Five people were hospitalized Monday following a chairlift crash at Heavenly Mountain Resort in Lake Tahoe, California.
Two chairs on the lift apparently collided, causing some skiers to fall about 30 feet to the snow below.
The incident happened at about 10 a.m. on the resort's Comet Express chairlift.
A witness said one chair slid backward and crashed into the chair behind it.
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Heidi Schmitt was on the same chairlift 10 minutes before the incident happened.
"As we were getting up in the air, we could see about 15, quite a few EMT or all the red medics that were there surrounding someone, and my husband did notice the backpack hanging from the chairlift," she said.
Another photo showed first responders on the ground below the chairs.
The Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District said three rescue ambulances were called and five people were taken to Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno.
"Heavenly Mountain Resort can confirm an incident occurred on its Comet Express chairlift today, Monday, December 23, 2024," the resort said in a statement. "The safety of our guests is our top priority and the resort is investigating the incident."
Comet Express is a high-speed detachable chairlift that can carry four people per chair and move 2,800 people per hour. It was shut down for the rest of the day following the incident.
Back in January, a woman at Heavenly spent 15 hours in a gondola overnight in freezing temperatures. The resort said it failed to follow protocols. The woman was not injured.
On Sunday at Winter Park Resort in Colorado, a gondola malfunction stranded 174 people for hours. They had to be brought down using ropes and ladders.
