Bad Moves on the Lift

[bvibert]

i've been tagged on the head a few times with the safety bar.


2 of them by our own esteemed moderator Bvibert.

No way, really?

I vaguely remember maybe once, but twice??

Sorry dude.

 

[catskills]

The person next to you likes to depart the lift with a real wide V snowplow. In doing so he/she slipped the tails of their ski on top of your ski tail. When you depart like a bullet you take the tail of their ski with you and they go down like a ton of bricks right on their tail bone. I saw one person break their pelvis that way just getting off the lift.

 

[cbcbd]

Lol, lots of angry folk here that need to get to the lift right away and without any hitches...

Yeah, same peeves here but doesn't matter much to me anymore since with the helmet I'm almost always hitting my head on the bar... sometimes due to my own doing.

Snowboarders that need to sit on the far left or far right of the chair,,,if they are going to drag their knuckles,...they should learn to sit in all the seats...a big pet peeve of mine...I'm sick of playing musical chairs with snowboarders..I like sitting on the end too but it doesn't always work out that way...either ride double chairs exclusively or deal..

If I see a lone boarder loading next to me I usually offer them the outside seat. Some take it and some don't seem to mind taking the inside. Doesn't really matter to me most of the time where I sit on the chair so...

 

[Moe Ghoul]

I've been known to throw the accidental elbow to avoid that. They're gonna fall anyway, no need to get dragged down with them.

 

[Warp Daddy]

Me too getting tagged on teh helmet with the safety bar ,

Worse yet a really " fast" older double chair that has a VERY short bull wheel turn span and whacks you in the back bcuz the lazy assed sumbitch lifty fails to attend the chair favoring sitting in his warming hut toking or sippin -- AH 's

 

[billski]

It's always entertaining to see five people try to get seated on the quad.
Single!

 

[bvibert]

It's always entertaining to see five people try to get seated on the quad.
Single!

I've had three people try to load the double I was working and then argue with me when I stopped the lift and told them they couldn't do that. :roll:

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Smoking cigs on the lift...I tolerate it..but I think people should ask permission if they are riding with random people..

Usually if somebody asks me if they mind if they smoke...I joke,"Only if it's weed"...lol

 

[severine]

This leads to another problem of people getting high on a chair with an audience. There is lot's of kids on the mountain, along with other people that may not want to smell it. There is almost always a good spot in the woods out of the way, I think most would prefer their privacy.

I HATE that. Yuck.

 

[BushMogulMaster]

Me too getting tagged on teh helmet with the safety bar ,

Worse yet a really " fast" older double chair that has a VERY short bull wheel turn span and whacks you in the back bcuz the lazy assed sumbitch lifty fails to attend the chair favoring sitting in his warming hut toking or sippin -- AH 's

You never mastered the art of self-loading??? That's an important one. :wink:

Which has me thinking (I know, that's a scary thing). The only reason lifties perform like crap is because they are treated like crap. They are perceived as the least important workers at the resort, the scum, the lowest of the low. They are, in fact, some of the most important people on payroll. Who has more one-on-one face-to-face contact with the guest than the lift attendants/operators? Who has more direct, constant responsibility for the guests' safety? No one. Yet they are the lowest paid, most poorly treated members of the team. Seems to be a bit of a disconnect. And people wonder why they aren't attentive or aren't enthusiastic??? That's not an excuse for lousy performance IMO, but I think it does explain the general attitude.

Back on topic:

You know what annoys the heck out of me... the armchair resort operators who ride up the lift with you and whine about how the mountain is "Just trying to save money by [insert random observation here, e.g. not making snow on that trail, not running that lift, not grooming that trail, etc.]."


I'm rather annoyed at the folks who can't read the signs, or can't understand "Wait Here" and "Load Here." Pretty simple instructions, really.

How about when you're loading a quad (esp. fixed grip) and one or two of the four people loading decide to stand way behind the load board.......

 

[bvibert]

You never mastered the art of self-loading??? That's an important one.

You know, the only reason lifties perform like crap is because they are treated like crap. They are perceived as the least important workers at the resort. They are, in fact, some of the most important people on payroll. Who has more one-on-one face-to-face contact with the guest than the lifties? Who has more direct, constant responsibility for the guests' safety? No one. Yet they are the lowest paid, most poorly treated members of the team. Seems to be a bit of a disconnect. And people wonder why they don't do a good job....................................... anyway, enough on that one for today.

I agree, thank you!

How about when you're loading a quad (esp. fixed grip) and one or two of the four people loading decide to stand way behind the load board.......

When I'm bumping (FG Triple) and someone does that I try to get them to move forward to the line, but usually their legs end up bumping the chair for the other guests who made it to the correct spot. Unfortunately if that person is on the bigger side and are on either end it can cause the chair to swing to the side screwing up the load (or hitting me :angry, so it's preferable if people just pay attention and move to the correct spot... :roll:

 

[riverc0il]

They probably wanted to get stoned.

I find this happens more with lower intermediates and upper level beginners riding chairs over their heads that are turning at higher than used to speed and they are not confident boarding the lift with a full chair. This also happens with love birds. Stoners usually light it up without care from what I have seen.

 

[ski_resort_observer]

Lift attendant scanning tickets and passes........ and the scanner isn't working correctly! Chair upon chair is going up the mountain you're 20th in line, and he/she will keep on trying to scan while blood pressure reaches critical mass!

Drink a few beers maybe your blood pressure will stay happier.

I wish some of you could spend just one day working as a liftie scanning passes/tiks. It's just as frustrating to the liftie when the scanners don't work. It may shock you but they want to keep every chair full on busy days as much as you do. On some days problems with the scanners happen too often, especially in cold weather. Some scanners don't scan thru the plastic see-thru pocket you might have your pass/tik in. Most lifties if it won't scan after 2/3 times will let you pass.

All the scanners should work most of the time but sometimes they don't. Please don't take it out on the liftie/scanner as it usually not their fault. Alot of the problems have to due with the battery. Resorts should have charged batteries ready to go in the bottom lift station of every lift and should change them before they go dead or a low enough charge they won't scan. It would be great if every resort had have the latest most powerful scanners, enough extra batteries and the time to check the battery level often when it's busy but the reality is they all don't.

Other things that slow down the line, people who put their pass/tik in a place the liftie can't readily see. Perhaps some people do it on purpose. :wink: Have your tik/pass out and ready to be scanned.

We all want to get going up the mountain, the lifties want the same thing. If the scanner isn't working I don't think it would delay things for more than 10 sec. I hear alot of disrespectful comments. No need for it.
The liftie is probably already having a bad day and probably trying to make the best of it. Put yourself in their place, keep your cool.

 

[billski]

It's just as frustrating to the liftie when the scanners don't work.

So how about a low-tech solution like reading the ticket date stamp?
1. Scan once
2. If scan fails, look at the ticket you're holding for the proper date and empower the liftie to just let them go.

Why debug technology on the slope? If it's an immature technology, don't make your paying clients pay for your deficiencies? All you're losing is marketing data We need to be thinking about customers here.
I can understand why people get cranky about this issue, and it's not just this list. When you're paying $80 for a ticket, and the winter days are short, the last thing you need is to be hassled. The not so veiled accusation is that of ticket theft, as opposed to just collecting silly old market data.
So let's not take it out on the liftie, let's take it out on his/her boss for not giving the liftie the leeway they need.

OK now you got me going. Why don't we run this like an amusement park? go through the admission gate, fence off the front of the park, and once you're in, no more scanning. You want my market data, movement behaviour? Put a chip in my ticket and sensors wherever you want - lift lines, cafeteria line, bathroom.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

At Blue mountain..they scan outside of both lodges so I can put my pass in my pocket while skiing if I want so it's not flapping in the breeze..and it works out well because there is no need for anybody to check passes at the lifts...it's also good for people who buy a morning pass because they can ski longer as long as they don't go into the lodge..

 

[Johnskiismore]

We all want to get going up the mountain, the lifties want the same thing. If the scanner isn't working I don't think it would delay things for more than 10 sec. I hear alot of disrespectful comments. No need for it.
The liftie is probably already having a bad day and probably trying to make the best of it. Put yourself in their place, keep your cool.

No disrespect intended here, but, I have been in a situation more than once where the line didn't move for a couple of minutes due a scanner issue. To boot it was a weekday! A good friend of mine is a tech at a ski area, and he is constantly complaining about the scanner. A lot of them are not well built, and he's the one fixing them.

So that is where my aggrevation comes from, knowing that the devices pretty much blow, and it's now wasting everyone's time.

 

[riverc0il]

I wish some of you could spend just one day working as a liftie scanning passes/tiks. It's just as frustrating to the liftie when the scanners don't work.

I have a great deal of respect for lifties. But if I mountain decides to use scanners, they better be working and the line better be organized cause nothing is worse than seeing empty or not full chairs going up because lifties are busy scanning tickets. I never take it out on the liftie. I just don't ski at mountains that piss me off because of this type of crap (Bush has not pissed me off with this type of crap, yet, just for the record ).

 

[mondeo]

Mostly repeats:
Spread eagled skis/sideways boards
Smoking, either type (especially in a gondola)
Anything that causes lower than capacity chair loads, be it waiting, or just plain disorganization
Lifties that feel the need to increase the speed of the chair into the back of my knees (much respect to the lifties that make it a smooth load, though.)
People that don't wait at the 'load here' line (is it really that hard?)
Waiting for people in the lift line
Obstructing the lift line entrance while waiting for others
Stepping into skis in the lift line

One of my biggest problems with Killington is how disorganized the lift lines are; I think part of the reason that people are inconsiderate in their lift line ettiquite is that they don't realize they're being inconsiderate, because there's no real behavior that is demonstrated as being expected. At my old home mountain (ok, hill,) Holiday Valley, the lift lines were always very well attended, and therefore people either knew the drill or got on board very quickly. The only lift that comes close to that level of organization at Kmart is the Gondola. Get more lift attendants and optimize the lifts you have before you start worrying about uphill capacity.

 

[riverc0il]

Oh boy, I am just getting warmed up. While waiting in the singles line at Jay when it stretches out beyond the ropes, nothing pisses me off more than skiers and riders cutting through the singles line to get into the regular doubles/triples lines. Is it that damn hard to cut across. "oops, sorry dude...." Yea, thanks for running right over my skis because you were too lazy to go around like everyone else.

 

[ski_resort_observer]

All I'm saying is that scanners at the base lifts are now part of the process at many of the large resorts. They are not going away.

We don't have toll booths in Vermont but when I travel to Mass, NH or Jersey I have to deal with them just like everyone else. Sometimes it's a pain with gridlock and can take time to get thru. It's not the toll booth operators fault yet they get verbal abuse all the time.

Neither the lifties or the toll booth folks can change things, keep that in mind, no reason to get upset at them. That's all.