Gondola Breakdown at Colorado Ski Resort Leads to Rescue of 174 People in Rare Event

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

Reports from the media indicated that a crack found in a metal support beam led to the automatic shutdown of a lift at Winter Park Resort near Denver, as a safety measure on Saturday afternoon. Subsequently, it required five hours for rescuers to safely bring down 174 individuals to the ground. This information was shared by a spokesperson for the resort in a statement to 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.” 

It took five hours to rescue all the passengers onboard the stalled gondolas Saturday at Winter Park Resort in Colorado. (Aleksey Dmitriyev)

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. 

Skiers are seen at the Winter Park Resort in Winter Park, Colorado, in March 2017. (Andy Cross/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

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