Australia’s ski resorts were finally celebrating good snowfall over the weekend after a patchy season, but it didn’t go as smoothly as hoped.
Hours after three people were injured when their chairlift seat at Thredbo detached and fell to the ground on Saturday, snowgoers were evacuated from the Skitube at Perisher.
The Skitube is a Swiss designed rack-rail train that takes passengers from Bullocks Flat on the Alpine Way through a tunnel in the Ramshead Range to the Perisher Resort.
Perisher encourages guests use it to avoid huge car queues entering and exiting the resort during busy periods.
However, an “air leak” on the Skitube train heading down the mountain on Saturday night caused the train to suddenly stop.
One man from Newcastle, Joshua Barnett, shared a video of people climbing from the train into the dark tunnel on a Perisher community Facebook group.
He said it was “quite the experience” but noted staff were quick to respond and get them to safety.
Commenters said it was another sign Australia’s ski fields were “falling apart”.
“Holy s***, lift chairs falling off at Threders [Thredbo], ski tube breaking down at Perisher … might be time to spend some of those millions they make every year on maintenance,” wrote one person.
“Wow scary … doesn’t say a lot for maintenance,” criticised another.
“All the money Perisher/Vail are raking in, you think an upgrade would be in order, the old girl is wearing out,” added a third.
Some suggested it was a “cool” experience to get to walk in the tunnels and a great holiday story.
The Skitube first operated in 1987 and the tunnel is 6.3km long. Its deepest point is 550 metres below the surface.
Perisher Skitube manager Luke Rickards told news.com.au “there was no failure related to the braking system” as some passengers thought and the brakes “operated as designed to ensure safety”.
“At approximately 9.42pm the downhill Skitube train had an air leak which resulted in the brakes being automatically applied due to low air pressure. This is an advanced safety feature of the train,” he said.
“The leak was quickly isolated by the train driver and another train was sent to transfer passengers so they didn’t have to wait for the air pressure to build back up again.
“Passengers were transferred between trains and continued on their journey to Bullocks Flat and normal operations resumed.”
Mr Rickards thanked everyone on the Skitube for their patience and said he was proud of their team for dealing with the situation safely and quickly.
Mr Barnett said they were back down the mountain in about 30 minutes and the incident had not put him off using the Skitube again.
An unlimited adult Skitube pass for the 2023 snow season is $510. A return ticket for one day varies in price depending on the day, but is priced at $84 this coming weekend.
Three injured as chairlift breaks
Earlier on Saturday, three people were injured when their chairlift seat at Thredbo detached and fell to the ground metres below.
The group of snowboarders were on the Kosciuszko chairlift about 2.20pm on Saturday when a strong wind gust caused their chair to disconnect from the cable.
NSW Ambulance said two women aged in their 20s were treated for back injuries and taken to Canberra Hospital via helicopter, while a man in his 20s was treated for a facial injury and was taken to Cooma Health Service.
A Thredbo spokesperson said it was caused by a “freak gust of wind”.
“There were no major injuries caused, and the three guests involved are being looked after by the team,” the spokesperson said.
“No other guests or chairs were affected. Thredbo is committed to the safety of our guests and our people. The incident is currently being thoroughly investigated by SafeWork NSW and an independent engineer.”
‘No more snow on the way’
There was finally some good snow cover on the weekend, but meteorologists have warned the long-awaited decent snowfall won’t continue this week.
“The alpine resorts are looking a little bit better than they were previously but some resorts are still really struggling and temperatures are going to rise a little bit more,” Sky News meteorologist Rob Sharpe said. “There’s no more snow on the way for the next couple of days.”
He said the bad news was the snow depth in Australia’s alpine regions was “probably going to go backwards again through the next seven days”.
“The only saving grace is that the overnight temperatures are going to remain cold due to a decent dominance of high pressure so at least they’ll be able to make snow at the alpine resorts through the coming week,” he said.