Gondola breakdown in Veysonnaz: dozens of passengers evacuated
Keystone-SDA
A cable car in the Swiss ski resort of Veysonnaz broke down on Saturday leaving a few dozen passengers stranded.
“We were forced to evacuate customers, some by helicopter, following a mid-afternoon power failure on the Veysonnaz ski lift,” said an NVRM ski lift company spokesperson. “At no time was the safety of our visitors affected by the breakdown. The decision to evacuate them was taken to avoid them having to wait too long,” he added.
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A few dozen users were affected. They will be contacted personally to thank them for their patience, added Nicolas Pillet, head of communications of the ski lift firm. Skiers will have to temporarily use the other Veysonnaz ski lift and shuttle buses have been put in place.
The problematic ski lift is expected to return to service on Sunday morning. Technicians have been working during the night to resolve the electrical problem that has already been identified.
The Veysonnaz-Thyon ski lift, which provides access to the Ours piste, is listed on the Veysonnaz-Thyon website. These eight-seater ski lifts link the bottom station at 1,370 m to the top station at 2,121 m, making it the gateway to the 4 Vallées ski area, that claims to be the largest ski area in Switzerland with 410km of pistes. The trip takes eight minutes and the installation, built in 2005, can transport up to 1,600 people per hour.
Adapted from French by DeepL/ac
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