Yesterday the wind was incredibly strong at Stowe -- so much so that they shut down a bunch of lifts, eventually including the gondola. I remember riding it and thinking,"Man, it sure is windy! Hope it doesn't break down!"
So this evening I see this:
Glad no one was hurt!
So this evening I see this:
CNN said:Passengers have been rescued from a gondola dangling over a freezing creek after the tower snapped in half Tuesday at a ski resort near Whistler, British Columbia.
An official from the ski resort said a total of 53 passengers have been rescued. He said no more people are trapped. At one point, there were about 30 gondola cars suspended in the air, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.
"At no time was anyone in serous risk and at no time were the cars separated from the line," Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt Steve Wright said. He also stressed that no gondolas had fallen, contrary to some reports.
Canadian Television News footage showed rescuers walking down a fire truck ladder escorting passengers from one gondola over the frozen water. At least six people were trapped inside that cabin, which was the closest to the base of the mountain, CTV News reported.
Cynthia Jennings told CTV News she was in a car halfway down the mountain when the tower snapped. "All we saw were other cars swinging sideways and we thought we were going to crash to the ground," she told CTV News by cell phone. "I thought the whole cable system was going to come down. I couldn't even breathe."
Authorities said they did not know the cause of the accident.
"It just started really suddenly, we saw people running everywhere," Jean-Philippe Plante said.
Plante, from Vancouver, was visiting the ski resort when the gondola snapped. Plante said he planned to go skiing Tuesday morning, but changed his mind. "We just went for a walk, so I guess it's a good thing because we might have been one of the people stuck here," he said.
No serious injuries were reported, but a spokeswoman for the Whistler Blackcomb resort said five people required medical attention. Three were taken to a nearby clinic and two were taken to a hospital as a precaution, said spokeswoman Tabetha Boot.
Skiers were evacuated from the area and the resort was closed while authorities investigated the accident, Boot said.
The gondola cars affected were close to the ground when the accident occurred, Boot said.
Glad no one was hurt!