Cause of the mishap remains unclear. The gondola was back operating within minutes.
(Screenshot, via X) A skier hangs from the Red Pine Gondola at Park City Mountain’s Canyons Village on Wednesday, Dec. 31.
A skier was left dangling by her boot from a gondola at Park City Mountain’s Canyons Village for several minutes Wednesday — a moment captured on a bystander’s video that briefly went viral.
The video, which has since been removed by the original Instagram poster, shows the woman hanging out of the door of a Red Pine Gondola cabin from her left ski boot. The boot appeared lodged in the doorway and she was roughly 15 feet off the ground as attendants worked to support her. Later, the video shows a rescuer, standing on the top rung of a step ladder, freeing her by yanking her booted foot out of the cabin door.
According to Park City Mountain Resort spokesperson John Kanaly, the woman was not injured and the Red Pine Gondola resumed operations within five minutes — all “thanks to the quick action by our teams.”
The Red Pine Gondola remained in operation Thursday.
Kanaly did not comment on the cause of the incident. However, according to the Park City outlet Town Lift, an eyewitness said the woman belatedly attempted to board the gondola at its upper terminal, near the Red Pine Lodge. The report said she placed her foot in the doorway while the cabin doors closed. The Town Lift story estimated the woman was carried upside down for nearly 50 feet before the lift stopped.
The account @LiftBlog on X posted about the incident Wednesday evening, commenting that gondolas “are designed to… stop in the event of someone [or] something being caught in the doors.” The account’s creator deleted that post on Thursday, and in a new post said he should not have speculated on the cause of the mishap.
Park City Mountain installed the Red Pine Gondola, which is made by Poma, in 1997, according to the Lift Blog website. The Sunrise Gondola, which Park City Mountain debuted this year, serves the same upper mountain area.