I can remember two instances of being stuck on a lift for around 30 minutes, but both times they were able to get it restarted.
The first time was at Loon, NH on a day where it was 20-something below. I was close enough to the bottom that I could see the lift mechanics scrambling up the ladders and having a conference; that's sort of when I knew we were in for a long wait. I don't remember anybody coming below giving us a status update. The woman I was stuck with on the lift would not shut up about the cold. I had determined that the fall / jump was high enough to guarantee an injury, but that she would (probably) survive if she were pushed. I think they gave us hot chocolate coupons when we finally got off.
I skied down to the lodge and just sat in front of the fire. I was frozen.
There was a time at Sugarloaf when the haul rope came off the pulleys and they were somehow able to lift it back on. That was a warm-ish spring day (or at least what passes for "spring" in Maine), so the wait wasn't that bad. We were contemplating jumping when a patroller came by to give us an update and asked us to stay put as "we have enough problems right now". Fair enough.
Based off of those experiences, I figured that going through an evacuation was the last-ditch option. i.e., it's much faster to jury-rig / fix / patch things together enough to offload everybody than it is to rope evacuate everyone.
@pais alto , what sort of time-frame would you expect for evacuating 160 people?