Industry News
A gondola crash injured at least eight workers at Val Thorens in the Les 3 Vallรฉes ski area in France on Tuesday, November 19. The accident occurred around 7:30 a.m. in the morning, while a gondola cabin of the Cime Caron cable car was carrying 16 workers to a construction site at the top station at 3,186 meters (10,453 feet). In a press conference, resort officials Jรฉrรดme Grellet and Benjamin Blanc as well as mayor Claude Jay announced that the cause of the accident was not clear yet.
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Two of the injured sustained serious but not life-threatening injuries. The Prefect of Savoie has activated its crisis management unit in response to the incident. The accident was attended by several fire departments and rescue services in the region, as well as the resort’s ski patrollers and mountain rescue (CRS Alpes and PGHM). The 16 passengers were evacuated by the Orelle-Caron gondola lift as helicopters could not be flown due to poor visibility.
“It must be understood that we were in a construction site mode, aka a manual mode. That is not the same at all as when the resort is operating with the public where it is automatic, which has much more serious security and redundancy systems than the manual mode,” Jรฉrรดme Grellet explained.
Grellet is the Director of Operations at la Sociรฉtรฉ Tรฉlรฉphรฉriques Tarentaise et Maurienne (SETAM), the company that operates the lifts at Val Thorens. The conductor of the cable car was a very experienced employee who was said to be in shock following the accident. He is being cared for by a psychological team following the accident.
The original 150-person Cime Caron cable car was opened in 1982 and was the largest cable car in the world at that time. It takes passengers from the base station at 2,320 meters (7,612 feet) to the top station at 3,186 meters (10,453 feet) at Cime de Caron, a peak in the resort that reaches a height of 3,195 meters (10,482 feet). It was replaced in 2019 with a 135-person cable car that can travel the 2,047-meter (6,716-foot) distance and 866-meter (2,841-foot) vertical at 11 meters per second, or a total journey time of 3:20 minutes.
The accident happened just four days before the resort was scheduled to open on November 23. According to Grellet, โthere will be no impact on the opening of the ski lifts scheduled for this Saturday, November 23.” ย The Cime Caron cable car never opens for opening weekend but usually starts carrying guests 10-15 days after the season opening. According to a press release by Val Thorens, it is planning to open the Funitel Pรฉclet, Funitel Grand Fond, TC Moraine, TSD Cascade, TSD Lac Blanc, TSD Portette, TC Cairn, as well as four magic carpets for opening weekend.
