Thought this made interesting reading from the 'Times' (UK).
'Austria, one of the world's top destinations for mountain sports, has more than 3,100 ski lifts which carry up to 550 million passengers a year.
The lifts can also be used in summer for hikers seeking to get in to the mountains, earn more than £540 million a year, and employ 12,000 people.'
Lot of people, lot of money and year round so not so easy to just stop operating the lifts I would guess.
A risk assesment must have been done before the job started so after a site down stairs was established, a route must have been thought about and maybe the only way to get the job done was over the lift.
Pilots must have had a heads together, checked the hook a few times and said "watch where you put those fingers, hey whats the odds, we are legal right"?
Of course I'm in to guess work here but then again so is every one else untill the report comes out, not sure I agree about the airmanship side.
In aviation we try and limit the risk but you cannot limit every factor, that goes for life as well.