When you think about it for a moment, skiing and snowboarding are rather intriguing pass times! Millions of people each year pay large sums of money to spend 6 days of their precious annual leave in ski resorts going up the mountain very slowly and coming back down at varying speeds in various fashions. Sitting on the equivalent of an uncomfortable (often wet) outdoor sofa with friends, family and people of mixed nationality you have never met before, takes up rather a large part of these 6 days! I’ve searched hard to find another similar human activity – in vain!
Ski lifts, of course, have a vital role in your ski holiday and play a fascinating part in our modern society. Conversations start up between complete strangers on all subjects but ski holidays are top of the list – not surprisingly, snow conditions, weather forecast and ski lessons are among the top 10! There are also so many different social and locomotor skills involved in what seems the simple act of taking a ski lift.
• Not losing your temper in public when your ski pass doesn’t work at the automatic “hands free” machine – which is not hands free at all for you as you take off (and drop) your gloves while rummaging in your pockets to find your ski pass…
• Staying patient while shuffling along trying to find a space in the sardine can queue;
• Not reacting to that scowling face as it turns to accuse you of the worst possible crime imaginable – sliding your ski over the back of someone else’s! A humble “sorry!” never seems to work but it’s the best option!
• Making sure everyone is synchronized to get out of the starting gates in time – if you don’t make it before the little bar closes back on your thighs, you’ll find yourself all alone under the burning glare of the ski lift operators!
• Managing to all stop in the right place and sit down at the same moment, coordinating skis, sticks, rucksacks, snowboards and possibly children all at the same time! This alone demands a certain amount of talent – personally it makes me think of synchronized swimming!
• Consideration for your ski lift buddies is important getting the safety bar down without hitting someone’s head or pinching their leg is quite a challenge. On a ski lift with a friend recently, he made the mistake of adjusting his ski boot just as the other 5 people on the lift decided to lower the safety bar – he found himself with his head held down on his knees by the weight of 5 other people! We didn’t hear his muffled cries until a few moments later!
• Diplomacy is essential if one or more of your ski lift buddies is either a premature or late safety bar lifter! There is nothing worse than someone at the other end of your chair trying to lift the safety bar too early leaving you peering over a huge cliff or down a ravine! However, I haven’t yet decided what’s worse – this or someone who waits until the very last minute to lift the bar when everyone else is ready and waiting to get off! This is a tricky one as everyone has an impact on the other’s safety! If you have kids and you’re with this kind of ski lift buddy, you’ll be forgiven for having a slight urge to hit the offending fellow skier or boarder!
• Getting synchronized and ready to coordinate getting off the lift is the next challenge! Considering there are ski lifts that can take up to 8 people, this can be a funny and rather intimate moment as beginner skiers or snowboarders instinctively grab onto the nearest object (you in this instance) for fear of falling and then having the unimaginable happen – causing the lift to stop!
Being polite, diplomatic, considerate and respectful to others whilst at the same time, standing your ground and not letting every Tom, Dick and Harry pass in front of you are all social skills that you need to be able to deal with the complicated social challenge of queue for and taking a ski lift. What makes this situation all the more interesting AND challenging is the fact that not everyone speaks the same language or has the same education! The word “manners” can have a completely different meaning in many European countries and you are bound to come across at least 10 different nationalities on one ski lift!
If you’re skiing alone and are a sociable soul, then ski lifts are a great place to share thoughts. You have between 5 and 15 minutes to make interesting (or not) conversation with your ski lift buddies. Interestingly, some ski resorts even offer speed-dating on chairlifts – I have a wonderful romantic image of 2 single people chatting for 10 minutes on a ski lift only to get married a year later, then spending wonderful ski holidays together, forever after… You can read my recent article
"Valentine's Day in a ski resort"
if you’d like to hear about what ski resorts offer for the 14th of February celebrations.
Ski lift queues can be managed in 2 different ways – you can either “play” the queue or you can leave your fate in the hands of destiny … meaning if you’re single and you spot someone interesting on the other side of the queue or you see a weather-beaten face with 70s-style gear and you think they might have an story or 2 to tell… you can play the queue to end up sitting next to that person?
Getting separated from your group and ending up on a ski lift with complete strangers - who might be very strange and/or even foreign - might seem rather daunting to some while to others it’s an opportunity to show off their multi-lingual and communication skills – to varying levels of appreciation from the fellow ski lift buddies… There’s always the option of leaning back and closing your eyes giving the impression that you’re taking a quick nap… it can work in both of the above situations!
If you’d rather ski the Hahnenkamm in
Kitzbuhel
than chat to fellow skiers or snowboarders, then your best option is to take the button lift!
So many things make taking a ski lift totally unique - you can’t change position, you can’t stand up and you can’t decide to get off a stop before your usual one! It’s not really like taking a bus or plane – the journey is shorter and you’re more likely to suffer from vertigo than claustrophobia! It’s more like being at the cinema because you’re sitting side by side with a group of people you’ve never met but with whom you have at least one thing in common…
Share your thoughts – leave a comment or join us on
Facebook.
When you think about it for a moment, skiing and snowboarding are rather intriguing pass times! Millions of people each year pay large sums of money to spend 6 days of their precious annual leave in ski resorts going up the mountain very slowly and coming back down at varying speeds in various fashions. Sitting on the equivalent of an uncomfortable (often wet) outdoor sofa with friends, family and people of mixed nationality you have never met before, takes up rather a large part of these 6 days! I’ve searched hard to find another similar human activity – in vain!
Ski lifts, of course, have a vital role in your ski holiday and play a fascinating part in our modern society. Conversations start up between complete strangers on all subjects but ski holidays are top of the list – not surprisingly, snow conditions, weather forecast and ski lessons are among the top 10! There are also so many different social and locomotor skills involved in what seems the simple act of taking a ski lift.
• Not losing your temper in public when your ski pass doesn’t work at the automatic “hands free” machine – which is not hands free at all for you as you take off (and drop) your gloves while rummaging in your pockets to find your ski pass…
• Staying patient while shuffling along trying to find a space in the sardine can queue;
• Not reacting to that scowling face as it turns to accuse you of the worst possible crime imaginable – sliding your ski over the back of someone else’s! A humble “sorry!” never seems to work but it’s the best option!
• Making sure everyone is synchronized to get out of the starting gates in time – if you don’t make it before the little bar closes back on your thighs, you’ll find yourself all alone under the burning glare of the ski lift operators!
• Managing to all stop in the right place and sit down at the same moment, coordinating skis, sticks, rucksacks, snowboards and possibly children all at the same time! This alone demands a certain amount of talent – personally it makes me think of synchronized swimming!
• Consideration for your ski lift buddies is important getting the safety bar down without hitting someone’s head or pinching their leg is quite a challenge. On a ski lift with a friend recently, he made the mistake of adjusting his ski boot just as the other 5 people on the lift decided to lower the safety bar – he found himself with his head held down on his knees by the weight of 5 other people! We didn’t hear his muffled cries until a few moments later!
• Diplomacy is essential if one or more of your ski lift buddies is either a premature or late safety bar lifter! There is nothing worse than someone at the other end of your chair trying to lift the safety bar too early leaving you peering over a huge cliff or down a ravine! However, I haven’t yet decided what’s worse – this or someone who waits until the very last minute to lift the bar when everyone else is ready and waiting to get off! This is a tricky one as everyone has an impact on the other’s safety! If you have kids and you’re with this kind of ski lift buddy, you’ll be forgiven for having a slight urge to hit the offending fellow skier or boarder!
• Getting synchronized and ready to coordinate getting off the lift is the next challenge! Considering there are ski lifts that can take up to 8 people, this can be a funny and rather intimate moment as beginner skiers or snowboarders instinctively grab onto the nearest object (you in this instance) for fear of falling and then having the unimaginable happen – causing the lift to stop!
Being polite, diplomatic, considerate and respectful to others whilst at the same time, standing your ground and not letting every Tom, Dick and Harry pass in front of you are all social skills that you need to be able to deal with the complicated social challenge of queue for and taking a ski lift. What makes this situation all the more interesting AND challenging is the fact that not everyone speaks the same language or has the same education! The word “manners” can have a completely different meaning in many European countries and you are bound to come across at least 10 different nationalities on one ski lift!
If you’re skiing alone and are a sociable soul, then ski lifts are a great place to share thoughts. You have between 5 and 15 minutes to make interesting (or not) conversation with your ski lift buddies. Interestingly, some ski resorts even offer speed-dating on chairlifts – I have a wonderful romantic image of 2 single people chatting for 10 minutes on a ski lift only to get married a year later, then spending wonderful ski holidays together, forever after… You can read my recent article
"Valentine's Day in a ski resort"
if you’d like to hear about what ski resorts offer for the 14th of February celebrations.
Ski lift queues can be managed in 2 different ways – you can either “play” the queue or you can leave your fate in the hands of destiny … meaning if you’re single and you spot someone interesting on the other side of the queue or you see a weather-beaten face with 70s-style gear and you think they might have an story or 2 to tell… you can play the queue to end up sitting next to that person?
Getting separated from your group and ending up on a ski lift with complete strangers - who might be very strange and/or even foreign - might seem rather daunting to some while to others it’s an opportunity to show off their multi-lingual and communication skills – to varying levels of appreciation from the fellow ski lift buddies… There’s always the option of leaning back and closing your eyes giving the impression that you’re taking a quick nap… it can work in both of the above situations!
If you’d rather ski the Hahnenkamm in
Kitzbuhel
than chat to fellow skiers or snowboarders, then your best option is to take the button lift!
So many things make taking a ski lift totally unique - you can’t change position, you can’t stand up and you can’t decide to get off a stop before your usual one! It’s not really like taking a bus or plane – the journey is shorter and you’re more likely to suffer from vertigo than claustrophobia! It’s more like being at the cinema because you’re sitting side by side with a group of people you’ve never met but with whom you have at least one thing in common…
Share your thoughts – leave a comment or join us on
Facebook.
Being lucky enough to have parents who were crazy about skiing, my love for the mountains started when I was 4 years old on our first family ski holiday to Austrian ski resort of Obergurl. One ski holiday a year was never enough and tears rolled down my face as I looked out the back window of the car on the drive down the valley on the way home!
