Skiers recall lift evacuation at Whitefish Mountain Resort
WHITEFISH, Mont. — Sisters Kayla and Janelle Stegen thought Saturday was just going to be another day of skiing, until the chairlift they were riding stopped. Kayla and Janelle were two of 140 people who were evacuated from Chair 5 at Whitefish Mountain Resort on Dec. 29.
The lift carrying the Stegen sisters halted just after noon when a lift operator noticed something wrong with the bullwheel—the part of the lift that moves the chairs and line up and down.
“The lift operator who was up there noticed it immediately, and made all the right calls, and got it shut down in time,” Whitefish Mountain Resort marketing and sales director Nick Polumbus said.
When mechanics realized the problem would take time to fix, the decision was made to evacuate the lift.
Kayla and Janelle found out about the evacuation through a text from their mother.
“I thought the cable was going to come off and we were all going to fall,” Kayla said.
The two sisters estimated they were suspended 40 feet above the ground. Other chairs were more than 100 feet above the ground.
“There are some rock features as well,” Polumbus said of the area beneath Chair 5. “That can make for some interesting terrain to accomplish (an evacuation) on.”
Kayla and Janelle waited as ski patrol evacuated people one-at-a-time from the lift.
“It wasn’t bad for the first hour,” Kayla said. “And then after that, it started to get cold sitting on the seat, and snow was just piling down on us.”
The sisters were one of the last chairs to be evacuated. A harness attached to a cable was thrown up to them—Janelle was lowered down first.
“I was very nervous, actually,” Janelle said. “The hardest part was getting yourself off the seat.”
Both Janelle and Kayla said the ski patrol members made them feel safe.
“They made everyone feel safe, I don’t think anyone was panicking too hard, at least not in our area,” Janelle said. “They did a really good job.”
The final person was evacuated at 3:37 p.m., just over three hours after the lift first stopped.
Kayla and Janelle said they were given hot chocolate to warm up after they got off the slope. And the experience didn’t hold them back from skiing Sunday.
“It was kind of a little nerve-racking to get on the chair again,” Janelle said. “But it was worth it once you saw the snow up there.”
