• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
Snowboarder dies after falling from faulty chairlift at ski resort

Home> News> US News

Published 19:25 13 Mar 2025 GMT

Snowboarder dies after falling from faulty chairlift at ski resort

US father Jeff Zinne fell from the lift on 10 March

Brenna Cooper

Brenna Cooper

Featured Image Credit: (GoFundMe)

Topics: US News, Health, GoFundMe

Brenna Cooper
Brenna Cooper

Brenna Cooper is a journalist at LADbible. She graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in History, followed by an NCTJ accredited masters in Journalism. She began her career as a freelance writer for Digital Spy, where she wrote about all things TV, film and showbiz. Her favourite topics to cover are music, travel and any bizarre pop culture.

X

@_brencoco

Advert

Advert

Advert

A 37-year-old father has tragically died after falling from a chairlift at a US resort.

Jeff Zinne had been snowboarding at Red Lodge Mountain ski resort in Montana on Monday (10 March) was riding alone in a three-person chair around midday when the chairlift machine suffered a mechanical fault, causing him to plummet to the ground from an unspecified height.

Zinne airlifted to the nearby city of Billings where he would pass away from his injuries two days later.

Zinne's death has since been confirmed by County Sheriff Josh McQuillan and Red Lodge Mountain spokesperson Troy Hawks.

Advert

US man Jeff Zinne died after falling from a ski lift at a resort in Montana (stock image) (Getty Stock Images)
US man Jeff Zinne died after falling from a ski lift at a resort in Montana (stock image) (Getty Stock Images)

Hawks went on to confirm that a mechanical fault had occurred around the time of the 37-year-old's fall but declined to comment further on the subject. He added that the resort is currently holding an investigation into the circumstances around his death, including weather conditions and the victim's actions in the moment leading up to the fall.

More than 100 other visitors riding on different chairs at the time of the accident were evacuated from the lift by ski patrollers.

Local outlets added that several other chairlifts had been temporarily closed on the day of Zinne's fall due to severe weather conditions, with winds of up to 50 mph (80.4 kph) being recorded in the area.

The chair, which had been built in 1983, will remain out of action until an engineer is able to fully assess it.

Advert

Meanwhile Zinne's family have since set up GoFundMe to raise money for his wife Meghan and their two-year-old son to help with the 'financial burdens that come with such an unexpected tragedy'.

Referring to the freight hauling company owner as a 'devoted husband' and 'caring father', the fundraiser added: "All funds raised will go directly to his wife and son to help with funeral costs and medical expenses."

A GoFundMe has since been set up to support Zinne's widow and young son (GoFundMe)
A GoFundMe has since been set up to support Zinne's widow and young son (GoFundMe)

Meghan has also thanked people for their support in an update on the page, writing: "The outpouring love and support that we’ve received is astonishing. Jeff was so loved. Please know I am seeing your comments and texts. I cannot respond to everyone but it is so appreciated.

"Thank you to all who have joined our meal train, donated to the GoFund me and have sent flowers."

Advert

Deaths on ski lifts are considered to be relatively rare, with Skimag reporting there were 14 fatalities caused by mechanical faults between 1973 and 2020 in America.

Meanwhile Europe's most recent ski lift accident occurred in Spain back in January, with a chair lift collapse earlier this year leaving two women in intensive care.

LADbible has approached Red Lodge Mountain Ski Resort for comment.

Choose your content:

9 hours ago
10 hours ago
12 hours ago
  • 9 hours ago

    Girl, 9, dies after mum left her in the car whilst she went to work

    She was left unattended in the car for hours

    News
  • 9 hours ago

    Incredible photo shows woman hanging on to tree before being rescued from freak flood that killed 27

    The woman had been swept 20 miles downriver before being rescued

    News
  • 10 hours ago

    Man robbed bank claiming 'it was art' and filmed the whole thing

    Gonna have to try this one

    News
  • 12 hours ago

    Someone made a £5000 Bitcoin investment in 2011 and has now made ridiculous profit 14 years later

    Maybe they're a time traveller who did what we all dream of

    News
  • Woman tragically dies after walking into moving plane propeller while taking photos
  • Man had £2,500 ‘trip of a lifetime’ ruined when falling ill and 'bleeding on loo after eating food at resort’
  • British teen dies after falling from Ibiza hotel's sixth-floor balcony
  • Husband held his dying wife in arms after horror jet ski crash in Spain