VIDEO: California Snowboarder Trapped for 15 Hours in Gondola amid Freezing Temperatures

Amy Furr

A woman found herself in a desperate and cold situation Thursday when she became trapped in a gondola at a ski resort in Lake Tahoe, California.

During a vacation with friends at Heavenly Ski Resort, Monica Laso told KCRA she was trapped in the gondola for 15 hours and tried to keep warm by rubbing her hands and feet.

An image shows one of the gondolas at the resort:

Just before 5:00 p.m., an employee guided her to the gondola when she said she was too tired to continue snowboarding. A few minutes after she got inside, the gondola stopped. Laso knew the situation was not good because she was stranded without a phone or a light.

Her voice was the only thing she had, therefore, Laso screamed whenever an employee walked by below the gondola. However, she was not able to gain anyone’s attention.

To make matters worse, she was trapped in freezing temperatures as she clung to hope that someone would find her, KPIX reported Saturday.

The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office was notified by her friends that she was missing. However, it was eventually discovered she had been trapped in the gondola all night long when it started moving again hours later on Friday.

Laso, who screamed for help until she lost her voice, said, “I felt very frustrated.” After her rescue, officials assessed and treated Laso before she was released.

Now, resort leadership have opened an investigation to determine how the incident happened.

According to its website, the resort describes the area as “Heavenly.”

“Lake Tahoe. Jaw-dropping. Awe-inspiring. Invigorating. Your phone can’t capture the beauty. A mountain — and a beach. There’s a million ways to describe this place (and we all have our own way), but we can all agree, Tahoe is Heavenly,” the site reads.

A similar instance happened in January 2023 when a group of skiers became stuck on a chairlift at Whitefish Mountain Resort in Montana for several hours, Inside Edition reported:

“They finally skied under us and told us that someone was gonna come and evacuate us because the whole thing lost power, and still not one person has been evacuated. We’re approaching hour two,” one of the victims said.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.