Hanging in the wind: Snowbowl chairlift accident spurs closer look at lift safety in Montana

The image went around the country in days: A man clinging to a broken chairlift 20 feet above the ground, one ski off, moments before he had no choice but to jump. What the image didn’t show was that moments before, the man’s 4-year-old son had fallen off the chair when it broke. 

It happened at Montana Snowbowl ski area just north of Missoula, back in March. The incident sparked an outcry from the community and prompted the U.S. Forest Service to investigate the safety and operations of Snowbowl. And it’s spurred questions about why Montana deregulated chairlift safety in the late ‘90s. 

With me today is Joshua Murdock. He’s a reporter at the Missoulian who covers outdoor recreation, natural resources and land management agencies like the Forest Service. He’s been following the situation at Snowbowl and investigated chairlift safety there and more broadly in Montana. He’s also an avid skier, including at Snowbowl and other small ski areas around the West. 

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Montana Untamed, hosted by Thom Bridge, covers the state's rugged landscape from hook and bullet to policy and science.