- Bystanders gasped as the 16-year-old dangled and then fell more than 30 feet from the Stump Alley Express chair on Mammoth Mountain on Saturday
- The girl was taken to hospital ‘for evaluation’ after landing hard in a ‘deceleration net’ held by staff and volunteers
- The resort claims the girl was not seated properly when the elevator took off
- But friends claim operators allowed the elevator to leave without checking
A teenage girl was taken to hospital after falling more than 30 feet from a chairlift at California’s highest ski resort, despite landing in a net held by resort staff.
Shocking video shows onlookers gasping in horror as the 16-year-old dangled and then fell from the Stump Alley Express chair on Mammoth Mountain on Saturday.
The lift had been stopped and volunteers joined staff to hold a ‘deceleration net’ under the girl in an attempt to break her fall.
The resort said the girl was not seated properly when the lift took off and began “sliding” off the chair, but the incident has sparked anger among skiers who accuse lift operators of not paying attention.
Photos taken by a skier in the next chair show the teen dangling helplessly
A few seconds later she plunges more than ten meters to the helpers below
They catch her in a ‘deceleration net’ designed to reduce, but not eliminate, the force of the impact
“My father and friend saw the girl getting loose and immediately shouted stop, but it took almost a minute for the elevator operator to stop him when the elevator was already about three floors high,” said a relative of two men who were riding in the elevator . girl wrote on Instagram.
‘Lifter completely guilty.’
The resort on the edge of the Sierra Nevada is experiencing a busy season after heavy snowfall last month.
The lift is one of 25 that serve the 3,500-acre site, which averages 400 inches of snow each year.
“As the chair began to rise, the guest, who for unknown reasons was not fully seated, began to slide off the chair,” Mammoth Mountain said in a statement.
“The other persons on the chair grabbed the guest and prevented her from falling when the elevator operators stopped the elevator.
“Five Mammoth Mountain employees and eight guests responded immediately and placed the deceleration net under the guest.
“As the guest slipped from the grasp of her seatmates, the net slowed her fall but did not stop it.
“The guest was transported to Mammoth Hospital for evaluation.
“Our thoughts are with the guest and her family.”
While KTLA reports that the young woman fell through the net, a skier who was in the next chair and captured the incident on film blamed the resort and insisted that they had not actually caught her.
“The ski patrol failed this girl today and completely failed to catch her with the net after convincing her that everything was fine!!” wrotemoonrock maxx on Instagram.
‘I told her to jump. I heard the ski patrol say that they had never done this before and had far too little experience for this situation!
‘Mammoth has to do better!!’
“I worked as a liftie in Mammoth and you are assigned to keep the safety net there and try to catch them,” Taylor W1 wrote in response.
‘You’ll probably never be able to catch someone falling by holding a net.
‘When you receive your tickets, you sign a declaration that you are reliable and are aware of the dangers. The ski patrol did everything right, the woman didn’t.”
Three ski patrol members died while on duty at the resort in April 2006 when a volcanic fumarole caused a snow bridge to collapse beneath them.
Last year, ski lifts operated until July due to persistent snow at the 2,000-metre resort, which opened in 1953.