After clinging for dear life, a skier who was close to plummeting to the ground from a chairlift at a Southern California mountain resort broke her silence, admitting she was “high enough for death.”
Shocking video captured the terrifying moment at Big Bear Mountain when Roula De Miranda-Arce somehow slipped out of her seat and was left dangling high above the ground, with nothing but her twin sister and their best friend holding on to her.
“Oh, I’m definitely dying,” Miranda-Arce admitted this week after the near death experience during a day on the slopes with her friends.
“I looked down and I saw it was high enough for it to look like death.”
Roula’s twin sister Raizel De Miranda-Arce admitted at first she thought her sister was just messing around.
“I thought she was joking and I was like, ‘Haha, whatever, dude.’ And then she was like, ‘No, seriously. Like, I need help,’” Raizel said. “‘Like, I can’t get up.’ And I was like, Oh my god, hold me up.’”
Both Roula’s twin and their best friend Makenna Dumlao then kicked into action and worked together to hold on to the skier’s arms for dear life.
At one point in the video, we can hear Roula screaming and see her squirming in obvious fear of falling to her death.
Roula admitted even though they were telling her to stop moving, that was the last thing on her mind.
“Listen, I’m not even thinking about moving, I’m panicking.”
Somehow, the girls managed to hold on to Roula until the lift got close enough to the ground and Roula was able to finally put her two skis down safely on the snow.
Roula’s twin said if the safety bar on the chair lift hadn’t been there, she’s not sure they would have been so lucky. Her message to other lift riders, “Like seriously, put the bar down.”
It’s unclear how the woman slipped through the lift’s safety bar.
Big Bear Mountain is located in Big Bear Lake, about 25 miles east of San Bernardino.
Big Bear Mountain confirmed to ABC News that the incident occurred and said Roula De Miranda-Arce and her sister “admitted to horseplay as the reason for her becoming suspended.”
“As soon as staff became aware of the situation, they took quick action to stop the carrier and unload everyone as soon as it reached the upper terminal. As a precautionary measure, the guest was evaluated by ski patrol. The individuals involved in the incident did not sustain any significant injuries and we are grateful to our team for their swift response,” a spokesperson said. “This is a good example of why we recommend guests always lower the safety bar and refrain from engaging in potentially dangerous or distracting behavior while riding lifts.”
Calls to Big Bear Mountain resort about the incident were not immediately returned to The Post.
Earlier this month, horrifying video captured a 12-year-old girl dangling from a chairlift before plunging to the ground at Mammoth Mountain ski resort in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
