OMG - how terrifying are ski lifts?

[bbcessex]

😱😱😱 just watching a video on my friend’s Facebook page; she’s been skiing.

I’ve never been - quite fancy the skiing, but there is absolutely no way I could get on an open ski lift.. I don’t like ‘open heights’ - makes me tremble just watching the videos 😱😱

AIBU to think you have to be a dare devil for even the ski lift, met alone the black runs?

I would LOVE going skiing just to go round and round on the ski lifts all day. Mind you my sister and i spent a good deal of time staying on the paternoster lift at University while it did the over and under bits between ups and downs Rebels I know how to live.

I think I would be totally useless at all parts of skiing including the chairlift!

I would be Kevin

Sympathies about being claustrophobic on gondolas.

Lovely to see “on the piste” again.

Who remembers about 18 months ago when those poor people got stUck over nIght in one. I'd have had kittens.
Sorry not helpful.

Kevin made my family come together in laughter. That took a lot!

Oooh yes, Mrs JoshDun - I went on that last year for the first time in years and couldn't believe how nice it is now. Smooth & fast, and seats about 8 people. Years ago, it was a 2-seater, with slatted seats like a deck-chair held together with a few bits of string - it was seriously terrifying going over the pylons and listening to the 'ka-dung-ka-dung-ka-dung' and praying you stayed on. There was also a weird chairlift on the glacier there where you got on in the middle. Health and safety? Pah!! Again, that's been replaced now

Not helpful at all!

They terrify me. I don't ski, but we like Alpine summer holidays. I could not go on an open one and only cope with the cabin style ones by looking straight ahead, gripping the seat and controlling my breathing to deal with the panic.

I think Kevin wins the actual laugh-out-loud award 👏👏👏👏

I've been skiing once, and I was 14 at the time.

Best advice, just fucking get on with it and don't give it a moment's thought. It'll be fine. Overthinking will not help 😂

Ah, the confidence of youth...

nannyR that clip is hilarious. I love the woman muttering "it's just one trauma after another". Best thing is how hilarious they find falling over! God I remember that thump as the chair lift whacked you in the back of the knees and you inelegantly slumped into it, skis akimbo!

I thought I was ok with gondolas until i went on the one that flies up Aguile du Midi from Chamonix. I think its the highest in Europe, it's like taking off and then it sort of winches you up the final bit of cliff face. Really scary and claustrophobic as you are jam packed in with everyone else.
Three weeks after I did that a group of tourists were stranded overnight on the connecting gondola!
Never again.

Getting on and off the chairlift is pretty scary if you are a beginner. First day skiing in France, with school, we had to use the chairlift. Thankfully a teacher practically hoisted me on and off. Am scared of heights so I have no idea why I opted for the trip. I loved it though.

stringbean. It was still the old two seater when I went on it. And yes to the weird glacier one.

In the summer when mountain biking in the Alps, you have to put your bike on the chair lift in front then get in the next chair lift.

I was asked to take a child with me (by the mountain bike school) so had to deal with my bike then get the child on the lift all in the space of about 5 seconds! I didn’t put my bike on properly and it fell off (thankfully straight away not when we were high up!)

Never been skiing but we went to Llandudno in Wales years ago and I had a massive meltdown about going on the cable cars that go up the Great Orme there. Dh and kids wanted to go on but when we got to the booth to pay and I looked up at them it was like "err, no way". I refused to let him take the kids on, they looked absolutely ancient and I convinced myself they would all die if I allowed them on! Dh must've seen how panicked I was as he eventually let it go which isn't like him once he's set his mind to something but I was literally ready to have a physical fight with him if he tried to take the kids on! Terrifying.

I will never go skiing for that reason.

Nope, YANBU. Fuck that, I would rather sell a kidney before I got on one of those

T-bars are the devil's work, if your partner goes, you go. I quite liked chair lifts!

In Japan, a lot of the lifts don’t have any safety bars. Consequently no one bothers pulling them down on the lifts that do. The teeny 2 seaters fairly swing when the wind gets up too.

Haha - yes, that's the one. But it's a lovely experience now that they've upgraded it (6 seats, not 8). And the views are just stunning!!!

I want the whole of On the Piste back on telly.

Being a beginner falling over with other beginners is the best bit about skiing.

Whilst skiing with school aged 12, I fell off a chair lift as it scooped us up. I landed awkwardly, quite a long way down and was very lucky not to be injured.

A few days later, someone fell off the button lift we were on and we all tried to ski round them as we got pulled up a very steep, long, incline. I nearly fell off, managed to hold on to the base but, by the time we reached the top, I had the worst shakes in both arms where I’d gripped on for dear life!

How I wasn’t injured during the 2 ski trips I went on, I’ve no idea! This was the eighties, before helmets, etc.

MrsJosh 😱😱😱OMG