{"id":2456952,"date":"2020-04-08T18:35:55","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T00:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=324016"},"modified":"2020-04-08T18:35:55","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T00:35:55","slug":"vail-chairlift-death-witness-lift-operator-was-not-paying-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/vail-chairlift-death-witness-lift-operator-was-not-paying-attention\/","title":{"rendered":"Vail chairlift death witness: \u2018Lift operator was not paying attention\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"46.108818011257\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"244\" height=\"207\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/vaillogo.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>As Jason Varnish hung to death on a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vaildaily.com\/news\/new-jersey-man-died-of-positional-asphyxia-on-chairlift-at-vail-mountain\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vail chairlift&nbsp;<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i>in February, the lone lift operator yelled to witnesses that he was not able to reverse the lift without permission, according to a Sheriff\u2019s Office incident report released Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The witness attempted to board Chair 37 with Varnish that day, and noticed the seat had been folded up so a rider could not sit down without falling through, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(Varnish) tried to push it down,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n<p>The witness told police he got out of the way while Varnish\u2019s clothing got caught on the rubber stopper, he thought, lifting him 20-25 feet off the ground. The witness yelled for the lift operator to stop the lift, the report says.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/at-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe lift operator was not paying attention and had been cleaning off snow in the area,\u201d according to the witness, the report states. \u201cA few seconds later the lift stopped and (the witness) observed (Varnish) hanging from the lift.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Guests attempted to form a human pyramid to push up Varnish\u2019s legs and feet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey were not able to do this due to the snow being so deep,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n<p>The witness said he told the lift operator to reverse the lift.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe lift operator advised that he could not do that without permission,\u201d the report states. \u201cA short time later (the lift) was reversed and (Varnish) was cut down and CPR was starting due to (Varnish) being unconscious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Varnish was a father of three who lived in Millburn, New Jersey. His family asked donations to be sent to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.stjude.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&nbsp;St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i>&nbsp;in his name.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div readability=\"11.371985157699\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-7 pt-3 pb-4 at-4 pl-4\" readability=\"17.798507462687\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers around Aspen and Snowmass Village make the Aspen Times\u2019 work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p> <button class=\"btn\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=below-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<p> &nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/vail-chairlift-death-witness-lift-operator-was-not-paying-attention\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Jason Varnish hung to death on a&nbsp;Vail chairlift&nbsp;in February, the lone lift operator yelled to witnesses that he was not able to reverse the lift without permission, according to a Sheriff\u2019s Office incident report released Wednesday. The witness attempted to board Chair 37 with Varnish that day, and noticed the seat had been folded [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2456952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 05:24:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}