Girl caught as she fell from CBMR lift

Happy ending on Painter Boy

[ by Mark Reaman ]

Crested Butte Mountain Resort officials confirmed Wednesday that a young girl fell off a chairlift on Monday but was not injured.

As usual, the resort was fairly tight-lipped about the incident. “Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) confirms that on Monday, Feb. 15 CBMR staff responded to a report that a 6-year-old female skier needed assistance at the Painter Boy lift,” CBMR senior communications specialist Will Shoemaker stated in an email in response to an inquiry. “Staff held an impact protection bag in place and the guest was able to drop onto the bag with no reported injuries.”

A video of the incident was posted on the 9News website. It shows the 6-year-old girl hanging from the chair as people underneath the lift deploy the protection bag approximately 20 feet beneath her. As the fabric is stretched the girl dropped from the chair into the fabric and people can be heard cheering.

Shoemaker said he was not able to answer further questions that included how long she was hanging from the chair, what personnel came to her aid, how she slipped off the seat, how far up the lift line she was, how high she was from the ground, who she was riding the chairlift with and where she was from.