347 skiers rescued by helicopter in French Alps
Hundreds of skiers had to be rescued by helicopter on Christmas Eve after chairlifts at two different resorts in the French Alps broke down.
Dramatic video shows skiers at SuperDevoluy resort in Dévoluy hanging below a helicopter near a motionless chairlift. One of the resort's chairlifts broke down around 1 p.m. local time Tuesday due to an electrical problem with one of its motors, reported Nouvelle Republique.
About 240 skiers were evacuated from the lift by around 5 p.m. local time at the resort in France's Southern Alps, where the elevation ranges from 6,000 to 8,200 feet above sea level. No one was hurt, reported Le Monde.
In Savoie, also in the French Alps, around 100 skiers were stuck on a lift Tuesday at the La Norma ski resort, reported TF1, in an unrelated incident. The resort in the Maurienne Valley rises from 4,500 to nearly 9,000 feet in elevation.
The rescues came a day after the death of a 26-year-old Olympic snowboarder at a resort in the Swiss Alps. Sophie Hediger, a member of Switzerland's snowboard cross team at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, died in an avalanche at the Arosa resort, the country's ski federation announced Tuesday.
