 Poster: A snowHead
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Last week, at least three people fell off chairlifts in ski resorts – two in the US and one in Japan. A 10-year-old girl dangled from a chairlift at Aspen Highlands for about 10 seconds before falling 50 feet to the ground, according to Aspen Skiing Co. officials. She seemed to escape without any major injuries. At Ski Bradford, an 8-year-old boy fell nearly 20 feet from a chairlift. He too appeared to escape serious injury. The local ski patrol is unaware of how the accident happened and is investigating it. ...And, in Nagano, a 40-year-old man was slightly injured after falling about 30 feet from a chairlift after his ski got caught in a cable supporting scaffolding to be used for filming, police said. The cable, which became disconnected from the scaffolding, also struck and slightly injured a 51-year-old man from Kawasaki and his 23-year-old daughter, a graduate school student, who were using the same lift.
For more details see:
http://www.eagletribune.com/hhnews/local_story_052100033?keyword=secondarystory
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070220/NEWS/70220001
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070219TDY02004.htm
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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It seems they're very safe. No-one suffered major injury in a chairlift accident last week. 
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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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While we were getting on a lift last week a woman, busy pushing her four-year old on to the lift-off area fell just as a chair came around the carousel. I think it clipped her on the shoulder and passed over her. She was fine, and was certainly well enough to tell my ski buddy that I cross her skis, later to tell her husband that I elbowed her in the face. She didn't realise that I speekee thee Eengreesh.
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at Tremblant the instructor asked if I would take up a tiny tot - no problem, but when the chair came round the lifty chose that moment to move away, the chair didn't slow down and I had to manhandle said tot onto the chair (which also had a bit of a kick) as it crashed into the back of my knees. I clutched hold of her, didn't dare let go till we got to the top, when I signalled to the liftie to slow down so I could slip off gently, carrying tot. Mind you she was an absolute delight - non-stop chatter all the way up about her family, where her parents were skiing, her granny - allsorts - she was about three - such confidence!
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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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pielot, talking of bars on chairlifts....I'll never forget the time when, in Yugoslavia, we got onto single chairlifts--my son and I. This was many years ago, when he was about 8 or 9 years old. I am in the chair just behind his chair--and he suddenly turns around and shouts "Mummy, there is no bar on this chair!"...So, I sit - the whole ride to the top of the mountain--praying for his safety-...an incident I can never forget! (He was fine of course..  )
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did the chairs in question have safety bars? many US resorts have removed them. I have heard this is to reduce potential liability cases but haven't had that confirmed...
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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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| boredsurfin wrote: |
| Anyone know the right French phrase for; sit still you little sh*t your giving me heart failure |
I believe this sentiment can be expressed through gesture; a flick of the hand, back first, towards the listener's ear. It seems to be cross-cultural.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Quote: |
I believe this sentiment can be expressed through gesture; a flick of the hand, back first, towards the listener's ear. It seems to be cross-cultural.
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Works by a father too, when he hears about the assault on his wee bairn 50ft up in the air...
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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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You know it makes sense.
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David Murdoch, if your question is directed at my post about Yugoslavia--the answer is YES--the single chairs we were on were all SUPPOSED to have ebars, but through negligent maintenance (or non-maintenance--in that particular fairly unknown resort) my son's chair had a bar missing...
Now this kind of thing is dangerous in my view... 
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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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Come to think of it, I have seen many more people fall off button lifts and t-bars--than off chairlifts...but then you are already on the ground, so the fall is not so alarming, I guess! 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Chairlifts are inherently more dangerous than surface lifts because the consequences of stoppage, catastrophic failure or falling off are far more severe.
However 37 years after using my first I'm still here to tell the tale !
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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surely the lifts are only as dangerous as the people who are on them 
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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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| Quote: |
Anyone know the right French phrase for; sit still you little sh*t your giving me heart failure
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"Doucement!"
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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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If you've ever wondered what's it's like to be hit on the back of the head with an iron bar...
then stand tall when an old, but fast two man chair whizzes round (is not slowed by a lifty) and crunches into the back of your legs, and the safety bar comes crashing forward on to the back of your skull.
As James Coburn might say: "Duck, you sucker."
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You’ve should have seen the look on my pal’s face when he wasn’t paying attention and didn’t lift his ski tips at the top of a chair lift.......
Woooosh, he was pulled under the chair... He threw himself spread-eagled flat on the snow, and luckily there was just enough clearance above his head as the chair passed over him. The lifty managed to stop it for him to get out of the way before the next chair occupants had to ski over him.
Oh how I laughed.... and every time now, as we approach the top, we call out to him, “lift your tips!”
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A similar thing applies to snowboarders.
If you don't keep your board inline with the direction of the chair (on mounting as well as dismounting), you can catch the edge and get dragged down.
Chairs are one of the most dangerous times for a boarder (other than 100' cliff jumps) - you don't have both feet bound to the board.
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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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| crosbie wrote: |
If you've ever wondered what's it's like to be hit on the back of the head with an iron bar...
then stand tall when an old, but fast two man chair whizzes round (is not slowed by a lifty) and crunches into the back of your legs... |
I feel like I'm giving away a trade secret here but always stand slightly in front of your fellow liftees, they get clobbered round the legs and nicely slow it down for you.
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Chairlifts are perfectly safe; when you catch an edge and fall in the loading area, the liftie will instruct you to get out of the way with a wave of his hand and you can scramble to the side, catch your breath and rejoin a couple of chairs after.
What do you mean, he should have stopped the lift?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Heaven forbid any over-zealous Health & Safety "Jobsworth" gets to hear about skiing - you know, the sort that get conker trees cut down in case conkers hit people on the heads or those who last week told an author he'd have to cough up £150 for insurance in case his book were to injure someone whilst displayed for sale in a tourist office in the UK. Apparently it might fall off the shelf, or someone might cut their fingers on the pages!
Now I wonder what dangers they might see in skiing that have never yet occured to us??? No doubt someone will have some ideas!
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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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my daughters in Andorra were queuing up for the chair lift. As they shuffled into place and turned round to sit on the chair to their horror they saw a lady already sitting on it! With no place to go they sat on her knee! All ended up in a pile and had to be untangled. How she got there we'll never know.
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You know it makes sense.
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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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Poster: A snowHead
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The best thing to look forward to at the end of a chairlift:
A big patch of ice about 10 foot square that you cannot avoid.
A gaggle of folk at the other side of ice patch congratulating themselves at not falling over.
Said gaggle making no attempt to get the heck out of there.
What can you do but collide as you join them like a ten pin bowling ball? 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I blogged about this recently:
http://ultimate-ski.blogspot.com/2007/01/reach-for-sky.html
Though you might think falling out of a chair is the key issue, getting hung up as you off-load (see the link in my post) is disconcerting and pretty dodgy if the lift drags you round for the return trip. It once happened to my wife when she was wearing an ABS avalanche airbag, with leg-straps, so there was no escape. I had to scrabble for the stop button as there was no auto-stop and the liftie was a bit dopey.
Another worry when off-loading: I skied last year with someone who had both bones in her forearm broken as she skied off the chair - I think it had a simple tubular side/armrest and her hand slipped through as she pushed off. It was one of those chairs that went immediately round the wheel at high speed (I guess not detachable), and mild steel proved way tougher than bone. So there's something else to worry about.
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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 was approaching a chair lift in Whistler a few days ago and I could here some one shouting 'get your head down, lie down'. It seems that a lady skiier had fallen off the lift about 5 - 10 m out and was silly enough to try to get up rather than crawl to the side. Lickily the people on the next chair were alert and acted well in the circumsatnces. In general the Whistler lifts are very sedate things in that the run off at the beginning of the lift and end of the lift is shallow, but this does mean that there is a high chance of cathching your skis/board on the floor (European lifts seem to get to height a bit quicker, if you know what I mean).
Also on quite a few lifts I had to ask for the safety bar to be lowered whereas my chair companions seemed not to bothered about lowering the safety bar. Normally there is bit of a rush to get this bar down in Europe.
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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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one good thing about boards and chair lifts is that as we boarders always seem to be looking/riding backwards, when waiting for the lift we can see the blighters coming. I normally reserve my falling for dismounts only and always try to get extra points for a full 'strike' of skiiers who are silly enough to expect me to be able to stop after being catapulted down an icy bank, with one foot on the board, jabbed in both legs by ski poles and having to avoid the bigs lumps of ice shovelled into my path by the attendant
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I'm not surprised a couple of the falls were in the USA having just come back from Mammoth.
As people have mentioned most people don't put the safety bars down even if the lifts have them (and a number don't).
Scared me sh*tless to begin with I have to admit and I'd be very wary of taking my 7 year old daughter on the lifts - this time I was on my own so didn't have that worry thank goodness.
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I must admit, it is one of the main things that has put me off skiing in the US...the thought of no safety bar is just awful
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That's because they don't use safety in the US, they use litigation.
If you've paid for healthcare insurance the last thing you want to do is to avoid enjoying its benefit. Keep the bar up and enjoy life!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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A mate of mine was on the lift behind the guy in the Japan incident. He said a cable snapped and just grabbed the guy and he dropped about 30 feet. He didn't move after it happened. Patrol were on the spot pretty quick. Glad to hear he is OK.
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