My Thoughts on What Happened at Anakeesta

If you haven’t heard, on Thursday a woman jumped from the chairlift on the way up to the beautiful and popular tourist attraction, Anakeesta in Gatlinburg. In true human form, people rushed to social media to offer their thoughts before hearing any facts whatsoever of the incident. I don’t want to prolong this unfortunate occurrence much longer, so I’ll offer up my brief commentary and let it go…forever.

First, I want to address the safety issue. I had reservations about this at first. But then again, I’m not a fan of open air heights with feet dangling a few hundred feet in the air. That’s a me thing. People saying the ride is not safe is simply not true. It is constantly under close inspection and follows all safety rules when it comes to chairlifts. Full stop. While it still makes me a little uneasy, I’m proud to have conquered this fear, riding it about a half-dozen times now.

Second, the response was criticized widely by keyboard warriors, and I find that to be an unjustified overreaction. You can’t just stop a ride with dozens upon dozens on it in the immediate aftermath of this terribly horrifying scene. You try to communciate to the workers at the top and bottom as quickly as you can, ensuring no one gets on and letting riders get off before halting operations. In this case, it took 5-10 minutes, which could be considered a little slow, but you can’t strand people halfway up then rescue them. Makes no sense.

In conclusion, there was nothing determined to be malfunctioning operationally, but inspectors will still do the necessary work to ensure the utmost functionality of the lift. It is a deeply disturbing tragedy, and Anakeesta should not suffer negatively from the suicide of a 40-year-woman on this ride. Our thoughts are with her family during this difficult time. It is a beautiful attraction that we love very much. It will not affect our future visits, and it shouldn’t have an impact on yours either.