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Local Woman Falls From Ski Lift
by Matt Hutchens
The quad lift from the Wolf Ridge webcam
Click for updated view
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Wolf Ridge Ski Resort, where many Mars Hill Students get their first taste of alpine sports, was the scene this winter of a ski lift accident that has left Mars Hill community member Carrie Lee Hoffman with long-term injuries.
Hoffman is the daughter-in-law of the late college Vice President Richard Hoffman.
She got caught on a moving chair while trying to dismount at a mid-slope unloading
station and later fell perhaps as much as 30 feet. Brandon Burford, a student
at Mars Hill College and an off-duty lift operator at Wolf Ridge, was snowboarding
the day this happened.
"I was just a few chairs in front of her and could see her on the ground after the fall," Burford said. "Mrs. Hoffman was trying to get off the mid-unloading station, but her jacket apparently got caught on the chair. There was someone working that station, but he was not paying attention and didn't stop the chair until Mrs. Hoffman was dangling about 25 to 30 feet above the ground. She fell while trying to pull herself back onto the chair, but her jacket came loose. It was a bad accident, and the lifts were stopped for a long time. I was sitting on that lift not moving for about forty-five minutes, and I was going to jump off, but it was too high."
Where it happened - Click to enlarge
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Mars Hill College patrons of Wolf Ridge have commented on occasional broken slats
and worn-out seat pads on lift chairs in the area.
Hoffman was carried down on a sled by the ski patrol and taken to the
hospital in Asheville. She had crushed both of her heel bones, and it is
still not known how well she will ever be able to walk. Hoffman was
an experienced skier. She had been skiing at Wolf Ridge since she was
19 years old. She had also worked there, and she had been a ski instructor.
According to Burford, the young man who was working the mid-unloading station
was probably not paying attention, as he could have stopped the lift before
Hoffman's chair got too high. It would have been just a few feet above
the ground or at least a safer height to fall from. The employee did not
return to work after the accident, Burford said. Hoffman is the mother
of two young girls, ages 8 and 4, and she is struggling to
take care of them while also trying to take care of herself with limited
mobility.
At least one new work rule has been added since this accident happened.
Radios or music of any kind are no longer allowed in the huts at the unloading
stations. "It
gets really boring in there now," says Burford. "We don't have anything
to do, not even listen to music."
Owner/manager Rick Bussey declined to comment for this article..
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