This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Solitude • A power outage in Big Cottonwood Canyon limited skiing Thursday afternoon — and left many winter sports enthusiasts stranded on the mountain's chair lifts.
Among those left swinging from one lift, dangling about halfway to the top of the summit at Solitude, were Ed Rawlins, a 57-year-old financial planner from Johnson City, Tenn., and his 27-year-old nephew, naval aviator Austin Hulbert of Virginia Beach, Va.
"Yep, we're about 40-50 feet up, it looks like. So, there's no jumping," Rawlins told The Salt Lake Tribune from his cell phone while waiting out a nearly one-hour delay. "We were just riding this lift and it just suddenly stopped."
At Brighton Resort, skiers and snowboarders in the lift chairs were stranded for a few minutes before backup generators began working, said Jared Winkler, a spokesman for the resort. However, the resort only ran two lifts the remainder of the day and canceled night skiing.
A tree falling over a power line about 1 p.m. helped cause the problem said, Rocky Mountain Power spokeswoman Margaret Oler. In all, about 700 homes and businesses in Big Cottonwood Canyon remained without electricity as of 6 p.m. Power was restored to everyone about 9:30 p.m., Oler said.
Solitide resort's backup generator had the Apex lift moving again by 1:45 p.m. About 10 minutes later, the Summit lift, with Ralwins and Hulbert, was operating, too.
It was taking longer, however, to get the resort's Sunrise and Eagle Express lifts moving. They remained stalled at 2:30 p.m., and resort employees reportedly were rigging harnesses to lower skiers from their seats.
Lori Sokoloski, a regular skier who lives in Salt Lake City, said she was on her second run of the day when the power went out at Solitude about 1 p.m., stranding her on the Eagle Express lift for about an hour and a half.
Solitude staff eventually put her in a harness and lowered her to the surface.
"It was a good thing it wasn't too cold today, right?" she said, adding that she wasn't afraid and Solitude staff did a "great job."
Rawlins and Hulbert were on the second day of a ski trip to Utah, celebrating the holidays in advance of Hulbert's coming deployment to Afghanistan.
"We skied at Brighton yesterday and we're skiing Solitude today. The skiing's been beautiful, up until now at least," Rawlins chuckled, then handed his cell phone to Hulbert while both were still stuck on the lift.
Hulbert said the ski trip was just the right medicine for him, three weeks out from his deployment aboard an aircraft carrier that will cruise to the Middle East.
"It's been just awesome powder here," he said. "And the view, even now from this lift, is awesome, too. The clouds are at about 12,000 feet, and behind us it's blue skies. I can't wait to get off this lift and on the snow again."