New Mexico Tram of Terror- people stuck overnight in below freezing temps on cable car

[High Plains Drifter 11050]

 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/multiple-people-trapped-tram-cars-albuquerque-mexico/story?id=82031983

 

Spoiler

Twenty-one people have been rescued after becoming trapped overnight in tram cars on the Sandia Peak Tramway in Albuquerque, New Mexico, authorities said.

Tramway operators had to halt the cars Friday night because of "severe icing due to the moisture and cold temperature that affected the emergency cable," Sandia Peak Tramway general manager Michael Donovan told ABC Albuquerque affiliate KOAT.

The tram cars were carrying employees of the tramway and a restaurant atop Sandia Peak on the last ride of the night, according to KOAT. One passenger said on social media she had been stranded since 9 p.m. Friday.

New Mexico Search and Rescue was notified of the stranded passengers shortly before 3 a.m., according to incident commander Spenser Moreland. It took several hours for rescuers to hike to the site and work on an evacuation plan, he said.

"We did an assessment of everybody on the tram, determined they were fine and doing well, given the conditions," Moreland said during a press briefing Saturday, adding that responders were also able to provide them with food, water and blankets.

Twenty people stranded in one of the tramway's two cars were eventually lowered using a rope system and then evacuated from the ground via a helicopter two to four at a time, authorities said. The sheriff's office livestreamed the rescue operation for over an hour.

Shortly after 1 p.m. local time, Bernalillo County fire officials updated that all 20 passengers in the car had been rescued.

An employee in the second tram car was also subsequently rescued, and all stranded passengers are now "safely at base," the Bernalillo County fire department said in a Twitter update posted before 4 p.m. local time.

High winds and visibility had impeded the rescue operations, authorities said.

"This is not something that we hadn't kind of planned on at some point," Bernalillo County Under Sheriff Larry Koren told reporters. "We've done a lot of training with all of our search and rescue stakeholders here in the past regarding the tram operations."

Metro Air Support, the Bernalillo County sheriff's office and fire department, New Mexico State Police, New Mexico Search and Rescue Teams were involved in the rescue efforts.

The Sandia Peak Tramway is closed Saturday due to high winds, the company said.

The tram ride typically takes 15 minutes to the peak of the Sandia Mountains and another 15 minutes back to the lower terminal.

 

 

A few years back, me and the family rode the tram up to the top of the mountains in Palm Springs. On the return trip down, high winds caused the tram to start swaying so bad they had to stop its descent until the swaying stopped. A 15 ride ended up taking almost an hour. People were losing their shit every time the tram swayed.

 

 

[CooterBrown 18015]

They paused the tram at 9pm and no one called for help until 3am? Wtf.

I’ve ridden that tram a few times so this hits close to vacation.

[Blotto 23559]

20 people stuck for that long? Would be a bad time to get the shits. 

[NoRagrets 1125]

I rode that thing once. It was pretty intimidating in the summer with the swaying from the wind. You can also still see debris from a plane crash during the ride if you ask the operator to point it out. 

[NoRagrets 1125]

That tram is like 70 years old. I think a bunch of ww2 veterans built it after the war because they wanted to go skiing more easily. 

[Dewey 3286]

21 minutes ago, NoRagrets said:

That tram is like 70 years old. I think a bunch of ww2 veterans built it after the war because they wanted to go skiing more easily. 

It's been there for a long time, but I'm pretty sure things have been updated. They take a lot of pride in that thing. 

[atomheartbevo 89732]

[Guest Lobo]

New mExico, eh?

 

i know the right personal Civil litigator to call.  

[CooterBrown 18015]

It's been there for a long time, but I'm pretty sure things have been updated. They take a lot of pride in that thing. 

IIRC, the current version is Swiss engineered and imported from there. At least that’s a vague memory of what a sign said.

[Harrison Bergeron 1798]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_(2010_American_film)

[52-80 19167]

You think they all had a big icy orgy since, you know, it could be their very last?

[52-80 19167]

10 minutes ago, Harrison Bergeron said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_(2010_American_film)

That movie was ass lol

[Dewey 3286]

9 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

IIRC, the current version is Swiss engineered and imported from there. At least that’s a vague memory of what a sign said.

Yes, all the cables, operating system, probably the cars. My sister has a house with a view of the thing. There's a book in her house about the tram and it's history,  I thumbed through it.... I'm pretty much an expert on the damn thing. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13515]

11 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

They paused the tram at 9pm and no one called for help until 3am? Wtf.

That is some bs, that I bet it occurred because the people on the tram were employees coming down in the last tram for the night. For customers, they would have called for help sooner.

For work once, I had to take a city of Houston fire safety seminar run by HFD. I recall they mentioned that you call 911 the minute an elevator is stuck. This gets the rescue process working ASAP.

for this story, the tram wasn’t halted due to temporary swaying because of wind, it was due to icing. Was the icing going to get better at 10 or 11pm? Halting the tram at 9pm and the business calling for help until 3am is negligent behavior. At a minimum, that decision maker needs to get their ass kicked.

[Knoxtnhorn 6058]

42 minutes ago, Harrison Bergeron said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_(2010_American_film)

You beat me to it.

[TwiceHorn 31497]

For some reason, I heavily associate the term "tram" with a rail vehicle.  I see that the definition includes overhead cable cars (SF calls their railed trams cable cars 🤬).

I had a momentary confuse.

[BabaYaga 15301]

2 hours ago, Harrison Bergeron said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_(2010_American_film)

LOL, first thing I thought of too!

[tantric superman 4667]

15 hours ago, Blotto said:

20 people stuck for that long? Would be a bad time to get the shits. 

I'd shit on purpose just to change the focus from my claustrophobic hysteria.

After about 30 seconds of pausing, I'd find the biggest guy on the tram and ask him to knock me the fuck out, because in 45 seconds I would LOSE MY SHIT.

 

[tantric superman 4667]

Would at the very least have to crawl out to get some fresh air.

[jdhorn92 1552]

16 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

 

 

 

That tram in Palm Springs you reference is no joke.  IIRC, its the fastest ascent for the amount of elevation it captures.  My daughter and I took it several years ago while in PS for a family wedding.  We left the others at the Marriott by pool getting sun while we hiked in a decent amount of snow. We went from the pool to snow and back to the pool in about 4 hours.

Edited January 2, 2022 by jdhorn92

[RDCanecutter 26453]

5 hours ago, 52-80 said:

You think they all had a big icy orgy since, you know, it could be their very last?

If the tram starts swayin', don't stop layin'

pipe.

[washparkhorn 9939]

 

[52-80 19167]

1 hour ago, tantric superman said:

I'd shit on purpose just to change the focus from my claustrophobic hysteria.

After about 30 seconds of pausing, I'd find the biggest guy on the tram and ask him to knock me the fuck out, because in 45 seconds I would LOSE MY SHIT.

 

Thats not very cashmoney of you

[RPM 26322]

 

[Not a cat 5660]

2 hours ago, tantric superman said:

I'd shit on purpose just to change the focus from my claustrophobic hysteria.

After about 30 seconds of pausing, I'd find the biggest guy on the tram and ask him to knock me the fuck out, because in 45 seconds I would LOSE MY SHIT.

 

This.  I remember I was at Disney animal kingdom and the yeti ride was stuck.  You could see passengers at the top of the ride just buckled in and unable to get out.  I turned to my kids and said bad news, we aren't riding that thing.

[atomheartbevo 89732]

7 hours ago, RPM said:

 

Had something like that happen to me.

Astroworld, and there was a lot less room on top of those cable cars.

 

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

I haven't visited that area since a relative moved away from there, but that funicular rail (Royal Gorge near Canon City) going down to the Colorado River would not exactly be a pleasant place to be stuck at night either. I heard it isn't operational any longer(?) but we rode it a long time ago and it was pretty cool.

 

[BabaYaga 15301]

21 hours ago, tantric superman said:

I'd shit on purpose just to change the focus from my claustrophobic hysteria.

After about 30 seconds of pausing, I'd find the biggest guy on the tram and ask him to knock me the fuck out, because in 45 seconds I would LOSE MY SHIT.

 

[ztejas 43477]

 

[conVINCEd 21469]

if you aren’t fond of heights, this probably isn’t for you.

https://www.whistler.com/activities/peak-to-peak-gondola/

[High Plains Drifter 11050]

On 1/1/2022 at 9:10 PM, CooterBrown said:

They paused the tram at 9pm and no one called for help until 3am? Wtf.

 

 

 

On 1/2/2022 at 8:54 AM, 52-80 said:

You think they all had a big icy orgy since, you know, it could be their very last?

 

 

I guess we know how long the orgy lasted.

 

 

Edited January 4, 2022 by High Plains Drifter

[Bevo 13579]

300 meter cliff wall to my hotel in Madeira - only way in and out was by cable car with the ride more similar to an elevator than gondola because it was so steep. It was very windy there most of the time also. It was way worse than any ski slope operation that I’ve ever been on and just knowing that the hotel probably didn’t have the upkeep necessary to keep in in good shape in the salty air made me a little noxious. 

[Brothahorn 10087]

300 meter cliff wall to my hotel in Madeira - only way in and out was by cable car with the ride more similar to an elevator than gondola because it was so steep. It was very windy there most of the time also. It was way worse than any ski slope operation that I’ve ever been on and just knowing that the hotel probably didn’t have the upkeep necessary to keep in in good shape in the salty air made me a little noxious. 

[PRONG HORN 3146]

 

 

 

 

[conVINCEd 21469]

Table Mountain (not me in the photo).

[atomheartbevo 89732]

[Deej 76831]

Fuck that shit.

https://vault.si.com/vault/1976/12/13/the-tragedy-on-gondola-ii

[texasdago 7575]

""severe icing due to the moisture and cold temperature that affected the emergency cable,"

Huh... if only trams that go up to ski mountains were designed to handle, you know, ice.

By the way, this is in Val Gardena in Italy... amazing they're still running it...

https://www.inspirock.com/italy/selva-di-val-gardena/telecabin-forcella-del-sassolungo-a574142941

 

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4976]

7 hours ago, Bevo said:

300 meter cliff wall to my hotel in Madeira - only way in and out was by cable car with the ride more similar to an elevator than gondola because it was so steep. It was very windy there most of the time also. It was way worse than any ski slope operation that I’ve ever been on and just knowing that the hotel probably didn’t have the upkeep necessary to keep in in good shape in the salty air made me a little noxious. 

nox·ious
/ˈnäkSHəs/
adjective
harmful, poisonous, or very unpleasant.
"they were overcome by the noxious fumes"

[hornian 5219]

44 minutes ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

nox·ious
/ˈnäkSHəs/
adjective
harmful, poisonous, or very unpleasant.
"they were overcome by the noxious fumes"

Yeah, it made him fart up a storm. That shit was noxious. 

[Bevo 13579]

5 hours ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

nox·ious
/ˈnäkSHəs/
adjective
harmful, poisonous, or very unpleasant.
"they were overcome by the noxious fumes"

Autocorrect. I’m in Iceland now with spotty service and a busy schedule.

 

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4976]

A busty schedule?