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Quelle: http://www.pistehors.comGrands Montets closed ‘till Christmas
The Grands Montets domain, part of the Chamonix Mont-Blanc ski area will be closed until around the 20th of December following the discovery of problems with the structure of the load cables of the first section of the cable car during tests in October. The closure also appears to affect the Plan Joran chair which passes under the cables.
In a press release the Compagnie du Mont-Blanc says that the tests were as a result of new regulations for cable-cars and the problem came totally out of the blue as tests under the old regime in mid-May showed no such problems. The new tests are more detailed using an X-Ray examination of the cable. The results were a major headache for the CMB coming so close to the ski season. They could have continued operation but under a far stricter examination protocol that would have resulted in two days of closure per month and the risk that the whole site would have to be shut down for repairs.
In the end they contracted Bourg-en-Bresse based cable specialists Tréfileurope. They have just supplied the world’s longest cable car cable for nearby ski resort of les Houches. It took a considerable amount of effort for Tréfileurope to produce the new cables at such short notice.
The delay in opening, initially scheduled for the 1st of December will come as a blow to the lift company already suffering from extremely poor results in 2006, in part due to the closure of the Grands Montets cable car due to poor snow cover at the start of the season. In 2004 the summer season was ruined when a maintenance crew dropped the cable of the Aiguille du Midi, this was followed by an accident in August.