“I screamed desperately”: without phone or light, a snowboarder remains stuck in a gondola for 15 hours at -5°C

La jeune femme a passé la nuit coincée dans une télécabine. ILLUSTRATION MAXPPP – Frantz Bouton

Une jeune femme est restée coincée toute la nuit de jeudi à vendredi 26 janvier dans la télécabine d'une station de ski californienne. 

More fear than harm, but the anecdote could well have turned into tragedy. On vacation at Heavenly Valley, a ski resort located near South Lake Tahoe, California, an American tourist was found stuck in a gondola for more than fifteen hours, reports CNN this Sunday, January 28. 

Too tired to continue sliding down the slopes, the young woman took a gondola on the advice of a station employee. It stopped around 5 p.m., two minutes after it went up, reports the American media.

Found the next morning

"I had no phone, no light, or anything else", says the unlucky girl. "I screamed desperately until I lost my voice". Quickly, the minutes turn into hours, and the vacationer, trapped in freezing cold – the outside temperature is around -5 degrees – is unable to attract the attention of any nearby skier .

With no news, her friends raised the alarm, but it was only when the gondola resumed service the following morning that the snowboarder was found safe and sound.& ;nbsp;

"The safety and well-being of our guests is Heavenly Mountain Resort's top priority", a assured after this incident the vice-president of the station, Tom Fortune, in a press release. "We are investigating this situation with the utmost seriousness", he promised.