Although the scale of this rescue at Chamrousse France was large, it moved swiftly and all 200 skier were evacuated shortly after nightfall thanks to favorable weather conditions. BBC reports 70 cable cars came to a halt after a 3pm breakdown and the total elapsed rescue time was just over 2 hours Two helicopters dropped rescue personnel over every car through open roof hatches and then they released the skiers with pulleys and cables to ground level. What a way to spend Christmas Eve. Joyeux Noël.