I maintain the motion that being a Lifty is the best job on the mountain. You do get some surprises, some interesting things, some amusing things, some scary things, and other plain annoying things that happen while working.

You know that you need to keep an eye on kids, to make sure they don’t do anything daft or dangerous. Working the Gondola, a kid noticed that the groove the pods ran in was lower than the main platform and had a solid bottom to it. I turned around from talking to a guest, to find he was putting his leg in it. Fortunately his Dad got him out of there sharpish, and the Gondola pods were a long way away. Behaviour to be expected of an inquisitive child. I was really quite surprised, however, after having a good chat to a grandmother, to find her stepping down into the groove and slipping the other side of a barrier, moments before the pods rushed in, to take a good photograph! Well, I assume it was a good photograph. I would have thought it would have been just as good from the safe side of the barrier. Oi! Barriers are generally there for a reason, often for safety purposes. Since when am I supposed to keep a close eye on grandparents and make sure they don’t do anything daft?

The Gondola is a freebie, and I have seen a few dogs being taken on-board. Even saw a pair wearing little slippers to keep their paws warm. Not sure how effective that was, as one slipper came off one of the dogs’ feet, and it didn’t even pause. Standing at the top station as one set of pods came in, there was just one guy in there, I looked away for but a moment, and suddenly there was a dog on the platform, yet none of the doors had opened yet! I was confused for a second as to where it had come from, but it had managed to squeeze under the doors, not wanting to wait.

I think that the Summit lift is my favourite to work on. Beautiful views. Catch the sunshine (much needed when it is -20). Good pace to the spacing of the chairs, and getting to help with the mountain sweep at the end of the day (snowboarding down set runs to the bottom of the mountain, to make sure there are no guests left on the mountain). The day before the resort opened, I was helping set up the lift, and at some point we stopped the lift, and took a 10 minute break. Shovelling snow is hard work! Unfortunately we didn’t notice that our boss and one of the crew chiefs were still on the lift, part way up. The crew chief we were working with got a phone call, asking why we had stopped the lift. Ooops. We could actually still see them on the chair. That earned our crew chief a jug (you mess up in some manner, and you have to buy a jug of beer for everyone on staff jug night).

I’ve been jugged twice in the space of two days. One for colliding with a guest (see previous post), and the other for mistakenly (yes, mistakenly) picking someone else’s snowboard boots from the drying wall, and wearing them all day without realising that they weren’t mine, or that they were half a size larger than mine. My boots are almost identical! I can now spot the difference.

At the bottom of the lift today, I noticed a flurry of movement on the run to the lift queue, and looked up to see one guy crash into another, which sent the recipient skidding off of the side of the run, leaving a ski behind. I was concerned as it’s a fair drop the the run below (which I only learnt was there about a week ago, aptly named ‘Hideaway’), but then I saw the other guys around laughing, and the recipient’s head and shoulders appeared with a grin.

Some people don’t seem to understand simple hand signals, or they just aren’t paying attention, both of which are dangerous. The amount of times I have held my hand up as if to say ‘Stop there, don’t come forward’, and people have just started forward when there isn’t enough time for them to get to the loading point before the chair tries to take their legs out from under them. Pay attention people. It moves quickly, especially the outside edge as it turns around the bullwheel, and it’s attached to a steel cable so is unlikely to stop if you are under it.

Had one guy try to jump forward at the last minute when there were three people already lined up waiting for the seat to reach them, before realising he wasn’t going to make it and jumping off the side of the ramp so as not to get collected. His excuse? ‘I though my friend was going to make it, but she didn’t go’. Evidently failing to notice that it is a 4 person chairlift, and 3 people were already lined up, which puts paid to another 2 people getting on. It’s a Quad, not a Quint.

The unload ramp has quite a steep and high drop off (at the bottom of the ramp, the chair would pass over your head without you having to duck), and it has caught a few people out so far. I was up there a few days ago, and some guy came to ask me a question, distracting me as a lady failed to get off in time. This is why we have the safety gate. She was only 4 feet ( as opposed to 8 feet) off the ground when the lift stopped (I had also hit the stop button a split second before), so she was able to drop down. Quite why she then decided to try and squeeze underneath the stopped chair, rather than going around the side which would have been easier, I don’t know. Most direct route I suppose.

The other day, some guy decided that in order for him to ask me a question, he should head down the side of the loading ramp, through the path of the chair at it’s fastest point, with his snowboard still attached, narrowly missing the oncoming chair. I answered his question, and politely asked him to not do that again lest the chair give him a sound beating. Tunnel vision?

I have now seen two people, on separate occasions, wearing a cow suit, complete with udders. One went so far as to wear a cowbell. Strange guests we have. One kid today managed to get his tongue stuck to the frame of one of the other chairlifts. Not sure how they removed him. One foot on the restraining bar, grab his ears and pull? It was -20C this morning, so why would you lick the frame of the chairlift? Guess he won’t be doing that stunt again in a hurry.