Wyler Tramway shuts down; students walk down mountain

Some terrifying moments for some 40 people – mostly teenagers Friday afternoon.

The Socorro Middle School students were on a field trip to the Wyler Aerial tramway when it stopped working and they found themselves stuck on the mountain.

“When we got to the top there was one abrupt stop, almost like we were stopped but the cable car kept swinging,” said tramway visitor Graham Nelson.

In town from Minnesota, Nelson tells ABC-7 after that stop park officials shut the Wyler Aerial Tramway down.

Several of the visitors came down a mile long trail that dropped 900 feet and is considered strenuous by park officials.

For healthy adults: “It wasn’t so bad,” Nelson said.

For others like Amber Mackuyay caring a small child down wasn’t an easy task.

“I’m going to be sore tomorrow,” Mackuyay said.

Mackuyay said she had to take several breaks during the 3 hour hike down the mountain.

“Ahhh! More than I can count probably twenty or more (breaks)” Mackuyay said.

Another pressing issue for fire and park officials was getting the thirty Socorro Middle school students on a field trip, safely down the trail.

“I rushed over here from William Beaumont,” said Joel Figeroa

Figeroa got word his son was stranded atop the mountain and he quickly grew concerned.

“That mountain is really steep even for myself and I’m prior military,” Figeroa said.

Officials decided it was safer to bring students down from west side of the mountain near Scenic Drive.
From the ABC-7 tower cam you can see the El Paso fire departments COMSAR team guiding the students down a trail where they were picked up by all terrain vehicles.

From the ground, parents anxiously waited for their children.

“I couldn’t imagine how they were going to get them down,” said parent Karla Telamantes.

And when students found out they were going to have to hike down:

“How? And who is going to bring us down,” said student Stephanie Telamantes.

“I was scared because I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Said Karla Telamantes.

Officials say everyone made it down safely.

The last group of kids were escorted off the mountain around 7 p.m. before sunset.

The last time the Wyler Aerial Tramway was shut down and visitors had to hike down was in the summer of 2014.