Woman stranded overnight on Whistler gondola

A woman visiting the Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort north of Vancouver was stranded in a gondola overnight last week, the resort has confirmed.

The 25-year-old woman boarded the Excalibur Gondola at the mid-station around 5:30 p.m. PT on March 1, with the intention of descending to the village. The lower section of the lift normally operates until 8 p.m. to allow people to connect between the two resort areas.

But the woman, who was an international visitor who spoke English only as a second language, actually got in a cabin that was heading up the hill, and shortly afterwards staff shut down that section of the lift for the night.

That left the woman, who did not have a cellphone, stranded overnight in the cabin as temperatures plunged to –9 C.

It was not until the next morning when the lift was restarted shortly after 7 a.m. that she finally stepped out at the top of the hill. She was checked by the ski patrol and determined to be in good health.

Whistler-Blackcomb would not do an interview, but in a written statement, the resort said the lift attendant did not follow proper procedures and the woman was loaded onto a section of the lift that had been identified as cleared.

The staff member responsible has been disciplined, the resort said.

In 2008, 13 people suffered minor injuries when a tower that supported the cables on the Excalibur Gondola partially collapsed, leaving 30 gondola cabins dangling from a thick metal cable.