More than 170 snowboarders and skiers rescued after Colorado ski lift cracks

A crack in a Colorado ski lift forced the evacuation of more than 170 stranded skiers and snowboarders on Saturday, with people riding the gondolas lowered down by ropes over the course of hours.

Officials are still investigating what cause the gondola lift at Winter Park Resort, about 70 miles (113km) west of Denver, to crack. The lift automatically stopped when it detected the crack in a structural piece of the lift just after noon on Saturday, resort spokesperson Jen Miller said.

“Ski patrol has trained extensively for this,” Miller said, according to the Colorado Sun Times. “It’s a very rare thing to have to evacuate a lift at all.

No injuries were reported during the rescues, which came at the start of the busy holiday ski season.

Ski patrolers entered the cabin of each gondola from above and lowered people’s equipment to the ground before using a rope equipped with a seat to lower each of the 174 passengers to the ground, Miller said.

Workers were replacing the section of the lift that cracked on Sunday as state regulators and the lift’s manufacturer worked with resort officials to investigate what caused the crack, Miller said. The resort still had 21 other lifts open.