WENATCHEE — More than 100 skiers and snowboarders were evacuated with ropes off the Liberator Express chairlift at Mission Ridge Ski &Snowboard Resort after an electrical short Saturday afternoon.
Some people were stranded on the chair for close to three hours, with temperatures in the 20s and sometimes windy conditions. One woman was treated by a Ridge physician for “frost nip” to her feet or toes but was fine the next day, said Mark Milliette, Ridge general manager.
Several Special Olympics competitors were among those evacuated, he said.
There have been previous partial evacuations of the Liberator, but this was the first full evacuation of the chair since it was installed in the summer of 2005, Milliette said.
The Liberator did not run Sunday or today but should be running Thursday if a part arrives from the manufacturer in Grand Junction, Colo., by then, he said.
The chair quit running at 2:15 p.m. Saturday when an electrical short activated a safety brake meant to engage in the event of a power outage, Milliette said. The brake can’t be disengaged with people on the chair, he said.
The short was found and rewired but a new part is needed, he said.
The Liberator is a high-speed quad chairlift that runs 6,225 feet from the ski area’s Midway to the 6,820-foot summit. The lift is known for relatively frequent but usually short duration shutdowns due to electrical problems, but also is shut down in high winds.
Milliette said the Ridge is continuing to replace original equipment on the 22-year-old chair, which was bought from Winter Park Resort in Colorado in 2005.
“When we got it, we did a lot of rewiring, but there still are some parts of terminals with original wiring. We will continue to change things out,” he said.
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