Beginners and surface lifts.

[dbostedo]

T-bar in Breckenridge is vicious! It seems to be very difficult to dismount.

I didn't have any dismount issues last year, but it did stop for a few minutes on one ride... that was kind of painful; I'm not very relaxed on T-bars, so they seem a bit fatiguing sometimes. And that one is pretty steep, so I felt like I had to focus or be tense more.

 

[Eleeski]

Brutal long steep platter rides. Fun hill if any energy is left after the ride up. Someday they'll get chairs?

Lagunillas, Chile.

Eric

 

[dbostedo]

^^^
I much prefer platters to T-bars, personally... less feeling of being pulled sideways or sliding off of it.

 

[Wilhelmson]

Skiing is tough enough for beginners. I don't see the use in adding the extra effort, pain, suffering and humiliation of a t bar. The magic carpet is great and even little kids can do it on their own. Even some somewhat capable snowboarders and to a lesser extent skiers have trouble on the t bar.

There's also the goofing off factor. A friend's kid was goofing off on the tbar. He fell off the bar but his goggles which were attached to his helmet got stuck on the bar. I watched helplessly from 100 feet back as his face got dragged across the snow for about 500 feet. When we got near the top the operator stopped the lift and I ran up and carried him another 300 feet to the warming hut. He had blood all over his face and was hyperventilating to the point my wife had to pull his tongue out of his throat. so he could cough up all the blood inside his mouth. We comforted him and got him to calm down until ski patrol checked him out. Turned out fine, no concussion and he was back skiing that afternoon, tough kid!

 

[Don in Morrison]

You can tell a newbie until you're blue in the face not to sit on the T-bar, but as soon as the bar contacts the place on their body that they sit on, their natural instinct is to sit, because that's what that body part is for. Most of them have to eat some snow a couple of times before they finally figure out what "don't sit on the T-bar" really means.

 

[Nancy Hummel]

Skiing is tough enough for beginners. I don't see the use in adding the extra effort, pain, suffering and humiliation of a t bar. The magic carpet is great and even little kids can do it on their own. Even some somewhat capable snowboarders and to a lesser extent skiers have trouble on the t bar.

There's also the goofing off factor. A friend's kid was goofing off on the tbar. He fell off the bar but his goggles which were attached to his helmet got stuck on the bar. I watched helplessly from 100 feet back as his face got dragged across the snow for about 500 feet. When we got near the top the operator stopped the lift and I ran up and carried him another 300 feet to the warming hut. He had blood all over his face and was hyperventilating to the point my wife had to pull his tongue out of his throat. so he could cough up all the blood inside his mouth. We comforted him and got him to calm down until ski patrol checked him out. Turned out fine, no concussion and he was back skiing that afternoon, tough kid!

T-Bar is different than a platter pull (POMA). I would not expect a beginner to use a T-Bar.

 

[slowrider]

Rode a J bar at a local bump and 2 or 3 of the lifts for a better word had bad springs. You just never knew when it was your turn to get launched out of the track. Fun times.

 

[Smear]

Snowboards & surface lifts are no buneo

Jepp, and it's even worse the slower they go. Remember my daughter self-satisfied saying to some snowboarders laying on the ground by the childrens lift "I can do it and I'm only 3 years old". Tried to explain to her how much harder it is on a snowboard. So that she will never start begging about a snowboard...

I think surface lifts are great for kids. Put up a station or a little course and let the them run laps independently. Much less complicated than chairlifts. But on our resort sadly the only surface lifts are on a bit too steep terrain or on very short and flat terrain for small children.

 

[slowrider]

We had a hot walker at Mt. Rose years ago. Kind of fun going in circles.

 

[Fuller]

Ever since "the incident" on the Bigfoot Tbar @Sibhusky won't ride it with me. Neither will my wife. I detect a pattern here but I also enjoy solitude so I guess I'm OK with it.