A Burton Mail photographer has told how he was forced to do an impromptu abseil after he became stranded in mid-air in a mountain cable car.

Picture editor Neil Barker (left), who is currently on holiday in America, was on his way down Loon Mountain in the state of New Hampshire when his cable car broke down, leaving him hanging in mid-air with 50 other tourists.

Neil, (35), and his fellow holidaymakers eventually had to abseil down from the mountain in a harness attached to the overhead cables.

He said: "I'd gone up to the top of Loon Mountain, which is a highly appropriate name.

"On the way down the cable car stopped.

"After we'd been hanging there for 20 minutes it became apparent there was only going to be one way down.

"People came up the mountain in Jeeps and shouted up that they were going to get us down.

"There was a rope on the outside of the cable car and we had to lower it down, then haul it up again with a harness attached and abseil down the cable.

"I wasn't scared — it was fun. My first reaction when I got down was 'can I do it again?'"

And after taking photographs of other travellers being rescued, Neil proved that a newspaper man is never off duty by driving 20 miles to the nearest town and handing his pictures to the local paper, Concord News.

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