Seth Beckton’s trip up the Loge Peak chairlift this week has now gone viral. News outlets nationwide are reporting on the incident, in which the stranger next to him threw him to the ground below.
Beckton is okay. In fact, after getting over the initial shock of the incident, he continued to ride Aspen Highlands, as he does almost every day.
On Tuesday he was back at work, photographing an event at the Red Brick Center for the Arts. “I had no idea what happened really," he recounted, "until I realized I was on the ground, the chair was above me, and I was like, I just got thrown out of the chair. Did that really just happen?”
Because the strangers spoke very little on the way up, Beckton assumes a comment about skiing in powder angered the man. In the moments during the fall, Beckton thought his life was over, but he can joke about it now. “If there was any sort of warning, I would have gotten a grab in or something," he laughs. "But it was instant. Snap of the fingers and I was over the chair!”
Pitkin County Deputy Jesse Steindler says a suspect has been identified.
