No fewer than 174 skiers and snowboarders had to be evacuated using ropes during an operation that lasted five hours on Saturday, when the gondola they were in reportedly suddenly stopped working at a ski resort in the Colorado.
Upon the malfunction, the gondola “stopped as planned. There were no passengers who needed to call anyone. It was an automatic alert for us,” said Jen Miller, spokesperson for the Winter Park resort, according to ABC News.
Around 12:15 p.m. on Saturday, many skiers excited to hit the slopes were on board a gondola, a closed ski lift in which athletes must remove their boards and skis before going up, at the moment when a sudden interruption would have occurred.
The ski resort did not say what caused the gondola to malfunction.
From 1 p.m., a rescue operation was launched to rescue the 174 people on board, using ropes, the spokesperson told the American media.
The last skiers to be evacuated could only have returned to dry land around 6 p.m. Saturday, according to Jen Miller.
The 174 visitors affected by the incident would have all received a $10 voucher and two ski lift passes for this year or next year, the spokesperson added to the American media.
