Here is an official update from Whistler Blackcomb on their Doppelmayr/Garaventa gondolas, from early this morning:

Whistler Mountain will open for regular morning operations as early as 7:30am, as the Whistler Village Gondola and the Creekside Gondola are different types of lift installations and have different tower structures. Remaining Whistler Mountain lifts as well as Blackcomb Mountain lifts are expected to open when the secondary inspection by BCSA is complete. The one exception is the Excalibur Gondola, which will remain closed.

Twenty maintenance staff inspected the lifts last night and concluded that the Excalibur Gondola tower failed due to a leak. Water entered the tower, turned to ice and expanded between two parts that were spliced together, causing the structure to rupture. This is apparently known as “ice-jacking” (cyclic incremental movement by ice leading to failure from microcrack propagation).

“As always, our top priority is for the safety and well-being of our resort guests and employees,” says Doug Forseth, senior vice president of operations. “Whistler Blackcomb will delay opening some of our lifts this morning until the BCSA can confirm our findings and provide a secondary inspection. After the work conducted throughout last night by our own lift maintenance team, and a secondary inspection that will be completed this morning by the BCSA, access to both Whistler and Blackcomb is expected to be available by midday.”

Two cabins actually hit the ground and twelve people out of 53 on the gondolas were taken to the Whistler Medical Clinic. All were released soon after.

No word yet from the BC Safety Authority on whether joints on towers will be subjected to regular X Ray inspections, as that probably would have detected a faulty weld and the ice-jacking.