Great Bear Recreation Park Back Open for Business

After a cable derailment on one of the chairlifts forced the closure of Great Bear Recreation Park on Saturday afternoon, the popular ski area in Sioux Falls is back open for business once again.

Dakota News Now reports, one of the chairlifts at Great Bear needed a little TLC on Saturday (February 22) after a few technical problems with the cable system thwarted the devices' ability to function properly.

Mechanics needed to perform a few quick repairs to the lift in order to have it operational for Sunday's Sioux Falls Area Humane Society's benefit race.

Alexa Giebink, Director of Communications at Great Bear, told Dakota News Now, "Yesterday afternoon around 3:45 we experienced a chairlift derailment at our lower lift station, the cable came derailed. Our team responded quickly and within 45 minutes we had all our guests evacuated off of the chairlift."

The gang from Great Bear said it ended up being a rather simple fix, and every skier on the broken chairlift Saturday was able to be removed safely.

Giebink said, "In that situation we know exactly what to do. It's what we train for. we practice multiple chair evacs every season. We have our ski patrol on staff to assist with that as well as our mountain managers so everyone knows their role. And we were able to get our guests safely off the chairlift."

The chairlift remained out of commission for the remainder of the day Saturday but reopened on Sunday morning at 9 AM.

According to Dakota news Now, Sunday's Humane Society's benefit race was the last race at Great Bear this season.

However, the park is hopeful that Mother Nature will continue to cooperate and provide skiers here in the Sioux Empire a few more solid weeks of skiing and snowboarding at Great Bear.

Source: Dakota News Now

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