12-year-old snowboarder hangs on for dear life at Table Mountain

Kaelah Gratton has a slightly different view of a Facebook video that’s making the rounds.

The video posted Saturday shows a young snowboarder dangling for almost two minutes from the chairlift at Table Mountain, with others on the chairlift encouraging the boy to hang on until he gets to the top.

Gratton’s take is a little different because the boy is her 12-year-old son, Liam.

“In the beginning, I was just watching it knowing that he got to the top, so I didn’t really worry about it,” Gratton said Monday when asked how she felt viewing the video. “But as I actually sat down and watched it myself, I was like, ‘Oh, hang on. Hang on just a little bit more. Please hang on …’

“Stress (and) anxiety pounce all over you. (You’re) sick to your stomach (and you’re feeling) butterflies. Knowing what could have happened was worse than just watching the video.”

(WARNING: Video contains graphic language)

Gratton said after Liam slipped out of the chair, he got its steel frame into the creases of his elbows, so he wasn’t hanging by his fingertips.

Liam didn’t seem to his mom to be any worse for wear Monday, although he did admit to some soreness in his chest, side and abdominal muscles.

“He’s 12 and he’s literally skin and bone and muscle,” Gratton said. “He’s very fit. I said, ‘Was that hard on your body? Were you tired at the end? Were your arms sore?’ At the time, he’s like, ‘No, I was fine. I just held on until my brother said that I could let go.’ ”

Liam, his 16-year-old brother and two friends were on the chairlift. Gratton said the boys lifted the safety bar too soon, apparently unaware they still had quite a distance to go before they reached the top.

When the bar went up, Liam started to get himself ready to get off the chairlift — and he slipped out of his perch.

“(The boys) know what they did was wrong and they’ve learned their lesson moving forward,” Gratton said. “Liam, for example, you can see he’s got both feet in his bindings. He knows now only one foot in the binding until you get off the chairlift.

“And that safety bar stays down until you’re literally just about there. They know now that those are very important requirements when they’re on that chairlift.”

Gratton has no doubt her sons will be going back to the hill, but she said they’ll be talking first with an experienced snowboarder so they know what to do in certain situations.

As Gratton put it: “There will be some education going on for future.”

She noted the family won’t be going through the what-ifs and pondering what could have happened to Liam if he hadn’t been able to maintain his grasp on the chairlift. But it already sounds like Liam has moved on.

“He’s the type of kid who doesn’t hang on to anything so it’s kind of like water off a duck’s back,” Gratton said. “It’s gone. It just was in and out. He made it to the top and he’s good now.

“It didn’t faze him. He wanted to go back up the mountain when he got down to the bottom.”

— With files from 650 CKOM’s Brent Bosker