Whitehorse's Mount Sima ski hill closed after chairlift malfunction that left 100 people in the air
No one was seriously injured Sunday and everyone was rescued
The Mount Sima ski hill near Whitehorse will be closed for the remainder of the Christmas holidays after its chairlift stopped working on Sunday, stranding more than a hundred people in the air.
Tom Luxemburger, president of the Friends of Mount Sima Society, said there's "only a few specialized engineers in the world" who deal with high tension cables for chairlifts, and there's no exact timeline for repairs right now.
"The expert that we are going to be using, unfortunately he's in Switzerland right now. So we are co-ordinating with him in terms of what we can get in terms of consultation remotely," Luxemburger said.
Luxemburger said there's an "abrasion" on the main cable line that needs to be fixed. One of the main pieces that guide the chairs into a narrow passage to spin around something called a bullwheel became dislodged on Sunday, he said.
"So instead of guiding the chair back where it needed to be, the chair got jammed up," he said.
"Could I run it today? Yeah, you know what, I probably could, but I don't want to take that chance. We're going to make sure that the entire line, every component is going to be inspected," he said.
The lift suddenly stopped Sunday afternoon around 2:30 p.m. and passengers started to be rescued around 3:30 p.m.
Luxemburger praised the firefighters who responded to the incident, using ropes and safety harnesses to bring passengers to safety.
No one was seriously injured.
"I've had feedback from guests directly first hand just state, hey, this is a situation which could have been scary, but these guys really deescalated it and calmed it down and were swift and good communicators," Luxemburger said.
Thomas Vollmer said he waited for an hour before being rescued.
"I think we were the third chairlift to get rescued out of 135 [chairs]," Vollmer said.
Nathan Neunherz said he planned to warm up after coming off the lift with one thing.
"Hot chocolate," he said.
Tammy Neunherz, his mother, said she was glad her son was with a group of his friends when the chairlift stopped.
"I'm so glad he's off the chairlift, I'm so glad that it's still daylight and nobody is injured," she said.
Mount Sima manager Sam Oettli said staff are trained for this situation and have a protocol to follow if the lift goes down.
"They realized quickly that there was a mechanical problem with the lift," he said.
Oettli said they worked as quickly as possible to get people back on the ground.
Ski and snowboard school and programs on the bunny hill will remain open while the main hill is closed.
With files from Caitrin Pilkington and Asad Chishti