Monica Lasso stayed at a resort in South Lake Tahoe, California, on Thursday. She was there to ice skate with her friends.
At some point I broke away from the group. She told an employee at the ski area that she was tired. The man then took her to the ski lift that would take her back to the valley.
It was about 5pm when I boarded the gondola. The elevator started, but suddenly stopped after two minutes. She explained to local television station KCRA that she did not have her phone with her and tried to call for help, but the cable car employees did not hear her. “I screamed until I had no voice,” she says of her perilous experience. Meanwhile, her friends at the foot of the mountain were worried that she was lost. They eventually called the police and reported her missing.
No trace of Lasso was found. Until the ski lift was turned on again the next morning and I automatically appeared at the foot of the mountain. It turned out that she had been stuck for fifteen hours in near-freezing temperatures. She said she rubs her hands and feet all the time to stay warm.
The South Lake Tahoe Fire Department says it has not seen an incident like this in 20 years. An investigation into what went wrong will follow.
