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SSSdave

life is short precious ...don't waste it
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I often load chairlifts as a single. As seat numbers per chair capacity increases on chairlifts, so does the potential for not filling a chair efficiently to capacity. People want to ski, not stand needlessly in long lift lines. When a lift maze has few people, that is not an issue. In fact when lift lines are short, most of we experienced advanced skiers let groups, especially mixed couples ride by themselves considerately giving them a chance to talk with each other privately. Thus on say a quad chair with few groups in a maze, even though I could add to a another double or triple, may ride solo or will load with other singles if they just happen to be arriving at the next load block about the same time since most of we singles tend to be gregarious.

However as lift lines increase beyond a minute or two, that begins to be annoying to those waiting in maze lines. That is more likely to be the situation at popular lifts on weekends or holidays versus for mid week visitors. As we approach the Christmas New Years period crowded lift mazes will peak. With intelligently structured lift mazes and lift attendants guiding group combinations, all this can run smoothly with just a few occasional chairs loading at less than capacity.

More recently with the rise of ticket RFID scanners, I've noticed quite an increase of situations where an attendant has difficulty scanning a ticket for whatever reason and then loading becomes more dependent on those groups and or singles moving towards the next load block that need to do so on their own. Same thing in the past before scanners when a person's lift ticket was hidden beneath clothing thus not visible. The same situation may happen when a larger maze is so undermanned that the attendant can only really cope with scanning leaving the loading up to those proceeding along a maze ramp. As a tip, when I approach an attendant with an RFID scanner, until they recognize me as familiar, I usually point a glove finger to the pocket my season pass is in, instead of letting them hunt for such over my clothing that otherwise occasionally does not instantly register.

There are and have always been numbers of people and partial groups that seem to have little interest and awareness indicating to others what group moving towards the next loading block they are part of. Singles in particular if too shy to speak up may find the situation confusing as they try and understand if they need to join groups. Often on advanced quad and six-pack lifts, attendants expect singles to match up by themselves while they concentrate on dealing with the multi-groups. Often say on a quad I'll see people that are actually all part of a group not moving as an obvious line forward in a maze. Sometimes someone in one group may in fact be moving along a loading maze next to person(s) with parts of a group in front or behind. And have noticed they are often not paying attention to those beside them say looking down at the snow or elsewhere. What happens right before next loading blocks sometimes is suddenly they are all too late staring at each other like dopes deciding how to match up. And everyone still in the maze is one chairlift ride slower towards skiing.

My input here open for discussion is I would like to see those skiers and snowboarders that seem to habitually not pay attention moving along lift corrals towards a loading block, during more crowded periods with long lines, to considerately pay better attention while moving through lift mazes. Since there are fair numbers that are unlikely to change their current inattentive whatever behaviors on their own, additionally would like to see terse advice signs for such along lift mazes to make them aware of what is good practice. Many lifts of course already have signs with safety loading notes. Something as simple as the below would help

Please pay attention moving towards
next loading block
together in a line, as a group.
 
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Gatopescado

I never go to the base lodge
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Please tackle the issue of snowboarders sitting around on their butts in the middle of the lift line next, please.
 

DanoT

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SSSdave, you are making it all sound more complicated than it is. OTOH, I think you should get a job as a ticket scanner.
 

François Pugh

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My pet peeve is 4 snowboarders line up for the 4-person lift and at the last minute two drop behind.

What we need for the lifts is a traffic person who directs traffic into the gates at the lift loading area. Many resorts have that person and it works well. Some resorts don't want to have to pay that extra wage.
 

Uncle-A

In the words of Paul Simon "You can call me Al"
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@SSSdave good job starting this thread, I have witnessed clueless skiers/boarders just stand there when they should be getting into groups of four or six. Having been in victim of an unloading accident getting off a quad chair when a boarder knocked over a friend sitting next to me on the chair and the friend falling on top of me causing my goggles to cut me on the bridge of my nose. Just a thought should boarders only be matched up with other boarders and skiers be matched with other skiers?
 

markojp

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My pet peeve is 4 snowboarders line up for the 4-person lift and at the last minute two drop behind.

What we need for the lifts is a traffic person who directs traffic into the gates at the lift loading area. Many resorts have that person and it works well. Some resorts don't want to have to pay that extra wage.

Believe me, skiers do this too.
 
Thread Starter
TS
SSSdave

SSSdave

life is short precious ...don't waste it
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DanoT >>>"Yep, I'd be willing to bet that 99% of Pugski members are NOT the people dawdling in lift lines."

Obviously true but there are also some skiers on this board that actually work at resorts or resort folks that occasionally lurk, so they may be able to influence what I see as an increasingly annoying issue that could use a bit of attention beyond simply having additional expense of paid resort employees occasionally direct lift mazes. Also the last few years that inattentive lift corral behavior seems to be becoming a status quo as though others as in we 99%, have accepted such as something we won't speak up about for the sake of not initiating a negative vibe. Once the 5% of those I am referring to know what is expected, this admittedly marginal minor issue can improve. Generally we singles tend to be more aware of lift efficiency issues thus a worthwhile subject to kick around a bit and hopefully affect some change.
 
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Mike Thomas

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Maybe you should find a few friends to ski with, then you wouldn't have to get annoyed standing in the singles line.

You know what annoys me? Groups that use the singles line in an attempt to get ahead of folks who are courteously standing in line. The "I am more important than you" attitude is killing society. Stop it.
 

Bad Bob

I golf worse than I ski.
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Another is who normally is skiing solo.

I can't change anybody else, so will cause as few hassles as possible around the liftline or at the top.

(Now with that being said, sure hope that guy drops the assault charges from skiing pretty soon.)
 
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SSSdave

SSSdave

life is short precious ...don't waste it
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Maybe you should find a few friends to ski with, then you wouldn't have to get annoyed standing in the singles line.

You know what annoys me? Groups that use the singles line in an attempt to get ahead of folks who are courteously standing in line. The "I am more important than you" attitude is killing society. Stop it.

As a quite gregarious person often making conversation on lift rides, I do much enjoy meeting new people and do in fact look forward to take runs with others I just met. In fact more seem to recognize me on sight probably due to my skiing style, than I recognize others haha. However in this era there are just not many skiers capable of skiing moguls well especially when one is not resident in a resort region as most of us with m-f 8-5 careers.. Thus decades ago decided in order to enjoy skiing enough to bother with the activity requiring several hour drives just to reach resorts, that I would often need to be content with doing so solo. And that has worked out quite happily well. That is one reason I am skiing Comet chair at HV more now because there are more bump skiers there than anywhere else in the Tahoe region and numbers of them are getting to know me including one, miss j, I have skied with a fair amount.

As to being annoyed, it is everyone waiting to load lifts on crowded days especially fresh snow days, that are somewhat annoyed by unnecessary lift loading inefficiencies not just singles. And that is why resorts take fairly thorough measures for them to do so smoothly. My input here is a modest facet of that, which as an observer am suggesting efficiency could improve even more by simply making preferred behaviors known to the 5% or so that act unawares.

As to larger groups breaking up from multi person lines into singles lines, that is another issue maybe you could start a thread for to find out what others have to say. As a more often single, that is to be expected, especially on fresh powder days, whenever the line length time differential is noticeable.
 
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Tony

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Dave, After you solve the liftline problem and that ride on chair 4 at Kirkwood is too long for the amount of vertical, I have another one for you. I got off 680 in Milpitas when coming back from Kirkwood on Wed. about 6 PM as freeway was stop-and-go. It took me three or four lights to make a left at the end of the off-ramp. Twice the light changed because people left too long of a gap between their vehicle and the one ahead so pavement sensor probably told traffic signal controller there was nobody else coming so it was time to change. The second time it was the car ahead of me and even though I honked to try to get him going when line of cars started moving and he didn't, we missed the light. I'm not sure if the drivers are being overly cautious or don't realize that they need to stay close enough to vehicle ahead or light will change on them or on the car behind them, but maybe we can get Caltrans to borrow some "Mind the Gap" signs from London subway system. Since it's really hard to fix the clueless, my solution is to try very hard not go through Milpitas going southbound between 4 and 7 PM.
 
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SSSdave

SSSdave

life is short precious ...don't waste it
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Yeah urban traffic is quite an exposition of Bell Curve intelligence haha. I worked 8 years in Fremont before retiring. Mission and Calaveras (SR237) are often horrible especially during that commute period. Scott Creek Rd exit is relatively obscure. Take that across Warm Springs, turn left at Milmont, right on Dixon Rd to reach I880. Especially do that anytime I see a long back up on I680 at the Mission exit.

Are you interested in skiing KW after the Sunday storm?
 

Tony

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We probably should take discussion of skiing next week offline. I could only do a day trip on Monday as we have company for dinner on Sunday and I have a dental appt. early on Tues. I try to avoid the one-day trips, but let me know if that works for you. I'm also thinking that if they get the 5-8" predicted it would be enough to cover all the rocks that have been mostly easy to spot and avoid in the last week or so.
 

Tricia

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Please pay attention moving towards
next loading block
together in a line, as a group.
Stop yelling at me!!!

Seriously, lift line mazes can be annoying when people aren't paying attention, but sheesh, another pet peeve of mine is when members create a post that feels like they're yelling at me.
 

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