A ski gondola at Canada’s famed Lake Louise resort malfunctioned Sunday, trapping nearly 65 people on board for hours as darkness fell and temperatures dropped below freezing.

One of the safety switches on the gondola tripped following the World Cup super-G race on the mountain, leaving the skiers stranded above the resort, said Rick Werner, operations manager at Lake Louise Mountain resort.

Eight teams of ski patrollers attached self-propelled pulley units to the gondola’s cable to reach the individual cabins, officials said. They then hooked cables and harnesses around the trapped passengers before lowering them to the ground.