If you are actually concerned about this, you need to learn how to rappel. There is not that much difference between an "emergency rappel" and a relatively normal rappel. While I seriously doubt you will ever need this technique to escape from a ski lift, it is a broadly useful technique for dealing with steep terrain and it could well come in handy in other situations.

In order to rappel with any reasonable margin of safety, you will need to carry some minimum gear and you should learn several techniques so that you can employ whatever gear might be at hand. Also, learn some of the fundamentals of rock climbing and proper rope usage - sometimes you have to go up as well as down. Somewhere, sometime, some one should develop a course in "survival rock climbing and rope use."

It is interesting that skiers and snowboarders spend inadvertent overnights fairly often, typically as a result of skiing out of bounds. As far as I know, the cited instance of someone overnighting in a gondola is unique. Why not concern yourself with a situation that is statistically far more common?

Add a Heat Sheet and a couple of Esbit tabs to the gear have and you will be far better prepared to deal with what is more likely to happen.