using a drag lift

Theres a long a steep drag alongside the black at Greppon in the 4 Valleys across from Verbier. Not easy at all, although you can bail off halfway up if you want.

Tony_H wrote:You lot are all lightweights. You want to try the drag over the back of Sauze on the link to Sestriere. Its takes about 20 minutes to haul you back up from the bottom. Its a killer. And if you do fall off, which of course I havent, there is nothing to ski onto, so you have to slide all the way back down to the bottom.

Is that the dog-leg one?

As an adult beginner I can say that learning to use lifts is one of the big basic skills. Learning it must be taken as seriously as the other basics, though that's the kind of thing you forget when you've been doing it for years.

I've mentioned a couple of tmes I ski in an anorak which does a very good job as ski jacket except it is a bit long and a T-bar easily gets caught under it, stopping me getting off but lifting me into the air at the top of a drag lift.

Second problem is that one day in my first year I was being sent up a kiddie slope on a 1-person drag lift. I keept falling off in the first 3 seconds. The other customers were mostly small children. The lift attended got pissed off. Problem was, I was sitting back. The lift attendent was shouting 'stay standing' and my GF was shouting 'stay loose / relaxed'. I could not both.... I think the first piece of advice was more useful, but being a bit relaxed and netural helps.

As for skis snaking, I worked out that with carvers one way of control that is by varying the weight distribution between the two, and let them use their natural tendency to turn.

When you really cannot ski at all, getting off is no easy matter. At first I would often hop off too soon at the top, and slide backwards. I definitely could not ski in reverese at first.

I must have been hiilarious to watch. I don't mind these lifts now, but that comes from practice & learning the hard way. Learning chair lifts also has a element of skill.

Don't lean forward!



Don't sit back!



Wear skis!







:lol: :lol: :lol:

:lol:

The videos really cheered me up! That was me two years ago. Now I pose as an expert...

In the last vid, I suspect these (possibly drunk) guys found if getting up was hard, coming down was even tougher. That's another problem with a schlep lift: if you change your mind at the top, you ain't taking the lift back down.

In 3 years of learning, I can honestly say that using the lifts has been a hard slog. In the first year, I was so scared that I preferred to sidestep up the nursery slope rather than use the lift! :shock: I still have a deep-seated fear of getting off at the top, due to the many times I started sliding backwards and fell over in panic! By year 3 I was ok with drag lifts. This year, I hope to learn the mysteries of the chair lift - something I am really dreading. I do prefer the button-type drag lift, as the button fits securely between the thighs. As opposed to the T-bar, because my amply-proportioned rear end doesn't feel as if it's properly fitting on the one side of the T. :oops:
Onwards and upwards, as they say...

Alllie

acarr wrote:In 3 years of learning, I can honestly say that using the lifts has been a hard slog. In the first year, I was so scared that I preferred to sidestep up the nursery slope rather than use the lift! :shock: I still have a deep-seated fear of getting off at the top, due to the many times I started sliding backwards and fell over in panic! By year 3 I was ok with drag lifts. This year, I hope to learn the mysteries of the chair lift - something I am really dreading. I do prefer the button-type drag lift, as the button fits securely between the thighs. As opposed to the T-bar, because my amply-proportioned rear end doesn't feel as if it's properly fitting on the one side of the T. :oops:
Onwards and upwards, as they say...

Alllie

The chair lift is much easier to use than any drag, of course that is only my opinion. You will be fine. :D

T bars are bloody uncomfortable, and you need someone of a similar height. Pomas ensure that skiing can take place no matter how windy it is - the key is not to try to sit, but to let it pull you along.

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

During my seasons I almost perfected the art of catnapping on the pomas!! On lazy Americans and boarders don't like them, which are probably great reasons to have more of them. :mrgreen: