February 06, 2025 - 9:06 AM
FRANCONIA, N.H. (AP) — More than 60 passengers were successfully evacuated from a New Hampshire ski lift after a mechanical failure that came just four days after a chair at a different resort detached and fell.
Sixty-four passengers on the Peabody Express Quad at Cannon Mountain were lowered by rope over the course of about two hours on Wednesday. No injuries were reported.
The state owns the ski area in Franconia Notch State Park. Officials there said in a news release that a faulty bolt was to blame.
The lift was closed pending inspection. It remained out of service Thursday as gusty winds prevented access to the summit and limited other lift operations.
On Sunday, a man suffered non-life threatening injuries at Attitash Mountain Resort in Bartlett, New Hampshire, after the lift chair he was riding fell about 20 feet (6 meters) to the ground. It appeared a mechanical failure caused the chair to dislodge, investigators said. That lift also remains closed.
“State inspections of both lifts were performed within the past year, as required by the New Hampshire Code of Administrative Rules,” the state fire marshal's office said in a news release. In December, a crack in a Colorado ski lift forced the evacuation of over 170 stranded skiers and snowboarders at Winter Park Resort, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Denver. People riding the gondolas there were safely lowered down by ropes in an operation that stretched over about five hours.
News from © The Associated Press, 2025