Stuck

Earlier this month AH and I were skiing with the kids on a beautiful Saturday morning.  As we made our way up the lift, at our favorite little ski area, the backside of the mountain opened and we decided to hit those trails first.  Being a nervous intermediate skier I opted not to follow my family down the black diamond run, but instead took the longer, easier way around… only I missed my turn and ended up having to ski back down to the main lift and come up the hill again.  When I reached the top I waited patiently for AH or one of the kids to ski by.  While standing there I noticed the Ski Patrol roping off the entrance to the backside of the mountain; the side of the mountain where my family was last skiing.  Not a good sign.  I asked a nearby ski patrol volunteer what was going on and he said that the lift on that side of the mountain had just broken down.  It was running on backup power to get the skiers out of that area and would then be closed until it could be fixed.  

I waited for a long time.  I watched people ski by from the area of the broken lift and continued to wait until no more skiers were coming.  Thinking I must have somehow missed my family I finally took my skis off and trekked over to the broken lift so see if it was still operating.  Turns out it wasn’t and it was full of passengers all hanging in the air.  After a few attempts to get the lift engine working again, to no avail, the ski patrol quickly called in a rescue code and all the ski patrol members from all over the mountain came to help evacuate the stranded skiers off the lift, including my family. 

AH and Beeb had it fairly easy, being the last skiers on the lift they were a mere foot and a half off the ground.  AH jumped off and helped Beeb down.  Mr. B was in a bigger pickle being several chair ahead and truly stuck 40 feet in the air.  It took about two hours for the patrol to get all the skiers back on the ground.  Unfortunately because we were on the backside of the mountain everyone had to hike up a fairly steep hill to the top to be able to ski back down to the lodge and parking lot.  I was able to reach AH by borrowed cell phone and realized he and the kids would be one of the last ones up the mountain.   Knowing my kids would be working hard just to walk up the steep hill I decided that I had better go down and help AH carry ski gear up.  I found them ¾ of the way down and AH was indeed carrying all the skis.  It was slow going but we all made it back up to the top and were happy to call it a day (what a workout!).  The resort compensated everyone for the hassle with a free pass for another ski day and drinks at the lodge.  AH claimed all our free passes and is using them to ski with his buddies who don’t have a seasons pass. 

For the most part the people who were stranded had smiles on their faces when they reached the top of the lift.  Some were sourpusses and grumbly and I avoided them.  Sure it was an inconvenience and folks had to work hard to get up the mountain, but overall everyone was okay, got in a good hike (ha ha) and the weather was very nice and not raining/snowing/windy.  Plus we all learned how the Ski Patrol gets stranded skiers off the lifts – very cool!