Ugo Pascolo
Monica Laso spent no less than 15 hours stuck in a cable car at a Californian ski resort overnight from Thursday to Friday. After screaming for help “until she lost her voice”, the snowboarder had to face the cold and the night and warm up as best she could, while the thermometer showed around -5 degrees.
It’s a night she won’t soon forget. Monica Laso, a snowboarder, spent as much as 15 hours stuck in a gondola at Heavenly Mountain ski resort in Lake Tahoe, California, reports CNN. It all started last Thursday. After a day enjoying the snow, Monica Laso is tired. Problem, she still has to go down a few slopes. But, on the instructions of a station employee, she takes the cable car to return quietly to the station. This is where the ordeal begins.
“I screamed until I lost my voice”
Barely two minutes after boarding the ski lift, the lift stops. It’s around 5 p.m. “I screamed until I lost my voice,” Monica Laso said, to no avail. “Without phone, without light, without anything”, the snowboarder must resolve to face the cold and the night alone in her gondola. A night during which the thermometer will drop below 0°, reaching -5°. So to try to warm up, she rubs her hands and feet, recounts for her part BFMTV.
Meanwhile, Monica Laso’s friends, worried about not seeing her return, warned the local authorities. But it was not until the next morning that the snowboarder was finally located, in her cabin, with the usual return to service of the lift.
Refusal to be taken to hospital
When he got off the gondola on Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., the firefighters were there to welcome him and assess his state of health. Monica Laso refused to be taken to the hospital.
For its part, the Heavenly Mountain resort has launched an investigation to understand how the vacationer was able to board the ski lift at around 5 p.m., when it is supposed to operate between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.