ASPEN – Eighty skiers and snowboarders were evacuated Wednesday from a malfunctioning chairlift in Aspen.

The Aspen Times reported that it is the third consecutive ski season in which a mechanical issue has disabled a chairlift at an Aspen Skiing Co. ski area during the busy holiday period.

There were no injuries. Ski patrollers removed the passengers from the Tiehack Express four-passenger lift just after noon. The evacuations took about two hours with temperatures in the 20s, though it wasn’t snowing at the time.

Two-person teams of ski patrollers belayed passengers down from their perches.

One ski instructor reportedly skied underneath the stranded lift passengers and tried to throw them hand warmers.

Aspen Skiing Co. said in a statement that the lift experienced a faulty emergency circuit relay.

Colorado Springs mall sells at discount

COLORADO SPRINGS – A Colorado Springs shopping mall has been sold for $20 million, well below its previous selling price of $153.2 million.

The Gazette of Colorado Springs reported that documents recorded Wednesday in the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder’s Office, state a New York investment group this week purchased The Citadel mall. When The Citadel sold in 2007, the now-former owners paid nearly eight times that price.

Three limited liability companies formed by Namdar Realty Group, Mason Asset Management and CH Capital Group bought The Citadel from partnerships controlled by a Maryland-based lender. The lender took over the mall from financially troubled owners in Arkansas, who had bought it in 2007.

Mason President Elliot Nassim declined to say what plans they have for the newly acquired mall.

Winterphobic bunting spotted in Fort Collins

FORT COLLINS – Participants in the annual Christmas Bird Count in Fort Collins recorded a bird never spotted in winter before in Colorado.

The Coloradoan of Fort Collins reported the lazuli bunting was spotted by northern Colorado resident Rachel Hopper on Saturday.

The bright blue, orange and white-feathered bird was found at the Fort Collins botanical garden.

Bird watcher Dave Leatherman says it’s rare for a lazuli bunting to spend the winter up north. He says the birds are common in Colorado’s foothills in spring, summer and fall.

Leatherman says feeders stocked with seeds, shrubs with berries and open water will help keep the bird around.

Santa-costumed man stabs bus passenger

LAKEWOOD – Police in suburban Denver are looking for a man dressed in a Santa suit who stabbed another passenger on a bus.

Lakewood police spokesman Steve Davis says the man dressed as Santa got into a fight with a 31-year-old man and stabbed him before getting off the bus around 1 a.m. Thursday. The victim suffered some severe wounds but is expected to recover.

Davis says there is a good chance the suspect Santa was traveling home from some kind of holiday event and someone may know he was taking the bus on Sheridan Boulevard.

The suspect appeared to be a man in his 30s and had some dark hair visible under his white Santa wig.

Police don’t know yet whether the two men know each other.

Associated Press