Skiers trapped by high winds on Vancouver mountain lodge

High winds forced Grouse Mountain to shut down its gondola, trapping over 300 guests and staff in the mountain lodge near Vancouver.

A gondola on Grouse Mountain. Image by Andrea Schaffer / CC BY 2.0

When a strong storm created winds exceeding 100km, the lodge shut its Skyride down from 11:30pm Saturday to 5pm the following day for safety reasons, cutting off the only way back down the mountain. The lodge kept the captive guests busy overnight, playing Christmas movies at the theatre and providing food and hot chocolate. Other guests went outside to play in the snow. When the Skyride became operational the following day, the gondola transported eager captives off the mountain, while skiers queued up for a chance to tackle the 50cm of fresh snow the mountain received during the storm.

Read more: cbc.ca