Ski resorts in France experienced unexpected lift failures just before Christmas, stranding hundreds of skiers in mid-air. At SuperDévoluy, an electrical malfunction left skiers suspended for hours, prompting a challenging helicopter rescue. Personal accounts revealed a mix of humor and anxiety among those trapped. A similar incident at La Norma resulted in another group of skiers being airlifted after a lift breakdown. Fortunately, all stranded individuals were rescued without harm.
Unexpected Ski Lift Failures Before Christmas
The ski resorts faced an unfortunate twist of fate just hours before Christmas Eve, as the law of series came into play. At the SuperDévoluy resort located in the Hautes-Alpes region, and subsequently at La Norma in Savoie, two ski lifts succumbed to mechanical failure. With no chance of restarting these lifts, hundreds of skiers found themselves stranded in mid-air, awaiting rescue via helicopter.
Braving the Elements While Stranded
Tiphaine Deville, a ski instructor at SuperDévoluy, recounted her experience while accompanying a student. “We decided to take the newly opened La Festoure ski lift, but it unexpectedly halted just before we reached the top,” she explained. The duo endured a three-hour wait before finally being brought back to safety.
A Belgian couple shared a similar ordeal, reflecting on their experience in the warmth of their hotel room. “Everything was perfect until sunset,” Julien Duckers humorously noted. “Once the sun disappeared, the wind kicked in, and it got quite chilly.” Léa Barthalay, another skier caught in the situation, described the atmosphere: “We were laughing, but some were anxious and feeling dizzy.”
Marjorie Palazzolo, a medical-psychological assistant, was stuck with her two children, including a 7-year-old who was “a bit traumatized.” She recounted their ordeal over the phone, mentioning, “We were freezing, and my little one couldn’t feel his feet anymore. Once we were back down, he burst into tears, feeling faint and declaring he didn’t want to ski anymore.” To lighten the mood, she resorted to singing “Étoile des neiges” at the top of her lungs, commending the rescuers for their exceptional support.
The root cause of this chaos was an electrical failure that abruptly halted the ski lift while 240 skiers were onboard, suspended between 1850m and 2250m, with most dangling 21m above the ground. Rapidly, rescuers from the gendarmerie, along with 16 resort employees, were dispatched to the scene via helicopter, making for a challenging rescue operation.
Lieutenant Nicolas Charon, from the high mountain gendarmerie platoon (PGHM) of Briançon, detailed the rescue process: “Once we reached the stranded skiers, we equipped them with harnesses and evacuation triangles and lowered them down to solid ground.” Such incidents are rare, a fact that surprised Laurent Thélène, the deputy general director of the resort, who noted, “This lift was renovated during the summer of 2024 and had received its operating certificate.”
Meanwhile, another ski resort, La Norma in Haute-Maurienne Vanoise, faced a similar breakdown on December 24, unrelated to the earlier incident. One hundred and seven skiers were stranded for three hours due to a malfunctioning lift before being safely airlifted by the gendarmerie, with all returning to their accommodations unharmed.