Snowboarder Stranded on Heavenly Gondola Overnight

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Ever since this story broke Friday, January 26, skiers across the country have had the same reaction: “How did this possibly happen?” How did a first-time Heavenly, Calif., visitor allegedly directed to download on the gondola by a resort employee get stranded overnight when gondola service stopped shortly after she boarded for the ride down to the Stagecoach base?

Monica Laso was on a snowboarding trip to Heavenly with friends when she decided she was too tired to ride down to the base just before 5 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 25. She allegedly approached a resort employee who directed her onto the Heavenly gondola to download to the base. It was 4:58 p.m. According to the Heavenly website, the gondola closes at 4 p.m.

In an interview with Tahoe news station KCRA, Laso shared that the gondola stopped about two minutes into the ride. She didn’t have her phone with her, but shouted through the small cabin window when she saw resort workers closing down the mountain below. “I screamed desperately until I lost my voice,” she said during an interview translated from her native Spanish. She rubbed her hands and feet together to stay warm as the temperature dropped to 23 degrees overnight.

Down as the base, her friends were frantically trying to find her. They filed a missing persons report with the El Dorado County Sheriff’s office and posted to Facebook sites, sharing that she was last seen going down with a ski patroller, and that the ski area was “doing nothing” to find her.

Vail Resorts owns Heavenly and hasn’t said much outside the “we’re investigating” messaging. Resort Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Tom Fortune released a statement Friday night. Still, he didn’t share any details relating to this incident, specifically, any procedural breakdown or miscommunication that could have caused the gondola cabins to go unchecked.

“The safety and wellbeing of our guests is our top priority at Heavenly Mountain Resort,” Fortune said. “We are investigating this situation with the utmost seriousness.”

Although a spokesperson for South Tahoe Fire and Rescue, which reported to the scene, told KCRA that she hadn’t seen anything like this happen in 20 years, a similar event took place at Killington in 2011 when a Vermont woman boarded the gondola at 3:15 p.m. The resort closed the gondola early that day due to weather, with the woman still on board. She spent five hours stranded before they found her in a gondola near the summit. She sued in civil court for $500K. The jury awarded her $720K.

We’re happy to report that Laso was found in good condition on Friday morning once the gondola started up again and refused transport to the hospital. It remains to be seen how Heavenly and Vail Resorts will account for this mishap, but this will represent a new fear unlocked for many skiers. We’re eager to hear more from Heavenly about the breakdown that led to this very preventable incident.

On social media, reactions were mostly bewildered, which is understandable. Said one pass holder: “Well, guess our Epic passes will cost more next year to cover this blunder they will need to pay out.”