In Tanned people go skiing, the scene of Jean-Claude Dusse stuck in the middle of the night on a chairlift has become legendary. A similar mishap happened to a woman in California (United States), in the Lake Tahoe region. On the night of Thursday January 25 to Friday January 26, 2024, this snowboarder remained stuck in a gondola for 15 hours, reports Los Angeles Times .
She was going down the slopes with her friends when, tired, she decided to take a gondola to reach the resort. It was precisely 4:58 p.m. At 5 p.m., the device shut down…and didn’t restart until the next morning. Without a phone or light to raise the alarm, she spent the night in the cabin, rubbing her hands and feet to keep from getting too cold. Outside, the temperature had dropped below 0°C.
An open investigation
As soon as a person passed under the cabin, they screamed “desperately to the point of losing my voice”. In vain. Worried about not having news of the snowboarder, her friends reported her disappearance, says CNN . When the cable cars were put back into service the next morning, the victim was able to be located. Firefighters rushed to the scene to take care of her. After having been “evaluated”she refused to be taken to the hospital.
The station has decided to open an investigation to determine how such a situation could have occurred. “I don’t know how something like this could have happened. It’s very weird. […] She must have been terrified, knowing she was there all alone, not knowing if anyone would find her.”admitted the spokesperson for the county firefighters to Los Angeles Times.