GREAT FALLS — Dozens of skiers were safely evacuated from a stalled chairlift at a Montana ski area over the weekend.
The Great Falls Tribune reports there were 133 skiers on the chairlift at Showdown Montana on Saturday when a mechanical malfunction forced operators to stop it at about 12:50 p.m.
Showdown spokeswoman Avery Gold says because of the uncertain duration of the repair, and for the comfort and safety of the guests, it was decided to initiate a rope evacuation of the chairlift while the tower was being repaired.
Gold says 87 skiers were lowered to the ground using the rope system within 70 minutes.
The remaining passengers were unloaded after the problem was fixed at 2:08 p.m. and the lift began running again.
There were no injuries during the process.