Winter Park Resort spokesperson Jen Miller said no one was injuried and it took about four hours to evacuate everyone from the stuck lift. She said the resort hopes to reopen the gondola soon.
WINTER PARK, Colo. – More than 170 people were rescued from a gondola lift at a popular Colorado ski resort that unexpectedly shut down while riders were on the lift.
The incident happened on Saturday at Winter Park Resort. At least 170 people were rescued from the lift.
No one was injured in the incident.
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After a gondola lift shut down at Winter Park Resort in Colorado, more than 150 people had to be rescued. Video from Saturday shows people being rescued from one of the stuck gondola cars.
A video from the day shows riders being rescued from one of the gondolas. Aleksey Dmitriyev was one of the riders stuck and recorded the video as the ski patrol went from gondola to gondola by rappelling on the wires that keep the cars suspended in the air.
As the video continues, a member of ski patrol climbs into the car and instructs the people inside about how they will be taken out. A woman was removed first, then a child, then a man.
Winter Park Resort spokesperson Jen Miller said the Winter Park team got a notification Saturday afternoon that there had been a malfunction on the gondola, and they sprung into action to figure out what happened.
Miller said the team realized they needed to evacuate the lift, and evacuations started around 1 p.m. local time. Everyone was off the lift by 6 p.m., she said.
She said Saturday’s incident was the first time Winter Park Resort’s gondola had ever been evacuated.
The replacement piece to fix the gondola arrived Sunday, and repairs have been made. Miller said the Winter Park Resort team is testing the gondola and hopes to reopen the lift soon.