Twenty-one unlucky people had to be rescued after icy conditions jammed the Sandia Peak Tramway. The unlucky riders had to spend the new year stuck overnight inside a pair of tram cars hanging extremely high above the mountainsides in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The cars got stuck on the lines at the peak point of the mountain around 10 p.m. local time Friday, carrying tram employees and staff from the restaurant, Albuquerque news station KRQE reported. One of the cars carried 20 passengers, and the other car had just one lonely passenger.
Michael Donavan told KRQE Saturday morning that rescuers had to wait for weather conditions to improve to evacuate people safely. All 21 people have been rescued after hours trapped on the tramway with no injuries, the Bernalillo County Fire Department announced on Twitter.
Rescuers had to scale a tower close to where the cars got stuck and lower each passenger to safety using a rope system, Spencer Moreland of New Mexico Search and Rescue told the New York Times.
The Sandia Peak Tramway is a popular tourist attraction that takes people to the highest point of the Sandia Mountains, an elevation of 10,378 feet, which takes about 15 minutes.
