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Snowboarder Gets Trapped in a Gondola. But Gets Treated to the Ride of His Life

Watch the incredible footage of this dramatic rescue

Helicopter to the rescue in Kicking Horse mountain resort. Photo: Screenshot

Getting stuck on a ski-lift can be seriously scary. OK, so a Hollywood-style scenario like the god-awful movie Frozen (in which three friends get stuck on a lift for days and are slowly devoured by wolves) is, let’s face it, unlikely.

But real-life lift failures can bring their own perils. Mpora once had the misfortune to get stuck on the old Jandry Express gondola in Les 2 Alpes with a bunch of French freestyle skiers.

We were there for about 45 minutes, during which time the need to shit got so bad for one of my fellow lift occupants that he had to ask us all to turn and face the other way while he “fait caca” into a plastic bag. True story.

“The skier had to sh*t so badly he asked us all to turn around while he went for it in a plastic bag.”

Luckily for him, the snowboarder in this video had a rather better time of it when the lift stopped at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in British Columbia over the weekend.

Not only did he not have to share his aerial prison with a desperate Frenchman, he was also rescued in the coolest way possible, and treated to an insane ride on his way to safety.

The snowboarder being flown to safety in Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. Photo: Screenshot

According to a statement from the resort, an “electrical issue” apparently stopped the Golden Eagle Express Gondola.

Unable to start the lift again, the safety crew were forced to perform a “manual evacuation”. They abseiled into each lift car (like absolute badasses) strapped the people who were stuck into harnesses and flew off with them dangling from the bottom of a helicopter.

How much fun does that look? Now that the gondola is apparently up and running again, perhaps Kicking Horse should start offering this as a service to people even when they’re not stuck?

You may also like:

11 Time When Humans Tried To Ride Ski Lifts… But Failed Miserably

37 Reasons Why You Should Never Go Snowboarding

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