It started off as a normal day at Winter Park Resort until the gondola malfunctioned at about 12:15 p.m. Dec. 21, requiring the evacuation of 182 passengers.

Jason Driver, who was on the gondola when it stopped, and Colin Karge, a Winter Park ski patroller, told Sky-Hi News about their experiences that day.

Driver works as a photographer and is often contracted to do sports photography for the resort. On the day of the evacuation, he remembered getting onto the gondola with his camera equipment at around noon to get to the spot where he usually works.

---

---

Driver ended up sharing a cabin with a family. When the gondola stopped, he remembered being above Brian’s Run. He didn’t think anything of it until 5-10 minutes had passed with no movement.

At the same time, Karge and other ski patrollers were being alerted by on-mountain dispatch that there had been a malfunction with the gondola and that a rope evacuation would likely be needed. Karge, who has worked as a ski patroller at Winter Park for eight years, said not a single gondola cabin going uphill was empty that busy day. Each of the 75 gondola cars can hold up to 10 people at full capacity.

---

---

Soon, teams of ski patrollers were being sent out to begin the evacuations.

First, patrollers visited each car to let occupants know there had been a malfunction with the lift and to make sure everyone was OK. Driver said patrollers continued to stop by their cabin every 45-60 minutes to check in and provide an update on the status of the evacuation.

“I think three or four people, in total, came by just to check to make sure everyone was doing all right, that everyone had water — things like that — to make sure that no one was in any imminent danger of any sort,” Driver said. “That was pretty cool.”

Karge said patrollers who took on leadership positions that day played an important role.

“They’re documenting everything,” Karge said. “They’re keeping tabs on how many people are on, in what section, if any of those people have any special needs. They’re also documenting when those people and our patrollers are on the ground safely after everything’s done. They’re also coordinating getting people off of the mountain, as well, if they’re not capable of skiing where we’ve lowered them down.”

The gondola operates directly above black and blue-black runs, requiring intermediate to advanced skiing or riding abilities.

Driver described the hourslong evacuation as relatively comfortable. He said being inside the closed cabin while the sun was shining kept passengers warm and protected from the wind. Once the sun set, though, Driver said the cabin began to get cold.

Karge said the calm weather that day helped the evacuation run smoothly. If the weather wasn’t cooperative, he said it could’ve made things a lot more complicated, especially if wind was a factor.

Being prepared

Ski patrollers at Winter Park train on evacuation procedures on a regular basis. In the fall, a refresher course is taught to all patrollers and includes four to five days of training with various lifts, including the gondola.

“This fall, we trained three days on the gondola and two days on other chairlifts,” Karge said. “And then we run monthly trainings in our hut to go over the equipment for all patrollers once a month.”

When the gondola was being installed ahead of a 2018 opening, Karge explained that he and other patrollers traveled to Aspen Snowmass and Keystone Resort to learn evacuation tips from those teams. Since then, the Winter Park patrollers have fine-tuned their own system for evacuating the gondola.

The procedure involves patrollers climbing gondola towers, traversing the gondola cable to each cabin, getting on top of the car, opening the doors, transferring the gear to the passengers inside, and then lowering people out individually.

When it came time for his car to be evacuated, Driver said a ski patroller stood atop a nearby lift tower and shouted instructions to those in the cabin. The patroller asked the passengers to move themselves and their equipment away from the door.

Because Driver was riding the gondola to go take photographs, he didn’t bring any ski gear. So in order to get down the mountain, patrollers brought him down in a toboggan.

“It was a fun experience,” Driver said. “I have a cool story to tell all my friends.”

A long day

From getting stuck to getting down the mountain, Driver estimated it was a three- to four-hour ordeal for him. The entire rescue operation took place over the course of more than five hours.

Karge explained that evacuating the gondola takes longer than a traditional chairlift because the lift is enclosed and ski equipment is loose. On a traditional chairlift, patrollers can climb a tower and throw a rope to lower passengers.

“Getting into every single cabin, getting everybody out individually, climbing back on top of that cabin, then going on to the next one is just a time-consuming process,” Karge said.

Driver, who said the rescue process took longer than he would have liked, said constant updates from patrollers really helped.

“I think it gave people the leeway to feel almost complaisant,” Driver said.

During the ordeal, Driver never stopped taking photos to document the experience.

“I just figured I wouldn’t ever be in this position again,” Driver said.

At the end of it all, Driver said he was impressed with how the resort handled the situation, including “the speed of getting everything back together.”

The gondola reopened just 49 hours later after a new metal support was transported from Grand Junction and installed, and the Colorado Tramway Safety Board gave the thumbs up.

“I am a business owner, and having the gondola shut down a couple days before Christmas — through Christmas, maybe into the new year — was something that weighed heavily on my mind when it first happened,” Driver said.

“Rumors fly real fast,” he added. “We heard anything (from) at least two weeks, minimum, to a month.”

While reflecting on the incident, Karge remarked on how proud he felt.

“I was really proud of the way that everybody … came together and worked as a team and remained calm and did what they were trained to do,” Karge said.

This story is from SkyHiNews.com