 Poster: A snowHead
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Tell me your stories about your worst experiences with queues and crowded slopes.
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Thu 23-10-25 20:41; edited 2 times in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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You will get fewer narky comments if you correct your heading. Stories.
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I apologise for my spelling English is not my main language. I will try to fix all the mistakes
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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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Well done, @Jack_nice, that was quick. The worst queues I ever experienced were in Chamonix, Le Tour, many years ago. Snow was generally not good. We queued for AGES to buy a lift pass then more AGES to get on a lift.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Easter 1999 in Zermatt (the winter of colossal snow depths, a few weeks earlier, but it was sunny and mild by easter).
We timed it at 2 hours 15 minutes from hotel to top of Klein Matterhorn. I think the ascent was in three stages?
Utterly tedious, queues, what a waste when you just want to ski.
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Bansko is supposed to be so bad they even moved their webcam to not show it!
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Skiing in Soldeu, Andorra mid - late 80s, you could tell whether it was a weekend or weekday by the shape of the lift queue.
Week days, it was mostly British skiing there & the lift queue for the two man chair was a long line 2x2.
Weekends were predominantly Spanish and French skiers, the lift queue was fan shaped as everyone just pushed in at the front.
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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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@Jack_nice, may I ask why you want to know?
Are you hoping to avoid places with bad queues or something? 
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Growing up, and learning to to ski, in Scotland. I can safely say that they were the busiest slopes I’ve ever been on. But they were safe. Everyone knew the skier code and everyone called out any infringes. It was self policed.
The scariest piste I have experienced was the “Happy Valley” in St Anton at the end of the day, what a misnomer! So many people skiing beyond their skillset on a narrow, albeit gentle, piste. There is nothing enjoyable being shoulder to shoulder with so many liabilities.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Snow&skifan wrote: |
| We timed it at 2 hours 15 minutes from hotel to top of Klein Matterhorn. I think the ascent was in three stages? |
For us, it was 3 hours:
Chalet
Walk to Bus stop
Wait+Bus
Walk
Wait+Elevator
Wait+Cable car 1
Wait+Cable car 2
Wait+Cable car 3
Top
Ski
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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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Nendaz in half term 15 years ago (when that volcano erupted and shut European airspace...although that wasn't the cause of the queues). Fairly large family resort with one lift from the town.
Soon learnt to get up earlier then get the bus to Siviez.
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You know it makes sense.
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2020 we were in st gervais and decided to use one of our free days in other resorts by going to les carroz, took 30 minutes to validated our pass 20 minutes to get on the first lift skied down a run which was nightmare as litterally no space got to the bottom and it was over 50 fifty minute queue got to the top and skied to the car and went home, next day we went to a little place called plaine joux, didnt hear an english voice all day not many runs but lovely resort and suoer sunny
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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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| robs1 wrote: |
| 2020 we were in st gervais and decided to use one of our free days in other resorts by going to les carroz, took 30 minutes to validated our pass 20 minutes to get on the first lift skied down a run which was nightmare as litterally no space got to the bottom and it was over 50 fifty minute queue got to the top and skied to the car and went home, next day we went to a little place called plaine joux, didnt hear an english voice all day not many runs but lovely resort and super sunny |
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Quote: |
Growing up, and learning to to ski, in Scotland. I can safely say that they were the busiest slopes I’ve ever been on.
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Ah yes, had forgotten the extraordinary long queue for a draglift in the Cairngorms. Must have been 1985. It was a weekend trip organised by someone in my office in East Kilbride. I went with my son, who was about 10. We'd had lessons on the "make a man of you" dry slope in the Ayrshire coalfield, where the lift had long since broken down - it was skis on the shoulder and walk up the mud back to the top. The mud, and the almost constant rain for our series of evening lessons, kept the bristles quite slippery. We eventually got to the front of the lift. Son went first and, unsurprisingly, fell off - it was his first ever attempt at a drag lift. Horribly embarrassed he started off straight away over to the end of the queue, despite the friendly lifty's invitation to try again. When we eventually got to the top and started down the slope he did brilliantly. He stopped and turned round half way down, face shining, and shouted "This is SO much better than the dry slope". That was the Saturday. Beautiful weather, wall to wall sunshine. Sunday the wind started, and the lifts stopped after about an hour. We walked up as far as we could and started down, I fell, ski failed to release and badly twisted my knee. Apres ski was the coach stopping at the chippie in Dalwhinnie. I can still remember limping painfully back to the coach, hugging the warm parcel under my jacket.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Quote: |
Growing up, and learning to to ski, in Scotland. I can safely say that they were the busiest slopes I’ve ever been on. But they were safe. Everyone knew the skier code and everyone called out any infringes. It was self policed.
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I have never seen the system of double/treble or on a very bad day, quadruple lines used anywhere else than the Scottish hills!
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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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The joy of shouting "New Line!" when you can't be arsed to side step to the top of the previous one..... It's been a few years.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Duped
Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Fri 24-10-25 11:01; edited 1 time in total
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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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| Dave of the Marmottes wrote: |
I wrote this elsewhere contemporaneously. Dec 21 2021. At the time I was glad to be skiing again but friends dragged me there and made me lose the joy pretty rapidly.
Somedays a day skiing is not better than a day at work.
‐----------
Dateline Northstar
Vail finally deliver the experience of a lifetime by recreating the authentic experience of Soviet bread queues. Wait in line for 90 mins for a parking lot shuttle , 45 mins to buy buddy passes which takes so damned long because the c##ts want to data rape your buddies too, wait in line for all lifts because they are too cheapass to open the backside to spread the crowds, freeze your ass off waiting in line another 90 minutes for a return shuttle for the pleasure of standing in Covid Soup for another 25 mins.
Employees are pissed off because they know it's inexcusable and are getting poo-poo all day, customers are pissed off because honestly there's more fun in a Walmart. Strong sense that despite $bns in the bank they want to do the bare minimum to actually deliver enough staff and service. |
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Quote: |
The joy of shouting "New Line!" when you can't be arsed to side step to the top of the previous one..... It's been a few years.
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You always needed someone with authority at the top of the line to send potential queue skivers down to the the next line - my father loved taking that role and would send my sister and me, aged 10 and 6, down to start the next line!
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I think the worst I encountered was in the mid 1990s in Poiana Brasov, Romania. Two main cable cars up from the town, one of which was out of order, and this the Christmas week. It was a good hour or to wait for the first lift, and in a relatively limited ski area it was inevitable that you'd find yourself descending to the village at some point during the day, so another hour or more standing in a queue.
Also the only place I've ever seen an actual punch up in a lift queue, part-way up the mountain for a drag lift; I don't recall how long the wait was, but not inconsiderable, but I do have a mental image of the line being several hundred metres long. Maybe it's grown in my memory, not sure.
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Had heard the term "sharpen your elbows" before but going to Italy at Christmas definitely proved the need to file them to a point.... all the Turin set arrived in full Kappa gear and diamonte one-pieces, along with every ski team in the area, to Sestriere because it was the best snow. This was Boxing Day, so it went from nice and quiet on the 25th to absolute European chaos on the 26th, mucho arm waving, histrionics and general Italianness wherever you looked. Think the longest we queued was 20 minutes for the Crit Roc chair. I honestly don't know how European nations can't organise themselves into lines. Arguments breaking out, people shoving you out of the way to get through gates, little whacks with ski poles if you just happened to glance their skis. It all felt a bit am-dram.
The polar opposite of this was me and my son getting on a chairlift and being in charge of one of the ski school bambino, who promptly spoke perfect English and told us that black runs were his favourite. That totally made our day.
Last edited by After all it is free  on Fri 24-10-25 13:18; edited 1 time in total
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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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Have watched easiski try to teach small Italian kids the concept of a queue in L2A, they just looked at her as if she was from another planet and pushed her out of the way.
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My wife was pushed over in a lift queue in VT, the perpetrator was a braying lady in faux fur. When she got to the gate something terrible happened where my ski was on her back binding as she pushed through her ski fell off and she went under the chair. Shame. Awfully embarassing. Liftie fist bumped me as he saw what i did. 
Biggest PITA on Patrol in Scotland other than all the usual stuff is folk being back bottoms in queues, queue arguments and general histrionics.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Verbier, half term 2009. Teaching a private lesson for 3 hours, took nearly 2 to get to the top of the first lift out of town (did suggest trying different options but client keen to persist as "suspect it'll speed up once we get around the corner"!)
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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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This was L2A on Christmas Day last year, think it was about an hour for me so amateur stuff. People were pretty well behaved as well.
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My story happened well over 30 years ago....so let me set the scene.
My Father had booked a holiday with a Company that subsequently went bust just before the holiday....So I went onto Teletext, where if you spotted something and didn't take note of it, you had to wait until all the pages scrolled around again.
We ended up booking a Chalet with a Company called Ski White Rock. The chalet (most unhelpfully) turned out to be sited on the road between Morzine and the Cable Car up to Avoriaz....which meant catching the first bus of the day (the rest were full) as the snow was poor and so people were using the cable car up to Avoriaz.
Arriving early meant there was a queue of between 1 to 1.5 hours....but this was as nothing compared to the queues for getting back down again - which meant waiting for between 2.5 to 3 hours.
I did this interminable wait twice...and after that, thought I'd try skiing back. The snow was incredibly sketchy, which meant skiing a bit, taking off the skis and stumping, then putting the skis on and skiing another bit....and so on until you reached the bottom. At one stage, I remember getting a bit lost and climbing over a gate. This trek probably took about an hour and a half...but back then I was fit as a flea and would rather do it than stand in a glacially slow queue.
My Brother joined in for one of these downhill mountaineering expeditions, but found it so tiring that he would rather queue.
The holiday must have been around Easter, as the snow was slushy and we got rained on a lot....but myself and my Bro did manage to ski down the Wall without falling....but without style.
Last edited by So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much  on Fri 24-10-25 14:00; edited 3 times in total
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You know it makes sense.
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@Origen, le tour has a new 10 person gondola from the car park or arrive in style via the free train to Vallocine and get the gondola up from there (no 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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@dode, yes 12 rows of queues but perfect behaviour, polite and egalitarian.
Circa 1970s Scotland had world class queuing down to a fine art. I doubt the efficiency, elegance and fairness of that has never been exceeded and probably never will be 
Last edited by Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name: on Fri 24-10-25 14:20; edited 2 times in total
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Poster: A snowHead
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Not a queue length story but a queue story all the same.
Last year in avoriaz, on our “dads n lads” trip. Waited a little while for a chair lift, not too long but long enough for there to be an “elbows out” policy.
A lad squeezed on to our lift to fill it up. Which is totally fine and he should have done it. I shouted “move up lad.” But it was to my brother not this new chair lift friend.
He took issue with it as we sat down and started to head but me  . My brother trying to get past me to him, mid air.
A bit of pushing and shoving until I realised we might end up “over board.” I just said that maybe let’s have a sort out at the top of the lift.
Anyway, we spent the next 5 minutes with the most uncomfortable stare off until we got to the off ramp.
I was Conscious that we might be in trouble or worse, become an Instagram meme if we have a royal rumble at the top of the lift.
So my brother and I decided (without even talking) that the best thing to do would just be to leg him up as we got off the lift and ski’d off out of there.
A bizarre experience!
Told the fella to calm down and we’ll
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Me and my mate where somewhere in the 00s, can't remember where.... could have been St Anton. There was decent sized queue, not what I'd call massive but certainly enough to make people p1ssed off, with the odd person with elbow and pushing past. Anyway, in front of us we're a bunch of loud German lads. Not a problem until one of their mates from way back in the queue decided he was going to come through!
My mate (SH called Gaz_C) decided, nah he's not coming through, so there was some pushing and shoving..... he didn't get through! 
We eventually got spilt up towards the gondola..... Gaz only ended up on the same Gondola as the 5 German guys in front of us..... I was wetting myself. So he's sat there on his own with 5 of his new mates and they're all speaking German, slagging him off. (This is pre helmets, so most of us where wearing wrap around glasses and hats).... Gaz is a great linguist and had a decent grasp of German.... all of them hiding behind their shades. Gaz decided to take his sunglasses off and eyeball them in turn...staring them all out. The gondola was quiet from that point on!!
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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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The only rowdy and pushy behaviour I observed in a queue in Les Contamines was a bunch of German lads. Everybody was looking round, because it was so unusual - shouting was unusual and German shouting especially unusual.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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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A long queue for the bubble Verbier-Savolyeres.
We were chatting with the young couple in front when we all became aware of a commotion further back:
Somebody had vaulted the barrier and jumped in a bubble just as it entered the station...before it got to the queue
"What a dikhed! What is that guy thinking?" The woman exclaimed...and then she paused...
"Oh My God!!" she said "That's my Dad!!"
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@rungsp,
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Italian children are taught, by Momma, that they must wear a hat when skiing, otherwise they will D I E!
So when some oik barges into the queue and the displaced person takes exception, brat's hat flies off into the distance!
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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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Yeas that made me laugh thanks @orange
I have a photo of a queue at the start of the Easter weekend in Lake Louise, pretty monstrous and snakey. Didn’t bother me asi had a private lesson so jumped it.
Our British instructor in Andorra told us “This isn’t the UK. Ski like you mean it; queue like you mean it. “. I have used that several times since.
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@mountainaddict, I haven’t skied at home much since the turn of the century. But I can’t imagine how it could ever shift from everyone on the hill obeying the rules to, pretty much anything less, tbh.
Even as a lone pre-teen it was so well drilled in to you that you had no qualms about shouting out anyone that tried to queue skip.
It was such a sensible thing to start lines lines, otherwise the piste would shorten too much. The only risky part was being the first person to start a second line. After that every line line was pretty much the same height.
The sweetest call of all to a lone skier was the cry of “single” on a T-bar queue. Queue jumping was totally acceptable then.
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FAQ
I get sick of trying to explain it... 
