A night of anxiety.
Monica Laso, a snowboard enthusiast, was stranded for 15 hours overnight from Thursday to Friday in a gondola at the Heavenly Mountain ski resort in Lake Tahoe, California, CNN reported.
Having left for a day of snowboarding, Monica Laso decided to take the cable car rather than hit the slopes again, on the advice of a resort employee.
However, his journey took an unexpected turn when the gondola suddenly stopped just two minutes after departure, around 5 p.m.
Isolated in the cabin with her snowboard and without her phone, Monica Laso screamed for help, but her calls went unanswered.
Ongoing investigation
Worried by Monica Laso's silence, her friends reported her disappearance to the authorities, but it was not until the next morning, when cable car traffic resumed, that she was able to be located and rescued.
The firefighters intervened at 8:30 a.m. to welcome him at the exit of the gondola, reports CNN.
Despite a grueling night where the temperature dropped to around -5°C, Monica Laso refused to be taken to hospital after an assessment of her state of health.
Heavenly Mountain Resort responded to the incident, saying the safety and well-being of their guests was their top priority.
The vice-president of the station, Tom Fortune, assured in a press release, sent to CNN, that a serious investigation was underway to understand the circumstances of the incident.
He expressed astonishment at the situation, calling the event
“very strange”
since the cable car is only supposed to operate between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
It is therefore unknown how Monica Laso was able to get on the ski lift around 5 p.m.