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Power surge traps 120 on B.C. ski lift; all safe after 3-hour rescue operation

Dec 31, 2017 | 7:30 PM

AGASSIZ, B.C. — A power surge brought a chairlift at a British Columbia ski resort to a halt Sunday leaving 120 people trapped, some for up to three hours.

Sasquatch Mountain Resort general manager Sam Hicks says he believes a hydro outage Sunday morning caused the surge, which damaged control panels for the chairlift.

Hicks says all of the skiers and snowboarders trapped on the lift at the Agassiz resort were back on the ground, uninjured, within 30 minutes to three hours of the surge.

The Fraser Valley resort says its Sasquatch chair will be closed until further notice while the extent of the damage is assessed and repairs are made.

The Fraser Valley has been plagued by ice storms in recent days and Hicks says he believes the surge was related to the weather conditions.

BC Hydro said Sunday that teams have been working around the clock and have restored electricity for about 131,000 people since the first storm hit on Thursday, but about 9,000 are still without power.

Hicks said workers at the resort got the people off the lift in “record fashion.”

“Everybody’s safe and everybody’s content,” he said. “Luckily we have a phenomenal patrol team and volunteer team that managed to pull that off.”

 

The Canadian Press