Power outage shuts down Banff gondola, leaves hundreds stranded on mountain top

Hundreds of people have unexpectedly spent the night camping out in the visitor centre at the top of Banff’s Sulphur Mountain, after a power outage shut down the park’s gondola Monday night.

Yvette Batalla, on holiday with her family from Miami, is part of the visitors still stuck atop the mountain with her family Tuesday.

“I think we’re in shock, frankly. There was very little communication at the beginning, we were just trying to figure out what is going on,” she told CityNews.

She says there were initially around 500 people left stranded following the incident, but after a rescue group arrived around 2 a.m. to help visitors trek down, about 200 people remain stuck.

AllTrails.com, a website which gives detailed information on hiking trails, rates the trek down Sulphur Mountain as “challenging.” Out and back — the trail is nearly 11 kilometres long, meaning those needing to get down the peak will need to travel 5.5 kilometres.

That is what occurred pic.twitter.com/i4AB3UuuXr

— Emily Crook (@em_crook10) August 8, 2023

Although another rescue team is expected to lead another group down the mountain Tuesday morning there still is yet to be a way for children and the elderly to get down.

Batalla’s worried about getting her children down the mountain, and is hoping that a helicopter will be able to take people who aren’t able to make the hike.

Meanwhile, footage posted to social media shows many were left having to sleep on the floor overnight.

Current situation at the @BanffGondola The lack of preparedness for situations like this is astonishing. Not even the gift shop is giving away blankets, sweaters etc… only the restaurants started to provide food after 2 hours here and with nobody telling us what is going on pic.twitter.com/ERUWf3MI27

— Helena Gil (@gil_helena) August 8, 2023

Batalla said those stranded had to pay for their own blankets and sweaters at the gift shop, and visitors without proper footwear had to buy their own shoes that they could wear to hike down the mountain.

“It’s just been a very frustrating situation and honestly, we were just surprised by the lack of communication and how it was dealt with in general and that they were charging people to keep warm, we had to buy sweaters and blankets and shoes to be able to hike down,” she said. “That is just astounding.”

The American tourist says the situation has caused anxiety for her and her family, despite everyone involved with the park doing their best — passing out food, water, coffee, and hot chocolate to those stranded.

However, she said a lack of information from staff has left people feeling uneasy, with some saying it could be days before everything is up and running again.

The power is thought to have gone out around 8:30 p.m., and Batalla said the first update on the situation was given around midnight — several hours after the outage that only lasted around 20 minutes.

CityNews has reached out to park officials for comment on the ongoing situation.

More to come.