using a drag lift

No wonder the lift lines are so long in Europe :shock:

Trencher

Dorset Boy wrote:
Innsbrucker - sounds like you either need more practice at letting your skis run flat or check the canting on your boots.

Bit of both, probably. Though as an inexperienced, occasional social skier, finely adjusted boots (or skis) would be wasted on me. Anyway, I can schuss in a reaonably straight line, though it has a kind of kamikaze feel I don't much like.

Actually I rarely use schlep lifts, tend to use the little trains that go up as they seem quicker. The one drag lift I know, called Kaltwasserlift at Seefeld, has a narrow, sometimes steep, and wildly uneven bed. No running flat there.

I find it is possible to use a T-bar alone. It is not easy with a badly matched person. On the lower slope at Seefeld you sometimes see an adult with a child on the other side. That must take extra skill on the adult's part.

When I first started skiing, I imagined that you had to fit the T bar between your legs somehow :lol: Then our instructor showed us how to do it properly.

How do you get off at the top if there are 2 sharing the T? We've only done it as singles, when the instructor showed us how to push the T off to the side to dismount. Obviously you can't do this if there's another person on the other side of the T.

Allie

Allie,
I don't know how you're supposed to do it, but when I was using one at Tignes with my daughter, I did a 'one, two, three' countdown so we could let go at the same time at the top. I did find the T-bar much harder than the ordinary button lift, although it was the first time I'd used one for 35 years, so maybe I just need more practice.

Ally

My little 'un doesn't like the button lifts as she's not very quick at grabbing the thing as it whizzes past :lol: In Niederau last year the lifties used to slow it down to make it easier for her to grab.

Allie,
I think the lifties usually help the kids, because it is very difficult for them to reach the button. There's usually someone at the bottom of all the drag lifts, to help people.

Each lift seems to have its own peculiarities - one at La Rosiere used to be very fast and lift you off the ground at the beginning (lots of people fell off this one), another one at La Rosiere was very steep, and then there was one at Val Thorens that even experienced skiers (upper intermediates) used to fall off (to the despair of our instructor). And sometimes the metal bars get tangled up at the top, so you try and reach for the wrong one. Also, the track you slide on can get quite icy, which knocks a few people off, and then if they haven't pisted the side of the drag lift and you fall off you can get stuck in deep snow (that happened to a friend of mine and they had to get rescued by a snowplough).

The only lifts I've actually crashed on are chair lifts, getting off at the top. Once I was taking a young kid up for his instructor and when he got off he skied over my skis and we both went smash (luckily he was okay), and another time (on the same chair lift in Obergurgl) my daughter and I both went smash getting off, and rolled down the slope and through the tape, but I've no idea who's fault it was or what happened.

I've even had problems with gondolas. In Zell am See they had one where you have to put your skis on the outside in a sort of rack before you get in it, and then take them out at the top after you get out, and I was trying to get mine and my daughter's skis out, and they got stuck and I was sort of trying to jog along beside the gondola and pull them out (it was going quite slowly though).

Ally

acarr wrote:How do you get off at the top if there are 2 sharing the T

Hi guys

I think what is considered normal practice would be for the person slope (piste) side of the T lift to go first and then the one furthest away from the piste is responsible for coming off second and throwing it away, or at least that's always been what's happened in my case. I always assume if I'm slope side I'll get off first and leave them to release it, or if I'm away from the piste let them get off first and then get rid of it myself.

This obviously makes sense from both a space and safety point of view as once the piste side person has left there's then room for the other to come across after releasing the T lift.

Thanks Jenno,
If you are paired with someone you don't know, do you discuss this with them first, or just go ahead with it?. And what happens if you can go either way at the top?

Ally