A nightmare came true for several skiers at the Tahoe ski resort Heavenly Monday morning, as their ski lift chairs collided, and some victims reportedly fell 30 feet to the ground before being rushed to a hospital.

Here’s a terrible incident that will give skiers the shivers every time they ride a ski lift from now on. The Chronicle reports that five people were injured in a ski lift accident Monday morning around 10 am at the Lake Tahoe resort Heavenly. The resort itself has been pretty mum on the circumstances, but eyewitnesses say that one of the ski lift chairs lost its grip on the cable, slid back, and crashed into the chair behind it. They add that some passengers fell from a height of about 30 feet, and multiple reports are confirming that five people were hospitalized.

The resort was frankly pretty evasive in their above tweet, simply saying that the lift called Comet Express is “on HOLD,” and linking to a page that just shows which lifts are operating and which are not. Parent company Vail Resorts did not add much more in a statement to the Carson, Nevada website Carson Now that simply said, “Heavenly Mountain Resort can confirm an incident occurred on its Comet Express chairlift today, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. The safety of our guests is our top priority and the resort is investigating the incident.”

Comet chair accident at Heavenly
byu/diamondshittingbull intahoe

But several purported eyewitnesses chimed in on this Reddit thread describing the accident. “Two forward going chairs collapsed and people fell on the ground,” the original poster notes. Another person claiming to be an eyewitness responded, “Ya I witness[ed] it. Chair slid backwards with people on it into the chair behind it. The people in front chair fell off.”

In terms of the victims’ conditions, a reported eyewitness claims, “There were 4 sleds to take the people down, it was not good at all. I saw one of the victims on oxygen as they went by.” Another purported witness says, “Yeah they fell from a good 30/40 feet, 1 definitely had broken ribs and a collapsed lung could not breathe on his own so ski patrol had to provide oxygen, can confirm at least 1 left in a life flight helicopter.”

According to the site Carson Now, five people were transported to and hospitalized at Renown Hospital in Reno. Their ages, conditions, and identities have not yet been released.

Related: Missing Woman Found Stranded on Gondola Overnight at Tahoe Ski Resort [SFist]

Image: xamfed via Reddit