Weston Lee, a Bismarck sixth-grader, was trying out skiing for the very first time Friday and was doing really well on the bunny hill. So he was told he could get on Huff Hills' blue ski lift and try some real runs - and that's when he had another new experience.

Getting stuck.

The 88-chair lift stopped and didn't start.

About 30 skiers and snowboarders were going nowhere, including Weston and about six of his classmates from Highlands Acres Elementary School on a ski trip. Some of them waiting were as high as about 35 feet above the ground.

He said he yelled down to passing snowboarders, "Hello … What are we supposed to do?"

But help was on the way, soon, he said. Almost immediately, ski patrol members were on the scene.

Andy Beck, a Huff Hills owner, said the 30 people were evacuated using a rope, harness and chair apparatus to lower them to the ground. He said it took about an hour to evacuate everyone. Metro Ambulance and Mandan Rural Fire Department personnel were available to help, but no one was injured, and no one was cold enough to require treatment.

Beck said in the 10 years the Becks have owned the ski area, this is the first time they've had to perform a chairlift evacuation. But he said it went smoothly. The ski patrol does regular evacuation drills. One was actually scheduled for today but canceled because of blizzard warnings. So they had the real thing instead on Friday. And he said he was pleased at how smoothly it went.

"We got everyone off in less than an hour,"said Sarah Wright, a Huff Hills ski patrol member. "It went perfectly."

"It was pretty slick," said Jim Beck, Andy Beck's father and a Huff Hills co-owner.

Jim Beck said the chairlift stopped because an input shaft broke. He said the gearbox needs to removed and repaired and he hopes that can be done and back in operation by Presidents Day, Feb. 18.

Meanwhile, the ski area, which is south of Mandan near the town of Huff, has another chairlift, which will be able to provide access to most of the runs.

Tyler Grosz, 11, of Bismarck, learned a lot about skiing Friday. Like, when you get on the chairlift, make sure you're wearing a coat.

He said he was sitting there for about 15 to 30 minutes and got cold. He said that won't happen again.

Shannon Chaussee, a first-year sixth-grade teacher at Highland Acres, is a skier and accompanied her class along with another teacher and two chaperones for the annual sixth-grade ski trip. She said some of her kids after the evacuation proclaimed that they were done skiing that day.

"They were a little freaked out."

But then five minutes later the kids were heading up for more on the operational ski lift, she said and laughed.

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at virginia.grantier@;bismarcktribune.com.)