Northern Rockies/Alberta Whitefish Lift Evacuation

[Talisman]

This doesn't sound fun on a holiday week:
(From KBZK News)
More than 100 passengers on a Whitefish Mountain Resort Ski lift were evacuated due to a lift malfunction Saturday.

Just after 12 p.m., the East Rim/Chair 5 Lift stopped due to an issue with the chairlift’s bullwheel liner.

There were approximately 140 passengers were on the lift at the time.

At the time of the incident, temperatures were in the high teens and winds were at 10 miles per hour with occasional gusts.

The last passenger was evacuated about two and a half hours after the lift stopped.

No injuries were reported.

 

[Coach13]

That would be a stressful couple of hours but it sounds like the evac went well.

 

[Fuller]

There's a couple of videos on FB of them lowering folks down the cliff. One chair was parked right over the edge of the cliff so he had to rappel down. I'm guessing about 100 ft total. Even if you managed to be lowered to the top and traverse to the easier terrain it's still very sketchy. I've seen ski patrol winching folks back up who went down too far and got "cliffed out". It's all right under the lift for your in flight entertainment (when the lift is running that is)