Big White, BC. February 10-11, and Apex Mtn, BC. Feb.13-14, 2025

[MarzNC]

Has anyone read or heard about this actually happening? Wow, I hate those things between the legs.

It happened more than once at Alta. Hence the "upgrade" to add safety bars with no footrests but something to keep little kids from sliding underneath the bar. That happened after 2011, a few years after I was taking my then tween daughter to Alta Lodge for spring break trips.

@Sbooker : In 2011, I rode up with an Australian woman who was doing a day trip from Park City. She was completely freaked out having to ride the Collins lift with no safety bar at all. Fair to say that most locals of any age still don't bother to put the bar down on Collins. Difference these days is that I don't get nasty looks if I ask to put it down, although I usually don't bother if I'm an add-on from the singles line since I'm on the end. On Sunnyside, everyone puts the bar down on the 6-pack.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Can't remember where, but I've skied at mountains in the USA where people were required to put their large backpack in front of them for the chairlift ride.

Emphasis added. Mine is small so as I've said I've not been asked in the USA.

I probably ski at smaller ski hills in different regions that you do, meaning places where a long run takes under 4 minutes to finish for my cautious intermediate friends.

The 3 hills that insist on some degree of backpack removal in my experience are Castle Mt., Red Mt. and Mt. Baldy, BC. These are all local joints and the antithesis of industrial skiing. I've never been asked at an Epic or Ikon area.

 

[Skieric]

Not sure where the break point would be. The backpack removal reg is definitely a Canadian thing. I’ve never been asked to remove it in the U.S.

I was at Copper mtn last week. Most of the lift operators were asking everyone to remove their backpacks and hold them on their lap.

 

[Tony Crocker]

It is always possible that this unpleasant regulation will spread. It is also possible that there is some discretion and the lift operators will comment based upon size of backpack.

 

[Skieric]

It is always possible that this unpleasant regulation will spread. It is also possible that there is some discretion and the lift operators will comment based upon size of backpack.

I think this is mostly a concern with larger bags and bags with ski carry straps etc. A basic simple small backpack doesn’t pose the same risk as the packs with more complicated strap setups.

 

[EMSC]

Has anyone read or heard about this actually happening? Wow, I hate those things between the legs.

Not certain I've heard of it happening with a bar down; but I know that the bar between legs style is explicitly sold as a safety feature for children. Eldora unfortunately has the horrid things on it's frontside 6pack. The only lift at Eldora with any attempt at footrests. Others have just the literal bar in front of your hands or nothing at all.

It was well before the internet took over all news articles and long before newspapers crashed and have nearly died, but the Denver Post somewhere around the year 2000 actually paid researchers to do an analysis of Colorado (with TONS of no safety bar lifts back then) vs Vermont (possibly plus other eastern states) with mandatory must put the bar down law on the books.

The answer was no statistically different rate of injuries or falls from lifts between the two situations. One of the findings was that a huge portion of falls from lifts are at the beginning or end of the lift; before a bar can be lowered (mis-load) or after it is raised a tower or two before unloading.

I know of a couple of incidents with broken bones from those categories for example and once even tried to help catch a small kid who half-unloaded at a mid-station just to dangle in the air for 30 seconds. The lifty caught it nearly immediately, but the mid-station was kind of a big erector set platform way above the ground level between two towers (the prior double chair version of chair 3 at Wisp, MD; since replaced).

 

[jamesdeluxe]

A basic simple small backpack doesn’t pose the same risk as the packs with more complicated strap setups.

Understood but then it's a judgement call for the lifties and skiers could get into an argument with them, claiming that it doesn't pose a risk and they need to have their eyes checked. "You let the last guy through and his pack was way bigger than mine!!" You either have to go all-in with the backpacks-on-laps rule (unless it's really small like Tony's) or impose nothing at all.

 

[Sbooker]

It happened more than once at Alta. Hence the "upgrade" to add safety bars with no footrests but something to keep little kids from sliding underneath the bar. That happened after 2011, a few years after I was taking my then tween daughter to Alta Lodge for spring break trips.

@Sbooker : In 2011, I rode up with an Australian woman who was doing a day trip from Park City. She was completely freaked out having to ride the Collins lift with no safety bar at all. Fair to say that most locals of any age still don't bother to put the bar down on Collins. Difference these days is that I don't get nasty looks if I ask to put it down, although I usually don't bother if I'm an add-on from the singles line since I'm on the end. On Sunnyside, everyone puts the bar down on the 6-pack.

Do I remember that Wildcat still has no bar? I should be clear on this as I rode it many times a couple of months ago.

 

[MarzNC]

Do I remember that Wildcat still has no bar?

Correct, Wildcat at Alta has no safety bar. It mostly serves black terrain, with a couple of blue routes when unloading going straight to the cat track that leads to Aggie's Alley. The old center pole double that was Cecret served beginner trails and had no safety bar. When Supreme became a detachable quad that loads just above Alf's, that had a slightly different approach to the pole between legs. Still inconvenient for a tall and big person, say over 6'4" with big thighs.

No safety bars on Lift 7 (triple) or Lift 7A (center pole double) at Taos. Leads some people to always take the long cat track from the Backside (Lift 4, Kachina side) back to the main base (Lift 1). Especially if they normally ski in Vermont.

 

[MarzNC]

I think this is mostly a concern with larger bags and bags with ski carry straps etc. A basic simple small backpack doesn’t pose the same risk as the packs with more complicated strap setups.

Agree.

I use a small Dakine 6.5L backpack at times at a mountain big enough to have multiple on-mountain places to stop for a break or lunch. Can't remember when, but I was asked to take off a strap somewhere. That was a surprise. In that case, it depended on the liftie.

 

[Sbooker]

Correct, Wildcat at Alta has no safety bar. It mostly serves black terrain, with a couple of blue routes when unloading going straight to the cat track that leads to Aggie's Alley. The old center pole double that was Cecret served beginner trails and had no safety bar. When Supreme became a detachable quad that loads just above Alf's, that had a slightly different approach to the pole between legs. Still inconvenient for a tall and big person, say over 6'4" with big thighs.

No safety bars on Lift 7 (triple) or Lift 7A (center pole double) at Taos. Leads some people to always take the long cat track from the Backside (Lift 4, Kachina side) back to the main base (Lift 1). Especially if they normally ski in Vermont.

Thanks. I know in the past that it didn’t as I remember my wife raising an eyebrow at the prospect of no bar when we were first there as novice skiers in 2013. (Powder day on 1st April by the way. We couldn’t really ski it properly but it solidified our addiction to skiing that we picked up a few years before).