A gondola car carrying eight people detached from its cable at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in Golden, British Columbia, on March 10. According to witnesses, the Golden Eagle Express car fell about 10 feet after departing from the lower terminal at 9:20 a.m. No one was seriously injured, but passengers were trapped for several minutes, and the patrol manually evacuated every gondola car using ropes and helicopters.
This is North America’s third lift and gondola malfunction this season, following two other incidents at Winter Park and Attitash Mountain.
Kicking Horse has yet to determine the cause of this problem and did not immediately respond to questions. However, the incident has closed Golden Eagle Express, the resort’s main lift, “until further notice,” according to a resort statement.
“Our sincere apologies go out to every one of our guests who have had to go through this experience today, and we thank them all for their patience and understanding,” Richard Oszust, area manager, said in the statement.
Kicking Horse closed for the remainder of Monday and reopened Tuesday, offering discounted lift tickets due to its reduced terrain accessibility. A full inspection of Golden Eagle Express is underway. Resort operators, manufacturing specialists, and relevant authorities have all been brought in to assess the problem and find its root cause, according to the resort.
Kicking Horse will update its Snow Report page with further information regarding the incident.
Third Gondola, Lift Accident of Season
Gondola and lift problems like the recent one at Kicking Horse are rare. However, several have occurred across North America this season.
In December 2024, the gondola at Winter Park made headlines when more than 180 people were stranded due to a mechanical failure that made the gondola inoperable. Skiers and riders were stuck for up to 5 hours as ski patrol manually evacuated every car.
The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies told Denver7 it inspects gondolas like Winter Park’s three times a year. The last inspection of that gondola took place in October 2024 — just 2 months before this incident occurred. The resort has not released any further information regarding the cause of the failure.
Then, in February, at Vail Resort’s Attitash Mountain in New Hampshire, a quad chair carrying a 49-year-old man detached entirely from its cable. The man fell roughly 20 feet, crashing to the ground. He was so badly injured he was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Similarly, Attitash has not released further information about what caused the chair to fail.
The most serious gondola malfunction in the U.S. occurred in 1976 at Vail. A frayed cable caused two cars on the Lionshead Gondola II to snap away and plummet over 125 feet. One Vail ski patroller recalled the incident in a subsequent Sports Illustrated article.
“One gondola car banged hard against the tower, veered away, then slammed against it again. I saw sparks and an odd white powder, like snow,” the patroller described. “It separated from the cable and fell slowly. Then a second car approached and slammed into the tower. There were people inside. They beat their fists against the glass. Then they fell, too.”
The accident resulted in four deaths and eight injuries. Ski patrol successfully evacuated everyone else from the gondola.
How Safe Are Ski Lifts & Gondolas?
So, how safe are ski lifts and gondolas? The short, general answer to that question is: very safe. In a recent National Ski Areas Association annual safety report, the organization claimed that a passenger is five times more likely to suffer a fatality from an elevator ride than from a ski lift.
“There have been 16 fatalities stemming from 9 mechanical malfunction incidents from 1973 to January 31, 2024,” the NSAA reported in its Aerial Ropeway Fact Sheet.
The NSAA asserted that 86% of all passenger falls were the result of passenger behavior. Only 2% were attributable to mechanical or operator error.
“The majority of these fatalities occurred in the 1970s and 1980s,” the report said.
As more details surrounding the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort gondola failure become available, we will update this article with new information. You can keep tabs on it by checking in on the resort’s Snow Report webpage.
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