Around 250 people were evacuated from a ski lift at Marble Mountain on March 5th after a malfunction completely shut the lift down. The evacuation took between two and a half to three hours, resulting in two teens being sent to the hospital for mild hypothermia.
The incident occurred on the Lightning Express lift, where one of the wheels that the lift line sits on (sheave) suddenly stopped turning, causing the entire lift to shut down. According to CBC, it took approximately 15 minutes to evacuate a single lift with the help of firefighters, search and rescue groups, and ski patrol members.
At around the same time of the Lightning Express malfunction, another lift, Newfie Bullet, shut down due to an issue with its motor. The issue with the second lift was apparently identified on the night of March 4th, but employees of the resort believed the issues were fixed by the next morning.
It’s good to see that no one was seriously inured due to this malfunction, especially with some pretty wild lift accidents occurring throughout this season. Shoutout to the crew that managed to get skiers off the resort in a fairly timely manner.
Image and Video Credit: Marble Mountain on Instagram