Think First!

Yes, I agree...lift evacuations suck! It is not fun for skiing public to be stuck on the lift nor is it an enjoyable task for patrol to rope everyone down. Yesterday the Griz chair stopped running for about an hour and we got to evacuating everyone as soon as we got the call. On my way hiking from the bottom with my rope team, I got to about tower 3 when what did I see with my own two eyes? I watched two skiers jump from their chair! It looked like maybe a father and (young) son team.

To everyone who reads this post, please read carefully. Jumping from the chair is not only stupid, it is also potentially dangerous! When the stopped chairs are suddenly unweighted, they spring back up and swing pretty wildly. This swinging-bouncing combination can derail the lift. So, to the father-son daredevils...please exercise common sense and patience in the future! you could have injured yourselves in the fall you took (which would have taken several patrollers away from getting everyone else off the lift) OR, you could have derailed the lift and potentially injured yourselves AND the 8 or so other skiers on your stretch of cable; thus leading to what we call a Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) similar to the lift derail that recently happened in Maine.

Please, exercise patience and restraint. We appreciate your patience!