Attn: Yard Sale!

[andyaxa]

Where: Top of the Ski Lift
For Sale: Skis (6) Poles (4) Goggles (1) Mittens (1) Pride (Sorry....sold out)

So, my wife and I are flanking two of our girls, and as far as we can piece things together, the sale went as such...

1. Daughter A on the right somehow gets ski caught under wife's ski (sitting far right)
2. Daughter A's tip catches and she starts heading under the chair.
3. In a desperate attempt to save herself or at least bring someone to the sale with her, she grabs Daughter B to her left and takes her under the chair with her.
4. Dad, sitting on the far left, watches in horror as daughters A and B disappear under the chair in a mushroom cloud of skis, poles and goggles.
5. Dad realizes he forgot to get off the damn chair and is now about six feet from the surface (one of those steep off-loads)
6. Fearless park-rat Dad (NOT) dismounts and feels he really sticks the landing, except for the double ejection part.
7.Sale Begins

Any other mid-winter sales going out there in the AZ???

 

[TheBEast]

Sorry dude, that tops it! Hope everyone escaped unharmed (besides the bruised ego!).

 

[hammer]

My family and I have had some good ones but that one tops any of mine...hope everyone was physically OK.

How well did the lift operators handle the carnage?

 

[gmcunni]

hope everyone was ok.. sounds like a fiasco Warren Miller would have put in one of his movies.

 

[SIKSKIER]

Funny.Nice to see somebody laugh at themselves.

 

[jrmagic]

This is why there should be web cams at the bottom and top of the lifts lol. Hope everyone was ok. We've had a coupel of intersting ones over the years but nothing like that. The most meorable for me was letting my 2 sons get on the chair alone. My younger one was 7. As they are loading the younger one did not make it up on to the chair so I am watching in horrar as he is heading up and away hanging off the bottom of the chair:-o Both the liftie and I are screaming at him to let go which he finally does with his skis about 10 feet off the ground. Gear goes flying on impact and then some tears of terror from him and joy from me. He wouldnt get on the lift alone with his big brother until this season.

 

[andyaxa]

Everyone was fine, thanks! We were all laughing about it later. My wife, who has been skiing for years, was the most embarrassed and incidentally the only one not to participate in the sale. Coming at this sport very late in life has been a blessing...I really don't care what people think. I did find myself saying. "Man, I wish we had a video of that."

The liftie was great and we were actually pretty quick gathering ourselves after the incident. The kids are normally great, 7 yr old loads and unloads by herself, just goes to show you what can happen on a full chair and you're not paying attention. I always said I really wanted to get into skiing to spend time with the kids on the slopes...just didn't mean in literally.

 

[BenedictGomez]

3. In a desperate attempt to save herself or at least bring someone to the sale with her, she grabs Daughter B to her left and takes her under the chair with her.

This is bar none, my favorite newbie lift behaviour.

The frantic "take them down with you" maneuver.

 

[dmc]

It's so nice to hear a story like this that doesn't end in some kind of promise or revenge against someone..

well done!!! Falling is fun!

 

[WJenness]

haha, amazing... glad everyone's OK...

I'm sure you guys gave the liftie a great prelude to what he'll be seeing from the once / twice a year crowd during the upcoming holiday periods...

-w

 

[billski]

Ouch Andy! Brings back the memory when my youngest fell when getting on the chair. All I could say to her was "duck!" which she did and the chair cruised over her without incident. Fortunate for her she was small one and did exactly what was said without argument!

 

[ceo]

First time I rode a quad, it was with my parents and one of my siblings, and one of us stepped on another's ski on the dismount and we all ended up in a tangled pile on the unloading ramp.

What lift was this? On almost every quad I've ridden (or pretty much any chairlift built after about 1975), neglecting to unload sends you around the bullwheel.

 

[campgottagopee]

Where: Top of the Ski Lift
For Sale: Skis (6) Poles (4) Goggles (1) Mittens (1) Pride (Sorry....sold out)

So, my wife and I are flanking two of our girls, and as far as we can piece things together, the sale went as such...

1. Daughter A on the right somehow gets ski caught under wife's ski (sitting far right)
2. Daughter A's tip catches and she starts heading under the chair.
3. In a desperate attempt to save herself or at least bring someone to the sale with her, she grabs Daughter B to her left and takes her under the chair with her.
4. Dad, sitting on the far left, watches in horror as daughters A and B disappear under the chair in a mushroom cloud of skis, poles and goggles.
5. Dad realizes he forgot to get off the damn chair and is now about six feet from the surface (one of those steep off-loads)
6. Fearless park-rat Dad (NOT) dismounts and feels he really sticks the landing, except for the double ejection part.
7.Sale Begins

Any other mid-winter sales going out there in the AZ???

Good stuff right there...thanks for sharing.

 

[andyaxa]

What lift was this? On almost every quad I've ridden (or pretty much any chairlift built after about 1975), neglecting to unload sends you around the bullwheel.

It was on the East Quad at Crotched. I was the only one who really neglected to "unload". In hind site I should have just stayed put, but I tried to huck it. The unloading hill must be about about a 10-12' vertical drop and I really thought it would be fine since it was only about 5'-6' at the point I launched, and it was onto a downward slope. It actually felt fine when I hit...I just automatically ejected, probably because I have my bindings set pretty light for fear of the old ACL-recon in the left knee.

 

[bvibert]

Reminds me of one of my favorite incidents that I witnessed as a lifty. I was at the top of our beginner triple when a chair came up with 2 kids on it, their mother may have been on the chair too, or was one ahead. One of the boys neglected to keep his tips up and one ski dug into the slope leading up to the unloading ramp. This caused the chair to start to swing backwards, since the lift doesn't stop instantly once the stop button is pressed. As it swung backward and the seat got closer to being vertical than horizontal the other boy slid right off and into the basket there to catch people who try to get off too early. The best part was the boy who caused the problem somehow managed to get his ski unstuck and unloaded normally.

The mother, who had also managed to unload okay, or had been on the prior chair, was screaming hysterically from the bottom of the unload ramp as I climbed down to get the kid out of the basket. She was quite happy when I came back up with her perfectly healthy son. I don't think she realized there was a basket down there for just such an occasion...

I've had to pull a few kids out of the baskets, but this one took the cake since the kid who screwed up managed to take out his brother, but not himself.

 

[mlkrgr]

Reminds me of one of my favorite incidents that I witnessed as a lifty. I was at the top of our beginner triple when a chair came up with 2 kids on it, their mother may have been on the chair too, or was one ahead. One of the boys neglected to keep his tips up and one ski dug into the slope leading up to the unloading ramp. This caused the chair to start to swing backwards, since the lift doesn't stop instantly once the stop button is pressed. As it swung backward and the seat got closer to being vertical than horizontal the other boy slid right off and into the basket there to catch people who try to get off too early. The best part was the boy who caused the problem somehow managed to get his ski unstuck and unloaded normally.

The mother, who had also managed to unload okay, or had been on the prior chair, was screaming hysterically from the bottom of the unload ramp as I climbed down to get the kid out of the basket. She was quite happy when I came back up with her perfectly healthy son. I don't think she realized there was a basket down there for just such an occasion...

I've had to pull a few kids out of the baskets, but this one took the cake since the kid who screwed up managed to take out his brother, but not himself.

Reminds me that when I was like 12 years old and was at Bradford, I went up for one last run. I actually snoozed on the chair since I was riding it alone. I forgot to get off and hit the stop bar as you go around the bull wheel so the lift ended up stopping. The liftie was mad that I didn't get off and he had to pull me off the chair.

 

[snowmonster]

I hope that everyone is alright!

Early this season, I was getting on the Aurora Chair at Sunday River. The combination of me slouching and frozen water on the backseat made me slip off the chair entirely. Good thing that we were still on the flat section and all I fell on soft snow. It was embarassing to be "that guy."

 

[ERJ-145CA]

Pix or it didn't happen!

 

[Scruffy]

Reminds me of an incident I witnessed in front of me at Haystack many years ago. We had some noobs with us so we were on the green slope. It was frustrating and painful being on that chair as it was stopping right and left, but it all came into prespective when the chair in front of ours, loaded with obviously a family ( well Mother and 2 kids ) of never evers on rental gear approched the top of the lift. No one opened the safety bar as they approched the unloading zone. They went around and hit the stop switch. Picture this: mother looks totally bewildered with arms and hands out in the WTF position saying to the lift op, " the bar didn't open". She expected the bar to automatically open as the lift approched the unloading zone.

 

[darent]

great story, I witnessed a chair unloading at SR barker lift, a middle aged couple, man and wife were loading and the wife some how got sideways and pulled under the chair, the husband reached down and tried to save her and was pulled off the chair, slid down the embankment,caught the side of the catch netting and flipped into the pond. he was a excellent skier, just a bad moment. soaking wet he climbed up with help from the lifties. he was so embarrassed he never wore his favorite ski jacket the rest of the week. had to buy a new one.