17 hikers stranded at 8400 feet in blizzard

17 hikers were left outside a locked mountain station at the Palm Strings Aerial Tramway in a blizzard (two pages)   Gale force winds gusting up to 118 mph were recorded.  The building closed up at 2.00 pm - seven hours early

http://www.mtsanjacinto.info/viewtopic.php?t=3398&start=0&sid=83850eac292420e9d6e893a608128132

One of the stranded hikers wrote this message. I dont know if this was mentioned before

1/23/2012
I am one of th 17 hikers stranded overnight at the top this past Saturday. When we got to the tram to go back down at around 4:30pm on Saturday, we were told by the ranger that the tram was closed and that we have to spend the night on the mountain. We were only prepared to do a one day hike, so we were not prepared properly to spend a nigh on the cold mountain (I believe the temperature was 20F). The ranger did not allow us to spend the night in his heated station. Instead, we were left with a shack, which we had to clear out, and create a makeshift door out of plywood. There was no insulation in the shack, so the temperature was as cold as the outside. The ranger provided some blankets, but was not enough to go around. Those who had blankets seem to be warm, but those who were freezing opted to build a fire outside when the winds died down to survive the cold.

The reason why I am giving 1 star is because it seems like the tram people didnt care about us at all. We went to the tram station to see if we can get inside, but was faced with a sign "TRAM CLOSED GO SEE RANGER AT RANGER STATION" handwritten in block letters from what seemed like from a 7 year old. The tram station was completely locked. The least the tram people could of done was to leave a person at the tram station to let us in and spend the night there. My friends and I paid the full $23 for the round trip, and we didn't even get a refund for the trip down the next day.

Some hikers half jokingly said that we should have just thrown a rock through the window of the tram station and say that the wind broke the window, and spend the night in the tram station, but none of us wanted to stoop to that level. We are civillized people, and would like to be treated the same.
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