Gondola falls from cables on La Videmanette

This past Saturday January 16 one of the gondolas going down from La Videmanette fell from the cables during its descent. The accident was caused by a broken cable clamp. Apparently the automatic alarm system had shown the fault but since nobody was inside that particular gondola the operators decided to let it go down to the mid-station and take it out there. Well it never made it to the mid-station. Thankfully nobody was hurt although passengers had their ski days ruined, arriving at their destination some 2 hours later than the normal 15 minute ride. Since then, the cable car has been out-of-order, and is being repaired, checked and overhauled. We'll let you know when you can go up again.

Comments

[Zoran Lalvani]

Thank god no one was injured. I'm surprised Gstaad Mountain Rides hasn't sent out a press release about this incident as it could ruin a lot of potential business for the Gstaad's ski facilities.

[James Maunder]

Zoran, and why exactly are you surprised?

[Zoran Lalvani]

They should have written something to qualm any fears people may have. The local Swiss press are not taking this incident very lightly.

[Kees Diamond]

As a regular Gstaad-guest from Holland, I very much agree with Zoran. As it seems to me, it's like holding back the facts because these could affect the tourismbusiness.

[Tim]

There was a press release:

http://www.gstaad.ch/de/page.cfm/Medien/Medienmitteilungen/43082

[Kees Diamond]

Why didn't you publish this on your homepage as well? In my opinion, informing the public is more important than a pressrelease!

[Jasmin]

Now I know why I never go up (or down) in these things.
I'll stick to cross country skiing!!

:)

[Percy]

Gstaad Mountain rides
Come up - fall off!!!

[Stephen Crompton]

A forecast of when (or whether this season)it is likely to be in service again and meanwhile whether there is any surface transport from the bottom of the lift to the bottom of the Saanen lift would be helpful.