Missing hiker stranded overnight in ski area gondola

[Ridge]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2005/09/06/missing_hiker_stranded_overnight_in_ski_area_gondo la/

[Ridge]

This article about a hiker who became stranded on a gondola while searchers look for him below has got to be the one that takes the cake!!!!!!

[Hikerhead]

I agree. But I can understand him getting on thinking it was the last ride down which it was. It must be really high up for the searchers not to hear him. Or it could have been windy I guess. But I would have been knocking the crap out of the sides to get someone's attention. I wonder if they were paying attention to it when it was coming down in the morning. I can picture him just stepping off and walking away like nothing happened.

[MacGyver2005]

If memory serves me I believe this is the gondola just north of Pinkham Notch, up the mountain, and south of the Wildcat peaks. My father and I were going past the lift at around 1700, and the trail is a little difficult to locate by the gondola as there are a few little trails and poor blazing. We took a minute to make sure we would be continuing on the proper trail, and the gondola suddenly shut off. I remember thinking how easy it could have been for a hiker to have wanted to get off the mountain (as it was incredibly nasty weather), gotten on the gondola, and been held captive over night. I really think that they should put up a sign; it's not that difficult to do. Maybe this will open their eyes to that fact. At least the poor kid made it out in good health.

Regards,
-MacGyver
GA-->ME

[The Scribe]

Is not near Pinkham. It is on the far end of the Kang (Rt 112) that runs from Conway Village over to Lincoln/Woodstock. Loon Mountain is a few miles off of I93, and maybe a dozen (?) miles south of Franconia Notch.

[hiker33]

Loon Mountain is on the west end of the Kancamagus Highway in Lincoln, near North Woodstock. The one north of Pinkham is Wildcat. I rode down the mountain on it once during a really miserable, rainy day rather than slip and slide down the ledges on Wildcat E.

Ski lifts are nothing to fool around with. A friend and I were on the Long Trail in VT many years ago and stopped for lunch at the upper terminal of a chair lift near Mt. Abraham, probably Mad River. We were sitting with our backs against the lift building to get out of the wind when the lift suddenly started moving, startling us both. If we had decided to sit in the chairs or on the edge of the platform in line with the chairs we could have been carried out and left stranded like this guy was or possibly been struck in the head by one of the moving chairs. This was not a lift normally used in summer and it was late August. The lift moved a couple of chairs in distance before stopping again, so they were probably painting the chairs or something down at the bottom.

This is a hazard not normally mentioned in trail manuals. Stay away from unattended ski lifts, even in the off-season.


If memory serves me I believe this is the gondola just north of Pinkham Notch, up the mountain, and south of the Wildcat peaks. My

(SNIP)

[MacGyver2005]

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. For some reason I do not recall that one. All the same, as was stated, they are not something to fool with.

Regards,
-MacGyver
GA-->ME