Ask yourself this question...what's worse than falling off a chairlift? Think about it. If you're on a chairlift in the winter you're likely skiing or snowboarding. It's probably cold. The ground is likely somewhat hard. So falling off a chairlift while strapped into some sort of winter sport apparatus must be awful. Unless you are these poor people in North Carolina!
A hydrant burst at Beech Mountain Ski Resort on Friday . . . apparently after a skier crashed into it. It was directly under the chair lift, which meant the riders on the chair lift were getting BLASTED by cold water.
The water was coming out with INTENSE force . . . enough that it was lifting the chairs on the lift, as well as lifting the skiers out of the chairs.
The chair lift continued operating, which meant many skiers got caught under it . . . sometimes for around TWO MINUTES. One person was clinging to the lift to stay on it. It was so wild that many people were jumping off the lift to avoid it.
Beech Mountain released a statement, but rather than apologize and take full responsibility, they blamed the situation on the skier who crashed into the hydrant, and dismissively said that it resulted in "several patrons getting wet."
It's also important to note that 2 of the skiers were hospitalized with non life threatening injuries.
Check out a video of the chaos below!