Editor:

I was one of the many on the mountain. Some of the information I am reading is false. For instance, the times the tram was down. My fiance and I arrived on top at 11:15 a.m. and noticed the tram not running about 11:45. We were not told for about an hour that there was a problem. Then we were told we were going to be evacuated via 4x4s. When that fell through, it was helicopters, then a couple hours later, we were told that search and rescue was going to clear the backside of the mountain to get us. I questioned a worker why the back road was not kept clear during operating seasons, and their response was that they had a lot of snow this year and the opening of the tram was delayed until about a week ago.

My concern was, what if [one of the tram riders had suffered] a major trauma? I think the lack of backup plans for this sort of thing was very poorly implemented. We were here last year for the July 4th and were stuck on a tram going down the mountain for 45 minutes due to mechanical malfunctions.

I am sad to say I will never ride the tram again, and I think we all deserve a full refund. They did offer free food toward the end of our ordeal, but what about those of us that already paid for our lunch when we arrived? We were not even told about the free meals until afterwards, and when we came to the restaurant they were already out of food! And we did not get back to our cabin Saturday night until 9:30! What a way to ruin a vacation.

I feel an investigation of [the tram’s] mechanical upkeep should be done. Why did this happen and why did it take so long to get everyone to the bottom of it? I applaud those who decided to hike down; they took matters into their own hands when we were given lame excuses and false hope of rescue every hour!

Mandy Moron

509-554-8023