<I>Elane Dickenson/Chieftain</I><BR>A Wallowa County Sheriff's vehicle evacuates the first stranded Mt. Howard tram passengers down a rugged service road.

The Wallowa Lake Tramway experienced a bad, bad day Saturday, July 5, when mechanical problems left more than 150 sightseers stranded atop Mount Howard for approximately four-and-a-half hours.

Fortunately, no one was trapped in a gondola and, eventually, everyone was safely evacuated or hiked off the mountain.

The tram shut down about 1 p.m. Saturday because of a “sheave liner problem on Tower No. 3” likely caused by “a bad bearing,” one of the owners, Bill Whittemore, said Monday afternoon.

Whittemore wasn’t certain when the tram would reopen, but said his repair team was shooting for Wednesday.

The first evacuated group, which included a diabetic woman from the Portland area, was brought down the backside of the mountain by a Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office vehicle around 5:30 p.m. About the same time, a frustrated group of 23 vacationers from the Lewiston, Idaho, area hiked out, walking an estimated hour-and-a-half.

“I want a refund,” said hiker Gerry Hentz of Lewiston, who was carrying his sleeping 2-year-old daughter, Angel, in a backpack.

The Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office, its Search and Rescue unit and the U.S. Forest Service all teamed up for the evacuation, transporting stranded vacationers down a service road via a fleet of four-wheel-drive service vehicles.

“We got everybody we were responsible for off by 8:15 p.m.,” said Undersheriff Steve Rogers Sunday morning, expressing satisfaction with the effort. Another 18 tourists chose to hike off the face of the mountain, and they didn’t arrive safely at the bottom until about 10:30 p.m.

The service road used in the rescue operation is near the McCully trailhead off Tucker Down Road. It had been closed, according to Rogers, and a Zacharias Logging skidder was called to clear snow and trees near the top before vehicles could reach those who were stranded.

“It was a muddy mess,” said tourist Albert Poland of BLake tramway breaks down, 150 stranded on Mt. Howardnd. “It took a couple of trips to get us all.”

Two Moffit Bros. Transportation busses, driven by Dick Wheeler and Diane Barney, were parked and waiting for evacuees at nearby Ferguson Ridge ski area.

“These people will have an experience to tell their kids,” said Wheeler. “They rode up on a tram and rode home on the bus.”

A Wallowa County Health District ambulance met Wanda Beaudoin, the diabetic woman. Rogers said that while no emergency materialized, the woman had no insulin with her and was very concerned about the long delay. Beaudoin praised everyone involved with the evacuation operation, including the tramway workers on top of the mountain

The rescue operation began when Wallowa County Sheriff Fred Steen began getting cell phone calls “from people from all over, places like Alabama” about the situation, most of them asking for information about when those atop the mountain would be brought down.

The initial call to WCSO was received at 2:45 p.m., Steen said.

Whittmore confirmed mechanical failure when reached by the Chieftain at 4 p.m. Saturday. On Monday, Whittemore said that a smoking liner had provided the first clue that something was wrong. From a mechanical prospective, he said, the problem was “no big deal” in that it wasn’t something that couldn’t be fixed.

Stranded tourists, however, offered mixed reviews of how the problem was handled. Many members of the Lewiston group complained about lack of information from tramway representatives regarding when and how they would get off the mountain.

“All they gave us was disinformation,” said Don Preussler of Lewiston. He also said his group was pressured not to hike off the mountain.

“We got a little mad and bagged it and started walking,” said Hunter Bond, 10, one of the children with the group. He admitted the experience, however, “was kind of fun.”

The group also complained that they were not given food or drink while waiting, but were charged full price by the small tram restaurant on Mount Howard. “They gave us some water when we started to walk down,” one woman said.

Other tourists had a different experience. Linda and Albert Poland of Bend said “they fed us good and they were all very nice.”

“It was a good adventure,” Linda said.

Albert added that after spending an entire day on the mountain “all the squirrels have been named and are full of snacks.”

Beaudoin said tram workers gave her orange juice to sip during her wait to prevent her blood sugar from dropping. Workers also handed out free water, coffee, soda pop and, as time passed, hot dogs and hamburgers to her group.

“Everybody had a good attitude. When they got the word out that my ride was here, the fellow strandees all clapped. … I will return for another trip up the tram,” Beaudoin said in an e-mailed comment to the Chieftain.

Overall, Undersheriff Rogers was satisfied with the rescue effort, though sorry that some people “took it upon themselves” to walk off the face of the mountain. “It is not a shortcut,” he said. “The problem is that people don’t understand the dynamics,” Rogers said. “People have to understand that this is not a freeway where (rescue vehicles) can just drive up and get them.”

Whittemore agreed, saying that everyone was told to stay on top “because we were responsible for getting everyone off the mountain.” He said tramway employees did give food and drink to everyone, but likely after the Lewiston group left. Those waiting were told everyone would be off the mountain before nightfall, “and they were,” he said.

Bus driver Wheeler said he took two busloads of evacuees to Wallowa Lake and was back in the bus barn in Lostine by about 9 p.m. He estimated that, on his first trip, he carried about 65 people who had just been hauled off the mountain by a convoy of 4-wheel-drive Forest Service and WCSO vehicles. “They were hot and tired, but they were okay,” Wheeler said. “The one gripe I heard was that it took an awful long time to get them down.”

The tramway gondolas climb 3,700 vertical feet to the summit of Mt. Howard from the resort area at the south end of Wallowa Lake. Its spectacular views make it one of Wallowa County’s most popular tourist attractions.

The tram normally opens for the summer season during the Memorial Day weekend, but this year parts replacement delayed its opening to June 30.