Film About Kaprun, Austria Finicular Disaster Coming Out Next Month
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bob
October 21, 2016
Member since 04/15/2008 🔗
755 posts

on the 20th anniversary of the fire that killed 150. I'd ridden the train back in the mid 90's. From the top of the Kitzsteinhorn glacier to the bottom of the hill is 7500 feet of vert. In reading the article I  Iearned that the finicular never ran again after the disaster.

http://www.summitdaily.com/explore-summit/part-time-breckenridge-resident-and-world-cup-winner-produces-smoke-in-the-tunnel-a-film-about-the-kaprun-disaster/?utm_source=presslaff&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=sd-local-news-flash

JimK - DCSki Columnist
October 21, 2016
Member since 01/14/2004 🔗
2,964 posts

Wonder if that will run on cable soon?  Would like to see.  Extremely beautiful area with glacier fed lakes, as popular in summer as winter.  I skied Kitz/Kaprun's sister ski area Zell am See in Feb 2003, two years after this.  Zell is a lower altitude ski area about five miles away.  I talked to locals about the funicular fire and they were still shook.  The 9-11 terror act in America was still fresh in my mind and I could relate to their feelings of loss from a shocking mass caualty event in a civilan environment.

bob
October 21, 2016 (edited October 21, 2016)
Member since 04/15/2008 🔗
755 posts

Jim, it takes two gondolas to get to the top of the glacier now. I don't think they ever plan on using the finicular route again.

Incidentally, the glacier opened for skiing on October 1 this year.

JimK - DCSki Columnist
October 21, 2016
Member since 01/14/2004 🔗
2,964 posts

 They hadn't built the two gondolas when I was in the area in 2003.

By "run on cable" I meant if the film would be showing on TV anytime soon??

Reisen
October 22, 2016
Member since 01/25/2005 🔗
368 posts

I grew up skiing Kaprun and Zell am See.  They were probably as close as I had to home mountains.  I rode that funicular many, many times in the 80's and 90's.

By the time the fire happened, I had left for college, and haven't skiied either mountain yet.  At least two Americans died in the fire.  One, a young boy, was my mother's student.  His father also died, who my parents knew through the school.

Not sure why it's saying 20th anniversary, though.  That fire happened in 2000.

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