Man dies in ski lift fall
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE — A woman lost her newlywed husband to a fatal fall from a South Lake Tahoe ski resort chairlift when it came into contact with an adjacent zipline, El Dorado County sheriff’s officials believe.
Authorities say Mark Alan Dickson, a 51-year-old Glendora man, was planning to relocate to the north county mountain town with his bride, when he fell from the Tamarack Express Chair operated by Heavenly Ski Area Monday afternoon. Dickson and wife Rebecca Gonzaga, 47, were on their way down the mountain when, investigators believe, a malfunction with the zipline caused it to come into contact with the couple’s chairlift. Dickson fell from the chairlift; his wife was able to hold on.
Despite medical treatment at the scene, Dickson was pronounced dead at the resort’s first aid station. Gonzaga was transported to nearby Barton Memorial Hospital after the accident.
The exact cause of the accident has yet to be determined by sheriff’s investigators with the department’s Lake Tahoe Operations unit, said Lt. Les Lovell in an updated release. Preliminary findings suggest it was the malfunctioning zipline coming into contact with the express chairlift, which was descending the California side of the mountain.
