As any fule kno, there is no such thing as a bad draglift. Skis on snow = skiing. Skiing = Good.
Gondolas and Cable Cars, on the other hand, are often ghastly and sometimes worse. The smells, the crowds, the queues. If you like commuting, you'll love Gondolas.
We agree they'll all bad - but which are the worst?
Let me get us away by nominating the 'Transarc' in Arc 1800.
Despite a stated capacity of 15 it feels unpleasantly cramped with 8 in. The miserable occupants perched on the 3" deep bench thingy that runs round edge of the circular cabin, their knees (or worse) forced together in an awkward intimacy.
And then just when you thought it was bearable, 2 more desperadoes cram in at the always-busy mid station. The 2nd leg completed in the utter silence as no one dares open their mouth lest they ingest the fetid air.
Last but not least it is soooo SLOW! 20 minutes to gain about 600m - the hamsters most definitely need feeding
Intolerable
Unacceptable
Although (thank God) Avoidable
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
red 27, though there's little to match the foetid fugg in the Tignes funicular on first run Monday morning It's a memory that NEVER leaves you.
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?
The poxy thing from Huez up to Alpe D'Huez that tore a £60 hole in my trousers last Friday
The ancient (1978) 4 person gondola from Grindelwald to Männlichen takes 30 minutes to reach the top, and is planned for replacement in a few years time (about 2016 according to the latest info I heard from a ski instructor last month). It is sometimes referred to by some of the snowboarder dudes as the "3 spliff lift"!
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Natives have an 'alternative' view on Gondolas here
rob@rar, we were talking about that video the other week. Being in one of those must have been terrifying!
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jonm, I'll say! First time I saw the video I didn't realise that there were people in the cabins. Must have been terrifying.
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Emirates Airline?
One crappy place in East London to another. Not even connected to public transport network properly. Contender for worst tourist trip ever. Pissing money down the drain for every Tfl farepayer, London Council tax payer and probably UK taxpayer.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
fatbob, good call
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.
Surely the cablecar from lognan to top of grands montets is worst of all. One hour queue to get on it. Packed like sardines. Slow. And 200 steps to walk down at the end. But, the ski you get once you do put your skis back on is guaranteed to be always epic.
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
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
These pieces of crap in ADH, the picture doesnt really give you an idea of how cramped and difficult they are to board and exit.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Corduroy are they?
Claude B wrote:
The poxy thing from Huez up to Alpe D'Huez that tore a £60 hole in my trousers last Friday
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Alastair Pink wrote:
The ancient (1978) 4 person gondola from Grindelwald to Männlichen takes 30 minutes to reach the top, and is planned for replacement in a few years time (about 2016 according to the latest info I heard from a ski instructor last month). It is sometimes referred to by some of the snowboarder dudes as the "3 spliff lift"!
Yes, but it is not that bad ... And you can have three spiffs should you feel like it...
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
fatbob wrote:
Emirates Airline?
One crappy place in East London to another. Not even connected to public transport network properly. Contender for worst tourist trip ever. Pissing money down the drain for every Tfl farepayer, London Council tax payer and probably UK taxpayer.
+1
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Quote:
I reckon this is the worst gondola experience
hardly! It's a tribute to the engineering of that lift that the outcome wasn't tragic. The Cavalese cable car accident came a bit closer to being the worst gondola experience
Finkenberg, Austria, old low speed very crowded ( up and down) gondola from the valley floor to half way up the mountain to connect with a lovely high speed detachable gondola WTF got it the wrong way round IMHO
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
If you regularly ski most of the winter in an area without a single gondola, even a smelly one can sometimes seem like a reasonable alternative.
Blimey I betthey were going at it to get them swinging like that.
Actually it probably was a group of swingers I that case ...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
rob@rar wrote:
jonm, I'll say! First time I saw the video I didn't realise that there were people in the cabins. Must have been terrifying.
If memory serves me right there were english kids in them who were there on ski camp and were on the phones to home crying and screaming while in the gondolas. Just awful...
After all it is free
After all it is free
red 27 wrote:
Let me get us away by nominating the 'Transarc' in Arc 1800.
Despite a stated capacity of 15 it feels unpleasantly cramped with 8 in. The miserable occupants perched on the 3" deep bench thingy that runs round edge of the circular cabin, their knees (or worse) forced together in an awkward intimacy.
And then just when you thought it was bearable, 2 more desperadoes cram in at the always-busy mid station. The 2nd leg completed in the utter silence as no one dares open their mouth lest they ingest the fetid air.
Try being in it when it breaks down and your car is at the biggest gap between 2 pylons just before you go over the edge into the 2000 bowl and they do stop/start fire ups cuasing your cabin to start swinging and swinging and swinging. I still wake in a cold sweat at the memory.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Plattieres out of Mottaret.
Ancient piece of cramped, useless, back to back junk.
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Frosty the Snowman, what's "back to back" junk?
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
I don't have a major problem with transarc, sure it sucks to take skis off but its a whole lot faster then the fixed grip alternatives!
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.
Claude B wrote:
Corduroy are they?
Claude B wrote:
The poxy thing from Huez up to Alpe D'Huez that tore a £60 hole in my trousers last Friday
Rubbish eh?
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
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
pam w wrote:
Frosty the Snowman, what's "back to back" junk?
4 person bubble where the seats run down the middle and 2 sit facing front and 2 facing back. (long slow and rickety also!)
Incidently didnt they just replace platteries 1&2 with a fast swish gondola?
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
pam w, 6 seats, 3 sitting back to back with the other 3. Knees under yer chin and 2 single doors instead of a double. A big lad, bad knees nightmare.
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
The (old, now?) Schoenleitenbahn in Saalbach - old, slow, nowhere to sit.
Somewhere in the PdS (Morzine? No idea tbh) there is/was some old, miniscule little egg things, could barely fit in them.
The Zwoelferhorn (tiny ski area in the Salzkammergut) had a gondola going over some pretty decent heights, tiny little tin thing, felt more like a wheely-bin than a gondola, and being very exposed swung around a lot in the wind.
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
kioksor, should be a 4 seater but I'm sure its 6. 4 seater when I'm in 3+1. Stage 3 remains.
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Wed 20-02-13 23:18; edited 1 time in total
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Corduroy, Certainly are. Due to be relaced soon I believe.
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?
Quote:
6 seats, 3 sitting back to back with the other 3. Knees under yer chin and 2 single doors instead of a double. A big lad, bad knees nightmare.
Ah, I see. There's a "back to back" gondola in Les contamines (Signal) but although I think it's probably designed to take 6 I've never experienced more than 4 in it. The back to back layout does mean everyone has a nice view out of the window. But I can see that it could be a nightmare if everyone tries to get out at once - like chickens when the door of their coop goes up at dawn.
Foret (?) out of Courchevel Le Praz looks like something out of the Jetsons, the doors don't work, only 1 in every 5 cabins has a slot for a snowboard, and the ski-slots will only take skinny things from the 80s.
The stand up thing in Flaine with signs encouraging you to disembark backwards. Does that count as a 'gondola'? That's awful.
That stupid one back to Vaujany as well.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Mr Piehole, oh yest, the Flaine Yoghurt pots - surprised they are still there - that lift is at least 28yrs old.
clarky999, the Plenay bubble in Morzine is pretty small and back to back as is the gondola at St Jean d'Aulps. Wht was called the Red Egg in Les Gets was small and pretty ricketty until replaced 3 or 4 years ago.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
patricksh wrote:
Surely the cablecar from lognan to top of grands montets is worst of all. One hour queue to get on it. Packed like sardines. Slow. And 200 steps to walk down at the end. But, the ski you get once you do put your skis back on is guaranteed to be always epic.
+ 1. Crowded cable cars are usually even more unpleasant than gondolas. Being vertically challenged, I'm out of close range of garlic breath and sneezes, but oh dear, the farts.
After all it is free
After all it is free
The worst gondola *experience* I nearly had was when the one out of Flaine broke down on a hot day at, I think, the back end of March about five or six years ago.
We were having lunch and were going to get on that thing but decided to take the little bubble instead.
Best decision of my life.
It broken down and people were stuck in there for hours and hours, jammed like sardines, with guys vomiting, urinating and defecating by the end of it.
Still makes me shudder.
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Given that a new chairlift is around 8 million Euro and a new Gondola over 12 million, how much extra will you except on the price of your pass to pay for new lifts?
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I note most of these are in France
Any cable car which has recently experienced a silent wet beer fart that smells like rotten eggs.
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
... And you can have three spiffs should you feel like it...
