Turoa tests lift evacuation

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 599, 15 August 1995, Page 14 (Supplement)

Turoa tests lift evacuation

Since Turoa experienced difficulties with two of its chairlifts resulting in "reallife evacuations coordinated by their ski patrol" (4 July), the company says

they have fully investigated its lift-evacuation procedures. Marketing manager Joanna Savage said it was the first evacuation of chairlifts at Turoa since 1 990 and the incidents arose due to unrelated mechanical problems. The review culminated in an exercise on 23 July, with all of Turoa' s staff being loaded onto the Parklane Chairlift to undergo a full lift evacuation exercise. "Not only does it help fine tune the skills of our key evacuation staff," said ski patrol leader Luigi (John) Hotter, "but it also

helps all our staff to understand exactly what customers go through in these circumstances, and prepares them for any assistance they can give when additional hands are needed". Turoa has a full lift evacuation procedure in place with a specific safety time limit set depending on the weather conditions at the time and in particular, the wind chill factor. The mock evacuation went very smoothly with all staff taken off the lift by T -seats within the specified time limit. The real-life evacuation of the Giant Chairlift on 4 July took around two and a half hours.