Member of the Month

KilaTsunami
October, 2024

Online

Welcome to the Newschoolers forums! You may read the forums as a guest, however you must be a registered member to post. Register to become a member today!

I'm afraid of chairlifts.

profile picture
Mr.Bishop
Posts: 22708 - Karma: 76,635
I'm just coming out and saying it. I am absolutely, completely, uncontrollably terrified of fucking chairlifts.

Worst part about it is that the BEST skiing is always accessed by the worst chairlifts.

I just suck it up and do it, but I've been known to be so scared I literally cried.

WTF is my brain doing to me? Anyone else out there?

Nov 1 2012 9:55PM
165 6
profile picture
Mr.Bishop
Posts: 22708 - Karma: 76,635
I wonder if there is actual science behind that... like an instinct or something like that which causes it.
Nov 2 2012 1:30PM
0 0
profile picture
JackDeLoot
Posts: 153 - Karma: 93
I've always trusted chairlifts.. but after taking multiple courses focused on operations/ installment/maintenance of passenger carriers.. I'm not too sure anymore. There are so many moving parts and key components of a lift that need to operate perfectly or things can go a bit pear-shaped.


Buut operations and maintenance staff are well trained and well staffed usually, and they have huge liability if something were to happen you, or their lift
Nov 2 2012 2:24PM
0 0
profile picture
kingsskier
Posts: 6212 - Karma: 2,100
OP your such a noob ;)
Nov 2 2012 2:45PM
0 0
profile picture
I.B
Posts: 8137 - Karma: 24,352
I fucking thought i was the only one. Holy shit.


Click for larger image


The wall at kirkwood scares the living shit out of me. When it's windy holy fuck. you have no idea. it's like 400 yards between towers and like 120 off the ground (at least it seems like it) Oh and no bar. WHO THE FUCK DOESN"T PUT A BAR ON THE LIFT.

I always have 60 feet of rope and 4 caribeaners (excuse spelling) in my backpack. Sometimes when it's windy and the chair stops i will attach myself to the chair via rope.

But yeah it sucks when your friends are like "fuck the bar" and you're holding onto the chair with a death grip.

Nov 2 2012 2:55PM
0 0
profile picture
schmuck
Posts: 1974 - Karma: 53,161
You're going to shit your pants this winter when we go to Jackson Hole for Powder Week if you ride the Sublette Chair. Skip to 1:45 for the goods...



Fortunately for you I'll be there too, so we can hold on to each other and shit our pants together :)


Nov 2 2012 3:06PM
0 0
profile picture
3mania
Posts: 2613 - Karma: 10,361
Marte lift at Las Lenas in Argentina is easily the most terriffying lift ever built. I doubt anyone around here is old enough to remember the old KT22 at Squaw, you had to have some balls to load that death trap. And by the way, the safety bar is for little kids and tourists, not for real skiers.
Nov 2 2012 3:07PM
0 0
profile picture
TWoods
Posts: 10014 - Karma: 8,386
I'll ride that chair with you guys. That terrain looks awesome....
Nov 2 2012 3:14PM
0 0
profile picture
TWoods
Posts: 10014 - Karma: 8,386
Also, this is chair 23 at Mammoth.

You can't tell in the photo, but at some spots you're like 50+ feet of the ground over either a ridgeline or rocks. It's not cool. What makes it worse? sometimes it's so windy that the large topstation is a tunnel for wind, with blast doors on either side of the exit. Sometimes it's so windy that the walls of that tunnel (which are like 1/8 inch thick glass, just completely shatter and blow out.

Click for larger image
Nov 2 2012 3:17PM
0 0
profile picture
a_burger
Posts: 5235 - Karma: 20,715
Only thing lift related that scares me is downloading the Locke Triple at Sunday River in early season. You get on at the midstation, which is sketchy enough, the chairs bounce like crazy there. The loading platform is only like 12 feet long and slopes downward. It is fucking terrifying getting on with ski boots, on the wet boards that slope down to a 20 foot drop, and trying to squeeze on with 3 other people with all your gear is even worse.
Click for larger image
After doing it once last year I just ski down on whatever shit they have on Sunday Punch.

Nov 2 2012 3:27PM
0 0
profile picture
schmuck
Posts: 1974 - Karma: 53,161
And when I rode it this May there was no safety bar on it, where as there were safety bars on every other chair at Mammoth. Tight.


Nov 2 2012 3:31PM
0 0
profile picture
dethor
Posts: 40 - Karma: 519

Witnessing an avalanche taking place under the chairlift that you're riding might be a bit scary :° ...

Nb: If you understand French you should listen to the cameraman he's such an idiot ...
Nov 2 2012 3:41PM
0 0
profile picture
C_Thomps-12
Posts: 639 - Karma: 26
i'm not to familiar with whistler bc because ive never skied there, but when i was there in the summer, peak2peak didnt scare me but "peak express?" did (dont know if thats the right name, just the one that take you to the peak of whistler)
Nov 2 2012 4:02PM
0 0
profile picture
skier_boy26
Posts: 11295 - Karma: 502
When I was a kid I got scared of riding charlifts. I'm fine most of the time, EXCEPT:

Chairs that have a really short seat. Some of the newer quads have really short seats, and it feels like the backrest is practically pushing you out forward. Add some wind and/or a pack and FUCK THAT. I like a good deep seat.
Nov 2 2012 4:03PM
0 0
profile picture
Mister.F
Posts: 1206 - Karma: 169
Wasn't there either but scary shit
Nov 2 2012 4:16PM
0 0
profile picture
whipple
Posts: 1415 - Karma: 5,167
HAHAHAHAHA. thats awesome
Nov 2 2012 4:20PM
0 0
profile picture
Peter.
Posts: 23796 - Karma: 13,014
i am fine with them but when they stop and i am riding them there is always that split second where you think 'fuck what if i am stuck here for hours'
Nov 2 2012 4:30PM
0 0
profile picture
roddy116
Posts: 10627 - Karma: 7,423
only time i ever put the bar down is when im up uber high on a lift.
Nov 2 2012 5:03PM
0 0
profile picture
Ac31stuff
Posts: 557 - Karma: 10
paridise chair at pow mow scares me a bit and also the old milisent chair at brighton but they upgraded it so its not scary anymore
Nov 2 2012 5:25PM
0 0
profile picture
skiP.E.I.
Posts: 7821 - Karma: 21,850
I was on that. I was about 10-15 chairs ahead of the tower that the cable fell off.
Nov 2 2012 5:41PM
0 0
profile picture
RedEyeTheJedi
Posts: 443 - Karma: 30
I drunkenly fell 15 feet off a lift at whistler and definitely nearly fell off a lift a second time at about 40 feet because a strap on my back pack and my friend was being a dick head thankfully my friends lifted me back up into the seat. I would have fallen if they didn't grab me.


Nov 2 2012 5:49PM
0 0
profile picture
keimel
Posts: 1231 - Karma: 2,250
hahah
Nov 2 2012 5:51PM
0 0
profile picture
Ski_The_E
Posts: 1036 - Karma: 944
It's weird, I used to be afraid of heights but I was never afraid of chairlifts. Last summer at Whistler, I had to go up and down three pretty long lifts to get to the park and every other day there was one person who was scared shitless going down.
Nov 2 2012 5:56PM
0 0
profile picture
roach1324
Posts: 215 - Karma: 331
white pass at fernie is really sketchy when its a full white out and you cant see the ground at all. you get kinda lost like you're just floating there or something, wind dosen't help in this situation
Nov 2 2012 6:18PM
0 0
profile picture
84891jnf92048
Posts: 11552 - Karma: 2,550
I like this thread, but i downvoted it because you're an admin, and just asked people to do this which goes against how this shit is supposed to work.
Nov 2 2012 6:21PM
0 0
profile picture
Reister
Posts: 279 - Karma: -20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwPP4i7ENvQ&noredirect=1

Chairlifts aren't too bad you just suck it up to do the sport we all love. the risk of having an accident on a snowmobile or a helicopter in the back country is of much higher significance.
Nov 2 2012 6:30PM
0 0
profile picture
last_tango
Posts: 2635 - Karma: 2,665
Lift operator here. Lets talk about safety overrides and derailments. Oh how about that phase 3 fincore in the lift house(more of a worry for me than a guest)? Oh I didn't even mention when the rollback brake fails? I can't see vids for some reason on my browser so this may have been posted on the thread

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8rXiN_Oys4
Nov 2 2012 6:43PM
0 0
profile picture
Jb12199
Posts: 47 - Karma: 139
If you've ever been to cranmore you know how sketchy the east chair is

Nov 2 2012 6:48PM
0 0
profile picture
volvotom
Posts: 2045 - Karma: 712
23 at mammoth and the upper gondi once you pass the top of facelift freak me out.


Nov 2 2012 7:50PM
0 0
profile picture
timmi
Posts: 12874 - Karma: 3,460
I'd say the scariest is high speed lifts. The chairs actually detach at the top and bottom of every rotation. Has to make you question exactly how secure they are on the cable. Fairly sure they are just resting on the damn thing.
Nov 2 2012 7:54PM
0 0
profile picture
cheener12
Posts: 2881 - Karma: 5,884
im not scared if I'm in a gondola because its safe. like an airplane is but if i think when on a chairlift ," wow, I could jump off this right now and I would die" then its really scary. also the same with high cliffs and balconies.
Nov 2 2012 7:57PM
0 0
profile picture
Ski_The_E
Posts: 1036 - Karma: 944
are you kidding my if any chairs are scary its the old, slow rusty ones
Nov 2 2012 7:58PM
0 0
profile picture
Skibumsmith
Posts: 5432 - Karma: 11,823
I don't like downloading Supreme at Alta.
Click for larger image
Nov 2 2012 8:05PM
0 0
profile picture
fujarome
Posts: 8630 - Karma: 1,561
remember another one, which will definitely put me in contention for loser of the thread.


...the summit platter at Lake Louise. You don't even go in the air! Just way too steep for a platter, at least for my comfort.
Nov 2 2012 8:14PM
0 0
profile picture
last_tango
Posts: 2635 - Karma: 2,665
I trust fixed grips way more than detaches. You get icing issues on the traction plates(the thing that all the wheels spin off of in the motor room) and you can have slippery traction plates not grip and have your chair slam into the next chair as you unload. Also more shit can happen on detaches. They have way more moving parts than a fixed grip.

Its very unlikely anything will go wrong with chair lifts but so much needs to work in order to work safely.
Nov 2 2012 8:14PM
0 0
profile picture
Aithline
Posts: 131 - Karma: 204
Just ski at Mt. Cain on Vancouver Island BC, two T-Bars, and some god powder. No Chairlifts!
Nov 2 2012 8:25PM
0 0
profile picture
.ZT.
Posts: 5679 - Karma: 2,792
I fell off the fast old Highline double chair (now replaced) at Vail when it was a sketchy double as a kid. I still am not really scared of chairs...
Click for larger image

However, the doubles with the bar in the middle and no safety bar at A-Basin are sketchy and same with the lift on the back of Steamboat which gets windy and is really high up.
Click for larger image

I also used to not like the single chair at Mad River inn VT, because it's fast and the bar is tiny, and does nothing.
Click for larger image
Nov 2 2012 8:25PM
0 0
profile picture
.Rybak.
Posts: 9017 - Karma: 9,864
i damn near piss myself when the chair goes over the rollers and it doesn't have a safety bar...
Nov 2 2012 8:37PM
0 0
profile picture
openmindportrait
Posts: 1157 - Karma: 818
Fuck that lift. One day I was on the last one from whistler to blackomb and I was alone and it was snowing like 3 inches an hour and 60 mph wind gusts. I was sure I would not make it across...
Nov 2 2012 9:04PM
0 0
profile picture
a_lurker
Posts: 255 - Karma: 121
that movie is freakin retarded
Nov 2 2012 9:34PM
0 0
profile picture
NollieOn
Posts: 350 - Karma: 37
even this article terrifies me
Nov 2 2012 9:55PM
0 0
profile picture
250r
Posts: 2276 - Karma: 1,013
haha thats the one chair that no matter what i always put the bar down on. I rode it up in the late summer once just sightseeing with out skis or gear or anything. Soo much scarier when you havent rode a chairlift in a couple months and theres no snow underneath you. Also something about having my skis on makes me feel more secure, why i dont know. But its fucking weird feeling when you ride a lift just wearing shoes.
Nov 2 2012 9:59PM
0 0
profile picture
Skithedeep
Posts: 645 - Karma: 39
I was just thinking about this chair. The light side gets suuuuper high. I'll probably have the enjoyment of downloading Supreme this winter since I'll be workin as a lifty.
Nov 2 2012 10:23PM
0 0
profile picture
malux94
Posts: 232 - Karma: 25
T-bars scare the SHIT out of me, even if I'm on the ground. And when they get steep, oh boy. And I'm not even gonna mention riding a t-bar with someone else, especially boarders...
Nov 2 2012 10:30PM
0 0
profile picture
DERS.
Posts: 6299 - Karma: 1,293
i dont think it gets much scarier than roca jack in portillo

Click for larger image

6 person t-bar up like a 50 degree slope

a 10 yr old girl died when a bunch of ppl hopped off including her coach and somehow she got caught by the neck. fuckin terrible.
Nov 2 2012 10:37PM
0 0
profile picture
JzD.
Posts: 1615 - Karma: 153
I used to be afraid of them, until one day I went in the singles line. I went up a dual lift with a man named Carl. I told him I was scared, he told me to shut my eyes and it will all be okay. It was a great ride, I dont know what happened but now I'm not afraid.

But in srs, some lifts are sketchy as fuck, especially in the wind...
Nov 2 2012 10:42PM
0 0
profile picture
Fluttershy
Posts: 586 - Karma: 763
when i was 11 i got stuck on a chairlift in extreme wind for an hour. it was a double chair and i was scared shitless. i used to be kind of sketched out, but i got over it
Nov 2 2012 11:02PM
0 0
profile picture
Jaimee.
Posts: 846 - Karma: 87
I tend to freak out a little bit on chairlifts on windy days.

Also, last year sometimes I'd be asked to have kids ride up with me from the ski school and this one little girl was leaning over the bar. I was trying to be calm and not freak out as I told her to not lean over so far and was holding on to her jacket. Scared the crap out of me. But, she was awesome and as soon as she got off the chair she yelled "I'M FLYING" and it was pretty much the cutest thing ever.
Nov 3 2012 1:17AM
0 0
profile picture
PeppermillReno
Posts: 4805 - Karma: -650
I love that lift but it gets sketchy as hell on windy days. That said it beats it being closed!
Nov 3 2012 1:58AM
0 0
profile picture
Lemuel
Posts: 14489 - Karma: 10,640
The first time I ever rode a chairlift I tried to jump into the net. Little 5 year old me didn't know what I was thinking.
Nov 3 2012 8:16AM
0 0
profile picture
Kebec
Posts: 627 - Karma: 74
i tried it but my parents held me back haha
Nov 3 2012 8:47AM
0 0
All times are Eastern (-5)