79 replies to this topic

[skierdude9450]

Warren733, on Jul 17 2007, 09:18 AM, said:

It scares me when I see people riding WITHOUT the safety bar on the Summit Express at Keystone. I think someday someone will fall out when it makes an E-Stop because someone has trouble loading or unloading the lift.

Haha That's happened to me before. Summit Express e-stopped and it stopped quick. I wasn't thrown foward (although I did have the bar down at the time.) I don't think it would have made any difference if the bar was up. The bar is just a comfort feature, and people feel more comfortable with a piece of metal in front of them.

I can see a Stella Award coming out of some fall off the chairlift.

[liftmech]

I realise I'll probably get flamed for this, but here goes:
I feel that if the bar is a true restraining bar, such as the newer CTEC carriers have, then by all means use it. Otherwise, it's a comfort feature IMHO. I don't feel the comparison with seatbelts in a car is valid. Seatbelts have been proven countless times to save lives. Until footrests/comfort bars swing down and lock (or at least sit closer to one's waist), however, they aren't completely restraining anyone. They can and have allowed children and smaller adults to slide underneath. They can and do fall down and hit people on the head. I understand that it would be nice to have restraints while sitting 50' off the ground, I just don't think most of the 'safety bars' out there today cut it in that regard.

[Peter]

Don't forget about the Yan triple chair at Sundance that has an actual seatbelt!

[Jonni]

I think that Dopp is installing on many of it's european detachables restraint bars that come down automatically and lock. I think I saw it in the Doppelmayr World Book this year.

[Lift Kid]

That would be annoying. What if you weren't ready for it to come down??!!

Also, do you think it would work like a gondola door mechanism?

[tahoeistruckin]

to use the safty bar is a CHOICE. for MOST STATES
It's my choice not to use it. And if your on the same chair as i'am and you don't ask before slamming it down, then the safty bar will do you no good, when you find your self 50 feet to the gorund.
This topic keeps getting beat to death.

This post has been edited by tahoeistruckin: 29 July 2007 - 08:14 PM

[SkiMadRiver]

I guess I'll add my $0.02 to this topic, I always use mine. I've skied almost exclusivley in the east, and there are very few chairs without safety bars, the only ones that come to mind are the Ski Baba Borvig double at mt. snow and if i'm not mistaken the old home-built mixing bowl chair at mt. snow. Both of these are short and low to the ground.

I'm also a former ski coach, I taught for 6 years at Stratton. So, use of the safety bar was required if I had kids on the lift, and since I coached Jr. Freestyle, I always had kids with me. One of the big reasons to use the safety bar is with the high speed lifts. As most of you probably know, Stratton has 4 high speed 6-packs. We were instructed not to open the safety bar at the top terminal until the chair had slowed. (none of the hs6's have footrests). The reason for this is that the deceleration actually threw a kid off of one of the lifts. The kid survived thankfully, but had some injuries. Whether the safety bar could have prevented it is debatable, but it really could have helped.

Personally now, I ski primarily at Mad River Glen, all the lifts have safety bars and I, along with almost everyone else use them. The safety aspect is pretty worthless though on the single, as you push the bar forward to release it, but I like the footrest.


I've got another one too, where the safety bar could have helped. It occurred probably close to 20 years ago at Belleayre Mtn in NY when the triple chair was originally installed, though I have no idea if the chair is still there. Anyway, what happened was the takeoff was too steep, add that with bumping the chair, three grown men were on one chair and it swung back far enough after the first towers to make all three of them fall off. I think the safety bar definatly could have helped in that situation.

Now, if I go out west, i'm not going to avoid chairs with no bars on them, I'd love to go to Alta, but if you're on a lift with one, use it, it really does have some safety benefits. Sorry for the long post.

[Snoqualmie guy]

I think center pole Riblet doubles look goofy with foot rests.

[skierdude9450]

I totally agree. This Riblet has a bar on every other carrier.

[Snoqualmie guy]

Why was that done? Also every other chair has no seat!

[SkiBachelor]

Riblet also had a different setup where you would pull the restraining bar down and under the carrier, the leg rest would pop out. I have only seen this setup at Brundage and this lift was removed when the Blue Bird Express was installed.

[Snoqualmie guy]

Where is that red chair at?

[chasl]

SkiBachelor, on Aug 20 2007, 06:13 PM, said:

Riblet also had a different setup where you would pull the restraining bar down and under the carrier, the leg rest would pop out. I have only seen this setup at Brundage and this lift was removed when the Blue Bird Express was installed.

That Foot rest arrangement was a pain in the Butt.
When it was designed, ski brakes had not been developed yet.
Quite often when the person would unload they would raise the bar and the footrest would catch on the runaway strap. Exciting at times. I know lift kid you are not old enough to have experience runaway straps. (Check the ski museum) but they were a pain, especially when combined with that specific Riblet footrest.

[LiftTech]

chasl, on Aug 21 2007, 03:37 AM, said:

That Foot rest arrangement was a pain in the Butt.
When it was designed, ski brakes had not been developed yet.
Quite often when the person would unload they would raise the bar and the footrest would catch on the runaway strap. Exciting at times. I know lift kid you are not old enough to have experience runaway straps. (Check the ski museum) but they were a pain, especially when combined with that specific Riblet footrest.

And when you blew out of your binding your ski would beat you in the back of the head. hmmmm wonder if that’s what’s wrong with me?

[Lift Kid]

chasl, on Aug 21 2007, 02:37 AM, said:

That Foot rest arrangement was a pain in the Butt.
When it was designed, ski brakes had not been developed yet.
Quite often when the person would unload they would raise the bar and the footrest would catch on the runaway strap. Exciting at times. I know lift kid you are not old enough to have experience runaway straps. (Check the ski museum) but they were a pain, especially when combined with that specific Riblet footrest.

FYI I didn't post that, SkiBachelor did. But I have experienced snowboard leashes..... And yes, mine have gotten caught.

[skiersage]

skierdude9450, on Aug 20 2007, 05:05 PM, said:

I totally agree. This Riblet has a bar on every other carrier.

The reason that lift has a bar on every other carrier is likely because it is used for summer operations. Lifts are required to have safety bars when loading foot passengers. Having them on every other chair saves money because there is no way that the lift gets crowded enough during the summer to warrant the use of all carriers. This is also the reason why there is only a seat pad on every other chair. I have seen this same setup on the hemlock chair at boyne mountain. They have bars on every other chair during the summer and they take them off in the winter.

SkiBachelor, on Aug 20 2007, 07:13 PM, said:

Riblet also had a different setup where you would pull the restraining bar down and under the carrier, the leg rest would pop out. I have only seen this setup at Brundage and this lift was removed when the Blue Bird Express was installed.

Campground and funnel at Snowmass had that style of leg rest but those have also been removed. I got to ride the old campground and I thought it was a pretty good system. I have no safety straps though.

[k2skier]

Skiing#1, on Jul 17 2007, 04:43 AM, said:

at Alta, all lifts have no safely bars. I don't understand why Alta dont have them?

Because REAL skiers don't need/use them!!!!

If we were all accountable for our actions...and lazy lift ops used a slow more than the stop...

OK, so I have used them once in a great while, like on the Northwest Express at Bachelor, only to rest my quads and knees though.

If your stupid enough to fall out of a chair, the bars that are currently insatlled won't stop an idiot from falling.

[artfart]

Skier, on Jul 26 2007, 11:25 PM, said:

Don't forget about the Yan triple chair at Sundance that has an actual seatbelt!

yeah the arrow head triple, interesting!

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[Skiing#1]

That picture about seatbelts reminded me that some years ago, Payday lift at Park City had it. It was for Alpine Slide riders.

This post has been edited by Skiing#1: 25 August 2007 - 06:59 PM

[Snoqualmie guy]

Is the seatbelt just for summer? Or winter, because I could see some little kids for getting to unbelt and sliding halfway off.