An 18-year-old woman is in stable condition after a terrifying fall from a chairlift at Banff Sunshine Village on Sunday and the images are hard to look at.
Photos posted to Reddit's r/Banff community show her dangling from the lift before she dropped. The next shot is emergency crews huddled around her in the snow below. Within hours, the post had blown up.
Twelve metres is a long way down
That's roughly the height of a four-storey building. The woman was treated on the mountain by ski patrol and EMS before being rushed to hospital. Her injuries aren't life-threatening, and she's now listed in stable condition.
How she ended up hanging off the chair in the first place? Nobody's saying yet.
Sunshine calls it "extremely rare"
Resort spokesperson Kendra Scurfield confirmed an investigation is underway but offered few details.
"Safety is a top priority at Sunshine, so our team is actively investigating the incident," she said.
Scurfield described chairlift falls like this as "extremely uncommon." She's not wrong most incidents at ski hills happen when people are getting on or off the lift, not mid-ride with the ground 40 feet below.
The lift is still running
Despite the fall, Sunshine hasn't shut down the chairlift or announced any operational changes. The resort is business as usual heading into the busy holiday week.
Reddit had questions
"Glad the person is still alive," the top comment read. "I wonder how the person got into that position in the first place."
Others jumped in with theories was the safety bar up? Did she lean too far? Try to grab something she dropped? All speculation at this point. The resort isn't talking.
The backdrop
Banff Sunshine Village is one of Alberta's flagship ski destinations, tucked into the Rockies about 15 minutes from the town of Banff. It pulls in hundreds of thousands of visitors every season. Incidents like this are rare but when they happen, they're a jarring reminder of the risks that come with chairlifts, icy conditions, and alpine terrain.
