Dumb ideas.

[Kano]

I've come across people who don't really ski away from the lift and congregate with their friends there, right in the way of anyone trying to get off the lift. Close enough that if a few more people were in their group, they'd get hit by the chair swinging around.

Sounds like your "congregation point" is a bit closer to the chair than what I'm thinking of, but it sure seems like the "snowboarder code" to stop as in the way as possible when they get off the lifts. A couple of them, of course leads to lots of them, since once there are a couple of boarders blocking the area, there's no place for the rest of them to get past in order to be out of the way while they re-board their boards!

Lifties letting kids hang their way up the lifts, boy, I'm sure glad I haven't seen that one! The liftie issues I've seen have been more that they're not paying attention when people start piling up when one doesn't make it off the chair. It doesn't take long to look like a pile of football players when they're busy staying "warm" in the lift shack at the top. Gotta admire the guys on the bunny hill lift, settling kids on, and scooping the ones who don't quite make it off the chair out of the way before the next tumbler dismounts!

Kano

 

[lil mountain girl]

The dumbest!

it really upsets me when people ski in permanatly closed areas . . .
not only are they tresspassing, they're putting their lives as well as MANY OTHERS in danger!!!

grrrrrr .....

it's really a shame they had to learn their lesson the hard way.

 

[SueNJ]

Are you talking about paved lots? I do this pretty often actually, our lot is not paved, but we don't have a huge parking lot, so if it gets full you have to park down the road. I find it easier to just put my boots on and go straight to the lift rather than break a sweat then go inside and change and then back out? No way I'm straight to the lift. I have done no significant damage to my boots. You can replace these parts if they become worn though. And sometimes, if you head out earlier than the sand truck or hit the opposite side he left from, you can ski right from your last run to the car.

Do you check the soles of your boots carefully before you lock into your skis? Even a small pebble stuck on the bottom of the boot could interfere with the bindings holding you to the skis correctly, and you could experience a dangerous prerelease. To me, it's just not worth the risk, or the damage (however minor) that it does to the bottom of my boots. I have replaceable heel thingies, but I'd rather not have to replace them.

Besides, by the end of a day of skiing, I can't wait to get my feet out of my ski boots and back into my comfy hiking boots.

 

[sleddog]

Two snowboarders jumped off the chair this weekend - fortunately didn't cause any additional swinging of the chair, but they could have derailed the chairs. I think hill management got hold of them at the bottom of the hill - since the liftie radioed down. I hope they got their lift ticket pulled!

 

[Gloria]

Do you check the soles of your boots carefully before you lock into your skis? Even a small pebble stuck on the bottom of the boot could interfere with the bindings holding you to the skis correctly, and you could experience a dangerous prerelease. To me, it's just not worth the risk, or the damage (however minor) that it does to the bottom of my boots. I have replaceable heel thingies, but I'd rather not have to replace them.

Besides, by the end of a day of skiing, I can't wait to get my feet out of my ski boots and back into my comfy hiking boots.

Thanks for the advice, but we are dealing with a whole different animal here. Our lot is snowpack over clay, which means even if they did put gravel there it would just sink on pressure due to the hydrophobic nature of hte clay keeping the h20 in the snow. My daughter and most kids for that matter ski down to their cars. Even if there are rocks they just can't apply enough pressure to begin to penetrate the wax even. They just sink into the snow. It's actually the reason we have so many cars go over the edge of the road. No matter how much gravel they put down it just moves back down under the snowpack after a couple of cars have driven over it.
Personally, I like to bypass the lodge and get to the car quicker so I can be one of the first cars down after the snowplow/gravel truck. Only about five of us get this unique pole position and then it's as if they never even put the gravel down. It just dissappears. The snowpack is so soft I just can't see it really doing any real damage to my boots.

 

[IttyBittyBetty]

So many things I could list....

There are so many dumb things people do while skiing/riding, it's hard to limit myself. However, here are a few:

In addition to the dummies wearing camo in the trees, why would anyone where an all white ski outfit? It's hard enough to see someone in a whiteout when they're wearing bright colors!

Also, I just don't get the thing about listening to music really loud on your iPod. Sometimes I pass a person (usually a young male snowboarder, I'm sorry to say) and I can hear his music 10 feet away. It's super dangerous to not be able to hear what's going on around you.

Beginners NOT reading the signs on certain lifts that say - "NO BEGINNER TERRAIN ACCESSED FROM THIS LIFT". I have a friend who's on ski patrol and he says that have to "escort" several people down every day for this reason!!!

Finally, morons who drive up to the mountains in their 2 wheel drive car with bald tires and no chains. If you can afford to ski the resorts, you can afford to put snow tires on your car or get chains.

 

[SueNJ]

Ha! I wish the parking lots where I usually ski were like that--so you could just ski up to your car if you got a prime parking space. In times of lower amounts of snow, we're lucky to be able to ski up to the ski racks in front of the lodge in some of the ski areas.

I think there was only one time where I opted to put my boots on in the car, and I was parked a stone's throw from a chairlift in the beginner area. Otherwise, it's way too far to hike in ski boots.

 

[Gloria]

Ha! I wish the parking lots where I usually ski were like that--so you could just ski up to your car if you got a prime parking space. In times of lower amounts of snow, we're lucky to be able to ski up to the ski racks in front of the lodge in some of the ski areas.

I think there was only one time where I opted to put my boots on in the car, and I was parked a stone's throw from a chairlift in the beginner area. Otherwise, it's way too far to hike in ski boots.

Actually it's when you don't get the prime spot that you're letting the kids ski to the car. Our lot is miserably small so if you don't get a space in there, you are parking down around the next switchback and you know, it's just too much to expect a kid to drag their stuff all that way, uphill a little even, after a full day of skiing. So we just keep em strapped in. We had to park here the other weekend and it was easier for me to drag her by her pole along to the car than expect her to get there with all her stuff herself in any decent time. But alas, you know we lose the snow eventually too. Then you're straight on the clay. And actually, I still do it in ski boots because, it washes off the plastic so much easier. Although it took me three attempts after last spring to get it all off, I just can't imagine scrubbing it off shoes. I do have some sorrell type boots, but man you pretty much have to chisel the crap out of those things, and where to scrape it off to drive? Not too many good choices that don't make matters worse. So in our case, booting it is just a better way. At least I can clank the boots together or scrape with my pole basket and knock the dirt off it easily. I won't even tell you about how hard it is to get off a black car. ooohhh huge problem in my life, I can never get it all off without a $10.00 wash. It's such a bummer.

 

[SueNJ]

What an ordeal you go through with all that clay! I know what you mean about getting it stuck in the treads of hiking boots or the like. You can pretty much forget about wearing them to walk around indoors at home.

 

[Gloria]

I should add that the stuff is frozen hard as cement in the morning. And if it's not, okay, I will definately pack my boots to the lodge in this case.

 

[jaydog]

As a patroller and former liftie, I've got plenty. Here's a few gems:

-late teens/early twenties male snowboarders who decide to teach their girlfriends to snowboard, and the first place they take them is up the intermediate chair.

-the father who made darn sure his 5-year old got on the lift safely while evidently believing his 7-year old would load just fine. He was trying to figure out why the safety bar wasn't going all the way down when the incredibly alert liftie (me!!) stopped the lift to help the 7-year old hanging off the front of the chair get back on.

-a group of teenage girls got to the top of an advanced run, decided they couldn't do it, took off their skis and pushed 'em on down the hill, thinking they'd walk down and pick their skis up at the bottom.

 

[Robyn]

-a group of teenage girls got to the top of an advanced run, decided they couldn't do it, took off their skis and pushed 'em on down the hill, thinking they'd walk down and pick their skis up at the bottom.

 

[MaineSkiLady]

Worst dumb idea thing I ever saw: this was a bazillion years ago. Bunch of freshies, 12+" - I was cruising toward bottom of a run, and an intermediate level teen came sailing by me, poles flailing, decided to get some "air" off the whale just ahead at bottom. The only problem was that it was NOT a whale - it was a PICNIC TABLE completely covered in snow, which was not imminently apparent from that angle of descent. He hit it at a good clip, and the resulting crack was either the wood bench or both his tibias, which were compound fractured. One of the ugliest mishaps I'd seen at that particular resort.

 

[num]

Oof, where was that MSL?

 

[MaineSkiLady]

Oof, where was that MSL?

Devils Head, January, 1978. The following year, I was at the bottom of what they call a double black run (toward the left, forgot name of run) when a guy hit a patch of ice at the bottom, couldn't stop (ice was clearly apparent) and nailed a tree. The crack wasn't the tree. It was his pelvis. I was standing about 6 feet away. Wow. Saw some nasty ones in my years there.

 

[Gloria]

Where I can shrug alot of the groups gathering etc. type stuff off, one thing I really hate to see is a ski instructor taking a group of kids in wedges down steep slopes. I always want to stop and ask:" Is the opposing edges drill suppose to teach them to ski in the back seat" I know from experience that certain types of parents will push the instructors into this, my kid isn't getting challenged, but in the same breath I see so many of these kids skiing in the back seat still, even after they are matching their skis. I really think it sets them up for failure. Some ski instructors just really need to say look parents...Of course not you guys on the board, but I see it all the time here. Parents really shouldn't be doing it either, but they don't always know better.