Officials at Whistler Blackcomb defend their response to a safety bulletin issued nearly two years ago by lift manufacturer Dopplmayr, warning that ice build-ups could rupture some ski lift support towers.

The bulletin was issued in the wake of a so-called "ice-jacking" incident at an Idaho ski resort in 2006 that damaged a chair lift but caused no injuries.

A total of 53 skiers and snowboarders were stranded in sub zero temperatures for several hours on the Excalibur Gondola lift when the tower collapsed earlier this week because of ice-jacking. Twelve riders suffered minor injuries, the most major being a fractured vertebrae.

Resort officials say all the bulletin recommendations were fully implemented.

Meanwhile, the B.C. Safety Authority has issued a safety order requiring all resorts in the province to inspect their lifts for signs of ice and water damage.

Back to business

Whistler Blackcomb says ten lifts on both mountains of the resort are back open - and is expecting to reopen the Excalibur Saturday.

Doug Forseth, senior vice-president of operations for the resort, says he has confidence in the safety systems in place at the resort but acknowledged that the incident may leave some people wondering.

"We're going to work very hard to restore the confidence for those, where it's been damaged," Forseth said.

Resort to be used in 2010

The Whistler-Blackcomb resort will play host to the alpine events at the 2010 Winter Games. All of the events will take place on Whistler Mountain, not Blackcomb where the accident occurred.

Many feared the collapse had occurred on the new $52 million Peak-to-Peak lift, connecting the peak of Whistler Mountain to the peak of Blackcomb Mountain. It's the highest in the world at 436 metres above the ground.

Past problems

The incident on the Excalibur, which was installed in 1994, is not the first ski lift accident at the resort.

In 1995, an accident on Whistler's Quicksilver lift killed two men, and injured nine others.

The high-speed lift was ferrying skiers to the top of the mountain when a chair slipped on a cable and slammed into another, sending four chairs crashing into the rocks three storeys below.

A coroner's report said the accident was a result of systemic failure, noting problems with the lift system's grip mechanisms should have been detected in advance.

With files from The Canadian Press