Child Rescued from Vermont Chairlift by Ski Patrol

Originally posted on SNOWBOARDER | By Josh Sullivan | Last updated Feb 20, 2025 4:24 PM ET

A young snowboarder was rescued from a chairlift at Killington Resort by ski patrol, and was unharmed, the resort said.

Around noon on on February 19, 2025, an 8 year old and three other people got on the Ramshead Express quad lift. The child was not fully seated when the chair lift moved past the loading area, Killington officials said. He started to slip off, but had his arm behind the chairlift’s bar, according to a post from Steve Swain in a Killington locals Facebook group.

“The other people on the chair had his other arm but he was dangling pretty far down,” he said. “The ski patrol did a great job of setting up a catch net that they then padded with lift pole pads.“

Check out the video below of the incident.

The child was caught by a padded net, after an attempt to ease him off the net with a sling. He was evaluated by ski patrol on site, then brought down the mountain via snowmobile, according to the local NBC station.

“Happy ending to a hairy mishap,” Swain said.

In other Killington-related news, the resort announced that it would replace the chairlift located on Superstar, building a six-passenger high speed in its place. It will move spring skiing in 2025 to the K-1 gondola while it spends eight months on the Superstar lift. As a result, the 2025 World Cup race won’t be held in Vermont this year, but rather, be moved to Colorado.

“This $12 million investment will elevate the guest experience for decades to come,” Killington President Mike Solimano said in a statement.

The World Cup race takes place Thanksgiving weekend at Killington every year, and draws 20,000 in-person spectators and another 2 million on television. The race has been held in Vermont since 2016. It is expected to return to Killington after a year at Copper Mountain.

This article first appeared on SNOWBOARDER and was syndicated with permission.

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