Queues for Lifts??

American lift queues are a model for everywhere in the world. You may arrive at the bottom and be face with four or eight lines. You obviously choose the shortest.

So eight lines merge to four and four merge to two, and so on. At each merge, it is one from the left, and one from the right, and so on.

You very quickly loose contact with the love of your life, but meet up with some interesting compensation! It is awfully civilised.

And as Trencher says, the kleenex are available in dispensers at the start of the queues, with deposit bins a few yards later.

In Europe, I have a queuing theory, related to the direction of lift, and dominant nationalities of those in the queue. Unless I am up against people like me, I will be at the head of the queue quicker than I deserve. Without standing on peoples ski gear. I just assume that I am more keen to ski than the others.

RossF wrote:Go to North America.. won't get folks skiing over your tails there.

Andorra is the worst lift queue experience of my life... the b*stards don't appreciate an angry Scotsman after they have shoved you out the way.

Agree totally, the locals were queue jumping, got quite heated at one point.

It's also worth noting that in the States there are consequences for queue jumping. If it's kids, the lifty might make them wait several turns. teenagers and adults might get thier lift ticket clipped. Second offence would be the end of the day for that person.

Trencher

Always approach a queue from the side, it is scientifically proven to be faster than approaching head on.

Inevitably, in the US I have found that folks chat on lifts. Sometimes language is not shared...

Local: What's it like (up there)
Us: There is a long queue at the T-Bar
Local: Huh??? (looks confused)
Us: (translate) There is a long line at the surface lift
Local: Thanks


Local: where y'all from
Us: England
Local: Hey, you got big snowfall right now
Us: Er, no, not New England USA, old England, across the Atlantic
Local: Oh, (looks puzzled, goes quiet)

Good job we are multi lingual eh )

Yes Bandit, I am sure we have all had similar experiences. Like the time I lost my group and ended up bombing about on my own for an hour or so, and sat on a 6 man with a couple of people who were quietly sitting there looking ahead at the sunny skies.

"How has your day been?" I asked and then sat back to listen to them tell me all about it in Suomi for the next 10 minutes. Of course, I pretended to be interested, and we parted at the top with a friendly wave. I got the impression they were enjoying it though.

Back on the subject of queues, it all sounds very civilised and polite in the US. I do like the idea of tissues provided, the thumb on my right glove starts to get a little shiny by about 11am. I think Tino is right about approaching a queue from the side in Europe - most other nationalities seem to adopt that approach so why not play them at their own game. I think the British are the only race who actually queue in an orderly fashion, despite probably feeling like Dave said that they want to ski more urgently than the next bloke!

I do hate the way people try to shuffle their skis in between yours in order to gain a couple of milimetres per step. Especially when they are your own skis and the annoying git behind you is putting their sharp edges across your tails. Its usually at that point that I lean back with my poles outstretched, and then apologise profusely for not having been aware they were so close behind me....

I hate it when you have people who push up between your skis when clearly there is nowhere to go. Can be useful to plant your poles into the snow directly in front of their skis. If subtly done, it prevents further progress by them without obviously looking for trouble :lol:

I agree with Tino 11 - always approach the queue from the 'other' side. ie. if the queue is snaking away across to the right, ski round the back and join it from the left. Other than that, place poles as wide as possible and puff out your chest!
If all else fails, use your pole to pop people in front out of their bindings.