Two teenagers that were trapped inside a tram at Alyeska on New Year’s Eve after a weather accident, waited Saturday to ride the tram back up the slopes.
However, weather conditions prevented the repaired tramway system from taking passengers, since wind speeds never dropped below 30 miles per hour.
On the last day of 2012, strong winds sent one of the trams into a tower and trapped two teenagers and several employees for nearly five and a half hours.
Catie Quinn, of Peters Creek, was knocked unconscious and suffered minor injuries in the incident, but said she would return and has already hit the slopes several times since the traumatic event.
“I'm healthy you know,” Quinn said. “Doctor said I was good to go snowboarding, so I'm excited.”
Resort patrons can still access the slopes by riding chair lifts.
On Saturday, one of the teen’s parents even made the trek to Girdwood to ride inside a tram car.
“For me as a parent it's a little nerve wracking,” Michael Quinn, father of Catie, said. “I’ve never been on a tram and now I get to be on the inside and see what it was that she went through, see how far she traveled from one end to the other in mid air and see what she whacked her head on.”
The resort has spent weeks making repairs and an 8000-pound ballast car is being used for balance, while the car damaged on New Year’s Eve continues to be repaired.
"We've done a lot of electronic modifications to monitor all the systems,” Eric Teixmen, Mountain Operations Manager at Alyeska, said. “All of the equipment that was damaged has been inspected and replaced."
Alyeska employees said it would make another attempt at transporting passengers on Sunday afternoon, weather permitting.
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