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General whine - I hate tow ropes.

Iwannaski

Angel Diva
To coax DD off the bunny hill and onto a green, I told her we could go at her pace all night.

this consisted of going up the tow rope to increasing heights and then coming down... actually GREAT practice for her and allowed me to practice all those slow turns.

BUT. Meant a LOT of grabbing and catching tow rope because she went up 1/2 a support pole at a time, and 5-7 runs at each height. the first pole was literally one turn-ish from the bottom.

My arms did not enjoy this. This would have been a good time to stash the poles, btw, but I was too lazy to hike to the car. Mistake.

Also, at one point, I sent her with her brother and friend so I could take a break, they coaxed her all the way to the top and then we spent the rest of the night taking the tow rope all the way up. Great when you’re a 67# 9 year old. Suboptimal when you’re a 40 something old mama. the things we do for the ones we love.

When asked about what happened to get her to the top, she told me, “well, they kind of pushed me. But not in a bad way, just in a nice way”

LOL. Lots of green slope practice was had, though, y’all. I determined all kinds of things I want to work on on my lesson on Wednesday.

Also, the kids and I developed the three rules of learning to ski:
1) Lessons
2) Friends who will both respect your boundaries AND challenge you
3) You have to want to do it
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
Rope tows are evil. I used one when I first started to ski, and I think I fell as much going up as I did skiing down. Plus they're murder on your gloves.

After many, many years, I did a rope tow a couple years ago, and it was just as lovely as I remembered; nearly pulled my arms out of my sockets.

Glad she had a good time.
 

liquidfeet

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Me too.

There's a way to wrap your soon-to-be-pulled-arm around the back of your waist then grab the tow. To do this you have to grab the tow with your outside arm and hand, the one that's not next to the rope. This tactic eliminates the arm-pulling torture.
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
Me too.

There's a way to wrap your soon-to-be-pulled-arm around the back of your waist then grab the tow. To do this you have to grab the tow with your outside arm and hand, the one that's not next to the rope. This tactic eliminates the arm-pulling torture.

Yeah, I know about this. It works to a point —and then it doesn't.
 

Iwannaski

Angel Diva
did I mention that I dropped my poles while on the rope? Got off, practiced side slipping down past them so that I could pick them up.... would not have thought to practice that to help myself if not for this group.

:hail:
 

SallyCat

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
We have a local, volunteer-built rope tow that is absolutely savage. Steep, then really steep, and it drags on the ground when nobody's on it so it's always full of impacted snow.

Most people have gloves specifically for the tow; mine are Kinco pigskin gloves. Pigskin seems to work well.
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
We have a local, volunteer-built rope tow that is absolutely savage. Steep, then really steep, and it drags on the ground when nobody's on it so it's always full of impacted snow.

Most people have gloves specifically for the tow; mine are Kinco pigskin gloves. Pigskin seems to work well.

That's the one I did that absolutely killed my arms! It's brutal.
 

scandium

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Tow ropes are evil. Nutcracker tows are a special kind of evil that I have yet to master due to my fear of getting bitten by them....I usually take a friend to put the rope back on the pulleys behind me!
 

Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
I grew up using rope tows. Rope side arm/hand in front, other side arm in back with poles. We actually had to change tows in the middle of the ride up. Did in a number of ski jackets. Eventually patched the left side (seem to be the side most were on) with leather so it would wear better. And then got a "good jacket" to wear when we went someplace that had a chair or T-bar.

There was an aid that you could by that was similar to the nutcracker. It was a leather belt you wore that had a nutcracker type holder YOU placed over the rope. So you had control of this thing. Saved mitts and gloves.
 

Christy

Angel Diva
At Stevens Pass, some of the runs finish below the lodges, and you have to take a tow rope (or herringbone) up the slope to get to them. It is one of the things that sucks about Stevens Pass.
 

SkiBam

Angel Diva
I grew up using rope tows. Rope side arm/hand in front, other side arm in back with poles. We actually had to change tows in the middle of the ride up. Did in a number of ski jackets. Eventually patched the left side (seem to be the side most were on) with leather so it would wear better. And then got a "good jacket" to wear when we went someplace that had a chair or T-bar.

I too spent my early years of skiing using rope tows. At age 13 or whatever, I thought they were wonderful compared to climbing in the bush, which is what I had been doing previously. My rope tow experiences were at Chicopee in Kitchener, Ontario. I went back there a few years ago to meet up with @diymom (we had a great day!) and they now have high-speed quads! Anyway, the rope tows sure did a job on mitts and jackets. Like @Jilly, we rode with the rope-side arm in front and the other arm in back. Truly, I don't know how I did it!
 

Iwannaski

Angel Diva
Kids and ropes... fine. They’re light, they have no nagging musculoskeletal peccadilloes and they don’t care.

Woman in her 40s with a few extra lbs? She gets to curse herself for that extra pandemic indulgence alllllllllll the way up the hill.

:doh:
 

diymom

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I went back there a few years ago to meet up with @diymom
Just a few? If I remember my youngest (now 19) was around 9 or 10 at the time :smile:. I still follow Chicopee on Instagram eventhough I'm many miles away now, such great memories from there. I can't imagine what it is like to ski there since they had to shut down the Sugarbowl lift losing the run on the south side near the tubing park (can't remember what it had been called, maybe Front?) and Sugarbowl, the only run they had that was more of a real black at the top. Having those helped to spread people out a bit on busier days.
 

SkiBam

Angel Diva
Just a few? If I remember my youngest (now 19) was around 9 or 10 at the time :smile:. I still follow Chicopee on Instagram eventhough I'm many miles away now, such great memories from there. I can't imagine what it is like to ski there since they had to shut down the Sugarbowl lift losing the run on the south side near the tubing park (can't remember what it had been called, maybe Front?) and Sugarbowl, the only run they had that was more of a real black at the top. Having those helped to spread people out a bit on busier days.

Okay okay, more than a few! But I remember it as if it were yesterday. My general memories of Chicopee from when I was a kid are pretty vague but I do remember a run called Front. When I met up with you, diymom, it was like I'd never been there before – all looked so different. I do remember with the rope tows you just assumed your jacket would be severely marked, and your mitts would likely be ruined. Mind you I was about 10 so who cared about the jacket!
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Knowing how to use a rope tow can be useful. Was just at ABasin for the first time. There is a short rope tow that eliminates what would otherwise be a 5-min slight uphill walk to get to the top of the ridge. If the chairlift went any higher, it would be on wind hold too often.

Telluride had a short "commuter" rope tow between two sections as I remember. So slow that a boarder who couldn't stay on made faster progress carrying his board and walking.

I learned to deal with a rope tow as a young teen long ago. Helps to like rock climbing and have more upper body strength than most petite women.
 

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