bounceswoosh
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Same reason people leave their shopping carts to wander in the wind at grocery parking lots - and I have the ding in my car to prove it =/
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What happened to my poles?
- Thread starter Moonrocket
- Start date
Same reason people leave their shopping carts to wander in the wind at grocery parking lots - and I have the ding in my car to prove it =/
Mrs Hutchins
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
This is a pet peeve of mine. We were at Okemo this past weekend, and it was really busy. A lot of people had left their skis just on the ground right where you had to walk to get to the base lodge. There was A LOT of corn snow in the area, and people's skis were completely hidden in the snow. I saw one ski patrol lady almost break her face when she tripped over someone's binding. You couldn't even see the ski at all. It was ridiculous.
But, even aside from being a safety hazard, would you really want your skis to be stepped on by all sorts of random people in their ski boots? Geeze!
segacs
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I almost never see this, except occasionally at peak periods when the ski racks are overloaded. Like, lunchtime at the top of Tremblant on a bluebird day on a Saturday, for instance.
On the other hand, I saw it everywhere in France. Maybe it's a cultural thing?
SkiNana
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Waaait a minute . . . .
A goes out and locks up B's skis because B forgot (So one assumes A had locked his, or he wouldn't have been concerned about B forgetting to do his own, right?
A comes back in, with C, I guess, and they all continue to eat, drink, visit, or whatever.
"A comes out to find his skis unlocked but since he's already forgotten that B was going to lock them, does not spare it a second thought, and skies off."
Except that B was never going to lock A's skis, A was going to lock B's skis!
Who's on first?
Or am I the only one confused and I'm getting it totally wrong?
And . . . what's a "SkiKey"? We almost never have a theft problem at Big Sky, but were told someone was making the rounds a few weeks ago. I now have brand new skis and pretty darn good 2012 ones: I'd hate to lose either of them! I also hate to carry a lock!
Serafina
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
One guy forgets to lock his skis, his buddy has to go out anyway to meet someone else and offers to lock the first guy's up while he's out there, locks up the wrong pair, and the first guy forgets that the other guy was going to lock the skis up at all and so is not surprised to find his skis out in the rack, unlocked, and skis off...leaving some poor third party's skis locked up in the rack. You have to have the second party in this picture, or the explanation for some third guy's skis getting locked up becomes insanely complicated. The owner of the skis is going to know whether he's locking up his own skis or not - and one way or another, he's going to know they were locked whether they were his or not. So if he comes out and finds his skis there, unlocked, he's got to wonder whose skis it was that he locked up, and - presumably - retrieve his lock, thus leaving the third party's skis unlocked, which did not happen. The alternative is that the guy gets drunk while skiing and is drunk while locking up the third guy's skis, which is how he doesn't come to realize he's locking up someone else's skis, and remains drunk (or gets drunker) while he's taking a break, which is how he comes to forget that he locked up a pair of skis to start with. Another alternative is that someone thought that they'd lock up a stranger's skis, count on the owner of those skis not noticing that their skis are locked up, or not being willing or able to get assistance from the mountain employees for this, and then just abandoning the skis until a later point in time when the thief can sneak back, release the skis from their bondage, and steal them.
The first option just requires crossed lines of communication and an average level of forgetfulness. The second requires someone with profoundly impaired awareness or major mental disturbance. The third requires someone who is profoundly stupid, but with a low cunning. While I think that you could find people in the last two categories if you look, the first type of person is someone I encounter in every single lift line. Not paying attention, talking at cross-purposes with other people in the group, and creating coordination problems for everyone in the group by doing so. Can't swing a cat without hitting one of these people on the hill, weekends.
The first option just requires crossed lines of communication and an average level of forgetfulness. The second requires someone with profoundly impaired awareness or major mental disturbance. The third requires someone who is profoundly stupid, but with a low cunning. While I think that you could find people in the last two categories if you look, the first type of person is someone I encounter in every single lift line. Not paying attention, talking at cross-purposes with other people in the group, and creating coordination problems for everyone in the group by doing so. Can't swing a cat without hitting one of these people on the hill, weekends.
Serafina
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
My lock is a little plastic combo lock, very lightweight, pretty low profile, fits easily in any of the pockets on my outerwear. Will not deter someone who really wants to nick my gear, but will prevent dingbats and spaceshots from wandering off with my stuff unwittingly.
Tammy
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Normally the poles I ski are junior poles and I'd like to think that they're too colorful, short, or cheesy looking for most thieves' tastes.
I've never used a Ski Key before. From the looks of it, the ski area needs to purchase racks where this lock will fit them. I've also seen people use cable locks like these.
I've never used a Ski Key before. From the looks of it, the ski area needs to purchase racks where this lock will fit them. I've also seen people use cable locks like these.
skibum4ever
Angel Diva
I left a pair of pricy but beat-up poles (I had purchased them for $10 from the thrift shop) outside the restroom at Mammoth. Came out and they were gone! Checked with Lost and Found but they were never turned in. I was late for a scheduled lesson, so Lost and Found gave me a pair of cheap poles which they then allowed me to keep.
This discouraged me from spending real money on a good pair of poles. I'm still using the ones they so kindly allowed me to adopt.
This discouraged me from spending real money on a good pair of poles. I'm still using the ones they so kindly allowed me to adopt.
segacs
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Pretty much everywhere I ski is on the SkiKey system.
https://www.skikey.com/locations/
It makes it a lot easier to just throw the tiny little lock in my pocket and not have to worry about other systems.
The only challenge can be when the racks are frozen shut, or when they're overcrowded and you can't find a berth to lock your skis. But most of the time it's not an issue.
https://www.skikey.com/locations/
It makes it a lot easier to just throw the tiny little lock in my pocket and not have to worry about other systems.
The only challenge can be when the racks are frozen shut, or when they're overcrowded and you can't find a berth to lock your skis. But most of the time it's not an issue.
Inoffensive Nickname
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Two years ago, when we purchased our season passes, they threw in ski keys for the first 100 people who got their passes. They had just purchased several ski key racks and it appears they are phasing out the old racks. What's frustrating is to see where people have "reserved" empty spots in the racks by locking their ski key in place with no board or skis to protect. They also have several racks attached to the walls inside by the lockers (which is also right next to the free equipment check), which have been taken over by locals who leave their equipment at the hill. This frustrates me too, but possibly because 1) I didn't think of it first. 2) The last time I left my skis there (to get tuned), I ended up having to have a buddy retrieve them for our next trip which was at a different hill (or else drive 4 hours round trip myself), so I always take my skis home, but it would be so nice to not have to haul them.
I do think that too. I know DH had a brand new (back then) set of X-Screams that got stolen from the bar on the mountain at St. Anton. You have to ski down from there, and he found that there were a similar, but shorter set of rental X-Screams in the rack near where his had been. Asked around in the bar - no takers on the rentals, so he put them on and skied them down. We walked around main street and VOILA - there are his brand new skis (with his name engraved on them and everything) sitting in another rack outside another bar. He went in and yelled that whatever moron had taken his skis could now find their stupid rentals in the rack.
But anyway - I'm pretty sure there are a LOT of people who rent skis and can't remember exactly what they were, other than, say, YELLOW. (Add alcohol in the case of apres-ski and I'm sure it just gets more common!) If their bindings fit and they look vaguely familiar, they take them and go. It's idiotic, and I can't imagine that turns out well when they try to return their rental skis, but I'd bet that rental shops get the wrong skis returned to them fairly regularly (hence all the big signs and writing people's names on a sticker... but if it didn't happen there wouldn't be a need for the big signs!). If your skis do go missing, it is a good place to check in with, just in case.
On the bright side for me - there aren't THAT many telemarkers and having tele gear makes it pretty tough for the average ski renter who can't identify what they rented to accidentally click into them and ski away!
Moonrocket
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I had a lady freak out on me for trying to steal her rental skis. She demanded I show her the rental sticker with my name on it. I asked her if she had rented skis with AT bindings. Eventually she let me go with my skis.
bounceswoosh
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
"What on earth - these bindings are broken!"
bounceswoosh
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
A guy I ski with put rainbow tape on his poles and skis. Impossible not to see.
