Offered free limo ride, stranded Slotzilla rider says he’d rather walk

By John Katsilometes

Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015 | 5 p.m.

It was a Las Vegas hangover of a different order, as the tourist who hung high over Fremont Street while stuck on the Slotzilla zip line ride on New Year’s Day was returned to Earth unscathed.

The visitor from Calgary, Alberta, is now part of the city’s New Year’s lore, in part for what he turned down after the episode that played out near the city’s famous light canopy. The rider and his wife were offered a limo ride back to their Strip hotel (the Mirage) and dinner at a downtown Las Vegas hotel restaurant. They declined both.

“They said there were fine and wanted to walk around downtown some more,” Fremont Street Experience Director of Marketing Thomas Bruny said today via text. Bruny said the couple took an RTC bus to Fremont Street. Their identities are being protected for “privacy” purposes, Bruny said.

As reported, the man was a “flier” on the Slotzilla attraction, which runs about the length of Fremont Street Experience. He stalled at a height of 114 feet above the pavement, near the beginning of his ride on the Slotzilla Zoomline. That’s the upper of the two sets of lines carrying riders above the crowds on Fremont Street. Fliers are required to face down after being harnessed into Zoomline, usually spreading their arms out as if mimicking Superman. Or, if you will, Captain Marvel.

Bruny said the wheels on the man’s harness became stuck near the beginning of the ride. The man's wife had finished her ride on Zoomline and looked on for about an hour, starting around 2:30 p.m., as Las Vegas Fire & Rescue personnel and equipment arrived to pull him from the ride and into an awaiting bucket.

Bruny said the upper line was restored to full service just after 5 p.m. Friday. The lower Zipline was closed only while the man was being rescued.

The flier was never in danger and was not injured. As Bruny said, he was “just cold.”

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