Timberline Ski Area Staff Had to Evacuate More Than 40 People From a Lift Using Ropes This Weekend

No one was injured, but the rescue lasted several hours.

Pucci Timberline Chairlift. IMAGE: Courtesy of Timberline Ski Area.
By Andi Prewitt

More than three dozen people were stranded on a broken ski lift Saturday, forcing Timberline ski area staff members to conduct a rope rescue.

The resort says the new Pucci lift malfunctioned due to an electrical issue at around 5:40 pm on Feb. 27. Workers' efforts to get the lift going via an auxiliary motor were unsuccessful, leading to the rope evacuation of 42 guests. No one was injured, and everyone was back on the ground by 8:15 pm.

The chairlift, originally installed in 1956, received an upgrade in the summer of 2020, going from a fixed-grip triple seating device to a detachable quad. The replacement added two new towers, made it easier to load and unload recreationalists, and sped up the ride by approximately two minutes.

Pucci remained closed on Sunday while it underwent maintenance and staffers continued to investigate what went wrong.

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