Woman Found After Being Stuck on Ski Gondola for 15 Hours

"I didn't have a phone, a light or anything," the woman said. "I screamed desperately until I lost my voice."

January 29, 2024

Picture Alliance / dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images

A snowboarder in Lake Tahoe spent 15 hours in freezing temperatures while trapped overnight inside a ski lift gondola.

KCRA reports that Monica Laso was snowboarding with friends at Heavenly Ski Resort in South Lake Tahoe, California, when she decided to go down the mountain early. Laso boarded a gondola around 4:58 p.m., but was stranded without a phone two minutes later when the gondola stopped.

"I didn't have a phone, a light or anything," Laso told KCRA. "I screamed desperately until I lost my voice."

Laso's friends subsequently reported her missing to the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office. “We were going crazy, no one knew anything between the police and security,” Laso's friend, Momo Shternhel, told the Tahoe Daily Tribune.

She wasn't discovered until Friday morning, when the gondola started up again for the day and crews realized she'd been there overnight. The South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue then received a call about a woman suffering from cold exposure at Heavenly Mountain Resort.

Laso declined to be hospitalized despite her condition. Meanwhile, the resort is currently looking into how Laso got stranded without the resort workers' knowledge.

“The resort is investigating this situation with the utmost seriousness,” resort vice president Tom Fortune told KCRA. "The safety and wellbeing of our guests is our top priority at Heavenly Mountain Resort."