A family from London, England was excited to start their vacation in Jasper, but Freya Holland and her family got more than what they bargained for Monday when they were stranded on top of Whistlers Mountain for 10 hours.
“It was an exciting and scary experience,” Holland said.
She said they were ready to take the Jasper SkyTram down the mountain after spending some time up at the summit but noticed a storm rolling in and decided to wait it out.
The storm caused a power surge and impacted a circuit board that operates the tram.
A tram CAR near the top and one near the base were about 200 meters away from their respective stations when the electricity went out.
About 20 passengers were on the tram near the summit, dangling about 7270 feet in the air for about 40 minutes.
“It was a really bad storm. Everything was white; it was white clouds everywhere,” she said. “[The tram] was swinging side to side and they were stuck there for about an hour.
“We met two ladies who had been in the tram and they said it was really scary; the tram started to fill with snow.”
Helicopter evacuations
Brian Rode, vice president of marketing at Marmot Basin, said typically crews would be able to fix an issue but realized it would take more than a few hours to resolve.
“The problem was more complex than what we were able to deal with onsite so we made a determination on that point that we wanted to perform an evacuation to get people off the mountain,” he said.
He said 160 people, including a dozen staff members, were initially stranded on the mountain.
At about 7:30 p.m., two helicopters started evacuating people evacuated roughly 110 people before it got too dark.
Holland and her family were the last ones to hitch a ride.
“We definitely bonded as a family because we were all so scared, and we came together and helped each other through the experience,” she said. “We were very lucky that we didn’t have to sleep there.”
About 50 people had to stay on top of the mountain overnight and were provided with food, water, blankets and pillows, said Rode.
Evacuations resumed Tuesday morning.
“The people who got off the helicopter, they all had grins on their faces,” he said. “I would say that most people viewed it as quite an adventure.”
The SkyTram will be tested Thursday to ensure it is safe. It’s expected the tram will be open to the public on Friday.
