Mind the Gap

If faced with the prospect of falling 1-2 stories out of the sky, just what would you exclaim at the moment you realized your free fall was imminent? Most likely not "Oh my..." with the intonation of a shocked heroine from a Jane Austen novel, but that is exactly what came out of my mouth when I fell off the chairlift at Summit West last Sunday.

As a lifelong skier, chairlifts are like the subway to a New York commuter: perfunctory, taken for granted, and easily navigated. The irrational desire to learn how to snowboard found me strapped onto a wide popsicle stick, getting a lesson from a friend who is a level-2 snowboard instructor. Still a bit unstable on the board, each ascent up the lift found me preparing to dismount far earlier than I typically do on skis. About 4 chairs from the top, as the chairs pitch up the final steep section, I was perched to disembark, one cheek on the chair, one cheek nearly off. As if choreographed, the lift operator slowed the chair suddenly. I was not holding on--those hanging straps on the subway are for pussies who have no balance. Briefly, I heard the sound of my ski pants sliding gracefully against the smooth, ice-covered vinyl of the chair. Shwip!

What are the things that go through your head when you fall further than you are tall? "Oh my..." was immediately replaced with the internal monologue of "Holy shit I am falling off the..." and interrupted by a sudden Whump! as I plunged foot-and-board-first into a massive powder drift directly below the lift. Look down, I'm in only up to my knees, look up to see the lift operator's head pop over from the platform, eyes full of terror. I shake my whole body to make sure it is all apiece (I am, happily, 100% fine), and then put my arms directly over my head in the universal sign for Touchdown.

So let's see...snowboarding lesson goals for the day: Be able to link turns? Check. Ride in some actual powder off the groomers? Check. Embarrass the holy living hell out of myself? Check. Mission accomplished!

Contact the author of this article or email tips@seattlest.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Courtney in Miscellaneous on December 20, 2006 10:21 AM

Comments [rss]

Adam Phillabaum

A) I'm glad you're OK.

B) As a lifelong skier, you should recognize this as a sign to return to your 2-boarded roots.

Thank goodness this didn't happen to me... but:

Back when I used to ski race, we were carrying bundles of slalom gates up the chairlift. These gates are about 8 feet long, and are awkward to carry. From the chair in front of me, I see the person lean forward to unbuckle his boots... and to do so, he shifted the gates around. The gates hooked on the lift-tower and levered my friend off of the chair for a ~25' fall. I nearly fell too... because I was laughing so hard.

Zaynab

That was beautifully written! Thanks for the laugh. I've never managed to fall of the lift itself, but I crash into the platform, or forget to get off, if I even THINK about a snowboard.

Henry

I fell off a lift as a kid once and have been paranoid ever since. Good to hear you're ok.

Dan

Damn, glad you're ok. Sometimes it can be a hell of a drop right in front of the platform.

I have to admit to once disembarking the lift early at a resort in the Midwest. Uh, voluntarily. I was drinking and it seemed like a short drop into new snow, but with one foot strapped in it's an awkward landing and I'm surprised to this day that I didn't break something during that idiot maneuver.

Courtney

Yeah, the mechanics of all that stuff was working fine for me. The irony is that even though I was really new to snowboarding (had been up only a couple times 2 years ago), I never blew up or fell over when getting off the lift at the top, as I was expecting to. In this case, I just got over-eager to be ready to push myself forward when we reached the ramp. Luckily, the whole thing was just hysterically funny.

Matt Silvie

I couldn't tell from your post if you had done this or not, but one tip I give people for the whole disembarking thing is before you get on the lift, take the binding that you're not locked into and close it but not all the way, just on the first couple of teeth, and leave enough room so you can get your free foot in there, that way you can steer when you get off the lift and just bend down and tighten it as you ride off. You won't be struggling to get yourself together while on the lift and run the risk of falling off and breaking your neck. Does that make sense?