All you need to know about ski lift evacuation
A team of experts
Introduce yourself
Franck, sector manager at Pralong and Creux in Courchevel, 28 years' seniority. I started my career as a replacement with flexible working hours in several sectors. I was then asked to join the itinerant inspection team, for which I later became manager. When I was hired in the summer, I was reassigned to assistant driver and driver positions, before applying for a replacement driver position. I continued to progress through the various sectors until I reached my current position. In 2010, I responded to a call for applications to join a team of rescue trainers, as the lead trainer had retired.
Louis André, known as Dédé, sector manager at Mottaret. I joined the company in 1983, at the age of 17. I started out as a seasonal lift operator, and in the summer I worked for assembly companies like POMA. As I knew the lifts from having installed them in the summer, I often became a driver on new lifts. In 1993 I was promoted to sector manager. As far as evacuation was concerned, at the start there was no specific training: you went up to a pylon, climbed down the cable and if you passed the demo you joined the team. I've always loved climbing, mountaineering and handling ropes. I've been in charge of the evacuation teams since 2015, as I was already doing training. What interests me is the adventure aspect, the training, the verticality and always staying at the cutting edge of innovation by trying to bring back new techniques and new equipment.
What exactly is a vertical evacuation?
Franck: This is the final phase in the recovery of our customers in the event of a breakdown on a teleport when it can no longer be restarted. Rescuers, also known as aerialists, use ropes and harnesses to evacuate people from the vehicles to the ground. They are then accompanied to a safe place by our teams.
When are vertical evacuations used?
Louis-André: Vertical evacuations are organised when an installation is immobilised. The cause is often weather-related: strong wind, frost, ice forming on vehicle clamps, but it can also be a breakdown or mechanical failure. During the first 30 minutes of downtime, it's up to the technicians or electricians to do everything they can to resolve the fault. It should also be noted that each lift has a back-up motor to evacuate vehicles (chairlifts or gondolas) on the line to the station. After 30 minutes, if all the vehicles have not been evacuated and the lift cannot restart, a vertical evacuation plan is launched. From that point on, we have 3 hours to evacuate the entire line.
Technically speaking, what exactly happens on site?
Louis-André: In this case, a head of operations is appointed: he's the one who manages the pairs, the dispatch to the zones according to the scopes defined in advance. He monitors the operation on site, contacting the trackers (and monitors) so that they can position themselves under the line to indicate how many vehicles are occupied, how many people in total and then stay under the line to receive the clients once they are on the ground.
The teams will be transported under the line by scooter, snowcat or skis.
Each group is made up of 2 team members:
- An aerialist: he climbs up to the pylon with the ladder, settles in and goes down on the cable with his wheel once ready. He is completely autonomous: once on the vehicle, he installs a fixed rope to enable him to descend onto the roof of the cabin, sets up a descender, descends into the cabin, equips the clients with evacuation triangles and brings them down one after the other. As soon as the cabin is empty, he climbs back onto the roof of the vehicle using a jumar handle on his fixed rope, takes his equipment and continues to the next vehicle.
The aerialist has a bag weighing around 17 kg containing a 50 m rope, evacuation triangles for the clients, a jumar handle to climb back up the rope, a descender, etc.
- A team member: goes up the ladder with the acrobat and checks his safety. He then climbs back down the ladder to the next pylon and again ensures the safety of the aerialist on his new position.
Do the teams need specific training and what does the training involve?
Louis-André: It's often up to people, and you have to be motivated to be part of this small team. At Mottaret, there are 45 of us in total.
For the newcomers, those who might be interested, we're going to do a little initiation: presentation of the equipment, skiing with a 17kg bag, climbing up a 22m pylon and a little ascent/climb on a rope. It's easy to go down on a vehicle, but then you have to get back on the rope to go back up on the cable!
If this initiation is successful, they will sign up for the 4-day in-house training course scheduled for mid-November.
Exercises are then planned every winter, during the day on training equipment (in Courchevel a chairlift is available at the Altipole and in Mottaret on the Combe du Laitelet) or in the evening in real conditions, with full simulation. The teams do at least 2 full exercises per winter.
As for our trainers, we are trained by external organisations.
Do you have any statistics or figures on vertical evacuations for Courchevel and Méribel-Mottaret?
In Courchevel, Franck : Since 2011, several interventions have been launched. On 29 December 2012, 38 people were rescued from the Biollay chairlift. On 07 January 2016, 2 teams were seconded to evacuate the Pas du Lac. On 3 occasions (February 2019, December 2021, February 2022), Les Chenus saw a number of people rescued from badly engaged gondolas. On the evening of 1 January 2022, 78 customers were evacuated from the Jardin Alpin gondola under night-time conditions. More recently, on the Roc Merlet chairlift, 11 customers were able to reach their accommodation from the heights of the resort at the end of the day on 23 December 2023.
In Mottaret, Louis-André: Over the last 10 years, 2 evacuations have taken place. One was at Pas du Lac, where around ten people were evacuated. It was a very complicated operation because there was a lot of wind and a lot of ice. I was in charge of operations and it didn't go very well because as well as having problems getting the staff down, the descender of one aerialist froze during the descent and the aerialist found himself stuck 4m high. We had to find a way to lower him from the bottom, all in a storm and -20°C.
In 2019 we also evacuated 3 people from the upper part of the old Plattières gondola. A deposit of ice had formed in the station and the gondolas could no longer move forward.
Do you have a vivid memory of a vertical evacuation?
Louis-André: One that really stood out for me was on Mont Vallon in 1988, after a mechanical breakdown, when I was able to take advantage of the presence of a helicopter from POMA (the lift manufacturer), on a site visit. Everything could be managed from the helicopter: the line turn and the routing of the teams could be managed from the helicopter, which saved us a lot of time and gave us a great view!
The vertical evacuations always go very well and the customers are always delighted to return to the ground, after the small dose of adrenalin during the descent. But in the end they're always exhilarated by the experience!