According to a story on CBC.ca, the cause of the Whistler Blackcomb Excalibur Gondola tower failure was “water seeping into a welded and bolted joint and cracking the metal as it froze.”
Thirteen people suffered minor injuries on Tuesday when one of the towers that supports the cables on the Excalibur Gondola near Fitzsimmons Creek partially collapsed, leaving three gondola cars dangling in mid-air. . . . People were left stranded in the cold for about three hours while fire crews went gondola to gondola removing the 53 passengers from the 30 trapped cars.
Good thing it was only on the lower section of the gondola.
[Link: CBC.ca]
