Snowboarder Dangling on Chair

This was a first for me.  I was skiing the Mill Valley area at Stevens. I was approaching the Jupiter chair when I noticed the Southern Cross chair was stopped.  I noticed a few folks staring towards the chair and saw a snowboarder dangling from a chair.  There were 2 other boarders on the chair.  The chair was stopped between the Southern Cross loading ramp and the  Jupiter chair loading ramp.  The distance to the ground was about 20-30' onto a flat surface. The young man was just hanging off the side of the chair totally outstretched with his snowboard attached.  A ski patroller was running up the slope beneath the boarder and was unravelling his throw rope but seemed to have something missing. He ran towards the Jupiter chair for something.

The young man was calm and quiet.  I watched him take his unstrapped foot and eventually release the buckle that was holding one foot to his board.  Within a minute he unbuckled the retaining buckle and his snowboard dropped to the ground and slid about 30 yards to the flat area off the side of the lift loading ramp.  I'm not sure about a safety strap but the board dropped without dangling on a strap.
Then the young man started a small swinging action to try and get his feet to grab the back of the chair.  He made a few attempts but was unable to grab anything with his feet.  I'm starting to wonder how long can he hang there and still exert the energy to try and get back on the chair.  Then he calmly did a chinup motion to try to get his elbow around the side of the chair.  He was close but the boarder closest to him was unable to grab him.  Then the young returned to the outstretched position and I'm hoping he's not slipping.Then he did another chinup and got one elbow around the side of the chair and finally his other elbow and then he was able to climb back into the chair.  What a relief for everybody.  We all began cheering.

The young man never panicked and remained calm throughout. He's one strong young man and I'd loved to have him on the sharp end of my climbing rope.

Those darn snowboarders :