It's a cold, cold world out there ... and it got even chillier for a handful of skiers in North Carolina, who got hosed down with freezing water while already in below-freezing temps.
Check out this insane video that was captured Friday on the Beech Mountain Resort, where officials say someone slammed into a water/air hydrant while coming down the slopes during snowmaking operations ... and apparently knocked the whole thing off.
As a result ... an enormous amount of H2O was shot straight up into the air for a good long while through the waterline down below, creating a geyser effect on the ski lift passenger directly above.
Yes, a fair amount of them got drenched passing through ... but, for some reason, it looks like these poor guests got stuck right in the middle of the water -- getting absolutely drenched. Unclear how long they stayed in this position, but it was at least 30 seconds or so based on the video above, which was shot by a bystander.
Considering the harsh conditions, you can imagine these people were worse for wear afterward. Two guests were reportedly taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries ... and some people are reported to have been blown off the chair lift altogether.
The resort says, "Our operations and safety team worked diligently to unload the lift and drain the system safely," while adding ... "We believe everyone is okay outside of the unfortunate situation, and operations are on a regular schedule."