Five quick-thinking boys are being hailed as heroes for rescuing a screaming eight-year-old child dangling from a chairlift at a ski resort in North Vancouver.
Footage captured from the dramatic rescue at Grouse Mountain shows the boy’s father holding on to his arms as he dangles 20 feet in the air above the snow-covered slope.
Twelve-year-old Joshua Ravensbergen said he and his buddies went to Grouse Mountain for a day of skiing when they looked up and noticed the boy in trouble.
He said the boy appeared to have fallen from the chair moments earlier and was left hanging, but it wasn’t stopped and kept going higher and higher so it was too late for him to jump to safety.
The eight-year-old slipped and was left grasping and dangling from the side of a chair-lift on Grouse Mountain some 25-feet in the air as he held onto his father.
“People were there but they were just standing looking at the kid, not knowing what to do,” Ravensbergen said, adding he feared the child would be injured if they didn’t do something to help.
A friend of Ravensbergen’s, 14-year-old James Macdonald, asked a nearby man to get some orange netting which is normally used to mark out where the skiing boundaries are.
“The boy was starting to flail about and get extremely panicked,” said Macdonald.
After spotting a piece of mesh fencing nearby, the boys held it below the lift to act as a safety net for the boy’s fall — and they were unsure if it was going to work.
“Inside, I had anxiety,” said Harvey. “I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I really just kind of knew, like, we could do this.”
Another teenager, Gabriel Neilson, tried to calm down the boy as he stripped off padding from a pole and placed it on the netting to give it more support.
The child was on the chairlift was with his parents and three-year-old sister, who the father was also trying to hang on to while struggling to cling to his son.
Once the net was completed, Neilson told the boy to remove his skis and then asked the boy’s dad to release his grip holding his young child.
After the father released his grip the boy dramatically fell safely into the padding that was being held by around 10 other people.
An 8 year old boy dangles from a ski chair as his father desperately holds on to him.
When a net below had been secured, the father dropped his son about 20 feet.
The emergency net worked, much to the relief of those below.
A cheer went up as the boy was safely captured and avoided any serious injury.
The boy was then sent to hospital as a precautionary measure although the boy suffered no serious injuries.
The child’s parents thanked them all afterwards admitting they were a bit shaken up.
As a reward, the boys were each given a complimentary season pass from the president of Grouse Mountain, Michael Cameron.
“It’s interesting to be called a hero. l don’t really think it’s settled in that we saved a child’s life,” said Harvey. “It’s pretty incredible.”
WATCH HERE: