Skier's World Turned Upside Down

From: The Smoking Gun 06/01/09:

[A] skier at Colorado's ritzy Vail resort was left dangling upside down and pantsless [sic] from a chairlift last Thursday morning. The January 1 mishap apparently occurred after the male skier, 48, and a child boarded a high-speed lift in Vail's Blue Sky Basin. It appears that the chairlift's fold-down seat was somehow not in the lowered position, which caused the man to partially fall through the resulting gap. His right ski got jammed in the ascending chairlift, and that kept him upended since his boot never dislodged from its binding.

I saw pictures relating to this story in the Metro this morning but it didn't detail at which ski resort the incident had occurred. Then, hours later, I stumbled across the same story via Digg.  Metro’s account of the incident suggested that the skier’s misfortune was due to the fact he was not sitting in the ski-lift correctly – unlike his son. However, that doesn’t seem to be reflected in the Metro’s coverage on their website.

I’m not quite sure which of the two I feel most sorry for: the guy for suffering the ignominy of hanging upside down for several minutes, while on looking skiers proceeded to photograph him in all his (semi) naked glory or the son who had to sit, inches away, watching on in horror. I would not like to be him when he returns to school.

If you're in the mood for chuckling over someone else's misfortune, you can check out some extra photos here.