During the winter season, activities like skiing and snowboarding are among the top choices for millions. Though rarely, adventure sports can sometimes turn into a nightmare. Recently, a woman spent 15 hours stuck on a gondola lift at a Lake Tahoe ski resort in freezing cold temperatures.
Snowboarder details how she was stuck on gondola lift overnight
On Thursday, Monica Laso went to Heavenly Ski Resort for winter sports activities with her friends. At around 4:58 pm, she got on the gondola lift since it was getting late, and she was too tired to snowboard down the hill. However, much to her horror, the lift stopped working within two minutes of boarding, per KRCA, the outlet which first reported the news.
Laso was stranded in the sky, all alone in the gondola lift overnight. The National Weather Service revealed that the lowest temperature that night was 23 degrees. She told the outlet that she kept rubbing her hands and feet all night to fight the cold. Laso explained to the outlet how she didn’t have her phone at the moment, and despite yelling, nobody heard her.
“I didn’t have a phone, a light or anything. I screamed desperately until I lost my voice,” she revealed to the outlet in an interview in Spanish. “I felt very frustrated,” Laso confessed. Her friends reported her missing to the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office after they were unable to find her. However, Laso wasn’t found until Friday, when the gondola started working again.
On Friday morning, the South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue received a call at around 8:30 am about a woman suffering from cold exposure, per LA Times. Sallie Ross, a spokesperson for the department, said, “They assessed her and she did not choose to be transported.” “It sounds like she wasn’t injured or anything, but she definitely didn’t have a great night, that’s for sure,” Ross added.
