 Poster: A snowHead
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Today, Val d'Isere, the Solaise Express 4 man chair. Three entrances where they expect you to arrange yourselves in groups of 4. Only this time they would not let you advance until you had done that, then the 3 lines were let in in sequence. Result: all chairs full, total queueing time less than 2 minutes.
If only they could do this on other chairs. One of my main gripes is standing in long queues & seeing large chairs go up half empty, usually due to the selfishness of skiers who don't want to share chairs with strangers.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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They have started doing this type of thing in Baqueira/Beret where the main chairlifts and meeting places are. They seem to have extended the railings and gradually split them into four to try and keep it orgainsed and also have a singles queue, just in case it doesn't fully go to plan 
Kept everything down to a few minutes. Very good system, and always the chance the meet a few people on the way up.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Pete Horn wrote: |
| Today, Val d'Isere, the Solaise Express 4 man chair. Three entrances where they expect you to arrange yourselves in groups of 4. Only this time they would not let you advance until you had done that, then the 3 lines were let in in sequence. Result: all chairs full, total queueing time less than 2 minutes.. |
TEOTWAWKI 
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It's all thanks to Noah
who loaded his ark with minimum queuing
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Baqueira Beret have intrawest as "advisors" - when we were there there weren't enough people to form a queue (expect for the lfrst lift at the start of the day)
but nonethless, I'm glad to see it omcing into europe, it certainly didn't happen when we were in Val d'Isere early in ajnuary
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We had a liftie shouting at people to get into 4 x 4 for one of the chairlifts today - and to my amazement they were doing it! 
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nbt, We also found that if you managed to get the first few lifts up, the place was empty as the spanish hadn't even woken up! But by mid-day they were in full force. (It was new year though). I'm determined to go back 'out of holiday', when it must be great.
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Nick Zotov, Wait ET Wok?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Don;t you need a singles line though? Otherwise you're forcing people to spit groups, decide priority, protocol of who's my best best friend as opposed to new best friend, etc. With a singles line you just use them to fill empty spaces - giving the cunning an easy way to accelerate uplift he he he
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Thu 17-02-05 23:48; edited 1 time in total
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I have to say I'm not particularly bothered about sitting with the rest of my party on a lift, maybe I'm just odd.
If the numbers work right then I'd probably hang back a little (I'm usually the one pushing on in front) and go up together but if there's going to be one left over I'm quite happy to ride alone or fill up a chair to keep the queue flowing. We normally wait for every one at the top anyway so the sooner we all get up the better.
I do hate it though when you're 20 people back for a 4 person chair and the average load going up is only 2, I know it's only a couple of minutes lost but added up over a week thats a lot of wasted skiing/drinking time.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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As someone who has been Skiing (and thus queing) before snowboards gained in popularity. I can fairly say that snowboarders cause empty seats as they shuffle around trying to get through gates etc. to get on the chairlift and their extra width (and sometimes length) causes the queue to become longer and wider and so the result is slower loading and empty chairs. However, the experienced skier and queue expediter (or jumper?) uses the boarders lack of manoevrability to his advantage and therefore is first on the lift! and gains skiing/drinking time.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Or maybe it is because the skiers avoid getting on with boarders? I was guilty of this until I took up boarding myself and still find that given the choice a skier will avoid sitting next to me.. they have obviously observed what happens at the top of the lift - especially if it an old school chairlift that throws you offat the top and not one of the new detachable ones.
I seem to remember that the US and Canada have lift queues sorted? Anyway was on the above mentioned lift in Espace Killy last week and the "in fours please" certainly worked!
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Mouth, A chum and I (skiers) were on a quad earlier in the week with two very attractive French girls on snowboards. (No chore there then) but as we got to the top said chum did suggest we vacate quickly as the girls clearly hadn't boarded for long.
Sure enough, had we been slow off the mark we would both have been well and truly taken out. Probably would have been a delightful experience (for me anyway), but in most cases that might be why skiers hesitate from sharing chairs with dark siders.
I have a definite impression that inexperienced boarders are a little more likely that inexperienced skiers to tip over getting off chairs.
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You know it makes sense.
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| Quote: |
Don;t you need a singles line though?
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Noah looked at this but found there was no demand
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Quote: |
I have a definite impression that inexperienced boarders are a little more likely that inexperienced skiers to tip over getting off chairs.
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David - I agree with you here. Certainly from experience.
However on the subject of lift queues what really annoys me is not empty seats but people standing on your skis and boards in the queue.
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Poster: A snowHead
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it's almost as bad bening on the chair behind inexperienced boarders - happened to us coming up the fontaine froide where the two beginner boarders on the chair in front fell and sprawled across the exit, the lifties didn;t bother to slow the lift down ( it isn't the fastest lift in the world anyway ), and in tryng to avoid the boarders Mrs NBT unfortunately hooked the back of my skis and sent me sprawling too  ...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Nick Zotov, The End Of The Waiting As We Know It? 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Nick Zotov, WET WAIT OK?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Mouth, a friend of mine had the a message engraved in large capitals on the backs of his (new and cherished) skis - one ski in French, one ski in English,
"Warning! If you stand on my skis I will smack your face".
He was an Aussie so we'll excuse his rudeness but it was VERY effective. Whenever some miscreant dared to stand on them, he'd turn round, point at the message in appropiate language and then stare menacingly at the culprit. Great to watch.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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David Murdoch, can your Aussie mate do me up a ski jacket with the same wording? Much appreciated.
I spent last week in Megeve defending my and my friend's place in queues from maruding French parents and kids. Wasn't this bad in 3V, Espace Killy, or Paradiski - perhaps the higher French quota accounts for it. A reasonable standard of (for want of a better description) english-style queueing culture persists across most of the rest of Europe. What went wrong in France when the queueing culture got handed out? And now that I think about it, can I have that ski jacket made up in Italian too??
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Bernard Condon, That's the one. Goat impressed.
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Manda, Revenge for Waterloo
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Bernard Condon,
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Revenge for Waterloo
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je ne comprends pas, the French were defeated at Waterloo ... 
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Ray Zorro, Soulevez l'abri de votre cerveau!!! I'm not British either but think about it - French people assaulting orderly British queues?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I see a fatal flaw in your argument - it doesn't explain the Italian approach to queues ...
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Manda, Bodicea?
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Crickey. An even longer memory for revenge! Will certainly be keeping my elbows to myself when I finally hit Italian slopes!
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You know it makes sense.
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I find the Russians to be the worst in queues.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Kramer, Ray Zorro, Aarggh .. How I miss the UK , the only country in the World where the national pastime is to join queues because there must be something interesting at the end...
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Poster: A snowHead
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Newbie50, I think you'll find that's dead if you look at the events at that Ikea the other night  Not inconsistent by what I see on the slopes, that by and large the Brits are the worst offenders in queues and leaving lifts half empty.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Manda, Don't worry in Italy - just get your friends to call you 'Don', or 'Capo' & methinks you will have preferential queuing.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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ise, cann't speak for Switzerland but in France if you get a bunch of Brits together in the queue it can all become civilized again. The Brits block those behind but don't fight between themselves as they have noted the order of arrival and ensure that the priority is kept.
What you do have is when Brits are mixed in with other nationals who have no concept of queueing, the Brits get stuck in and are as good at non-queueing as anyone if not better.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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john wells, my experience, in France, is that the Brits spend their time pushing through the queue, get to the front then stand there waiting for the one member of their party who didn't push to catch up.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| boredsurfin wrote: |
| As someone who has been Skiing (and thus queing) before snowboards gained in popularity. I can fairly say that snowboarders cause empty seats as they shuffle around trying to get through gates etc. to get on the chairlift and their extra width (and sometimes length) causes the queue to become longer and wider and so the result is slower loading and empty chairs. |
This is (almost) complete nonsense. Having boarders in a queue may make it longer (not so easy to intertwine boards rather than skis) but it does not make the queue move any slower. There is always plenty of time for people to sort themselves out at the final gate before it opens to let them through. This is not the source of a hold-up.
If people religiously fill each chair, it makes no difference how long or wide the queue is - it will still move at the same pace.
I have no doubt that the arrival of boarders has slowed lift queues but i don't think that this is the fault of boarders - rather, I would put it down to the reluctance of some skiers to share a chair with a boarder. I has lost count of the times when i have lined myself up beside skiers only for them to hang back at the last minute to take the next chair and leaving me on the chair by myself.
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| Tony Lane wrote: |
| I has lost count of the times when i have lined myself up beside skiers only for them to hang back at the last minute to take the next chair and leaving me on the chair by myself. |
I've noticed this when I'm out on the board, I have to say when I'm on skis I do look at boarders and try to assess if they're capable of getting off the lift or not without making a fuss.
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| ise wrote: |
| I have to say when I'm on skis I do look at boarders and try to assess if they're capable of getting off the lift or not without making a fuss. |
are you saying I look incompetent??!!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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ise,
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| I have to say when I'm on skis I do look at boarders and try to assess if they're capable of getting off the lift or not without making a fuss |
Why don't you worry about that when you are boarding as well Surely on skis, it's easier to avoid a lift exit pile up than on a board with back foot out.
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