Newbie with ski/walking pass question

The T&Cs only seem to appear when you actually try and buy the lift pass online, and go through to the payment bit! You don't seem to get the option to view them before then!

I find most resorts manage to keep a couple of lifts open in bad weather so they don't have to refund any lift passes.

gadgetgirl79 wrote:The T&Cs only seem to appear when you actually try and buy the lift pass online, and go through to the payment bit! You don't seem to get the option to view them before then!

I find most resorts manage to keep a couple of lifts open in bad weather so they don't have to refund any lift passes.

Gadgetgirl,
When I bought my lift passes online, I expect there was one of those boxes I had to tick, to say I'd read them, and I probably just ticked it and didn't even really notice the T & C's.

The day they shut all the lifts in VT it was extremely windy. We went out first thing, in a group lesson, and ski-ing back down into VT it was so windy it blew my woolly hat off and then back up the piste (some kind person ski-ing behind me picked it up for me). Then they shut the lifts. They tried to keep the 2 drag lifts going, but they even had to give up on those after a while, and shut everything. It was annoying, because we wasted a day's lift pass and a day's ski-ing lessons :evil:

Ally

On our transfer day in Obergurgl we bought a walk on pass to go and have lunch up the mountain. It was a chipped card which we put inside our jackets as usual and just walked through like everyone else. No one would've known any different. You don't normally use your pass to come down as they've obviously correctly assumed you needed one to get up there in the first place.

Personally, I'd give it a shot.

caron-a wrote:On our transfer day in Obergurgl we bought a walk on pass to go and have lunch up the mountain. It was a chipped card which we put inside our jackets as usual and just walked through like everyone else. No one would've known any different.

They do, the RFID card is read by the gate as you pass and the operator display shows the pass type, if there's a photo on file it's displayed, if it's a senior pass or a child pass it displays in big letters along with if it's a ski pass or a pedestrian pass. It's one of the reasons these systems were installed, it's easier for the operators to spot fraud. The route the pass has taken around the mountain is also stored, if it's being misused at one gate the operators at the other gates will have to answer how they missed, for example, a senior pass being used by a 18 year old.

caron-a wrote:You don't normally use your pass to come down as they've obviously correctly assumed you needed one to get up there in the first place.

That depends where you are, a lot of lifts do check for descent. There's even one in Switzerland that checks you've not got a ski pass as only pedestrians are allowed to descend. Likewise, any lifts used in the summer tend to have gates installed descent as a matter of course. There's no normal, it depends where you are really.

caron-a wrote:Personally, I'd give it a shot.

I wouldn't :D I think most people know the T&C's don't allow transfer, it might be inconvenient but the only reason you're there is for the operators to make money and in some places it's legally quite serious, on a par with riding the London Underground without tickets for example.

Here in Switzerland the Swiss Alpine Club did a survey about single trip and pedestrian tickets and published a table about where was the most expensive and so on, it made interesting reading. Around the Jungfrau pedestrians need a second mortgage to ride the lifts while in other places it's a couple of francs and in some locations some people don't pay at all for pedestrian access.

there you go then gixergirl, you've finally got your answer.