DENVER ( KDVR ) — Over 170 people had to be rescued Saturday after a gondola malfunction at a Colorado resort, a spokesperson confirmed to Nexstar’s KDVR.
According to Winter Park Resort, found about 70 miles west of Denver, the mechanical issue happened at 12:15 p.m. The gondola immediately shut down, as the system is designed for safety reasons.
Jen Miller, the resort’s public relations and communication manager, said ski patrol began rescue efforts at 1 p.m. and finished at 6 p.m.
In total, 174 people were rescued by ski patrol, which used ropes to lower riders down from the gondolas.
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Aleksey Dmitriyev was one of the 174 people rescued by ski patrol. He said he started skiing in 1999 and goes to Winter Park about 15 times each season. The ski resort is his main destination to go skiing with his wife, in addition to Copper Mountain and Arapahoe Basin.
“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,” he told KDVR. “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.”