For many, falling on a powder day is par for the course. But聽falling ? Less so. For one skier at Australia鈥檚聽 Resort, that unexpected scenario became reality on Monday.聽
According to a statement released by Thredbo, a 鈥渇reak gust of wind鈥 along the Gunbarrel Chairlift dislodged one chair, skier and all, and sent both plummeting 30 feet聽to the ground below. The unidentified skier fell into powder and聽sustained minor bruising. His chair, the only one affected by the wind, landed a few feet away.聽
The resort reported the incident鈥攚hich mirrors in which an (empty) chair was also blown off the Gunbarrel Chairlift at Thredbo鈥攖o , a workplace safety agency in New South Wales. According to a SafeWork spokesperson, the lift was shut down to determine whether it or the wind, which topped out at almost 70 miles per hour on Monday, was to blame.聽
鈥淭he chairlift has been inspected by SafeWork inspectors, supported by their engineer and an independent engineer,鈥 the spokesperson said. 鈥淐ontrol has been returned to聽Thredbo. SafeWork will continue to work on improvements with site operators and third-party engineers.鈥
According to SafeWork, the investigation is still ongoing. As for the lift, it was cleared to run again on Wednesday.