Skiers, snowboarders evacuated from stalled chairlifts after power cut at Mt Hutt

Mt Hutt webcam showing the empty six-person chairlift after a power cut this morning. Photo / Mt Hutt

Skiers and snowboarders have been lowered from chairlifts after a power cut on Mt Hutt this morning brought them to a standstill.

Mt Hutt staff said in a social media post power at Blackford Rd dropped out at 11.16am.

The outage affected the motor running the mountain's main chairlift, the six-person Summit 6.

The posts said they were carrying out a "static line [evacuation]".

The quad and triple chairlifts remained running.

Stranded skiers and snowboarders were asked to reach behind the back of the seat and open the pod cap and read the instructions ahead of the evacuations.

At 12.30pm Electricity Ashburton had restored limited power, allowing Mt Hutt staff to complete unloading the Summit 6 chairlift.

Power would be lost again though, while Electricity Ashburton undertook tests to establish if power could be restored for the afternoon.

"We are really sorry about the disruption to your day," the post said.

MetService said Mt Hutt was in for a fine day with strong, gusty northwest winds, and a high of 2C.