Colorado ski resort gondola malfunctions, 174 rescued: ‘Once-in-a-lifetime-experience’

More than 170 people were rescued from dangling gondolas at a Colorado ski resort after being trapped for hours due to a malfunction. 

A crack detected in a metal support structure prompted one of the lifts at Winter Park Resort outside of Denver to automatically shut down Saturday afternoon for safety precautions, according to media reports. It then took rescuers five hours to lower 174 people to the ground, a resort spokesperson told KDVR. 

“We were going up to do our first run, my wife and I, and we stopped. Stopped for about 15 minutes and we started kind of thinking, maybe it’s unusual,” skier Aleksey Dmitriyev said to the station. “I called the line, and the line saying if it’s less than 20 minutes don’t worry, call us back… Then we waited a bit longer and we started seeing ski patrol coming down and talking to people from the ground to the cabin, like saying how many of you in the cabin, all that.” 

“Everybody was pretty calm, ski patrol was calm and professional and assured us,” he added. “It was kind of interesting because he kind of knew what he was doing, but we were a little bit concerned.” 

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“We skied a few runs after that, we used a different lift, of course, and it was still an OK day but once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Dmitriyev also told KDVR. 

Dmitriyev captured video showing a rescuer lowering himself into his stranded gondola’s cabin. 

“We are going to send a seat up, we are each going to get in a seat individually and slowly lower everyone down,” the man says. 

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The footage then shows multiple people – including a child – being brought down to safety. 

Winter Park Resort said the lift remained closed Sunday for repairs and inspections and the gondola manufacturer was on-site, according to KDVR. 

As of late Sunday, a new part had been installed and testing is underway in preparation to reopen the lift, the station adds.