1 Killed as Chairlift Falls at Ski Resort
One skier was killed and 10 others injured Saturday when four chairs fell off a ski lift cable and plunged about 50 feet to the ground at a ski resort high in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
“There were 11 people injured, one of them fatally,” said David Perry, spokesman for the Whistler Mountain Ski Corp.
A police spokesman at Whistler, about 55 miles north of Vancouver in British Columbia, said the identity of the person killed could not be released pending notification of relatives.
Perry said the accident happened about 3 p.m. Saturday when thousands of pre-Christmas skiers crowded onto Whistler Mountain, one of North America’s largest and most popular ski resorts.
The Quicksilver chairlift was carrying skiers when a clamp holding four chairs onto the cable detached, Perry said.
In addition to the injured, some skiers had to be rescued from cars left hanging on the line for hours after the accident.
Perry said the cause of the accident was not known and an investigation would begin as soon as possible.
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