Josh Brown’s eyes welled up as he recalled desperately clinging on to his friend who dangled 10 metres above the ground at an Uxbridge ski resort — and the shock when he slipped from his grasp.

“It was the longest five minutes of my life,” said Josh, 13, sitting outside his friend Kyle Armstrong’s room at Sick Kids hospital on Sunday, where the boy is being treated for seven fractured vertebrae, two broken ribs, and a punctured lung.

Kyle plunged onto the snowy hill of Lakeridge Ski Resort around 6:15 p.m. Friday, after slipping under a safety bar of an ascending ski lift. The two Whitby boys insist that Josh’s ski pole was the cause.

“I guess my pole got in the way when he sat down and so it acted as a ramp and brought him down,” he said.

Passengers from a chairlift behind the teens noticed Kyle hanging and shouted for the ski lift to stop. Josh said he held on to his friend for five minutes before the chair jolted to a stop and he lost his grip.

While some are hailing Josh as a “young hero,” others are raising questions about why two adults riding in the same chair didn’t offer help.

“I’m talking to them saying, ‘Please help me,’ and they’re just like, ‘You gotta pull yourself up, bud,’ ” said Josh.

Witnesses told staff at the ski resort that the two men were seen skiing away after the fall.

An internal investigation is underway at the resort and the Technical Standards & Safety Authority, a body that regulates mechanical ski lifts, among other things, is expected to arrive sometime this week.

“It’s very sickening is what it is when you have the other boy in the chair asking for help and them not helping,” said Lakeridge director of operations John Tustian. “It makes the incident in my opinion just that much worse. It’s just terrible.”

Since the two men were bundled up in snow gear, Tustian said it is unlikely that they will be able to track them down.

“I would love to find those people and find their story, but unfortunately, if they didn’t want to help then they certainly won’t want to answer any questions.”

The safety bar of the ski lift does not usually lock up and Tustian insists that the two men, who were sitting on the opposite side of the chair, could have safely helped Josh physically, or at the very least, called for help.

On Sunday afternoon, Kyle’s parents expressed outrage over reports that the men sat idly by as their son fell.

“You sort of wonder why? There must have been an extenuating reason why they wouldn’t have helped. It’s hard to believe that they would be healthy human beings and not reach out,” said Kyle’s step-mother Ann.

For now, the family is focused on Kyle’s recovery, his father Shawn added.

Kyle, who is unable to move his upper torso, but is expected to make a full recovery, dizzyingly recalled the event.

“I remember falling. I remember the ambulance ride to the hospital. I just wanted to sit up because my spine and my back were killing me, but the nurse said I wasn’t allowed. I was in huge pain.”

Josh said his friend’s near-death experience hit close to home because his grandmother had died a week earlier.

“I would never let go. Life or death situation, friends and family come first.”

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Ski patrol members at the resort have hailed Josh as a hero. But Josh brushes off the praise, saying he wishes he could have held on longer and prevented his friend from falling.

However, his father Kent Brown insists otherwise.

“I think he did everything he could and showed some spirit to hang on to his buddy. I think he did what he had to do and if that’s being a hero then sure, my son was a hero.”