STEAMBOAT SPRINGS —Just after the Christie Peak Express chairlift closed Thursday, and skiers at Steamboat Resort were making their last turns of the day, members of Steamboat Ski Patrol went to work.

“These days, with all this new equipment and stuff, there are very few reasons why we would actually have to evacuate a chair,” said Ski Patrol Director Wes Richey. “But it’s still possible, so that’s why we prepare.”

After the lifts stopped running for the day, Ski Patrol members posed as stranded skiers and riders for the training session.

On the ground, Ski Patrol crews located the stranded skiers and went to work using guide lines, ropes and T-seats to safely lower them from the chairs to the ground.

“We hope for the best and prepare for the worst,” Richey said.

He said it’s rare for skiers or boarders to get stranded on a chairlift, and he’s only seen it a couple of times in his 33-year career. The last time he can recall a chairlift had to be evacuated was in 2007 when a mechanical failure shut down Storm Peak Express. About 70 guests were stranded, and it took Ski Patrol about two hours to get people off the lift.