were on-site Saturday and Sunday to help determine the cause. Chairs were removed and studied and chair grips were sent for examination by an investigative company.

In a news release earlier this week, Tussey Mountain said weakened spring packs inside the chair lift grips were determined to be responsible and that entire system on the lift was replaced. 

Ski lifts at Tussey Mountain are required to pass inspections in both the spring and fall, including testing of the haul rope and chair lift grips. The ski resort said that those tests were most recently completed in October. Load testing was most recently completed in August. The official state inspection was completed on Nov. 14. All of the equipment had passed inspections.

Tussey Mountain management have been in contact with the individuals who were injured.

‘We are grateful to learn of the progress being made with their recoveries,’ the release earlier this week said. ‘We will continue to work with these individuals, although we will not provide any further statements regarding these individuals out of respect for their privacy.’

The ski resort also stressed its commitment to safety.

‘Tussey Mountain takes lift maintenance and operation seriously. Our mountain may be small compared to others, but our staff is experienced, knowledgeable and passionate about their craft,’ the release said. ‘Our lift technicians receive training on lift safety on an ongoing basis, and our employees conduct individual inspections of our chairlifts on a daily basis. While these procedures have served us without incident until this point, we have begin self-examining our processes to ensure that incidents like this one will not recur.’

Derek Canova, a staff trainer at Tussey Mountain Snowsports School, was on the lift at time of the malfunction, leading a team of ski patrol members on a training exercise.

“People were scared and a lot of people were screaming,” Canova told the Centre County Gazette. “Someone in front of us was hurt pretty badly, but they were comforting her.”

The State College resident said while waiting for emergency response teams, those in the ‘baskets’ had to work together to make sure everyone was safe and understood the situation. Fortunately for the guests who were in those baskets, their fellow passengers had a leg up in the emergency situation.

“We had several veteran staff members there that were all capable of making sure everybody was OK,” said Canova, referring to the ski patrol team on its way to training. “They were all incredible with their quick response and how they handled the situation until fire companies arrived.”

Canova, who has been skiing Tussey’s slopes since he was 7-years-old, said he did not know how long he was trapped on the disabled lift, but noted they began their ride up the mountainside shortly after 10 a.m. and he was on the ground at noon, along with about 50 others who were stranded in suspended chairs that morning.

“It was truly incredible to see how all the emergency responders had to work together,” said Canova. “This wasn’t a typical call for them. There were all kinds of working parts to it, but everyone worked together and getting everyone down went very smoothly.”