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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

OMG - how terrifying are ski lifts?

173 replies

bbcessex · 27/02/2018 20:34

😱😱😱 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?

OP posts:

Thread gallery

Morphene · 27/02/2018 21:46

oh god...snowboarding and ski-lifts are a terrible mix. I was always so rigid from the terror of balancing on the board against the pull of the drag lift that I had to sit at the top for 10 mins to get any feeling back in my legs.

Of course I was having lessons with some sort of Scandi-snowboarding God (SSG), with one other person who dropped out 1 hour into a weeks worth of lessons...so I didn't hugely mind....except for the day of the mushroom.

The mushroom was a foam shape that formed part of the children's mini slalom course, right at the bottom of the nursery slope. It was about 50cm high and had a stalk and a cap. After a particularly gruelling session I set off determined to final impress the SSG by getting all the way to the bottom without falling over, and successfully completed 1 very nice turn. This left me a little low on speed and drifting towards the slalom course. I tried to kick into the next turn, but just carried on sliding, my left leg still numb from the clenching terror of the drag lift. I tried again....I lost more speed but didn't change direction...I decided to continue gliding towards the mushroom, hoping to hit it at a glancing angle to get back on the other edge.

What actually happened was that I hit it slightly harder than I thought I would and tipped face down forwards over the top of it such that the mushroom cap pushed up in the middle of the triangle of my legs and the board. Having cleared my legs the cap then sprang back open effectively stapling me to the ground. So I was now face down in the snow with a mushroom pinning me to the ground...and an ever increasing queue of disgruntled kids waiting to come down the slalom run staring at me and jeering in Swedish.

It doubtful that I could have reached back and unclipped my board even if I hadn't become helpless with hysterical laughter...and so I just had to lie there and wait for the SSG to come and rescue me....which he did, and with such overwhelming professionalism - I mean he just casually apologised to the ski school kids, grabbed me up, set me on my feet and coasted me back to the bottom. 'We go up again then?' he asked all innocent enthusiasm....but no....I'm sorry to say that was the end of my snowboarding for the day...and possibly for the rest of my life.

Original poster

bbcessex · 27/02/2018 21:46

And being stuck overnight? Jeeez.. did they die of fright or hypothermia ?

OP posts:

ArialAnna · 27/02/2018 21:52

If you're scared of them in Europe please do not go skiing in America! Americans don't like using the safety bar (they are scared of getting stuck on the lift rather than falling off). They'd normally humour me and let me pull down the bar, but then they'd insist on lifting it about 30m from the top, so that last section was always terrifying!!

itstimeforanamechange · 27/02/2018 21:52

The solution is to do cross-country ski-ing instead.

TheBrilloPad · 27/02/2018 21:53

YANBU

I went skiing for the first time as a teen. The Bulgarian instructor didn't explain clearly at all how to get off the drag lift, so I let go of the thing between my legs, and immediately started "skiing" backwards at speed taking out a load of people coming up behind me! Never occurred to me to drop and roll until the whole mountain had stopped and stared at my terrified screams. Traumatised me.

Papergirl1968 · 27/02/2018 21:53

Crying with laughter at the clip, Nanny. I wonder what happened to the poor woman who couldn’t get off. That would be me.

Piffpaffpoff · 27/02/2018 21:56

I was on a beginners t-bar at Aviemore the other week (quicker to use the surface lifts to the top than wait on the Funicular) and a beginner in front of me came off about 1/4 of the way up, managed to grab the bar and then held on for dear life. They managed to stay on, being dragged along the ground, face first, for the entire lift. It was stupid, but quite impressive!

Papergirl1968 · 27/02/2018 21:57

Hours of entertainment coming up googling ski lift fails!

cariadlet · 27/02/2018 22:01

YANBU

I'd never thought about them before. I've never been skiing because the thought of sliding down a mountain on 2 pieces of wood sounds terrifying and a little bit crazy. Now I've another reason to be too scared to ski.

Although I do quite like the idea of a skiing holiday. I'd send dp and dd off skiing while I would sit in a chalet in front of an open fire, curled up with a good book and occasionally stopping to look out at the beautiful snow.

ZandathePanda · 27/02/2018 22:02

NannyR Both my kids rushed downstairs to check I was ok as I laughed so hard I choked.

AJPTaylor · 27/02/2018 22:04

I was forced onto the chair lift at Alum Bay IOW in 1978. It had a lasting affect on me. Never going skiing

Historydweeb · 27/02/2018 22:06

YADNBU, terrifying. I didn't expect it to be so high up!!

MrsJoshDun · 27/02/2018 22:07

Now if you were on this lift when this happened it would have been scary.

PiggyPlumPie · 27/02/2018 22:09

I'm with you! Blizzard Beach water park in Florida has one to take you up to a slide. I have never been so scared sitting on one with my 7 yo, both in swimming costumes.

They seem so insecure! Give me a stupidly high and fast rollercoaster any day.

MrsJoshDun · 27/02/2018 22:09

At least a lot of ski lifts have the right number of gates for the right number of seats now.

Years ago in Tignes a friend’s dad got knocked unconscious in the scrum for a chairlift. 7 people lined up and only 6 seats.

bestbefore · 27/02/2018 22:10

Worst one I ever did was a single, unmanned one in salze doux in Italy, I think in 2002. You had to take off your skis and hold them and the poles, sit on this single seat and try not to shit yourself.

Best ones were this year in Austria with heated seats, 6 man chairs with automatic bars (up and down) and canopies if it was snowing - lovely!

LilacClouds · 27/02/2018 22:15

YANBU. I hate them.

I have a fear of not being in the right position when at the front of the queue, dropping a pole, glove or something else, not getting off at the right time, falling over when getting off causing a bottleneck, I hate button tows if you don't catch the button at the right time and have to get the next one causing the queue to sigh behind you, or if you fall off it half way up. I hate T bar tows when you're sharing with someone much lighter/heavier/taller/shorter than you are, I hate hanging on for grim life when the button or t bar lift stops and start unexpectedly...

basically I only like the social element and shopping element of skiing with a little bit of very nice skiing in a non-busy area.

The rest of it, eurgh. Lumping heavy skis and poles around. Watching a ski or pole skid off halfway down the run if you fall over. Falling over. Snow on your mask. Cold wrists. Having to peel 100 layers off for a wee.

Why do people love it so much?!

Muchtoomuchtodo · 27/02/2018 22:20

There is nothing more terrifying than being responsible for somebody else's non English speaking very small child on a chairlift!

LeighaJ · 27/02/2018 22:22

bbcessex

Guessing you're not a fan of theme parks either.

Flomper · 27/02/2018 22:24

Im fine with ski lifts myself but skiing the last 3 years with my 5,6 then 7y old has nearly made me reconsider, particularly the chairlifts. He has to sit forward to get his legs over and then I was constantly petrified he was going to slip through. Then there was the time he dropped his ski pole and it hit the lift operator ......

How they survive ski is beyond me. One time when he was 5 he came back and, over dinner, casually told me that he had "almost died" that day when he fell off the side of a lift but luckily a "nice lady" grabbed him and hauled him back in (thankyou nice lady!).

Flomper · 27/02/2018 22:25

ski school

CatsAndCairngorms · 27/02/2018 22:33

TheMildManneredMilitant the gondola up the Aiguille du Midi is v relaxing compared to getting down to the Mer du Glace once you’re up

MrsJoshDun · 27/02/2018 22:42

is that the path to the start of the Vallee Blanch?

I took the train up the met de Glace in the late 80s. You got off the train and it was a short vertical rock face down to the glacier. There were two ladders hammered into the rock face, getting off the top ladder and inching across to the top of the bottom ladder was scary.

But now I’ve heard the glacier has shrunk and it’s so far down there’s a cable car to get to the glacier!?

wowfudge · 27/02/2018 22:45

I've only been skiing once, but I loved the lifts, apart from the drag lift which was dependent on people using it correctly. Dropped a pole getting on a chair lift, but the person behind me in the queue picked it up and brought it up for me.

nancy75 · 27/02/2018 22:45

Fine with gondolas, the open chair lifts scared the shit out of me. Went skiing once in France in my teens, the higher we got on the chair lift the foggier it got, friend & I were panicking we wouldn’t know when to get off as you couldn’t see a thing ( we were terrified we would get off too early & fall, the lift was v high)
They had a man at the top ringing a bell to let you know when to get off!
On the way down the bloody thing broke down & we were stuck sitting on it for about an hour, the massive fir trees below looked very very small & it was hideous.

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