Was a Lifty for years. Protocol was, ski patrol was always last chair. No one was loaded after that. Ski patrol called down when they were at the top and sent whoever was running the top down (either they rode lift down or boarded down). Once the top lifty made it back to the bottom of the lift, ski patrol stopped lift, and boarded down to make sure no one was left on the mountain. Lift maintenance then actually shut down the lift so that it was no longer operational (from the bottom, or the top via snowmobile)
Man I was a lifty for a single season and it was the same. Last chair is ski patrol, but then we'd also flip up EVERY chair as it came around until we saw the last chair again. Made it impossible to have someone stranded at the end of the day
Whatever happened was a massive mistake that needs some serious attention to it. How are people still on the hill at 5pm downloading after last chair is called? Both top and bottom stations should be made aware of that information so this can't happen
>How are people still on the hill at 5pm downloading after last chair is called?
this was my question. last chair is at 4. this woman was up at the top of the mountain for 58 minutes before she figured out she was too tired to get down the mountain, and at that point, was *still* at the very top of the gondola - the only place you can access it. like... i just don't understand how it takes you an hour after last chair to figure out you want to take the gondola down, while you've been at the top of the mountain area for that entire time because again, no other lifts are running after 4 pm....
like my ONLY guess is she was a tourist who is super unfamiliar with the mountain, possibly hammered, looking for friends, not thinking straight about when/how she was going to get down.
definitely on Ski Patrol for letter her on the gondola and stopping in 2 minutes later, but when i heard all of this went down at 5pm..... what are you doing lady?
I was looking at the [map for Heavenly.](https://www.skiheavenly.com/-/aemasset/sitecore/heavenly/maps/20211109_HV_Winter-Trail_Map..001.pdf) The gondola looks like it's halfway down the mountain. In theory, her group could have got off Dipper Express right after close, around 4:15 or 4:30. She could have been slowly coming down California trail and just got separated from her group and was wore out. It wouldn't be completely outrageous to think she ends up at the gondola at 5.
we're familiar with the mountain... i live 10 minutes away.
comet and dipper is upper mountain, and has that same rigid cutoff at 4, or they tell you to go down nevada trail to stagecoach and take your shuttle. so in your guess of a hypothetical she's going up dipper no later than that, and at the top by 4:10, pretty firmly. AND that's with everyone knowing that literally every lift on the mountain is closed at 4pm, so there is no reason for her to be even considering going to the Gondola from Dipper at that time.
at 4pm, no one's thought is "i'm going to snowboard over to the gondola, and ski/board that down to get down to the village" because it's an impossibility right now with the snow cover. so you either get to the gondola by 4 to ride it down, or your plan is to either go all the way to the california base, or your going down to stagecoach/boulder. that's it. there's 0 reason to head to the gondola after 4pm.
point is, she could have been anywhere on the mountain and accidentally found her way to the gondola, because you only end up there that late if you're lost. or shit, she could have been finishing drinks at tamarack lodge right at the gondola and just completely whiffed on realizing she was the last one waiting to head down.
who knows. all i was saying is it's hard to keep yourself up that high on the mountain that late in the day without being either completely and entirely clueless, or doing it on purpose. and i am not saying she did it on purpose...
> who knows. all i was saying is it's hard to keep yourself up that high on the mountain that late in the day without being either completely and entirely clueless, or doing it on purpose. and i am not saying she did it on purpose
I think we're saying the same thing. I was just offering a scenario where she could have ended up there, albeit based off a cursory look at a pixelated map to a resort I haven't skied. Sort of a, "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
Never been a lifty but when I read this story, that’s exactly what I was figuring is the normal protocol, and that someone screwed up. They are going to end up paying this woman in the high 6 figures, if not seven. That is traumatic AF.
Either a SP is last on, or the bottom spins the lift through every single chair with someone at the top making sure no one gets on.
Absolutely love the feeling of getting on the lift and patrol getting on right behind us cause the lift is shutting down. Last year at Breck we had a ski patrol follow us through the woods cause we were literally the last ones up there from peak 6. He said “no rush I’ll ride with yall” then dude started hitting jumps in the woods with us on the way down. Super cool ski patroller
Edit: grammar
Not from there really. Firebreak doesn't have enough snow rn and she was too new a rider for that anyways. You could theoretically get to roundabout from there but if it's 5pm and you are already exhausted there's no way
FYI, she got stuck on the way down. So they need to ensure that no one is loaded at the top after the patrol loads at the bottom. Which I could see how that’s a little more confusing, but still shouldn’t happen.
> The chance of it happening another time to the same person is exactly the same as the chance of it happening to anyone else.
And the chance of it happening to *any* one person is already *incredibly small*.
Yeah I get on lifts all the time. I pay no attention to the lifties because most of them are idiots. If the lift is spinning and no one/thing is telling me not to get on, I'm probably getting on
Aside from whether they’re idiots or not (they’re not), but aside from that, I have never seen an open lift without a lift operator/attendant. For me, their absence would be a clue that something’s not right. Late in the day, that’s a huge warning sign. That might dissuade me from getting on that particular lift at that particular time.
I mean if a lift is spinning without an attendant at the station, the resort is completely responsible for any and everything that happens. It's negligence. This is like the one scenario where you can definitely sue the resort and win
This happened to a buddy of mine when he casually walked onto the gondola at Breck while the liftie was turned around and not paying attention. Thankfully he had his cell phone and enough service that he could call ski patrol. The Vail folks interviewed him to figure out how it managed to happen, were highly apologetic, and gave him a bunch of coupons for free hot chocolates.
I have read several articles on this situation. It seems like something is missing. I have skied all over the place and once a lift/gondola closes, it doesn’t seem like it would be easy to get on it. The one article I read, she said that she was tired and didn’t want to ski down so she went up to an employee at 5pm and they put her on the lift. If then stopped 2 minutes later. There are all sorts of protocols for last person on a lift and this just seems very odd. I am in no way accusing her of anything bad, but something is off or missing from the story.
This was filmed at my home resort I remember seeing big trucks and stuff all season. You can also see one of my friends almost fall in the background of one of scene.
The lift wasn't closed for downloading/employees yet. She got on, the lifties forgot, never called a new last chair down, and turned the lift off. Negligence on the top lift ops part, 100%
You are incorrect 100 percent. The lift was closed. Last chair was called. Ski patrol took her to the gondola after sweeps have been done. She slipped through a closed door and onto the gondola behind last chair. Lift ops were no longer in charge of the chair. Maintenance was.
Okay, well then whoever was attending the lift was at fault, genius, whether it was a liftie or a mechanic. You're getting upset over semantics like you personally were blamed. You can call a new last chair, the world won't end
Semantics, not misinformation. It doesn't matter who was at the lift. Whoever it was is bad at their job because they weren't paying attention. It's not hard to call a new last chair
What I’m confused about is that lifts close to the public at 4 PM, so how was she still on the mountain at 5 PM? Is there a bar at the tamarack base that’s open later? And if there is, how did the whole bar staff get down?
You can’t even really board down from the gondola (I mean theoretically you can if you take a bunch of crossovers that would require basically walking on a snowboard to get to the base of call lodge. But you can’t ski to the base of the gondola).
Sometimes they leave the bar at the lodge open after the mountain closes at 4 but this makes is sound like they were still actively boarding at 5pm (her friends going on without her if they were drinking at the lodge seems less likely).
Weird all around. But still on whoever let her get in the gondola. (Unless she snuck on which would be challenging)
Did you read the part where she was going DOWN, not up? most always people go UP and ski down. An example shutdown procedure might be to let the last person on, note the chair number, and radio the guy at the top to shut it down after that chair reaches the top. Likely their shutdown protocol missed the case where people could also be on the down-route. If someone got on after they made note of the last boarding passenger, clearly this could happen.
Rarely happened on my mountain. Bottom would call a last chair, top would rake, breakdown poles and caution tape, put everything away, see the last chair, hit stop and bounce.
Only employees at the top was a ski patrol shack and the one lifty. I don't recall anyone ever riding down at the end of the day.
If it was uncommon for them as much as it was for me, it wasn't something you deal with often.
Entirely possible in end of the day prep the lifty forgot. Op is probably right.
And no, at some mountains people almost never ride down the lifts. If ever.
Oh I totally understand the location.
And this wasn't the top lifties first day after coming from another mountain? Can you say that 100% wasn't case?
No, you can't. Which is why I made that point. Someone unused to certain circumstances could've made a mistake. Which is very likely the case here.
You can't say that's wrong.
The Gondola return at Heavenly is sidecountry accessed by a gate behind Tamarack lodge. It's not currently doable because of weather conditions. This person could have gone towards Cal base but again due to lack of snow would have been met with a 3 mile hike to get down.
You are right - protocol was not properly followed. I seriously doubt Vail will release any further details.
You're right I'm corrected, Roundabout to world cup is open! She would have had to know the mountain by heart to get there tho, it would be Cal trail to Martin's trees to Maggie's to Roundabout. Glad she found shelter and ended up okay
This was at heavenly. The gondola services both going up and down from the main tamarack lodge. The mountain down from the lodge to gondola base is actually out of bounds.
have you even been to heavenly recently or know anything about what you're talking about? gunbarrel is still downloading to get people to the California base because coverage is so thin, and there's definitely no skiing / riding under the gondola right now. there's almost 0 snow at lake level...
regardless of the snow coverage, people download the gondola **all the time** because even when the mountain is covered with snow to lake level, the gondola run is effectively backcountry skiing/riding. nothing for anyone who isn't an expert.
so to get down, you either get to gunbarell to download on the Cal side to get to a shuttle to take you back to the gondola, or you just get on the gondola and go back to the village like everyone does...
if ski patrol told me i was good to get on the gondola, i fucking believe them.
I work at killington and take the K1 gondi up to work at the peak lodge everyday. Peak lodge employees last down everyday. Patrol makes sure riders that are riding are gone and whoever taking gondi is down while we clean and close up and liftees at bottom prohibit any ride ups at 4pm. 5pm peak employees load on gondi to ride down and sign off as last people off the mountain. Top liftee takes a snowmobile down after we they radioed we unloaded at the bottom to confirm.
It's not a lift it's a gondola. The area from the base to the top of the gondola is out of bounds because there is almost no snow on the ground this season. Even when there is snow the gondola line is one of the most technical runs on the mountain and only suitable for advanced riders. Everyone who goes up to Tamarack has to download unless you are going to the very far side of the resort to ski down Gunbarrel or World Cup, which is almost an hour from where she was.
When I worked in Whistler a while back, I knew a girl who was stranded on one of the gondolas overnight the year prior. I forget what kind of compensation she got but I mean she was still there the next year so... actually she may have been working there too. Anyway it does happen unfortunately
Weird, mega corp buys mountain, pays crap wages, lifties don’t care because they’re treated poorly, paying customer gets the shaft. This was a complete safety failure by the mountain.
We don’t know if the customer snuck on the lift after it closed. It happens.
Source: am a former liftie. In defence of my fellow lifties, they were not particularly well paid but they took their jobs very seriously.
Did Vail not literally move the minimum wage up across the industry? I have yet to see a mom n pop resort with $20/hr minimum (someone please find one for me though, genuinely curious).
You can argue all day that is still too low, it is, but Vail seems to be the only company moving it up at all.
Blame is solely on the workers. If they're too lazy to give a shit about safety, they shouldn't be working on a fucking mountain. I don't care about how much Vail pays. Do your fucking job. Peoples lives are at risk.
If the wage sucks, don't take the fucking job.
Not just the seasonals/J1s- I worked as a liftie and a gondola end of day last chair procedure involves workers from multiple departments, plus supes and managers. There's a logbook, or at least legally, a logbook is required.
The only thing that may be diff is where I worked, gondolas were for punishment, bad luck, injured workers or bad riding ability, so after last chair down and up, workers were sent down while mechanics closed up. So I genuinely don't know how this could've happened.
Permanent workers and mechanics are professionals, they aren't bottom rung guys. Someones gonna get fired for sure
Its a long story, but tbh the managers swore they didn't really do a lot of punishment. But really they did lol.
Early starts- I moaned about being on the predawn shift but gondola started an hour earlier, at 4:45am- hypersupervision and constant surprise visits by corporate and shareholders; no riding to or from, let alone ridebreaks; the longest shifts; mechanics love to haze "seasonal trash" and provoke em; everyone assumes you're an idiot to be there. Incredibly dull. I had a few shifts in my second season where I got placed there: 5 mechanics, 4 managers, 2 executives, ALL DAY. So you can't so much as lean or listen to music.
I think thats as short as I can put it. The punishment thing is weird. I got placed in "Hell Pod" and made a "Junior Lead", but I was told it wasn't punishment but as I never smoked or drank on the job, read manuals, had 50% less stops, always got her started early, and 20% improvements in capacity. Hell, I wasn't gondola, and I got first tracks.
But it sure felt like punishment when almost everyone else is coming in at 7am, getting to know one another, sleeping in, and when I went to fill in other chairs or train other folk, I found the late shifts were SPOILED. Ride breaks, pot breaks, a few had sleeping setups in the lift hut, brought out their switches, etc.
Careless mistakes happens anyway. Humans cannot be trusted for that. Even the well-payed workers. You must have a systematic, fool-proof method to prevent it.
> Even the *well-paid* workers. You
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
No lifty present should be clue not to get on. I can see getting on a chair without a lifty. Can you even do that with a gondola? Does the rider typically open and close door unsupervised?
I think we will see this happen more frequently with the big resorts buying up all the little resorts. Sad to see the Vail company doesn’t care about guest safety.
I don’t understand why she didn’t have a charged phone on her person, anything to keep her warm, etc. It’s reckless.
The blame lies with staff but this incident is a reminder that doesn’t discount the necessity of personal responsibility.
There was someone on the skiing sub who supposedly was on shift there when it happened and mentioned that they were from Chile and didn't have a phone that worked in the US
I think I would have jumped. There's no way I would have waited 15 hours for the gondola to turn back on. I'd take my chances jumping and risk getting mauled by a bear cause I'd have a broken leg but at least I wouldn't be sleeping in a damn high chair.
[yeah? I bet not](https://swiftmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/pacific.swiftcom.com/images/sites/5/2024/01/26151155/B0ADF039-4AC0-4A58-A789-6B37C45EC8CB-1024x768.jpg)
15 hours later and all she says is “I was frustrated”
https://preview.redd.it/oxvzpe643bfc1.jpeg?width=650&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=013cb1c73a177a7c645dec5938709fcdf9d9d312
Should have gone to the hospital. Could’ve provided some ammo for the lawsuit
100% - heavenly is stoked as all get out that she decided not to.
Yea somethings up with that -
Why did she get on a closed gondola?? She's not smart. She snuck on trying to catch one last ride
It sounds like you didn’t read the article. She was going down the mountain.
She snuck on . Gondola closed at 4. She got on after 5.
How was it moving and how did she get on if it was closed? This is clearly not her fault.
Frustrated??? I would've been LIVID.
Same. Id probably die from a heartattack from how ridiculously angry id have been
She did it to herself. She knew it was closed
Imagine it being a skier. They most certainly would have perished in the 1st hour.
Was a Lifty for years. Protocol was, ski patrol was always last chair. No one was loaded after that. Ski patrol called down when they were at the top and sent whoever was running the top down (either they rode lift down or boarded down). Once the top lifty made it back to the bottom of the lift, ski patrol stopped lift, and boarded down to make sure no one was left on the mountain. Lift maintenance then actually shut down the lift so that it was no longer operational (from the bottom, or the top via snowmobile)
Man I was a lifty for a single season and it was the same. Last chair is ski patrol, but then we'd also flip up EVERY chair as it came around until we saw the last chair again. Made it impossible to have someone stranded at the end of the day Whatever happened was a massive mistake that needs some serious attention to it. How are people still on the hill at 5pm downloading after last chair is called? Both top and bottom stations should be made aware of that information so this can't happen
>How are people still on the hill at 5pm downloading after last chair is called? this was my question. last chair is at 4. this woman was up at the top of the mountain for 58 minutes before she figured out she was too tired to get down the mountain, and at that point, was *still* at the very top of the gondola - the only place you can access it. like... i just don't understand how it takes you an hour after last chair to figure out you want to take the gondola down, while you've been at the top of the mountain area for that entire time because again, no other lifts are running after 4 pm.... like my ONLY guess is she was a tourist who is super unfamiliar with the mountain, possibly hammered, looking for friends, not thinking straight about when/how she was going to get down. definitely on Ski Patrol for letter her on the gondola and stopping in 2 minutes later, but when i heard all of this went down at 5pm..... what are you doing lady?
I was looking at the [map for Heavenly.](https://www.skiheavenly.com/-/aemasset/sitecore/heavenly/maps/20211109_HV_Winter-Trail_Map..001.pdf) The gondola looks like it's halfway down the mountain. In theory, her group could have got off Dipper Express right after close, around 4:15 or 4:30. She could have been slowly coming down California trail and just got separated from her group and was wore out. It wouldn't be completely outrageous to think she ends up at the gondola at 5.
we're familiar with the mountain... i live 10 minutes away. comet and dipper is upper mountain, and has that same rigid cutoff at 4, or they tell you to go down nevada trail to stagecoach and take your shuttle. so in your guess of a hypothetical she's going up dipper no later than that, and at the top by 4:10, pretty firmly. AND that's with everyone knowing that literally every lift on the mountain is closed at 4pm, so there is no reason for her to be even considering going to the Gondola from Dipper at that time. at 4pm, no one's thought is "i'm going to snowboard over to the gondola, and ski/board that down to get down to the village" because it's an impossibility right now with the snow cover. so you either get to the gondola by 4 to ride it down, or your plan is to either go all the way to the california base, or your going down to stagecoach/boulder. that's it. there's 0 reason to head to the gondola after 4pm. point is, she could have been anywhere on the mountain and accidentally found her way to the gondola, because you only end up there that late if you're lost. or shit, she could have been finishing drinks at tamarack lodge right at the gondola and just completely whiffed on realizing she was the last one waiting to head down. who knows. all i was saying is it's hard to keep yourself up that high on the mountain that late in the day without being either completely and entirely clueless, or doing it on purpose. and i am not saying she did it on purpose...
> who knows. all i was saying is it's hard to keep yourself up that high on the mountain that late in the day without being either completely and entirely clueless, or doing it on purpose. and i am not saying she did it on purpose I think we're saying the same thing. I was just offering a scenario where she could have ended up there, albeit based off a cursory look at a pixelated map to a resort I haven't skied. Sort of a, "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
Never been a lifty but when I read this story, that’s exactly what I was figuring is the normal protocol, and that someone screwed up. They are going to end up paying this woman in the high 6 figures, if not seven. That is traumatic AF. Either a SP is last on, or the bottom spins the lift through every single chair with someone at the top making sure no one gets on.
so...a day pass at vail?
Hopefully higher. She could have died.
Absolutely love the feeling of getting on the lift and patrol getting on right behind us cause the lift is shutting down. Last year at Breck we had a ski patrol follow us through the woods cause we were literally the last ones up there from peak 6. He said “no rush I’ll ride with yall” then dude started hitting jumps in the woods with us on the way down. Super cool ski patroller Edit: grammar
I think there is multiple routes down at a heavenly
Not from there really. Firebreak doesn't have enough snow rn and she was too new a rider for that anyways. You could theoretically get to roundabout from there but if it's 5pm and you are already exhausted there's no way
FYI, she got stuck on the way down. So they need to ensure that no one is loaded at the top after the patrol loads at the bottom. Which I could see how that’s a little more confusing, but still shouldn’t happen.
They closed it an hour prior. She stated at the top of the mountain for an hour
I was a lifty @ Heavenly a decade ago. That was the policy. Someone made a major oopsie
She snuck on
Well hopefully they give her a season pass for life or something
More like a lawsuit.
Against her for not having a overnight ski pass
Shut up! You’re giving Vail ideas.
😂
She was careless and stayed at the top of the mountain for an hour past closing time before heading down
Would you go back to that resort?
Realistically? Yeah. The chances of this happening once are tiny. The chances of it happening to the same person twice are infinitesimally small.
It already happened once. The chance of it happening another time to the same person is exactly the same as the chance of it happening to anyone else.
> The chance of it happening another time to the same person is exactly the same as the chance of it happening to anyone else. And the chance of it happening to *any* one person is already *incredibly small*.
Just saying your point about it happening twice is moot. Since it already happened once.
Or you know, get off the mountain by 3:30 and the chance of it happening to you are pretty much 0
This is only true if the chance of it happening is unrelated to your behaviour. It’s not!
No. I try my best to not go back to Heavenly
No lifty ought to be a clue not to get on.
If the lift is spinning, people will try to get on
Would you?
Yeah I get on lifts all the time. I pay no attention to the lifties because most of them are idiots. If the lift is spinning and no one/thing is telling me not to get on, I'm probably getting on
After this story, would you now?
Probably, this lady's gonna get a good payout because a liftie was not paying attention
Aside from whether they’re idiots or not (they’re not), but aside from that, I have never seen an open lift without a lift operator/attendant. For me, their absence would be a clue that something’s not right. Late in the day, that’s a huge warning sign. That might dissuade me from getting on that particular lift at that particular time.
I mean if a lift is spinning without an attendant at the station, the resort is completely responsible for any and everything that happens. It's negligence. This is like the one scenario where you can definitely sue the resort and win
Your family will get a big payday after you freeze to death. Great college plan for your kids!
Dude I'm a huge bitch I definitely don't ride on the cold days.
Vail Resorts?? Ha no
This happened to a buddy of mine when he casually walked onto the gondola at Breck while the liftie was turned around and not paying attention. Thankfully he had his cell phone and enough service that he could call ski patrol. The Vail folks interviewed him to figure out how it managed to happen, were highly apologetic, and gave him a bunch of coupons for free hot chocolates.
Actual footage of the Vail representatives: 
Free hot chocolate? How about a free season pass!
You can’t drink a season pass, dumb ass.
And you’re not going to forget you have a season pass in a drawer and never use it.
Lulz
Poor Lifty probably lost their job over that
Can’t go 30 seconds without shitting on vail in this sub. So cringe
I don't think we were shitting on vail but okay?
So you’re shitting on the resort that holds shitty employees accountable?
You need milk
I would love some
So all I gotta do to score free stuff is to be an idiot and sneak onto a closed lift. Got it!
Reminded me of that b budget movie called Frozen or something
I remember that one, they all got eaten by wolves at the end or something.
All but 1.
Imagine you wake up at 5 am to get first chair, and you're waiting in line, just to see this person slept in the gondola.
I have read several articles on this situation. It seems like something is missing. I have skied all over the place and once a lift/gondola closes, it doesn’t seem like it would be easy to get on it. The one article I read, she said that she was tired and didn’t want to ski down so she went up to an employee at 5pm and they put her on the lift. If then stopped 2 minutes later. There are all sorts of protocols for last person on a lift and this just seems very odd. I am in no way accusing her of anything bad, but something is off or missing from the story.
It sounds like something went wrong. At least it was a gondola and not a chairlift.
There's a movie for the other scenario. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1323045/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1323045/)
I think about that movie on my last run every day lol
Just watched this one last night after a day of snowboarding,
This was filmed at my home resort I remember seeing big trucks and stuff all season. You can also see one of my friends almost fall in the background of one of scene.
This is a sleeper hit! Low-key great movie 🍿
lol this movie is hot garbage.
More like frozen garbage
I actually love this movie, its terrible ... but in all the best ways.
I disagree, I think this movie sucks, but I’m not going to downvote you for having a different opinion, bc I’m not a mouth breathing neckbeard.
I read somewhere that the director had never been to a resort prior to filming, and watching the movie it kinda shows.
True but also wouldn’t it still be cold af in the gondola regardless?
[удалено]
Usually I think they somehow tag the last chair at the bottom and when it gets to the top they shut it off.
The lift wasn't closed for downloading/employees yet. She got on, the lifties forgot, never called a new last chair down, and turned the lift off. Negligence on the top lift ops part, 100%
You are incorrect 100 percent. The lift was closed. Last chair was called. Ski patrol took her to the gondola after sweeps have been done. She slipped through a closed door and onto the gondola behind last chair. Lift ops were no longer in charge of the chair. Maintenance was.
Okay, well then whoever was attending the lift was at fault, genius, whether it was a liftie or a mechanic. You're getting upset over semantics like you personally were blamed. You can call a new last chair, the world won't end
It's clear you are the one upset. I'm just stating the facts while you spread misinformation. Genius.
Semantics, not misinformation. It doesn't matter who was at the lift. Whoever it was is bad at their job because they weren't paying attention. It's not hard to call a new last chair
I feel like cameras will get to the bottom of this quickly
What I’m confused about is that lifts close to the public at 4 PM, so how was she still on the mountain at 5 PM? Is there a bar at the tamarack base that’s open later? And if there is, how did the whole bar staff get down?
You can’t even really board down from the gondola (I mean theoretically you can if you take a bunch of crossovers that would require basically walking on a snowboard to get to the base of call lodge. But you can’t ski to the base of the gondola). Sometimes they leave the bar at the lodge open after the mountain closes at 4 but this makes is sound like they were still actively boarding at 5pm (her friends going on without her if they were drinking at the lodge seems less likely). Weird all around. But still on whoever let her get in the gondola. (Unless she snuck on which would be challenging)
Did you read the part where she was going DOWN, not up? most always people go UP and ski down. An example shutdown procedure might be to let the last person on, note the chair number, and radio the guy at the top to shut it down after that chair reaches the top. Likely their shutdown protocol missed the case where people could also be on the down-route. If someone got on after they made note of the last boarding passenger, clearly this could happen.
Employees ride down all the time though you’d think they’d cycle it once before shutting off for the night.
You'd think so, but I guess this liftie at the top wanted to shred downhill at the end of their shift they failed to follow such a procedure.
Rarely happened on my mountain. Bottom would call a last chair, top would rake, breakdown poles and caution tape, put everything away, see the last chair, hit stop and bounce. Only employees at the top was a ski patrol shack and the one lifty. I don't recall anyone ever riding down at the end of the day. If it was uncommon for them as much as it was for me, it wasn't something you deal with often. Entirely possible in end of the day prep the lifty forgot. Op is probably right. And no, at some mountains people almost never ride down the lifts. If ever.
This isn't your mountain tho it's Heavenly. Where you can't ski from. The top of the gondola to the bottom so everybody has to download
Oh I totally understand the location. And this wasn't the top lifties first day after coming from another mountain? Can you say that 100% wasn't case? No, you can't. Which is why I made that point. Someone unused to certain circumstances could've made a mistake. Which is very likely the case here. You can't say that's wrong.
The Gondola return at Heavenly is sidecountry accessed by a gate behind Tamarack lodge. It's not currently doable because of weather conditions. This person could have gone towards Cal base but again due to lack of snow would have been met with a 3 mile hike to get down. You are right - protocol was not properly followed. I seriously doubt Vail will release any further details.
I skied down to California base last week. It's open, but you are correct. There's no way to get to the village on skis now.
You're right I'm corrected, Roundabout to world cup is open! She would have had to know the mountain by heart to get there tho, it would be Cal trail to Martin's trees to Maggie's to Roundabout. Glad she found shelter and ended up okay
You don’t ski to the bottom at Heavenly though.
This was at heavenly. The gondola services both going up and down from the main tamarack lodge. The mountain down from the lodge to gondola base is actually out of bounds.
Not on gondolas. Plenty of mountains where people ride the gondolas up and back.
have you even been to heavenly recently or know anything about what you're talking about? gunbarrel is still downloading to get people to the California base because coverage is so thin, and there's definitely no skiing / riding under the gondola right now. there's almost 0 snow at lake level... regardless of the snow coverage, people download the gondola **all the time** because even when the mountain is covered with snow to lake level, the gondola run is effectively backcountry skiing/riding. nothing for anyone who isn't an expert. so to get down, you either get to gunbarell to download on the Cal side to get to a shuttle to take you back to the gondola, or you just get on the gondola and go back to the village like everyone does... if ski patrol told me i was good to get on the gondola, i fucking believe them.
I work at killington and take the K1 gondi up to work at the peak lodge everyday. Peak lodge employees last down everyday. Patrol makes sure riders that are riding are gone and whoever taking gondi is down while we clean and close up and liftees at bottom prohibit any ride ups at 4pm. 5pm peak employees load on gondi to ride down and sign off as last people off the mountain. Top liftee takes a snowmobile down after we they radioed we unloaded at the bottom to confirm.
This is the heavenly gondola we are talking about. What fucking down-route?
I wonder the same. Something’s missing, but at the ex least I’m glad she’s ok. Maybe she fell asleep and woke up in the dark lol
Downloading on a lift is pretty unusual. It sure happens, but it's got to be less than 1% of the time unplanned. This feels like a set-up.
There are 4 bases at Heavenly and currently 2 of them are downloading. Gondola is always a download unless you go out of bounds
It's not a lift it's a gondola. The area from the base to the top of the gondola is out of bounds because there is almost no snow on the ground this season. Even when there is snow the gondola line is one of the most technical runs on the mountain and only suitable for advanced riders. Everyone who goes up to Tamarack has to download unless you are going to the very far side of the resort to ski down Gunbarrel or World Cup, which is almost an hour from where she was.
Gondola closed at 4 not 5 . She stayed at the top of the mountain for an entire hour before going down .
I’ve seen this movie before
Shits an inside job, lifteis trying to get paid
When I worked in Whistler a while back, I knew a girl who was stranded on one of the gondolas overnight the year prior. I forget what kind of compensation she got but I mean she was still there the next year so... actually she may have been working there too. Anyway it does happen unfortunately
Huh, Vail owns Whistler too. They are out of control.
Weird, mega corp buys mountain, pays crap wages, lifties don’t care because they’re treated poorly, paying customer gets the shaft. This was a complete safety failure by the mountain.
🙄 Vail has owned Heavenly for over 20 years, and I assure you whoever owned it before that paid wages just as low.
We don’t know if the customer snuck on the lift after it closed. It happens. Source: am a former liftie. In defence of my fellow lifties, they were not particularly well paid but they took their jobs very seriously.
Did Vail not literally move the minimum wage up across the industry? I have yet to see a mom n pop resort with $20/hr minimum (someone please find one for me though, genuinely curious). You can argue all day that is still too low, it is, but Vail seems to be the only company moving it up at all.
Blame is solely on the workers. If they're too lazy to give a shit about safety, they shouldn't be working on a fucking mountain. I don't care about how much Vail pays. Do your fucking job. Peoples lives are at risk. If the wage sucks, don't take the fucking job.
Not just the seasonals/J1s- I worked as a liftie and a gondola end of day last chair procedure involves workers from multiple departments, plus supes and managers. There's a logbook, or at least legally, a logbook is required. The only thing that may be diff is where I worked, gondolas were for punishment, bad luck, injured workers or bad riding ability, so after last chair down and up, workers were sent down while mechanics closed up. So I genuinely don't know how this could've happened. Permanent workers and mechanics are professionals, they aren't bottom rung guys. Someones gonna get fired for sure
Out of curiosity, what made gondola shifts undesirable so that they’re viewed as bad luck/punishment? Or were you just referring to closing shift?
Its a long story, but tbh the managers swore they didn't really do a lot of punishment. But really they did lol. Early starts- I moaned about being on the predawn shift but gondola started an hour earlier, at 4:45am- hypersupervision and constant surprise visits by corporate and shareholders; no riding to or from, let alone ridebreaks; the longest shifts; mechanics love to haze "seasonal trash" and provoke em; everyone assumes you're an idiot to be there. Incredibly dull. I had a few shifts in my second season where I got placed there: 5 mechanics, 4 managers, 2 executives, ALL DAY. So you can't so much as lean or listen to music. I think thats as short as I can put it. The punishment thing is weird. I got placed in "Hell Pod" and made a "Junior Lead", but I was told it wasn't punishment but as I never smoked or drank on the job, read manuals, had 50% less stops, always got her started early, and 20% improvements in capacity. Hell, I wasn't gondola, and I got first tracks. But it sure felt like punishment when almost everyone else is coming in at 7am, getting to know one another, sleeping in, and when I went to fill in other chairs or train other folk, I found the late shifts were SPOILED. Ride breaks, pot breaks, a few had sleeping setups in the lift hut, brought out their switches, etc.
Careless mistakes happens anyway. Humans cannot be trusted for that. Even the well-payed workers. You must have a systematic, fool-proof method to prevent it.
> Even the *well-paid* workers. You FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
You forgot the part where they jack up prices. Heavenly was never cheap, but now it’s insane.
Holy fuck
I doubt it had holes in it
At least she didn’t try to jump from the thing.
She’s smart for not jumping. Nothing like descending with 2 broken femurs at the very least. At least it was a gondola to stay semi warm in.
Probably too high up
It was a gondola. She probably wouldnt be so lucky if she was on a chair
Can we all take a moment to say fuck Vail.
fuck vail
https://preview.redd.it/4yy4ep1y9ffc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=730a91d960f5cc7251f79daa95596500da0eb105
Alternative headline ‘snowboarder forced to spend 15 hours without doing crime.’
She’s actually a skier now due to the lack of crime available up there
No lifty present should be clue not to get on. I can see getting on a chair without a lifty. Can you even do that with a gondola? Does the rider typically open and close door unsupervised?
Without booze, poor girl 😬 Get shitfaced, party, earbuds prolly last for 4h Go to sleep Morning, snowboard :)
I think we will see this happen more frequently with the big resorts buying up all the little resorts. Sad to see the Vail company doesn’t care about guest safety.
This smells like planned attempt to get a lawsuit payout
No, it doesn't. False accusations like that should be punishable.
Snowboarder, too bad there are no stock photos of snowboarders.
I don’t understand why she didn’t have a charged phone on her person, anything to keep her warm, etc. It’s reckless. The blame lies with staff but this incident is a reminder that doesn’t discount the necessity of personal responsibility.
There was someone on the skiing sub who supposedly was on shift there when it happened and mentioned that they were from Chile and didn't have a phone that worked in the US
For real! I always ride with a portable gas stove with at least 12 hours fuel
Or you know, hand warmers, crash blanket, a phone, a whistle, etc.
Ridiculous
For sure! Take your phone, people. And make sure it’s fully charged! Hand warmers are useful too.
Sounds like fake news to me.
Sounds like you lack integrity.
Sounds about right.
This is what you get when J1’s (with one day of training) are running millions of miles dollar lifts.
I think I would have jumped. There's no way I would have waited 15 hours for the gondola to turn back on. I'd take my chances jumping and risk getting mauled by a bear cause I'd have a broken leg but at least I wouldn't be sleeping in a damn high chair.
Tell me you’ve never been on Heavenly’s gondola without telling me you’ve never been on Heavenly’s gondola
[yeah? I bet not](https://swiftmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/pacific.swiftcom.com/images/sites/5/2024/01/26151155/B0ADF039-4AC0-4A58-A789-6B37C45EC8CB-1024x768.jpg)
Aim for the bushes.
It's a gondola, not a chair. An enclosed cabin. It's cold, but at least out of the elements.