A gondola at B.C.'s premier ski resort will fully reopen Wednesday following a collapse that left 13 injured.
B.C.'s Safety Authority has now renewed the operating permit for all of Whistler Blackcomb's Excalibur gondola after full repairs and extensive testing were carried out on the lift.
An unexpected build-up of ice -- known as ice-jacking -- was blamed for the partial collapse of the Excalibur lift tower on Blackcomb Mountain.
While the upper line of the gondola reopened over the weekend, tests and repairs were still being carried out on the lower portion of the lift.
Thirteen people suffered minor injuries when several of the gondola cars fell to the ground and 53 people in all had to be evacuated from the lift. One gondola dangled precariously over icy Fitzsimmons creek.
The problem went undetected because the tower was filled with concrete and the safety authority has since issued an order requiring all ski resorts to inspect their lift towers for similar problems.
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.
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
