Snowboarder thrown from chairlift, continues snowboarding

ASPEN, Colo., Jan. 20 (UPI) -- A snowboarder in Colorado was thrown from a chairlift after a skier riding on the lift was offended by a comment he made.

Seth Beckton, 28, took to Facebook to tell the story of the encounter that took place while preparing to snowboard at Aspen Highlands.

Beckton said the two began to chat about the differences between snowboarding and skiing when a comment Beckton made apparently enraged the unidentified skiier.

"I made this comment 'To get tits deep pow shots you just need to be on your edges,'" Beckton wrote as he retold the event.

He then said the skier was "taken aback" and asked if Beckton was making fun of him to which he jokingly replied, "Kind of...yes?" At which point the skier pulled Beckton from the lift and proceeded to throw him from the lift asking, "Well is this funny?"

"I honestly thought I was dead," Beckton told The Aspen Times. "Because I didn't know where we were. It's not cool to think anyone would do that."

Despite the initial shock, Beckton was not injured in the fall and decided to continue his day of snowboarding rather than officially reporting the incident.

"Because I wasn't hurt, I wasn't super-outraged," he said. "I didn't want to let it ruin my day. I decided to continue on my way."

Beckton has not officially filed any charges against the skier, described as a 20 to 30-year-old white male with facial hair, but the lift owners and local police are investigating the situation.

"I'm not sure 'egregious' is the word,"Pitkin County Sheriff's Office Dept. Alex Burchetta said of the incident. "I've been skiing since I was two, and I've never heard anyone being thrown off a ski lift."

Aspen Skiing Co. spokesperson Jeff Hanle condemned the skiers actions and said he wished the incident had been reported sooner.

"This is not the kind of behavior we want on our mountain," Hanle said. "We will do our best to find the person."