Sun Valley ski guide Kent Kreitler and other witnesses credited fast thinking by the mountain’s rescue team for saving the boy from injury.

As the boy dangled precariously from the lift, ski patrollers had time to unhook a 5-foot by 5-foot safety pad from a nearby lift tower, Kreitler said. They held it beneath him on a flat, hard-packed trail meant for skiers and grooming equipment to travel about the mountain, blunting the force of impact.

“We were able to use some large pads in sort of a fireman’s catch style,” patrol supervisor Bryant Dunn said.

excerpt from AP Press Release December 30,2013