A broken ski lift at a Colorado resort led to 174 people being brought down by rope rescues on Saturday after hours of sitting stranded in their gondolas.
The chairlift system automatically stopped just after noon on Saturday when it detected a malfunction, according to Winter Park Resort. Riders who were stuck in the gondolas were brought down individually by Winter Park Ski Patrol.
One rider, Taylor Scotland, told she was stuck with seven other people in their gondola for around four hours. The ski patrol team helped instruct her on how to rappel down from the lift, she said.
“You have to push yourself around, so you don’t get hit,” Scotland said. “So I turned myself around. I was pretty scared there.”
Alexey Dmitriev shared a series of videos of the ordeal on his TikTok account, including ski patrol members checking to see whether anyone had medical emergencies and coming up to bring down the passengers’ equipment before having them situated in a harness.
“We’re gonna send the seat up,” a ski patrol member . “We’re each going to get into the seat individually and slowly lower everyone down.”
Dmitriev showed a video of the patrol member lowering a child down as well as another of his own rescue.
No injuries were reported and every rider made it down safely, the resort said. Other lifts were still available to the resort guests to utilize.
The gondola lift is designed to automatically stop when it detects an issue with the system for safety purposes, according to Winter Park Resort. Representatives from the manufacturer arrived on Saturday to oversee the inspection and repairs.
A broken piece of one of the towers has been removed and a replacement part was installed as of Sunday afternoon, the resort said.
Once the repairs have been thoroughly tested, the Colorado Tramway Safety Board will have to conduct an inspection before the lift can be re-opened to guests.
“We are working as quickly as possible while prioritizing the safety and wellbeing of our guests and staff, and will continue to provide updates as we have them,” the resort said.
