A ski lift cracked at a resort in Colorado over the weekend, forcing the dramatic rescues of nearly 200 people on board.
Winter Park Resort said 174 people were safely removed from the gondolas during the five-hour rescue operation Saturday after a support beam cracked. No injuries were reported.
Resort officials and employees with the gondolas’ manufacturer were on the scene Sunday about 70 miles west of Denver in an attempt to figure out what happened. Winter Park Resort has more than 20 other ski lifts and continued operating.
All gondolas and lifts are inspected by the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board before ski and snowboard season begins, and every lift at Winter Park Resort passed inspection, according to local NBC affiliate KUSA.
When the support beam cracked, the gondolas automatically stopped with 174 people in mid-air, as it had been designed to do. Resort staff then climbed up lift towers and shimmied along the ropes to reach each gondola car, KUSA reported.
The ski patrollers entered each gondola from above, lowered people’s equipment to the ground and then instructed them on how to repel down using a rope with a seat attached. Everyone eventually reached the ground safely.