Skier taken to hospital after fall from chairlift at Gunstock

GILFORD — A skier was taken to the hospital after falling from a chairlift at Gunstock Mountain Resort on Saturday.

The incident occurred shortly after noon on Dec. 30.

Gilford Fire Chief Stephen Carrier said his department was alerted to a 911 call at 12:25 p.m. on Saturday about a person who fell from a chairlift. Ski patrol was alerted at the same time. Carrier said the chair was about “halfway up the mountain” when the skier fell.

An ambulance arrived in the parking lot little more than 10 minutes later, but it took about 20 minutes longer for ski patrol to access the skier and deliver him to the ambulance, which then took him to Concord Hospital-Concord.

Bonnie MacPherson, director of marketing for Gunstock, confirmed that a 23-year-old male fell from the Panorama lift on Saturday.

“The man was transported to the hospital. Gunstock Ski Patrol is conducting an incident investigation, and no further information is available,” MacPherson said.

The last apparent time that someone fell from a lift at Gunstock was in 2013, when two boys slipped off the Pistol lift shortly after it departed. The boys fell a distance of between 6 and 10 feet before landing on snow. They were transported to a hospital for what was described at the time to be non-life threatening injuries.

MacPherson said, “The incident on Saturday is a rare occurrence at Gunstock.” She said the fall did not result in any disruption to the resort’s operations.