Caribou Express ski lift back in operation

Following up an emergency call to Lutsen Mountains on Sunday, March 31, WTIP reached out to ski hill co-owner, Tom Rider, to learn more.

Initial reports said about 30 or 40 people were stranded on the Caribou Express high-speed, six person chair lift at Lutsen Mountains. However, Rider tells WTIP there were about 25 people involved. See the related story, from the scene, here. 

The chairlift was halted about 3 p.m and the Lutsen Ski Patrol was called in to evacuate the skiers on the lift.

The Lutsen Ski Patrol has practiced numerous times for this scenario and they went into action to belay chairlift passengers to the ground. Passengers were then taken to the bottom of the ski hills by the Lutsen Gondola.

Cook County Ambulance and Lutsen First Responders were paged at about 4 p.m. to standby at the Lutsen Ski Patrol building in case their services were needed. Fortunately the medical response was precautionary and by 5 p.m., all of the chairlift passengers had been lowered safely to the ground.

Here's Lutsen Mountains Co-owner Tom Rider with more about the shutdown and evacuation.