random stories from being a liftie

[bobdea]

I have a few stories from the six or so years I was a liftie, posting them because I am bored

FIS events suck!

One very packed saturday morning with lines that were about fifteen minutes long a bunch of austrians decided that they were not gonna wait in line and that they did not need their passes, keep in mind this day was not a race day but they were training, anyway the ticket checker stops them and tells them to go to the end of the line and wait like everyone else, they refuse so she asks to see their passes and none of them have theirs so she tells them to go get them.

their ring leader asks to talk with her superior so she gets me and this duchebag proceeds to tell me that the ticket checker needs be fired all the while holding up everyone, so I tell the guy that I am going to call security if he does not act somewhat civil since he was yelling at her and then me. Then one of the locals that skis every day gets up in the dudes face and scares the hell out of them and they ski off to get their passes and later whine to the management.

the next day I was out riding and when I ride and see something around a lift that I feel looks bad, obstructs the loading or unloading area or anything else that could be a problem I will fix it, I get to the top of one of the lifts and there is a pile of jackets and skis that is in such a spot that if anyone gets off the lift and turns to the right they ski into a pile of junk so I decide move it about 20 ft out of the way,just as I am picking up some of the stuff the the same guy I had a run in with the day before comes up and is pissed that I am moving their crap as I am telling him why I am doing this a kid on a snowboard gets off the lift hits the pile of gear falls then gets up walks over the gear while stomping it with board

the look on the austrians face was priceless, he shut up and helped me move the stuff.

free smoke!

One day I had closed lift ten(the lift that services white heat) at sunday river and a guy skis down he missed the last chair by about twenty chairs but since he very nicely asked and it was only two or so minutes past the normal time I decided to put him on.

So after he gets off we shut everything down and he comes back to the bottom of the lift and hands me a little baggie with a chunk of brown stuff in it, I give him a puzzled look, he smiles and tells me its hash.

the perfect chest

I was checking tickets on a very slow spring day and these two locals had been riding the lift to hit the park all day and pretty much were the only people riding that lift for most of the day.

The guy came down and said to me doesent she(the girl he was riding with) have great tits, I replied that I really can't tell under the hoodie she is wearing, she smiles and gets on the lift.

They come back down and she flashes me and give them a little jiggle and gets on the lift, he was right, they were amazing.

Fast forward about two weeks, they are out again and said that the last time they were out really made my day but had me wondering what the rest looks like, she looks around drops her pants to her knees and gets on on the lift.

Ed, who was bumping chairs nearly forgot to bump their chair he was so stunned.

I miss being a ski bum

[LeeW]

Excellent stories. I mostly served kids at chair 12 at vail. only thing i remember fondly is carving hard turns on a such a tiny segment of trails in the early AM.

[tufty]

Ah, pass checking. The bane of a liftie's life. We had one woman who turned up, has an apartment in the resort and assumes that _everyone_ should know her despite being there only during the ski season. Of course, it being my first season, I had no idea who she was, just another client, I'm out checking passes so ask to see hers.

"But you saw it yesterday"

"And I'll need to see it again today please"

"But you know me"

"No, I don't. And even if I did, I'd need to see your pass"

"I'm not going to stand for this"

"In which case you're not getting on the lift. Could you move aside please, you're holding people up"

"I'll have you fired"

"Well, the office is about 500 metres over there, head over and ask to talk to <name of the big boss>"

"You're not going to let me on?"

"Nope. Not without seeing your pass"

At which point she stormed off. Of course, she'd left the pass in her apartment. She knew it, I knew it, she knew I knew. She re-arrived about 40 minutes later. So I asked to see her pass :)

"But you saw it yesterday"

"You realise that if you just showed me your pass, you'd already be on the lift?"

"You SAW IT YESTERDAY"

"And I need to see it today, please"

Eventually, she condescendingly shows me the pass, and I let her on. By this time, her face is burned into my memory. Every time she arrived for the rest of the season, I would come out of the cabin or stop whatever it was that I was doing, and ask to see her pass. Even if I wasn't checking any others. It got to the point where she would wait till I was going off to lunch before she passed :)

Another pain in the arse is those people with a million tags on their jackets. Checking passes is tough enough without having to sift through 50 of the bloody things to find today's pass. Remember, kind reader, take the pass off at the end of the day.

Oh, and the girl who arrived with a 3-day expired pass. Not even a pass that would have been valid on my lift.

"Sorry, your pass is out of date. You'll have to head over and buy a new one"

"But I didn't ski yesterday"

There's always one or two who try it on. Arrive with passes that are for the wrong zone of the resort, ignoring the big sign indicating pass validity, and try to blag their way through. They _always_ start with:

"But it wasn't like that last year"

"Actually, I think you'll find it was. And has been since the chairlift was installed 15 years ago"

Then there was the guy who had obviously had one over the eight at lunchtime, arrived at the cabin, headed straight for the boot-warming cabin, opened the door and went in. He then stuck his head out and yelled:

"There's no lock on your toilet door, and the lights don't work"

"That's not a toilet. It's where we keep our boots warm"

"Oh"

You'd have thought the massive collection of ski and mountain boots on warmers would have alerted him to the fact he was in the wrong place. Still, at least he didn't pee in them.

I've had the baggie of dope thing, too, and we get quite a few clients who turn up with presents for us, which is always nice. Never had anyone flash their tits at me though. Not a female, anyway :)

Simon

[Jack M]

At Sugarloaf the lifts have mazes that consist of a number of straight, parallel queues. When you get to the front of a queue, you wait for the liftie to call you out. I think a lot of mountains do this. If the maze has 4 queues, the liftie is supposed to call the front people out from each queue like so: 1, 2, 3, 4, .... 1, 2, 3, 4, repeat.

Well, that rocket science was apparantly a little too much to grasp for this one particular liftie. He was going back and forth, calling out the queues like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4... causing the outer two queues to move half as fast as the rest!

It's a damn good thing I'm a snowboarder - otherwise he would have found my ski pole in a very uncomfortable place.

[Neil Gendzwill]

Never been a liftie myself, but to those of you who have - thanks for doing that boring, cold but necessary job. I always make sure to say "thanks" when they get the chair for me.

[Kirk]

Never been a liftie myself, but to those of you who have - thanks for doing that boring, cold but necessary job. I always make sure to say "thanks" when they get the chair for me.

Ditto Neil's statement.

Besides, ya gotta know that, at times, they're jealous as hell having to work and not able to ride/ski - esp. on an epic day! So I always give a "thank you" for their assistance. In return I usually get a strange look or comment/question about my rig.

[bobdea]

the lifties often beat patrol to first tracks.

thats the nice thing about being a liftie is that you never get stuck like some of the people that teach, they have to ride the flats all day when there was a dump.

[smaynard]

Bob,

Those were great, thanks for jotting them down.

I used to work Guest Services out west and when the mountain was short on lifties I often got recruited. Not too bad a way to spend the day, just couldn't imagine doing it every day of the season.

Sounds like that girl you mentioned found the perfect way to say thanks.

[skatha]

Ah....passes...I've always found being nice and having all your required paperwork a surefire way to have a good time at a ski resort...

As for lifties, when I'm riding with my daughter and doing the same run over and over again, the lifties usually remember the old lady on the snowboard ;)

[dano]

RE:Eventually, she condescendingly shows me the pass, and I let her on. By this time, her face is burned into my memory. Every time she arrived for the rest of the season, I would come out of the cabin or stop whatever it was that I was doing, and ask to see her pass. Even if I wasn't checking any others. It got to the point where she would wait till I was going off to lunch before she passed.

[D-Sub]

heh. tufty...thats kinda...uh...I wont go so far as dano, but...its a bit obsessive, no?

I rode a LOT at bachelor last year...and only got asked for my pass once...they have scanners there and my pass was in a handwarmer pocket in my left mitt...

at first I was a little irritated, and the girl who asked for it was obviously bein a b---h, even before I huffed and puffed. Then I shut up, showed it to her, winked, and was on my way. Had she hassled me every time I came through after that (actually dont think I ever saw her at that lift again...odd) I'd have been a lot less patient about it.

that said...I want to see the boobs that Bob got to see!

[timinor]

Bobdea,

Those are great stories. I was never lifty but I watched plenty of them deal with jerks. One girl I rode with used to carry little candies she handed out to the lifties. She always got the royal treatment. I'm guessing the flasher was always greated with a smile at your lift too.

[bobdea]

middle aged women tend to be the most fun at work and sometimes after work too

[tufty]

heh. tufty...thats kinda...uh...I wont go so far as dano, but...its a bit obsessive, no?

Yeah. Very obsessive. And yeah, I can be an *******, I think in this case I probably was. Still, it wasn't me that was so indignant about _having to show a pass_ that I missed every morning's skiing over a 2 month period in order not to have to show it... All she would have had to have done would be turn up a couple of times with the pass already out and a big grin, and I would have forgotten all about it. Hell, probably would have waved her through from that point on, pass or no.

I guess the moral of the story is "don't make the lift driver's job harder, they're human too and you might find one who's as big an ******* as you are, if not bigger"

Oh, and for those that say hello, thank you, etc to the lifties. You are appreciated. We love you. We might only have a couple of seconds to respond, but we do appreciate the odd bit of basic human decency from time to time. Here's a "thanks" on behalf of all the lifties you've cheered up.

Simon

[D-Sub]

I've always been very, very cool to lifties when Im a semi-local. learned their names, bought them beers when I'd see them out on the town, etc.

you guys do a job that makes resort riding possible. lifties and groomers = my best friends

[Jack M]

n. Someone in a menial but necessary occupation that gives them enough authority to screw people over, and they do so just because they can.

:p

[LeeW]

I guess the moral of the story is "don't make the lift driver's job harder, they're human too and you might find one who's as big an ******* as you are, if not bigger"

Simon

Well said. As my job is to maintain the terrain park as well as preperation of special events, sometimes I have to deal with ********S. At one point, we shut down the race course, so we can use the snowmobile to drive up the hill to haul things up for special events. At one point, there was a skiier and a son who blatantly crossed underneath rope-off area. So I stop by on a snowmobile to request him to get off the area for safety concerns (for those who recall, somebody got killed on this particular race course last year by snowmobile). Whoa. He starts mouthing me off and says he wants to go thru the area so he can go to his car as in a short cut, and I again politely ask him to get off so he wouldn't get hit by a snowmobile. Still chose to ignore me. Now, technically, Im allowed to pull his pass or whatsoever I desire... however I stand by the principle that the customer's always right, no matter what. I decided to leave him alone and proceed to keep working. Well, he tried to ski over the ski fence at high speed, and the face ski fence's made of non-slippery material. the ski fence got his ski stuck, and he was shot over. I pretend not to see him as I rode the snowmobile up, but serves him right for blatantly ignore the close off rope and mouthing me off.

[tufty]

Power Clerk

n. Someone in a menial but necessary occupation that gives them enough authority to screw people over, and they do so just because they can.

Chairlift Driver

n. Someone who has, as part of their job description, the thankless task of checking passes. Also the person who will end up being sued, and, at least over here, potentially do jail time, if you go past without a valid pass on your person and then have an accident on the lift.

****hole Tourist

n. Someone who has a pass, but can't be fagged to get it out of their pocket and will bitch and moan about being asked to so do, after all they are on holiday and anyway the lift driver saw it yesterday; obviously the lift driver is going to remember _their_ face and pass expiry date out of the 10,000 that went past yesterday

Pass checking target

n. As '****hole tourist' above, except has irritated the lift driver enough for their face to register.

Simon

[Neil Gendzwill]

That's all well and good Simon but it sounds like you went past conscientious checking and straight into harassment.

[D-Sub]

yeah...but its actually funny. lady sounds like a snob, and snobs should be put in their place. go tufty :)

[tufty]

That's all well and good Simon but it sounds like you went past conscientious checking and straight into harassment.

Harassment? Maybe borderline, yeah. And frankly, she deserved all of it and more, although I can see how it can be seen as wrong. Nothing gives you the right to lay into somone the way she did when all they are doing is their job. She was actually lucky not to have tried it with a couple of the other people who work in the resort, because it probably would have ended up in court.

When it comes down to it, I'm very chilled and laid back. She's about the only one who's ever got to me enough for me to actually seek vengeance of a sort. She went 'above and beyond' in unpleasantness, I have seldom if ever been called the things she called me initially for doing my job, so I went 'above and beyond' in diligence at checking her pass.

For interest's sake, here's how the initial encounter could and _should_ have played out...

"Can I see your pass, please?"

"Erm. Oh. Damn. I've forgotten it" (note, you're allowed to be cross and grumpy here, but you have to admit you don't have it for the rest of the scenario to work)

"Was it for longer than a week?"

"Season"

"Okay, give me your name and address, I'll phone to the ticket office, get them to print you a day pass for free, then I'll dash down there and pick it up. It will take 2 minutes"

I do probably 20 of those scenarios a season. And another hundred or so lost day passes, which are also replaced free of charge in many cases. No conflict involved, everybody wins. But if you get aggressive, you lose, because you get to walk home and fetch your pass. And it _will_ be checked when you get back, because it is entirely too common for people to "oh, I've forgotten my pass", wander off to "pick it up", then try and sneak through again 5 minutes later.

Anyway, it's getting old now, I'll let it drop. I have some funny 'pedestrians on chair lifts' and 'working with a stoner at the top of the lift' stories for later. but that's for later, and some of them aren't terribly funny (near fatal in a couple of incidents)

Simon

[LeeW]

Aside the harassment and all, I still say that jiggle wiggle mammaries' something to die for to see.

[Dave Pushee]

Witnessed an almost incident Sunday.

A lady and two young girls (about age 6?) arrive at the unload station on a fixed grip triple chair. One of the girls doesn't stand up quite quickly enough and the ramp drops out from under her skis. As the chair starts around the wheel, she lifts her skis up and to the side - clearing the stop switch wand. The attendant was definitely paying attention - the lift stopped quicker than if she had triggered the wand.

The quick stop bounced the youngster off the chair, but it was only about a 4 foot drop and she was fine. This was a lot better than the alternative as another second and she would have been a lot higher off the snow.

As I helped her to her feet, I gently explained that the little stick was her friend and that if she ever saw it again, she should stick her skis down and not lift them up.

[bobdea]

I had a guy working with me that was a total stoner and did not ski or ride so was kind of out there

this was at lift six at sunday river, its a detach, he had worked over at lift 15 that is also a Dopplemayr but is a fixed grip.

since he had run lift 15 quite a bit I explained that it was the same thing as far as running the lift and I went on to show him the checks and how to use the touch screen to trouble shoot various issues and at that I was satisfied that he was okay to run this lift since I have ran the lift he was used to and that lift is much harder to run due to a funky ramp and some other stuff.

I had to go do some shoveling up top and tend to some other issues prior to opening so I left the lift in his care, he opens it and about a half hour later I came back down to the bottom and was getting the ticket checkers all set and giving the heads up on how I like things done at that lift, I look over at the loading area and realize this guy is bumping the chairs.

I went over and told him he did not have to since the chairs come through so slow he replied "holy ****!, I was going to ask you how the hell you do this all day, these chairs are really hard to bump!"

Another time at the same lift one of the foremen that is completely brain dead, started the lift because the guy who was scheduled to run the the top of the lift was not in yet.

To understand what I am going to post here for those that have not been a lift operator I will explain a bit about how a detachable lift works, when the chairs come into the terminal on these lifts the chair detaches and are pushed through the terminal by tires while the supported by plastic wheels that fit into a metal rail, all the the while the chair spacing is being watched by a series of switches

this keeps the chairs at least in theory where they should be, when you start a lift that has been turned off these switches are all tripped so you need to start it with the safeties bypassed, so the lift operator becomes the anti collision system by watching the chairs.

Anyway, he is up there and I am on the phone with him the lift starts and all is well for about ten seconds and I hear a crash through the phone so I ask what it was, he says "not su.. uh oh" the lift is still running he had not let go of the bypass button and I ask what was up, he says the chairs are piled up, so I hit the stop on my end because he for whatever reason was too dense to do so or he could of just let go of the anti collision bypass button.

Dumb ass!!

in all fairness it was dark and hard to see and this normally would not have happened but that night the groomer who probably had a buzz on as well hit the chair while pushing up a pile of snow, this knocked the grip out of the rail so it was not in contact with the tires.

but the thing is that for one being the foreman and the one that his job is to make sure we the underlings are careful and that the whole point of why we do all the checks and other startup procedures is to avoid this type of thing from happening.

[timinor]

I've seen a lot of real jerks abuse lifties and I'd say 100% of the time the lifty had incredible patience. I've seen other skiers intervene in behalf of the lifty because the jerk was sooooooo out of line. I've seen jerks yelling at the lifty on powder days because there was a 5 minute delay in getting the lift going...a circumstance that was completely out of the lifty's hands.

Usually, what a saw in those jerks was a pathology that goes something like this: The guy or girl is an arrogant, condescending elitist that thinks they are better than everyone and deserve special treatment. They see the lifties as servants who are beneath them and they let them know that with belittling remarks and tones.

I think if those types get a little harrassment, they deserve it...and I'd like to be around to watch.