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September 12, 2016
Should Have Taken the Bus
Stuck in a Cable Car High Above Mont Blanc, Waiting for Rescue: The system of cable cars can carry up to 140 people,who can enjoy a spectacular panoramic view. Some are climbers trying to scale the area’s snow-capped mountains. The trip takes 30 minutes, and on Thursday there were passengers in nine of the cars. All together 110 people were trapped, including Koreans, Britons, Americans and Italians, among them several children and an older man. After efforts to untangle the cables failed, rescuers were able to retrieve 65 people by winching them up into helicopters starting around 5:30 p.m.
According to the 1950 November edition of Popular Mechanics (which you can also read online), the sky bus was powered by two 185 horsepower engines taking passengers from 3,800 feet all the way up to 6,000 feet, completing the more than 3 mile journey above tree level in less than 10 minutes supported by 38 steel towers up to 72 feet tall.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at September 12, 2016 10:49 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
I got on one of those things in Aspen or some other Colorado tourist trap one time and it didn't disappoint. The damn thing got stuck and I was left there swinging like a leaf in a breeze on a cold and cloudy day for around an hour.
I got off when it finally began to operate again, caught the lift down, turned in my skis, went to the bar and made the dreams of a slightly chubby but very pretty girl from Iowa, who could not ski either, come true.
The weekend was pretty good and I've never thought of getting on one of those death traps again.
Posted by: Jack at September 13, 2016 7:37 AM