WHISTLER, British Columbia – Footage of a seven-year-old skier who fell 40 feet off the Crystal Ridge Express at Whistler Blackcomb would have looked a lot more grim if it wasn’t for Whistler regular Debbi Cottrell, who held the ski-school student for well over five minutes while help was prepared.
Pique News Magazine reports Debbi and her husband were placed on the lift next to two ski-school students, the one on the far end being the boy who fell, right as they were getting on the chair. The couple shuffled over, but the last minute addition lead to some discombobulation.
“We were a little bit discombobulated getting onto the chair, so we got on, and the child that fell was the one that was against the edge. There was a child between he and I, and we were getting ourselves organized and we looked over and we saw that he wasn’t quite on.” – Debbi Cottrell
Cottrell was able to reach over the other student and grab the falling skier before he fully slipped off the chair. The fact that the bar was still up, however, and the fact that there was another person between the two, meant she was unable to pull him back up.
“Once they stopped the lift and [Whistler Blackcomb staff] started running up with the trampoline, he panicked a bit—he said, ‘I’m not jumping, I’m not jumping’—and we talked him into it. He said OK, I’ll jump—he dropped his poles, dropped his skis, and we counted and I released him.” – Debbi Cottrell
Fortunately the seven-year-old was totally uninjured following the fall and went back up to continue skiing.
Image Credit: Richard Green via Facebook