slow chair lifts

A snowHead

i must be one of the few people who actually like slow chair lifts, having dodgy knees it gives me plenty of recovery time, and just time to relax and watch the world go by, if it goes over a snow park you can watch them do their acrobatics and jumps, you can watch skiers fall over which is always funny, you can count how many ski poles and gloves that people have dropped, and if the chair lift is facing the sun then thats even better, whats not to like about a slow chairlift.

A snowHead

The problem with slow chair lifts for me is that they tend to be fixed chair ones so you get a healthy wack if you are not careful when you get on.

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I like slow lifts too, it means more people are on them so fewer on the crowded pistes.
On the subject of dropped items there is a kids pole that is under Grande Combes ( Avoriaz) about 2/3 the way up, clinging onto a big ass boulder.
This is the 3rd season I have noticed it, but it may have been there longer.

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Slow lifts also usually mean a cheaper lift pass!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Slow lifts are OK on a nice sunny day. Not so clever in nasty weather.

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I remember a ski instructor friend pointing out a route using slow chair lifts that cut the altitude gain and ski time to an absolute minimum. "There are some classes I just cannot get on with, so that's where I go, last chair for me, fag time" Laughing

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@pieman666, God, yes!
@compostcorner, my knees stiffen up, I'm afraid. Distinctly do not want to get cold and de-warmed. But some of the shorter old slow chairs do indeed have their visual charms.

I don’t mind slow chairlifts apart from the ones that also happen to be alarmingly high off the ground. Was on one such chair in Les Menuires recently and the slow speed gave me time to think ‘wow, this is really high, it would be pretty scary if the lift just stopped here’. About a minute later it did stop Shocked

It didn’t get going for about 15 minutes and by the time it was moving again I’d actually started to feel a bit panicky. Weird as I’m usually okay with lifts.

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Slow lifts usually lead to less crowded piste , time for a hamlet cigar (metaphor)

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@Grizzler, @pieman666, for those of experience with such lifts, there was/is another one of those odd ski stances to use.

The "bend over and put your hand out behind you" to catch the incoming chair before it gives your legs a hefty clout! Just as you arrest the chair, you can deftly drop bum cheeks onto said chair.

Timing is everything, looks graceful when practiced with an expert nonchalance Very Happy

If not, you still get clobbered, and harder to complete on two seater with added points for synchronisation Laughing

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Best thing is to stand half a pace forward of your mates.

@pam w, +1 unfortunately my son is getting wise to this technique

You know it makes sense.

And if there was a contest for the slowest, the winner would be Marais in Tignes.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I like them too. There’s one in trysil that passes over a tree that is festooned with bra’s. No idea why. It looks very pretty though although somebody did lower the tone with some knickers one time.

A snowHead

@ski3, oh yes - though with the ones I know particularly well at Glenshee and Ruka, you're more likely to get a broken wrist like that. Laughing

I prefer the forward pre-set, on-the-blocks stance and the carefully-judged leg-extending chair seat scoop and sit technique; or thump up the back bottom, half the time.

A snowHead

@bambionskiis, 'decorated' trees are quite commonplace in NA resorts, certainally ones popular with spring break kids. I recall seeing a heavily underwear bedecked pine within throwing range of a chairlift in Lake Louise once with bras, pants, thongs and Mardi Gras beads and somehow a substantial pink rubber phallus screwed to the trunk at a height of about 30 ft...

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Surely slow chairs are faffing and not getting on with it wink

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The single chairlift in Mittenwald is a an absolute joy. It's about a mile over beautiful low lying countryside and about the only break I get from the kids wink

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I like a slow chair - time to catch up on admin + decent chat with whoever you are accompanying at that point. In decent weather they are the best way to travel. Who wants a “quick” gondola in these circs? Sadly the queue to get on ‘em is often so frustrating that the calm of the ride is offset by the agitation of the queue

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While I’m here - have noticed that taking the outside lane of most queues for chairs (where there is a dogleg in the queue) tends to get you 8-10 chairs ahead of people who hug the inside lane. Any physicists or others prepared to suggest a reason?

fizzer

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@Spin Doctor, perhaps people waiting for others are easier to pass? It's certainly my tactic with bubbles where being first to board as it sweeps past does give an advantage over others lined up at the front edge. Also your mates need to be lined up alongside and not behind you.

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I think it’s partly because it is easier to make a wide turn around the outside than a tight one round the inside, because people assume the shorter (inside) route will be quicker so head that way and congest it and thirdly because of the well documented (on Snowheads) obsession with boarding the same chair with your mates causes people to advance in a row of 2,3,4 (or whatever) often leaving a virtual “singles line” around the outside which can be exploited by those who can bear to be apart from their ski-buddies for 5 minutes.

Doubtless some scientific study on people flow has been done which could give more detail on whether an even flow goes quicker round the inside or outside

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Slower the better i.e Stopped Toofy Grin

You know it makes sense.

@Thorney, Bernoulli's 3rd Theorum of Ski Lift Dynamics. You not familiar with it?

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

@compostcorner, ...well you’d love the Cret chair in Grimentz. This whacks you hard in the calves, then rebounds in a way which makes it a serious challenge to actually mount. You then realise that one of the lift designers was a dwarf, evidenced by the fact that when the safety bar is used, your knees come up to your chin, and your spine is bent in half. Then it swiftly becomes obvious that other designer was a sadist, putting the backrest slats in a position which separates your vertebrae. Whilst in contorted agony on the slowest lift in resort, you can watch other agonies unfold as debutantes try to master the top to bottom water ice of the black run to your left. Misery on the chair, mayhem on the piste.

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slow chair lifts

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