A skier stranded on the Mount Sima chairlift for about an hour injured his leg Monday after trying to jump off, the hill’s general manager explained this morning.

Cindy Chandler said Sima staff were in the middle of evacuating the lift when the man decided to remove himself by jumping off, at about 7.5 metres (25 feet) above the ground.

He was taken down the hill by ski patrollers who believe he broke his leg, then driven to Whitehorse General Hospital by ambulance.

There is no update on his condition, she said.

Chandler explained the chairlift was knocked out by power bumps at approximately 1:10 p.m.

ATCO Electrical Yukon spokeswoman Laura Carlson explained this morning the power bumps were caused by staff clearing frost from the power lines before it built up any further and caused greater issues. (See separate brief, p. 3.)

There were a total of seven power bumps, she explained.

Chandler said the first power bump early in the day knocked out the main chairlift and bunny hill rope toe, though they were both operational again in about a half an hour.

The last two back-to-back bumps scrambled the computer controlling the chairlift, she explained.

Chandler said according to the national safety protocol for ski hills, Monday’s outside temperature of -5 gave staff a maximum of 25 minutes to try to restart the lift before activating their emergency manual evacuation procedures.

The emergency evacuation began at precisely the 25-minute mark, and four chairs had been evacuated when the man jumped off, she explained, adding that about 20 per cent of the chairs were occupied.

Chandler said shortly after he jumped, staff were able to restart the chairlift.

Once everybody was off, operations were shut down for the remainder of the day and staff spent the evening and this morning going over the equipment to make sure everything was OK before operations commenced this morning, she said.

Chandler said the emergency evacuation protocol went well.

Sima personnel, everybody from maintenance workers to lift operators to servers in the coffee-shop, knows what their role is, she explained.

She said they know whether they’re to remain in the office, look after the kids taking lessons, or begin assembling the equipment necessary for manual evacuation.

Two callers were dispatched to snowboard and snowmachine down the hill directly below the lift and periodically call out what was happening.

Depending on who is on the lift plays into how long it takes to evacuate individual chairs, Chandler explained.

“Yesterday, for example, we had two girls on the chair, frightened, young girls,” she said.

“It takes a little more effort to get them off because you have to calm them down, talk to them, and be very methodical in giving them instructions about what to do.”

It was fortunate Monday’s temperature was on their side, Chandler said.

Had it been -20, she explained, the emergency evacuation would have begun after no more than 10 minutes, not 25.

Chandler confirmed just after noon today that the lifts are operating fine.

“We have a beautiful bluebird day going out here,” she said. “The sun is shining, it’s a little chillier, its gorgeous.”

Mount Sima is open daily through the holidays, with the exception of Christmas Day.