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A missing woman was found safe after spending 15 hours trapped in a gondola at Heavenly Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe, California. Monica Laso was snowboarding with her friends on Thursday (January 25) but fell behind near the end of the day.
Laso was too tired to walk down the mountain, so she asked an employee to direct her to the nearest gondola so she could relax as it carried her back down the lodge.
However, the gondola stopped just two minutes into the ride, leaving her stranded above the ski resort.
Laso told KCRA that she didn't have her cell phone and couldn't call for help. She tried screaming at the employees below, but they couldn't hear her pleas for help.
"I screamed desperately until I lost my voice," Laso told the news station.
Her friends reported her missing, but it wasn't until the gondola was turned back on 15 hours later that workers found her.
Paramedics treated her at the scene, but she declined an offer to be taken to the hospital.
"The safety and well-being of our guests is our top priority at Heavenly Mountain Resort. We are investigating this situation with the utmost seriousness," Tom Fortune, the vice president of Heavenly Mountain Resort, said in a statement.