This skier wastes no time getting back up the slope using a gondola.
The winter sports season is ending but there is still snow in many high altitude resorts. You will perhaps avoid the crowds on big days, especially during the February school holidays when the queues at the ski lifts lengthen endlessly. The subject of ski lifts brings with it its share of questions: will there be too many queues at the gondola? Will it be cold on the chairlift? Will a child fall and jeopardize my path to the top of the butt lift? A skier found an alternative to these questions which violates the basic safety rules to board a chairlift.
The scene is almost lunar. A skier dared a very strange practice to avoid queuing at the ski lifts and get a quick ascent for free. Halfway on a ski slope, he positions himself under a cable car moving above his head, and decides to hang on to it to let himself be towed a few dozen meters higher. He then lets himself fall, his legs falling on his skis, and he immediately goes back down the slope. This practice of not queuing at the chairlift is not recommended at all but it made us laugh!
No more jokes, it is good to remember that all skiers must demonstrate good citizenship and know good practices to use ski lifts safely in ski resorts. Above all, don’t forget to bring a pass because like any means of private transport, it is not free. Then, we will queue like everyone else without overtaking the others. On a butt lift pole, we do not sit down but we let the pole carry us while remaining standing. On a chairlift, you keep your backpack in front of you, you remove the straps from your poles and you glance back to apprehend your arrival. Finally, we avoid holding back someone who slips from the chairlift: “It is impossible to hold a person at arm’s length for an entire journey. It is better that they fall from the start of the lift. They will fall all the way way further, but from higher up”, advises Daniel Pfeiffer, director of the Technical Service for Guided Transport Ski Lifts (STRMTG) interviewed by The Parisian.
As a reminder, most accidents on ski lifts are linked to the behavior of users, their clumsiness or their recklessness, according to a STRMTG report. Skiers “who board poorly seated or who panic when disembarking” are often the most to blame, recalls Laurent Reynaud, general delegate of Domaines Skiables de France, interviewed by The Parisian.