1 Killed, 8 Hurt When Chairs Drop From Ski Lift

One skier was killed and eight others injured Saturday when chairs from a ski lift tumbled 30 feet to the ground at Whistler Mountain.

The accident happened about 3 p.m., when thousands of pre-Christmas skiers crowded onto the mountain. The resort, about 55 miles north of Vancouver, is one of the world’s top spots for ski vacations.

“The best we can tell, four chairs became detached from their lift line and fell to the ground,” said Whistler Mountain president Doug Forseth, who confirmed the death and the injuries.

The skier who was killed was not identified.

Ski patrol members used an emergency rope-and-chair system to rescue some 200 other skiers stranded on the closed Quicksilver Express lift, one of the newer fourpassenger chairlifts at the mountain.

The evacuation ended just after 7:30 p.m., meaning some chairlift passengers spent more than four hours in midair before being rescued.

A triage unit was set up on the mountain as patients were downloaded by snowmobile, toboggan and snowcat.

“It looked like a scene out of an earthquake,” said skier Steve Hills, who was on the chairlift. “Freaked-out mothers were screaming that their kids and husbands were still up on the lift.”

Hills jumped about 18 feet to the ground after being stranded for about two hours.

“The chair bounced a bit when it stopped and then started and stopped and started and stopped,” said Hills. “We just threw our gear down and jumped.”

Patrol members managed to provide the stranded skiers with blankets, but some were later taken to an emergency station at the base of the mountain to be warmed, said resort spokeswoman Alicia Vennos.

Vennos estimated the chairs that dropped fell about 30 feet.

Jason Glasow of Portland was just behind one of the chairs that plunged to the ground just before the Quicksilver Express lift closed for the afternoon. The 15-year-old boy and his 13-year-old brother, Brandon, one chair behind him, were riding back down the mountain.

“We just got on the lift,” he said. “It stopped. The chairs in front of us slid down the cable and they both fell.”

Brandon Glasow watched in horror as chairs in front of him began sliding down the cable.

“Then it (the cable) stopped rocking and one of them fell,” he said. “Then I got scared.”

Forseth, the president of Whistler, said the injured were taken to the resort community’s medical center for treatment. There were no indications how badly they were hurt.