Hundreds of skiers stranded on a chair lift at a resort in the French Alps on Christmas Eve kept their spirits up by singing, reports The Times.
About 240 people at the Superdévoluy resort were stranded for up to three and a half hours before rescue workers airlifted them from danger on helicopters or helped them down on cords. Nobody was injured.
Marjorie Palazzolo, 47, was with her two children when the lift broke down.“We thought we were going to spend Christmas there. Everyone thought of the scene showing a chair lift that breaks down from the film Les Bronzés font du Ski,” she said, referring to a French comedy that was released in English under the title French Fried Vacation 2. “We started singing a song from the film, Étoile des Neiges [Snow Star]. We were singing our hearts out.”
Her seven-year-old son had been “a bit traumatised”, she said. “He couldn’t feel his feet any more,” she said. “We were about ten metres [33ft] from the ground and the kids were really stressed out. When the rescuers took them down on a cord, they were afraid the cord would break. We hadn’t eaten and we were getting really cold.”
Speaking a few hours after the breakdown, which happened at about 1pm local time, Palazzolo told Le Parisien newspaper: “We went back to our apartment straight away after the rescue and warmed up with hot chocolate and soup. I took a hot shower but my legs and buttocks are still freezing cold."