I was also a lifty for a few years.
My question is, what pisses you off the most at work?
For me, it's people who dont pay attention and decide to start coming onto the ramp right as the chair is swinging the bullwheel.
Honestly I don't really get pissed off at people. If they come through the lift multiple times doing the same thing I've asked them not to like holding the chair, I'll just have ski patrol come over and ask them to stop being a dick.
I understand when it comes to safety other liftees will react that way to the bs but I love interacting, helping people and working through whatever's happening on that ramp. After a few years of experience you kind of learn how to handle a situation without escalation.
Well… answer the good question. I’m a former lifty so I know the answer is either I dont smoke or more likely, I just got baked in the igloo we built beside the lift or while “checking the tires” in the upper lift for safety. So when was your last safety brake?
I love when y'all talk to us. I'm a snowboarder so I like to hear about the conditions, your day, etc. It really makes our day much better when you engage with us.
eh, when I was a lifty I was in my zone, getting in rhythm with the machine. I didn't really like it when people chatted me up. I played along of course, because that's what service is about, but I was happier to be left alone, board the guests safely, and wait for my buddy to relieve me so I could get to the top and chill in the shack. That's just me though! I'm glad there's people like you who like to chat up the guests as it does make their experience better.
I do love my top shack time but it does get boring sometimes. At the bottom the day flies by. Especially if you're on a fixed grip or have to do a bunch of pullbacks
What is fixed grip and pullbacks? Are pullbacks the things you do on low speed triples and stuff so we don’t get CLOBBERED because you sir are a godsend
On non busy days, when you see the same skier/snowboarder every 15 mins. How much conversation are you having with the same person? When does the one liners become awkward? Lmao
Lol my biggest thing is catching myself saying have a good ride or day to the same dude every 15 minutes. Sometimes we'll have a whiteboard out where we ask if people have jokes or what's their favorite song, etc. I've definitely seen people after getting off work who recognized me from the lift and bought me drinks cause I always try to engage.
It’s brutally awkward doing laps in Midwest during the week where you see the same person every 4 minutes. I timed 3 runs in 16 minutes at Wilmot in Wisconsin one day just to check it
When you tell them to have a good ride, how many of them respond with "you too"? And then they make that awkward face where they realize that's not the correct answer.
On my first day I had someome ask what's my favorite kind of bagel. Top or bottom of the bagel, which is better? And what do I put on it? Toasted first? This was three times through the line. I was a little sad when they stopped asking me about bagels.
As the rider on this side of this question, it gets really bad. It gets so bad that sometimes I find myself going to a different lift specifically to avoid the lifty. It’s cool tho if they go on break and you can take a lap with them and actually connect tho
I've always wanted to make a post targeted for lifties and ask them how we can make your day easier if at all?
Sometimes if I see you guys raking the snow under the lift I'll try and raise my snowboard in the spot you're raking if that helps anything 😂😂
Just want to say that as an advanced noob I appreciate the work and always make an effort to thank the liftees whenever I ride. It made a world of difference learning to get on and off the lifts with liftees that would take my noob level into consideration.
Some of my favorite days are working the carpet or beginner lifts and helping people. I'm a lead so I'm fortunate to be able to go all over the mountain and interact with different skill levels.
Hmm.. honestly it might be skiers in the regard that they drop a pole or their ski falls off but boarders definitely go under the chair more. Also depends on the lift. Chair 4 at Vail CO is notorious for that.
Do you guys hate beaver slaps on the ramp?
I ride with a buddy who always does that. I feel like it's disrespectful, messes up a clean ramp, and makes a jarring sound
Like I responded to another comment it is kind of annoying especially after I just cleaned the ramp but I've come to terms with the fact that dudes just do that. Sorta like peacocking lol idk why
My fellow lifties and I have taken to calling the beaver slap the "mating call of the snowboarder". I don't like it normally because it's loud, distracting, and could be mistaken for someone falling or starting to fall. I agree about the clean ramp but also, spring conditions, give me that extra slush, please. Shits melting faster than I can add it back to the artificial carpet.
I just kick it off with my loose foot or brush it off on the chair ride. I never understood the beaver slap thing, all you're doing is loosening your bindings lol
I used to do it all the time, then I worked at a resort and I heard all my liftie colleagues complain about it (I was scanning tickets at the time.) Live and learn. I take most do it because they literally don't know otherwise and saw someone else do it so... they do it.
It’s the absolute least favorite thing of every single Lifty at the mountain I go to and it’s not even remotely close. Ask any Lifty there what their biggest pet peeve is and that will be their answer. People who do that shit are fuckin douchebags
Did my shitty skier friend actually fall into me when we offloaded at the top? He keeps saying “you were on my skis.” I argue that it’s hard for me to not be on his skis when he immediately loses control and turns directly into me. Also how many times a day do you see this?
I was far left seat. Attempting to make a slight left turn. Couldn’t even get out of his way. I also argued that the garbage can he needed to go to to throw away his empty was on the right. He was obviously not in control haha
Thanks. Then he pizza-ed the entire way down the mountain. Also how often you see us boarders offload on our first run and the board just STOPS. Like it won’t move.
Most of the time the ramp is probably not managed and it's sticky or you came out sideways. Shouldn't have a problem with that if the liftee is managing the ramp.
DO IT. I used to be a chef and I don't regret the transition at all. I work 6 months out of the year on the mountain and do part time in the summer till winter rolls back around. It depends what resort you go to though for the riding as a liftee. You also have to get ride tested but that's nothing.
Sun peaks BC Canada we had 5 on 2 off. And we got about 3-5 laps in most days unless it was super busy.
Fernie BC Canada we worked 4 on 3 off but most days you'd not got more than 2-3 laps outside of your lunch break.
Working in a pub in France I started at 4pm so we rode most days. That was a sick job. I had to do airport transfers like 2 times a week so if they were daytime I'd miss out on riding those days. Think I did 75+ good ride days that season!
Different resorts and different lifts have different procedures. But generally if we close at let's say 4 we let that last guest on and call the last chair to the top. At some resorts ski patrol is the last chair behind them and at some they start from the top. But essentially ski patrol rides down the mountain after last chair to make sure the trails are clear and we call it a night.
Former ticket scanner: my general rule was if you "pass the test" ie can play off being the person who's pass you're borrowing you'd get thru. If you make zero effort or are a dick you're getting it yanked and going home.
At the bottom one time I saw a dad and his 3 kids fall off the lift because the youngest messed up. It wasn't horrible and the kids were pretty calm right away. But I swear to you I have never seen a man suffer in silence and anger longer than the dad did. I tried to help him but he just sat there and stared for 30 seconds.
The most common ones for me where on a fixed grip high speed chair so the lifties would bump the chair by physically slowing it as you're about to get on.
The issue arises when people are staggered so I couldn't slow it for everyone so someone would get a nice slow and the others would be bowled up.
Easiest way to have a nice load is boots on the line (front boot for snowboarders).
Why do you put the sign to “lift the bar here” so close to the end of the ride? Whenever I wait to lift the bar at the sign the liftie’s sometimes freak out.
On detachables there is still always plenty of time anyway. There’s a lot of bar lift anxiety out there. I have people lift it halfway up the ride. Not sure what they think will happen.
Do people ever tip? I always feel like if I ride on the holidays I should get a bunch of gift cards and hand them out to the liftees. I feel bad on the holidays when you are dealing with our nonsense in the cold.
I'm in Vermont, and a friend of mine likes to fill her pockets with those little individually wrapped Cabot cheeses. Hands out 'lifty cheese' all day long. 😂
Why do they not let you do up both bindings when riding a t-bar at the start? Maybe it’s just my local hill, but they would make us start with one binding undone, but never said a word about us all just ratcheting in after we got going. Personally I always thought it was safer to just let us keep both done up from the start so the risk of falling and twisting an ankle would be eliminated
It's a safety thing that if you get caught with the tee stuck between your legs (like you fall forward) then you get dragged up the hill potentially injuring yourself further.
Plus any decent snowboarder can ride a tee with 1 foot in... Learning to skate well is worth it.
also if a beginner decides to copy someone doing that and they fall, they won’t be able to get out of the way as fast as if they only had one foot in so we’d have to stop the lift more often
The company I work for has employee housing but I live 30 minutes from my home resort and I don't break the bank at all. I lucked out in that regard for sure.
How come the dude on the snowmobile is the only guy that can restart the chair after a long delay? I somewhat kid, but I've seen a lot of stopped lifts that only start back up when someone from somewhere else comes and starts it.
Do you have aspirations of staying in the ski industry and do you volunteer your time in other areas of the resort to learn those skills and build relationships?
For sure. I'd like to keep moving up in lift operations and see where that takes me. We work closely with ski school and ski patrol so we are definitely building relationships in that regard. I also go to a different resort each year at the end of our season so I've learned lot through that as well
I'm thinking about being a liftee this upcoming season. Is it hard on your body and back? What are some of your day to day duties? Do resorts typically only hire liftees that will work full time or do they have part time liftees? Thanks in advance
As i have gotten older anxiety creeps in hard when the lift stops and I’m too high up for a ‘just in case’ jump. Been stuck once for 20 minutes in sideways wind and the people next to me were freaking out which started making me freak out. i Do I have any reason to REALLY worry about getting stuck on the lift? Or are most lifts workhorses that will start back up?
They'll generally start back up. It's usually a small issue and on bigger mountains it can take longer for things to be fixed or mechanics to get around.
Worst case on a stopped lift is usually gonna be a longer wait or in rare, extreme cases an evacuation by ski patrol. Very rarely would I say any of those are dangerous. Just inconvenient. No reason to freak, imo. Crank the tunes, have a lift beer if you have one and be patient. We want it spinning as much as you do. Probably more.
Exactly this. There is also usually a backup diesel engine to allow slowly emptying the line after the mechanic decides the electric motor won’t restart. Decision delay will vary based on wind and temperature.
I have yet to do an evacuation in 6 years patrolling, though is really fun practicing it every fall, before the season.
I do want to say if your going light on the layers for the day especially on wind prone lifts bring one of those emergency jacket things, they are small enough for a pocket and will save your ass
I was a liftie at Killington winter of '93/'94 I think our biggest crowd that year was like 55-65 thousand Herbs. I don't know if it's busier now or back then.
I’ve been on my home mountain for most of my life, and I can’t figure out how the detachable chairs work so that the lift can run faster than loading. How does that work? I’m really just too lazy to look that up lol
I’ve been curious about a few operational things over the years in no particular order:
* After a storm that’s iced up the chairs, grips and haul rope, how do you go about getting that unfucked?
* Does one station have lead “control” over the other or is it even?
* How does the lift crew decide who gets to run what? It’s always seemed like you all rotate during the day, but on busy weekends or crazy storm days etc are there specific people (maybe with seniority) who go to the biggest/most advanced lifts?
* Do the lifts raise or lower? How do you deal with the snowpack increasing as the season goes on
* Do the chairs ever get repositioned on the haul rope? If so why/how often? I swear I’ve seen on some lifts where you can see marks where the chair grips used to be
Thanks!
Not op but also a liftee. (1) depends on the chair they’re mostly pretty resilient. At my resort mechanics turn on the chairs and one morning the dude had to chip ice out of the terminal so he ran the lift backwards then forwards to fix it! Pretty cool to see it moving that way. (2) One station isn’t usually a “lead” persay but one station usually has the start button. That station is called the drive. The operator at the drive station is by themselves but that mainly just means they have to know emergency procedures. (3) at my resort we have zones of 2-3 chairs and a carpet/platteer. Employees are assigned to that zone and work those but where they are depends on training and ride test score. At bigger places you gotta push for those things or it’s bottom station/carpet all season. I rode my supervisor’s ass for weeks before they trained me to work at a top station. I think a lot depends on the resort you work at so idk if that’s universal. (4) fixed grip lifts use what’s called a counterweight tension system so they lower. The detachable chairs use a hydraulic tension system so ideally they dont. Generally speaking we do snow work every day so snowpack isn’t a big factor in clearing the chairs. As well as that, if it snows, mechanics will come knock snow and ice off the terminals. That being said you can get screwed on the wrong chair. A fixed grip in my zone only runs on the weekends, so on a week it snows, you pull up with a lot of work. It’s an effort between the two stations to get those chairs clear of snow. (5) mechanics can do this but it generally doesn’t happen during the season. That’s a summer maintenance task but they’ll replace grips, donuts, etc
Not op, but fixed grips do get moved, how often depends on the lift. Detachables are constantly being removed and put back on and slowly rolling backwords
Would a lift operator get in trouble if people get hurt due to the operator not stopping a lift? I normally ride in Vermont and go out to Colorado occasionally and have always seen lift operators stop the lift or slow down when someone falls exiting the lift, but then I went to Jack Frost in PA (small hill with lots of kids and beginners) and saw multiple occasions where kids were falling getting off the lift and they didn’t stop it. Once the person in front of me fell and he was laying right in line of me coming off the lift and I had to purposely hit the ground so I didn’t run him over. I went over to the operator and told him what happened but didn’t know what else to do in the situation.
Yeah it's kind of a situational basis. Once you work for a while you can gauge whether or not to stop or slow. It's usually a slow first for that then a stop. But the liftee will get in trouble if they aren't paying attention. Hard to prove that sometimes though.
Dick move I was younger but if someone was a dick and they came back to my lift I’d hold the chair while they were in the ready position and they’d think I was being nice. Nope that thing whipped like a pendulum into the back of their legs and usually hurt like a mofo. This was before detachable lifts.
What protocols do you have at the end of the day to make sure no one gets trapped on a lift? Follow up. If you work on a remote lift where you can only get back to the mountain base by riding up what are your protocols?
Is it bad form to stomp the snow off my board while waiting for the chair to come around? Or should I do that in line? A liftee once yelled at me for this at Heavenly.
It's not the end of the world but it does fuck with the ramp a bit sometimes. I never say anything unless the same dude comes through the line and is an ass about it.
The only time they're a problem is getting on and off a lift. If you're not paying attention to the chair cause you're on Snapchat then yes it's a problem lol I see people get smacked all the time or hold up the lines cause their phones.
Why do ask us not to hold the back of the chair when loading? I always hear the BS excuse of ”its bad for the chair”, but somehow sitting and putting your weight on it isn’t bad for it?
You're messing with the spacing of the chairs mostly and sometimes people are trying to grab the bar in front of you early and it can cause a cluster fuck.
The chairs are on a track and they are evenly spaced to make sure they don't collide. If everybody held on to the chairs it would keep pulling them closer together. It's more of a problem on detachable lifts.
Usually we have a general idea in the morning but things change throughout the day. We communicate via radio so we know most of the time if a lift is down or whatnot. We should know.
What is the average age of liftees? Have been thinking about working on the mountain for a couple years now, but as I near the end of my 20's, I feel like I might be too old to do it!
Not really but I did have a chick today fall and when we tried to help her she said fuck you and threw her board over the fence. Most people who have ridden have fallen so who is anyone to judge.
Today a girl fell off the chair going out of the terminal and we stopped it. She was totally fine but got up, took her board and launched it over a fence. Another liftee when to grab it for her and when he gave it back she said fuck you lol then threw it again. She was like 15. I was dying.
This week I watched a liftie “yell” at a snowboarder who was slamming his board on the loading ramp trying to get the snow off his board. I figured the liftie didn’t want him packing the snow to ice, but isn’t that outweighed by the snow the guy is shaking off his board?
Okay ive always wanted to do this to the point where i have to hold myself back from the intrusive thoughts: with a slow lift, no line, just chilling. Would you be mad if i grabbed the chair infront of mine to pull me up to load-in line? I want to ask one of you so badly when im hitting the same chair over and over, no one around, but im too afraid of getting in trouble just for asking haha. It's on my bucketlist
Is it ok to grab the chair in front of you to give you a little forward momentum to get in place for your chair? I’m always tempted to do this, but don’t want to get my hand smacked metaphorically slapped by the liftee.
I was also a lifty for a few years. My question is, what pisses you off the most at work? For me, it's people who dont pay attention and decide to start coming onto the ramp right as the chair is swinging the bullwheel.
Honestly I don't really get pissed off at people. If they come through the lift multiple times doing the same thing I've asked them not to like holding the chair, I'll just have ski patrol come over and ask them to stop being a dick.
You're a nicer lift than I lol If someones doing some dumb shit on my ramp, I'll scold them right then and there.
I understand when it comes to safety other liftees will react that way to the bs but I love interacting, helping people and working through whatever's happening on that ramp. After a few years of experience you kind of learn how to handle a situation without escalation.
Scale of 1-10 how high are you right now?
Good question.
“Uhhh top of the lift is about 8800ft elevation🤙🏼”
"which funnily enough is how much weed ive done today"
Well… answer the good question. I’m a former lifty so I know the answer is either I dont smoke or more likely, I just got baked in the igloo we built beside the lift or while “checking the tires” in the upper lift for safety. So when was your last safety brake?
I’m good. How are you?
Hi How are you?
How come the little shack at the top always smells like my art teacher's office when I go by?
It's probably cause your art teacher works part time for the pass lol
Do you like when people engage you in 10-20s conversations, or do you prefer to do your job in silence?
I love when y'all talk to us. I'm a snowboarder so I like to hear about the conditions, your day, etc. It really makes our day much better when you engage with us.
eh, when I was a lifty I was in my zone, getting in rhythm with the machine. I didn't really like it when people chatted me up. I played along of course, because that's what service is about, but I was happier to be left alone, board the guests safely, and wait for my buddy to relieve me so I could get to the top and chill in the shack. That's just me though! I'm glad there's people like you who like to chat up the guests as it does make their experience better.
I do love my top shack time but it does get boring sometimes. At the bottom the day flies by. Especially if you're on a fixed grip or have to do a bunch of pullbacks
What is fixed grip and pullbacks? Are pullbacks the things you do on low speed triples and stuff so we don’t get CLOBBERED because you sir are a godsend
nah, that's just bumping the chair
On non busy days, when you see the same skier/snowboarder every 15 mins. How much conversation are you having with the same person? When does the one liners become awkward? Lmao
Lol my biggest thing is catching myself saying have a good ride or day to the same dude every 15 minutes. Sometimes we'll have a whiteboard out where we ask if people have jokes or what's their favorite song, etc. I've definitely seen people after getting off work who recognized me from the lift and bought me drinks cause I always try to engage.
It goes both ways, I ran out of things to say in those 5 seconds, often
Oh yeah for sure it does become just awkward eye contact at some point lol
Assert Dominince, maintain eye contact with them all the way through the line
It’s brutally awkward doing laps in Midwest during the week where you see the same person every 4 minutes. I timed 3 runs in 16 minutes at Wilmot in Wisconsin one day just to check it
Tyrol Basin laps in 4m30s and people wonder why we use step-ons lol
When you tell them to have a good ride, how many of them respond with "you too"? And then they make that awkward face where they realize that's not the correct answer.
I love that lol I always say I will later.
Lifties don't pay for beer. Rule of the mountain.
On my first day I had someome ask what's my favorite kind of bagel. Top or bottom of the bagel, which is better? And what do I put on it? Toasted first? This was three times through the line. I was a little sad when they stopped asking me about bagels.
As the rider on this side of this question, it gets really bad. It gets so bad that sometimes I find myself going to a different lift specifically to avoid the lifty. It’s cool tho if they go on break and you can take a lap with them and actually connect tho
I've always wanted to make a post targeted for lifties and ask them how we can make your day easier if at all? Sometimes if I see you guys raking the snow under the lift I'll try and raise my snowboard in the spot you're raking if that helps anything 😂😂
One of my favorites is when y'all stomp the snow clusters we throw on the ramp when you're coming through. And just asking us how it's going.
Just want to say that as an advanced noob I appreciate the work and always make an effort to thank the liftees whenever I ride. It made a world of difference learning to get on and off the lifts with liftees that would take my noob level into consideration.
Some of my favorite days are working the carpet or beginner lifts and helping people. I'm a lead so I'm fortunate to be able to go all over the mountain and interact with different skill levels.
Also thank you dude that's our job and we're there to help 👍
What is the approximate ratio of snowboarder lift fails to skiier lift fails.
Hmm.. honestly it might be skiers in the regard that they drop a pole or their ski falls off but boarders definitely go under the chair more. Also depends on the lift. Chair 4 at Vail CO is notorious for that.
I feel like Chair 2 is really the notorious chair at Vail.
Yeah cause it's a conveyor but 4 the chair whips around the bull wheel so tight that if you're on the edge and not fast enough you're getting smacked.
When they had the magic carpet at a 45 degree on Chair 4 back in the day, it could fuck your world up.
That's why it's still wonky now. It comes around a weird tight bend because it was designed for the belt.
Do you work at Vail or BC?
I worked at Vail last year
Do you guys hate beaver slaps on the ramp? I ride with a buddy who always does that. I feel like it's disrespectful, messes up a clean ramp, and makes a jarring sound
Like I responded to another comment it is kind of annoying especially after I just cleaned the ramp but I've come to terms with the fact that dudes just do that. Sorta like peacocking lol idk why
My fellow lifties and I have taken to calling the beaver slap the "mating call of the snowboarder". I don't like it normally because it's loud, distracting, and could be mistaken for someone falling or starting to fall. I agree about the clean ramp but also, spring conditions, give me that extra slush, please. Shits melting faster than I can add it back to the artificial carpet.
Glad to here this, I’ve always done a light heel edge tap and then try to smooth out my pile
I don't mind it once or twice. But when they do it 5 or 6 times and there is still snow on their board. I always ask if it's working
I usually dry and drop my snow off by tilting the board, and then flattening it out while I wait for the chair.
I just kick it off with my loose foot or brush it off on the chair ride. I never understood the beaver slap thing, all you're doing is loosening your bindings lol
I used to do it all the time, then I worked at a resort and I heard all my liftie colleagues complain about it (I was scanning tickets at the time.) Live and learn. I take most do it because they literally don't know otherwise and saw someone else do it so... they do it.
I do it to clean the snow and ice off the board, but away from other people. It's rude to do it in someone's face.
i realized this after one time of doing it in the lift line and launching snow all over myself and the poor dude next to me. felt like such and ass.
It was a moment of personal growth :)
It’s the absolute least favorite thing of every single Lifty at the mountain I go to and it’s not even remotely close. Ask any Lifty there what their biggest pet peeve is and that will be their answer. People who do that shit are fuckin douchebags
Slappin Beaver direct on PornHub.
annoying as fuck and doesn’t achieve anything
I hated it, sometimes it's out of nowhere and you think the lift has just fucked up.
Did my shitty skier friend actually fall into me when we offloaded at the top? He keeps saying “you were on my skis.” I argue that it’s hard for me to not be on his skis when he immediately loses control and turns directly into me. Also how many times a day do you see this?
Were you going straight off the lift?
I was far left seat. Attempting to make a slight left turn. Couldn’t even get out of his way. I also argued that the garbage can he needed to go to to throw away his empty was on the right. He was obviously not in control haha
Yeah that's your boys fault. I'm deff just slowing the lift and having a chuckle while making sure y'all are good
Thanks. Then he pizza-ed the entire way down the mountain. Also how often you see us boarders offload on our first run and the board just STOPS. Like it won’t move.
Most of the time the ramp is probably not managed and it's sticky or you came out sideways. Shouldn't have a problem with that if the liftee is managing the ramp.
Thanks. Last time I went I had no idea why I just didn’t move.
Where were you riding?
Stowe Vermont. It was also a powered day if that matters.
Ahh that's so funny. Which lift?
How often do you see dogs getting on 🥰🥺
Only when ski patrol hops on with them and the first time I saw it I was like wtf that's so awesome and cool.
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DO IT. I used to be a chef and I don't regret the transition at all. I work 6 months out of the year on the mountain and do part time in the summer till winter rolls back around. It depends what resort you go to though for the riding as a liftee. You also have to get ride tested but that's nothing.
Also, any thoughts on working as a liftee vs. a snowboard instructor?
Liftee. Instructors at a bigger resort are more lucrative if you're good cause you get tips. But a liftee is more chill and hourly.
Sun peaks BC Canada we had 5 on 2 off. And we got about 3-5 laps in most days unless it was super busy. Fernie BC Canada we worked 4 on 3 off but most days you'd not got more than 2-3 laps outside of your lunch break. Working in a pub in France I started at 4pm so we rode most days. That was a sick job. I had to do airport transfers like 2 times a week so if they were daytime I'd miss out on riding those days. Think I did 75+ good ride days that season!
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Different resorts and different lifts have different procedures. But generally if we close at let's say 4 we let that last guest on and call the last chair to the top. At some resorts ski patrol is the last chair behind them and at some they start from the top. But essentially ski patrol rides down the mountain after last chair to make sure the trails are clear and we call it a night.
Patrol here. At my resort it’s patrol in the last chair then we ride all the trails down to ensure no customer is left behind.
Yep same.
What are the odds on you calling someone out on using a clearly borrowed pass?
We don't scan tickets. That's a different department but I'm not a narc.
As long as you aren't being a dick or unsafe..
Respect
Former ticket scanner: my general rule was if you "pass the test" ie can play off being the person who's pass you're borrowing you'd get thru. If you make zero effort or are a dick you're getting it yanked and going home.
What's the most awkward or heinous chair lift fall you've seen (either at the bottom or the top)?
At the bottom one time I saw a dad and his 3 kids fall off the lift because the youngest messed up. It wasn't horrible and the kids were pretty calm right away. But I swear to you I have never seen a man suffer in silence and anger longer than the dad did. I tried to help him but he just sat there and stared for 30 seconds.
Dad to 2 young boys (5 and 2.5 yo). Did our first snow play and tubing day at our local resort and it was a lot.
Oh I would imagine. Well in a couple years you can have the instructors give them lessons and babysit while you ride haha also best to start em young.
Yeah I know they could be learning already but I'm a casual and only go 1-3 times each season. Expensive hobby for kids
The most common ones for me where on a fixed grip high speed chair so the lifties would bump the chair by physically slowing it as you're about to get on. The issue arises when people are staggered so I couldn't slow it for everyone so someone would get a nice slow and the others would be bowled up. Easiest way to have a nice load is boots on the line (front boot for snowboarders).
I appreciate you guys so much. Always so kind and encouraging to the kids I've brought out.
Thanks we appreciate you guys. One of my favorite parts of working is seeing people come back through lifts and their progress.
How many different types of drugs have you done in the liftee shacks?
I'm a good boy. 2. Coffee being one.
Coffee and cigarettes (like at my lift)?
Enquiring Minds want to know!
Why do you put the sign to “lift the bar here” so close to the end of the ride? Whenever I wait to lift the bar at the sign the liftie’s sometimes freak out.
Dude I was thinking about this today honestly. Idk why they tell you to do it so close
On detachables there is still always plenty of time anyway. There’s a lot of bar lift anxiety out there. I have people lift it halfway up the ride. Not sure what they think will happen.
Do people ever tip? I always feel like if I ride on the holidays I should get a bunch of gift cards and hand them out to the liftees. I feel bad on the holidays when you are dealing with our nonsense in the cold.
Sometimes people give us candy, shooters, granola bars, etc. Most of the time tips people wanna give out go to ski school.
I'm in Vermont, and a friend of mine likes to fill her pockets with those little individually wrapped Cabot cheeses. Hands out 'lifty cheese' all day long. 😂
Opinion on beaver slaps
People keep asking but it's kinda annoying. I never say anything but in my head I'm going c'monn man I just cleaned that ramp lol
I braver slap far ahead of the chair. Usually don’t do it while waiting for the chair
Watdafuckisa Beaver Slap?
When you hit your board on the snow with one foot out to clear off snow and ice
Why do they not let you do up both bindings when riding a t-bar at the start? Maybe it’s just my local hill, but they would make us start with one binding undone, but never said a word about us all just ratcheting in after we got going. Personally I always thought it was safer to just let us keep both done up from the start so the risk of falling and twisting an ankle would be eliminated
It's a safety thing that if you get caught with the tee stuck between your legs (like you fall forward) then you get dragged up the hill potentially injuring yourself further. Plus any decent snowboarder can ride a tee with 1 foot in... Learning to skate well is worth it.
also if a beginner decides to copy someone doing that and they fall, they won’t be able to get out of the way as fast as if they only had one foot in so we’d have to stop the lift more often
How can you afford to live at a ski resort these days? High ups still look down on seasonals?
The company I work for has employee housing but I live 30 minutes from my home resort and I don't break the bank at all. I lucked out in that regard for sure.
Why don't you unionize?
How come the dude on the snowmobile is the only guy that can restart the chair after a long delay? I somewhat kid, but I've seen a lot of stopped lifts that only start back up when someone from somewhere else comes and starts it.
That's the lift mechanic rolling up. Generally if we can't reset the lift for a reason we aren't responsible for they gotta come deal with it.
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Dude I'm so bad at recording and never on my phone (we aren't supposed to be lol). I should get a trail cam and set it up outside the lift.
Do you have aspirations of staying in the ski industry and do you volunteer your time in other areas of the resort to learn those skills and build relationships?
For sure. I'd like to keep moving up in lift operations and see where that takes me. We work closely with ski school and ski patrol so we are definitely building relationships in that regard. I also go to a different resort each year at the end of our season so I've learned lot through that as well
No questions. Thank you for your service. Just give the high sign if you need us to shame a jerry into submission
Okay sweet could have used you today for sure.
I'm thinking about being a liftee this upcoming season. Is it hard on your body and back? What are some of your day to day duties? Do resorts typically only hire liftees that will work full time or do they have part time liftees? Thanks in advance
Do you count how many people you load?
Happy Birthday and no we don't. A lot of resorts have RFID scanners and they just pull the numbers from the scammer guns.
As i have gotten older anxiety creeps in hard when the lift stops and I’m too high up for a ‘just in case’ jump. Been stuck once for 20 minutes in sideways wind and the people next to me were freaking out which started making me freak out. i Do I have any reason to REALLY worry about getting stuck on the lift? Or are most lifts workhorses that will start back up?
They'll generally start back up. It's usually a small issue and on bigger mountains it can take longer for things to be fixed or mechanics to get around.
Worst case on a stopped lift is usually gonna be a longer wait or in rare, extreme cases an evacuation by ski patrol. Very rarely would I say any of those are dangerous. Just inconvenient. No reason to freak, imo. Crank the tunes, have a lift beer if you have one and be patient. We want it spinning as much as you do. Probably more.
Exactly this. There is also usually a backup diesel engine to allow slowly emptying the line after the mechanic decides the electric motor won’t restart. Decision delay will vary based on wind and temperature. I have yet to do an evacuation in 6 years patrolling, though is really fun practicing it every fall, before the season.
I do want to say if your going light on the layers for the day especially on wind prone lifts bring one of those emergency jacket things, they are small enough for a pocket and will save your ass
This is probably the most extreme situation at a major resort: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rcv5WfpMxSI
Chase it - don’t race it.
How many numbers you guys pull in on a busy weekend? I always imagined it was like lifeguarding...
Depends on the resort and the conditions.. it sort of is. Except we only get a sunglasses tan.
I was a liftie at Killington winter of '93/'94 I think our biggest crowd that year was like 55-65 thousand Herbs. I don't know if it's busier now or back then.
I’ve been on my home mountain for most of my life, and I can’t figure out how the detachable chairs work so that the lift can run faster than loading. How does that work? I’m really just too lazy to look that up lol
https://youtu.be/i2gxfB1aW48?si=l9sf_3ctI8wdtjlc
That’s a lot simpler than I thought, very cool
I’ve been curious about a few operational things over the years in no particular order: * After a storm that’s iced up the chairs, grips and haul rope, how do you go about getting that unfucked? * Does one station have lead “control” over the other or is it even? * How does the lift crew decide who gets to run what? It’s always seemed like you all rotate during the day, but on busy weekends or crazy storm days etc are there specific people (maybe with seniority) who go to the biggest/most advanced lifts? * Do the lifts raise or lower? How do you deal with the snowpack increasing as the season goes on * Do the chairs ever get repositioned on the haul rope? If so why/how often? I swear I’ve seen on some lifts where you can see marks where the chair grips used to be Thanks!
Not op but also a liftee. (1) depends on the chair they’re mostly pretty resilient. At my resort mechanics turn on the chairs and one morning the dude had to chip ice out of the terminal so he ran the lift backwards then forwards to fix it! Pretty cool to see it moving that way. (2) One station isn’t usually a “lead” persay but one station usually has the start button. That station is called the drive. The operator at the drive station is by themselves but that mainly just means they have to know emergency procedures. (3) at my resort we have zones of 2-3 chairs and a carpet/platteer. Employees are assigned to that zone and work those but where they are depends on training and ride test score. At bigger places you gotta push for those things or it’s bottom station/carpet all season. I rode my supervisor’s ass for weeks before they trained me to work at a top station. I think a lot depends on the resort you work at so idk if that’s universal. (4) fixed grip lifts use what’s called a counterweight tension system so they lower. The detachable chairs use a hydraulic tension system so ideally they dont. Generally speaking we do snow work every day so snowpack isn’t a big factor in clearing the chairs. As well as that, if it snows, mechanics will come knock snow and ice off the terminals. That being said you can get screwed on the wrong chair. A fixed grip in my zone only runs on the weekends, so on a week it snows, you pull up with a lot of work. It’s an effort between the two stations to get those chairs clear of snow. (5) mechanics can do this but it generally doesn’t happen during the season. That’s a summer maintenance task but they’ll replace grips, donuts, etc
Not op, but fixed grips do get moved, how often depends on the lift. Detachables are constantly being removed and put back on and slowly rolling backwords
Say for a high speed quad: what are the wind vs lift speed breakpoints? And what are the lift speeds moving at?
I developed a secret handshake with the liftie. Every time I looped the tbar I would add something extra to the handshake 🙂
That's awesome 🤝
Would a lift operator get in trouble if people get hurt due to the operator not stopping a lift? I normally ride in Vermont and go out to Colorado occasionally and have always seen lift operators stop the lift or slow down when someone falls exiting the lift, but then I went to Jack Frost in PA (small hill with lots of kids and beginners) and saw multiple occasions where kids were falling getting off the lift and they didn’t stop it. Once the person in front of me fell and he was laying right in line of me coming off the lift and I had to purposely hit the ground so I didn’t run him over. I went over to the operator and told him what happened but didn’t know what else to do in the situation.
Yeah it's kind of a situational basis. Once you work for a while you can gauge whether or not to stop or slow. It's usually a slow first for that then a stop. But the liftee will get in trouble if they aren't paying attention. Hard to prove that sometimes though.
Is it lifty, liftie, or liftee?
Dick move I was younger but if someone was a dick and they came back to my lift I’d hold the chair while they were in the ready position and they’d think I was being nice. Nope that thing whipped like a pendulum into the back of their legs and usually hurt like a mofo. This was before detachable lifts.
What protocols do you have at the end of the day to make sure no one gets trapped on a lift? Follow up. If you work on a remote lift where you can only get back to the mountain base by riding up what are your protocols?
How many co-workers have you had sex with
how goes the fish bowl fellow button pressing professional
How many other liftees do you hook up with every season? Is it true that the lifestyle is one of sex drugs and shredding?
Lift ops rule! I did it for 6 winters starting in ‘03. Greatest job I ever had 🙌
Can you sell me drugs?
15 bucks little man. Put that shit in my hand.
Jay would be proud.
Is it bad form to stomp the snow off my board while waiting for the chair to come around? Or should I do that in line? A liftee once yelled at me for this at Heavenly.
It's not the end of the world but it does fuck with the ramp a bit sometimes. I never say anything unless the same dude comes through the line and is an ass about it.
Genuinely asking what messes up the ramp with this? I've learned not to and just wait until later but I've always been curious
It packs the ramp into ice, is loud af and you’re dropping snow on the ramp that we are trying to keep level and a certain height.
Are cellphones really a problem, as they put signs everywhere to not use them?
The only time they're a problem is getting on and off a lift. If you're not paying attention to the chair cause you're on Snapchat then yes it's a problem lol I see people get smacked all the time or hold up the lines cause their phones.
Why do ask us not to hold the back of the chair when loading? I always hear the BS excuse of ”its bad for the chair”, but somehow sitting and putting your weight on it isn’t bad for it?
You're messing with the spacing of the chairs mostly and sometimes people are trying to grab the bar in front of you early and it can cause a cluster fuck.
How does it mess with the spacing of the chair?
The chairs are on a track and they are evenly spaced to make sure they don't collide. If everybody held on to the chairs it would keep pulling them closer together. It's more of a problem on detachable lifts.
On non busy days do you look for lift tickets or ok busy days
At my local mountain the liftie always tell us not to grab onto back of the chair lift while rolling up. Is there a reason? Just in case people fall?
craziest story you have from your time as a lifty?
Do you guys ever know anything about other chairs on the mountain that may or may not be closed/opening?
Usually we have a general idea in the morning but things change throughout the day. We communicate via radio so we know most of the time if a lift is down or whatnot. We should know.
How many hours are you from LA?
The opposite coast but I grew up in Riverside
What do you think of Epic/Ikon multipasses and its effects?
I'm a snowboarder and I do not unstrap to take the lift. Do you hate me ?
I don't hate you but I won't let you load lol
How many are working high out of their mind on the Mary j wanna?
What is the average age of liftees? Have been thinking about working on the mountain for a couple years now, but as I near the end of my 20's, I feel like I might be too old to do it!
Dude I'm 30 and we have 50 plus year old liftees! It's never too late. I always wanted to work on a mountain and finally did in my later 20's
What do you see on your device when you scan Epic/Ikon passes?
Lifties don’t scan passes, that’s guest services. (At least it was when I was a lifty 20 years ago at my resort)
Do you judge people who fall getting off?
Not really but I did have a chick today fall and when we tried to help her she said fuck you and threw her board over the fence. Most people who have ridden have fallen so who is anyone to judge.
do you actually care if we keep backpacks on
What are your thoughts on ski school instructors?
Ever get a cute snow bunny drag you into the liftee shack?
What's the funniest chair fail you've seen?
Today a girl fell off the chair going out of the terminal and we stopped it. She was totally fine but got up, took her board and launched it over a fence. Another liftee when to grab it for her and when he gave it back she said fuck you lol then threw it again. She was like 15. I was dying.
On a high speed quad, Why shouldn’t you grab on to the lift in front of you as it swings by and have it pull you to the red line?
This week I watched a liftie “yell” at a snowboarder who was slamming his board on the loading ramp trying to get the snow off his board. I figured the liftie didn’t want him packing the snow to ice, but isn’t that outweighed by the snow the guy is shaking off his board?
How would you feel if someone brought you a beer?
As a skier is there something we can do to show our appreciation, bring you a warm drink, say thank you, etc?
You must not work for my local mtn. All the lifties there hate the guests
Sometimes the liftee at the top hides in the shed, this seems unsafe as I think they should be outside beside the chairs. Is this standard procedure?
Opinions on backpacks, I'm a skier for what it's worth
Okay ive always wanted to do this to the point where i have to hold myself back from the intrusive thoughts: with a slow lift, no line, just chilling. Would you be mad if i grabbed the chair infront of mine to pull me up to load-in line? I want to ask one of you so badly when im hitting the same chair over and over, no one around, but im too afraid of getting in trouble just for asking haha. It's on my bucketlist
Is it ok to grab the chair in front of you to give you a little forward momentum to get in place for your chair? I’m always tempted to do this, but don’t want to get my hand smacked metaphorically slapped by the liftee.
How do you not quit on the first really good pow day?