Gondola Ordeal: Woman Survives Frigid Night Alone at Heavenly Mountain Resort

On an otherwise regular Thursday at South Lake Tahoe's Heavenly Mountain Resort, Monica Laso's snowboarding trip took an unexpected and harrowing turn. This late afternoon decision to ride down the mountain in a gondola would lead to a night she would never forget. Clad only with her snowboarding gear and without a phone, light, or heat source, Laso found herself stranded in a ski gondola as temperatures plunged into the lower twenties.

The unfathomable began at approximately 4:58 p.m. when Laso, acknowledging her own exhaustion, decided against snowboarding down the mountain, instead opting for the supposed safety and comfort of the resort's gondola transport back to the base. Merely two minutes after her boarding, the lift ceased operation, unbeknownst to the resort staff. The hours that ensued pushed Monica to the limits of human endurance and resilience.

Throughout the long night, encompassed by utter darkness and penetrating cold, Laso was forced to keep rubbing her hands and feet in an effort to maintain warmth, her only defense against the possibility of frostbite or hypothermia. The station came back to life the following morning, when routine operations resumed, inadvertently bringing Laso back down to safety.

At approximately 8:30 a.m., a South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue team was alerted to Laso's predicament. Sallie Ross, the department's spokesperson, relayed the events that led to Laso's discovery and the prompt dispatch of firefighters to the scene. Upon their arrival, they found her with signs of cold exposure but, remarkably, no serious injuries or immediate requirement for hospitalization.

Laso's ordeal has shed light on potential gaps in the resort's safety protocols. The incident has prompted the resort's COO, Tom Fortune, to express a deep commitment to guest safety, stressing that a thorough probe into the matter is already in motion.

The strangeness of Laso's ordeal resonates with the local fire department, which has not previously encountered such an event. In an industry where safety redundancies are the norm, the question remains as to how Laso's presence on the lift could have been overlooked during routine closing proceedings.