 Poster: A snowHead
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Heated chairlifts seem to be common sights in many parts of the Austrian Alps.
Last week I was in Bad Gastein where a couple of gondolas have been recently replaced/added.
I was surprised to find that the Austrian even provide heated seats inside the gondolas!
On heated chairlifts I notice each lift has two condcutors near the top, some pointing uppward which others downward, which make contact with the electric when the chairlift goes around the bottom or top station, apparently for a burst of quick charge. It would appear a battery system must have been provided below the seats. Otherwise the heated chairlifts look no different from the unheated version.
Heated chairlifts are nice in cold weather. I can't see the point of them in gondolas which are fully shielded from the weather. The new Austrian gondolas not only allow the visitors to sit on warm seats but also has internal individual ski rack for each skier too. As usual there is seldom any queue when one skis in Austria!
Found plenty of heated chairlifts in Ski Amade and none during the week in the Italian Dolomites. If Cortina di Ampezzo is the top Italian resort then in term of facilities it is a half generation behind the Austrian. Mind you the sunny weather in Italian Dolomites puts right anything wrong in the infrastructure.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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saikee, Fimbabahn at Ischgl has heated seats - I'm not sure I really see the point...
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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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Cortinas a top resort for the pouncing about in shops and cafes and maybe on the piste wearing fur, not for the infrastructure.
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Heated seats?! HEATED SEATS!?!?!! Ee, tha dustn't know thar's born! When I were nowt but a nipper we were lucky if had spike in t' chairlift and even then we had to take turns. Lick piste clean wi' t' toong etc etc etc. 
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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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saikee, there are a few new ones in Zell this year. Have to say I quite like'em! On the whole I am liking the nice comfy cushioned chairs with built-in posterior heating. I realise this will make me sound namby-pamby, and it wouldn't make me pick one resort, or even one piste, over another, but where they are offered, I like them!
I do wonder how much energy they use/waste though? If they're all re-chargeable through green sources then fair play to'em, but if they're not, and if they are heated regardless of whether anyone is sitting on them (which I suspect they are as empty chairs still melt snow pretty fast), it does seem like a colossal waste of energy.
(Still like them though  !)
D
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I'd rather have cheap lift passes.
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They should go the whole hog and install patio heaters, individual ones above each seat, with controls on the bar in front of each passenger. If one runs out of gas the liftie can quickly disconnect, switch and reconnect a bottle of gas as it goes round the end. Brilliant. 
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feels very nice on the (w)hole
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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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I can't say for gondolas, but chairlifts don't have batteries. If you noticed when riding up with them, they are warm only for first few seconds. I would say they are heated when going around bottom station, and are connected to electricity, and when they leave bottom station, and lose electricity connection, they just preserve heat for a little while (longer, if you are sitting on them).
And yes, they do feel nice, especially on day's when it's -20c
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There's a new one in Mayrhofen (well, Lanersbach) this year to replace the old Lattenalm 2 seater on Eggalm. Look forward to trying it on a cold day. In April. Maybe not.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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primoz, that makes sense, and makes me worry a little less about actual heat being delivered to empty chairs half way up the lift! Still probably not that environmentally friendly, but still equally rather nice on a cold snowy day.
D
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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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More sensible just to have heated underpants!
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primoz,
You are probably right. I suppose it is possible to charge it up for a 10 or 20 seconds at a station so that the heat is retained temporarily inside the insulation material of the seat. It makes sense too as lift company would not like to set the client's bottom on fire accidentally.
Don't think a lot a energy is needed. It feels warm because our back side is near the ambient temperature so anything above the ambient could make us feel warm.
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You know it makes sense.
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It might be to stop them having to brush down every chair after some snow or while it is snowing.
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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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| achilles wrote: |
| I'd rather have cheap lift passes. |
bingo.
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Poster: A snowHead
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It's all wrong!!!
A cold backside never hurt anyone
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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: |
Found plenty of heated chairlifts in Ski Amade and none during the week in the Italian Dolomites
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saikee,
Not sure how it works in Ski Amade but in nearby Obertauern I was speaking to one of the instructors.
Apparently the lifts are owned by individuals or families usually and they get paid a percentage fo the lift pass takings according to how many people use their lift. (All computerised) This provides a great incentive to make the lifts as fast and popular as they can to maximise their takings. Hence heated seats etc.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I first made contact with a heated chairlift seat in Lech where young Harry and William learned to ski. It was profoundly moving to think that the chair I was sitting on had once warmed the Royal ar*es. (Any ambiguity detected in the last sentence is entirely intentional .)
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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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| andytb wrote: |
| There's a new one in Mayrhofen (well, Lanersbach) this year to replace the old Lattenalm 2 seater on Eggalm. Look forward to trying it on a cold day. In April. Maybe not. |
The first one I ever came across was in the Zillertal, the 8 seater at Kaltenbach, which was there in Jan 2006 at least, maybe earlier.
| kevindonkleywood wrote: |
| Im sure narc, is right its got more to do with saving the lifties the job of cleaning off each seat in the morning and after heavy snow, way safer than trying to do it with the lifts running You can have the lift up and running a lot fater that way and with less staff required. Im sure the comfort thing is a definte secondary consideration LOL |
I don't think so. Every heated chairlift I have come across also has bubble covers, so no need for the lifties to clear snow off the seats.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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alex_heney, I don't think so either. Most modern, padded seat lifts, often with bubbles are detachable and stored inside at night.
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Maybe I'm unusual, but I actually like the cold of a chairlift. I ski so hard that I get pretty warm by the time I reach the bottom of a hill, so I'm never bothered by low temperatures. For the same reason I dislike gondolas - nasty sweaty things that force you to delayer your clothing.
Perhaps the softies who need heated seats, chairlift bubbles, gondolas, etc should ski harder or buy some better gear.
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the last five or six years have been so warm, generally, that unheated chairlifts aren't usually a problem for me. But in 2002, when we had several weeks of -15, and this January, when we've also had some very cold days, I must admit that a heated chair would have been quite welcome, and probably kept me out skiing for longer.
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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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I like the comfy padded chair lift seats, but can't really see the point of heating them. Of all the parts of the body that are potentially going to get cold, my fat posterior is quite possibly the least likely to do so.
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Yay another way to warm up the environment around the little snow we have left.
MAN THE F$%K UP
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I see the heated seats in the chairlifts as the attention the resort owner provides for his/her visitors. There is no law aginst not using them if one prefer something else.
In Neseko I have sat on a sigle chair that has no footrest or lateral restraint. The safety is by embracing the singe vertical steel member of the chair. I don't think many parents would let their children going up such a chairlift which I think can be dangerous.
I know one can get pretty warm when skiing hard late in the season but there are colder time at the start of the season too. Also in some resorts some chairlifts are located at exposed positions, slow and long. The chairlift that I would like to have warm seat is the one from La Thuile going back to La Rosiere. It is quite miserable to be blown by strong bitter wind or blizzard for an extended duration and that chairlift for some reason is seemingly slow.
Having already paid the ski pass and given the choice of a heated or unheated chairlift I would go for the former.
May be I have got used to all these conveniences. I don't need heated seat in the car if it has fabric seats but for leather seats it is essential especially the vehicle is parked outside.
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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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Well you get to a certian age and you are not sure if its a heated chair or if you have just wet yourself
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You know it makes sense.
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There's a saying we have in NZ, which I think applies in this case.
"Take a spoonful of concrete and harden the f**k up"
A heated chairlift sounds surreal when a ski lift here can be a few hundred feet of rope pulled by something massey ferguson built in in 1957
Last edited by You know it makes sense. on Fri 5-02-10 9:13; edited 1 time in total
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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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The chair pads are heated for a few seconds in the station, and it is a tiny amount of energy compared to the drive system. It's a little luxury that means people who feel the cold can get some respite from weather, just like bubbles. If sitting on an exposed, fixed grip chairlift for 10 mins in a bitterly cold wind is your idea of fun then I'm sure your resort of choice still has one for you to indulge.
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Poster: A snowHead
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That's what makes men of you hang11. And I long for a return to the days of leather boots, leather gloves and non-goretex clothing. Nothing more toughening of a man than being cold, soaked and miserable. 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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Hmm. Earlier this season, I was in a resort with a lot of surface lifts. Wouldn't delight the must-have-fast-chair-lifts-with-heated-seats brigade. And I must admit the was a long Poma which was a bit of a pain. That was more than compensated for by the hour-long off-piste skiing in remote valleys which were accessed. No mountain restaurants in the valleys - not surprising since we were the only people around, most of the time. Some of the best skiing I have come across - with a really cheap lift pass. Depends what you want , I suppose.
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FAQ
You can have the lift up and running a lot fater that way and with less staff required. Im sure the comfort thing is a definte secondary consideration LOL
