Forty-five tourists were rescued this morning after spending up to 16 hours dangling high above the French Alps in cable cars, CNN reports. Nearly 110 people were initially stranded in the cable cars near the Chamonix ski resort after the cars stalled due to tangled cables. About 60 were rescued through the evening, thanks to emergency helicopters who lowered crew members to extract passengers one by one from the cable cars, but once night fell it became too dangerous to continue the airborne mission.
The 45 visitors stuck overnight in the chilly conditions were given blankets, cereal bars, and water to help stave off the elements. "At first I thought it would be OK, that I could handle the cold, it wasn't that bad. But then it started getting colder and colder, and at 3 or 4 a.m., the survival blankets were useless. It was really cold ... I did not sleep during the night. It was horrible," Clement Delisle, one of the trapped passengers, told CNN. The cables, which were allegedly tangled due to heavy winds, were fixed late this morning so many of the remaining stranded tourists were able to ride the cars back to solid ground.
The cable car crosses between the Alps's peaks in France and Italy, near the towns of Chamonix, France, and Courmayeur, Italy. They rise to an altitude of 12,000 feet (acrophobics, beware) and the ride usually lasts just 35 minutes, rather than last night's 16-hour ordeal. The first two sections of cable cars were expected to reopen at approximately 10 a.m. local time this morning, but the third section, where the tourists were stranded, is still being cleared for use and will likely not be open again for 24 hours.
