non-skiers using chairlift to come DOWN the mountain

mikeandangela wrote:Hi guys,

Can anyone help?!!

My wife recently went on her first skiing trip (Arinsal, Andorra).
She was fine on the drag lift at the nursery slope but when we used the chairlift to get to the upper slopes she absolutely freaked when she got off at the top and froze completely. She couldnt ski at all she just felt so unsafe. She was crying big time.

I asked the lift operator if she could get on the chairlift to go back down but he said no.

So we both took off our skis ond walked back down, she cried the whole way down.

She is not afraid of heights she just hates skiing.

Does anyone know of any resorts where she could use chairlifts to get to the top and also use them to get back down again?

She loves photography and has said she would be happy to ride around all day long taking photos while I skied!

Michael.

Whoa Whoa Whoa No :evil: , You CAN ride them down, as a person being trained on their upkeep I know you can ride them down. Next time that happens ask to speak to a supervisor. Lift Attendants have access to them via radio. There is no reason why she should have been denied. The ONLY thing she would have had a problem with is the e-stop/trip gate. That's easily reset by the LA. Psht you had to walk down piste? Screw that, I'm sorry that makes no sense to me. It's a b***** to walk down in ski boots. Heck it's hard in regular boots! One little gal isn't going to throw off a 2-4 ton counterweight. As far as people getting out of the way. The top LA would call the bottom LA and be like, " Uh yeah there's someone coming down on chair XX"

Good luck next time and when in doubt talk to a supervisor. Most at ANY resort will bend over backwards to help a guest. I know if I was there I wouldn't even have given it a second thought.

Wow my post was a little saucy, it's one of those days :wink:

You should consider Cortina where 50% of lift passes are bought by non skiers,who want to sunbathe or read newspapers on the many restaurant balconies.This in turn benefits the skiers with empty slopes and no lift queues.

I really don't understand all these views - without a run off the lifts are going to be stopping all the time that people are coming down them from the layout of the chairs I've seen. I'd be really irritated to be waiting in the queues that would soon build up!

Perhaps I'm just selfish though!

I was at Cortina D'Ampezzo in this Dec 2018 and was happily skiing at the beginners slopes. I was at Chalet Tofana. On the first day, my wife and myself just went for a joy ride on the ski lifts without skis and enjoyed the views and came back down on the lift. On the 3rd day I was happily skiing and decided to take a look at the higher slopes to see if I was ready for them.
I entered the chair lift and while reaching the top I saw the slopes were quite treacherous and decided these slopes were not for me.
So I decided to return back on the chair lift.
To my utter surprise, the operator stopped the lift and rudely asked me to get off.
I first tried to question him why he was asking to get off when I had a valid pass and after all it was my decision whether I wanted to ski or not.
But he knew no English and just shrugged his shoulders indicating that he would not restart the lift if I didn't get off.
I then pleaded to him that I could not ski and needed to get back down safely. How else would I be able to get down if I'm not on the lift. Again he just shrugged his shoulders indicating he didn't care and that as far as he was concerned I had to just get the hell off.
Being left with no option, I removed my skis and tried waking down. With the steep gradient of the slippery slopes I fell a couple of times while walking as ski shoes offer handly any grip whatsoever. I then thought it would be best to again wear the skis and slowly snow plough all the way down.
I could just manage a few feet and I slipped and fell down very badly. The fall was so bad that I've torn 3 of my 4 ligaments of my left knee. It is such a painful and slow journey to recover..
I just wish I met that unconcerned and rude lift operator later. I would have given him such a bashing that for sure it would be him in the hospital instead of me..
What I do not understand is :
1) Why the hell was I not allowed to use the lift on the way down?
2) If there was such a strict rule, how come on the first day my wife and I went up and down without any problems?
3) There should have been very clear warning signs that lifts can't be used on the way down.
These stupid people want their patrons to have fun or land in hospitals with broken limbs?? How is a foreigner supposed to know if there are such rules and if they are not clearly spelt out?
4) I wish somebody can clear this point for me and if the ski lift operator was wrong in not allowing me to use the lift for coming down despite my pleading him and inability to undertake such steep slopes, I have all the details of which lift I used, time and date and if that operator could be identified, I think he should be immediately sacked with a serious apology letter to me. If I could have his details maybe I could ensure he's sent to the hospital with some broken limbs thanks to me.

You guys in charge of the lifts at Cortina D'Ampezzo very seriously need to consider this point. Accidents could be fatal.. Are you playing with peoples lives?? Who gives you the right to do this? Who's going to pay for my 3 months of pain and discomfort to myself and my family? I'm writing this while wearing leg braces as I cannot move my leg at all.

The liftie was doing his job. Some lifts allow downloading, others don't. Best check at the bottom before embarkation.

How silly is that..
Just 2 days earlier we rode down in a chair lift in the same place.. No questions were asked.
Shouldn't the organisers clearly mark out that certain lifts cannot be used for the downward journey? And what if a not so confident skier losses his nerve once on top? There has to be a service to bring such people down safely..
Can't consign such people to hospitals and a lifelong bodily damage..

Vanit, sorry that you got hurt, but time for some tough love. In my experience, very few chair lifts allow downloading, so that's probably why you weren't allowed to ride down. Some allow downloading when you are wearing skis, some don't. You should assume that you are not allowed to download on a chair lift unless told/shown otherwise. The lift operator was just doing his job. Firstly, you seriously cannot expect a liftie who is probably Italian, and living in the Dolomites where the second language is German (I think) to speak English. Secondly, it is your responsibility, not his, to be skilled enough to tackle the slopes at the top of a lift. If you were wondering whether a slope is difficult, you should ask someone - someone in your chalet, for example. I would not take the lift to the Tunnel piste in Alpe D'Huez because I am not competent to ski it (not when it's mogulled, anyway). If you want to ski again, I would recommend getting some ski lessons which teach you how to get out of difficult situations (e.g. by side slipping).

I'm sympathetic to the OP. "Tough Love" is not a helpful suggestion. There's no way you can know the mental and physical state of the person in question. Going down in a chair is always do-able but understandably not something operators want to do regularly. I've accompanied a friend down a long series of chairs in Flaine after he got a minor allergic reaction to the cold/altitude. The operators were happy to do this as an alternative to a body-bag trip down. Personally, if I was supervising someone who simply felt they couldn't make it down, I'd tell the operator they felt very unwell and needed to get down via chair or bag - and I'm betting they'd happily organise them to use the chair. And then I'd re-adjust the lifts and slopes they were using subsequently so yes, they'd be able to better handle the situation. My wife had a bad fall and could have been killed because the idiot 'leader' of our group took the "Tough Love" approach to 'helping' her learn to ski and sent her down a slope she was completely unsuited to because of his philosophy of 'challenging' people to do what they felt they couldn't. It's completely irresponsible to send someone down a slope if they say they aren't able to handle it. For me, there's a primary rule to Alpine skiing - if someone in a group says they can't do it then only they can make that call and they can't do it. It's not a lack of moral fibre, as some people seem to think.