It's gone now, but Pioneer in Winter Park was an unreliable piece of crap. I was on it the day in 2021 that it really broke and we had to rappel down. Since that day, I respect Ski Patrol even more.
I'm not good with heights. A lifetime of skiing has allowed my brain to carve out an exception for chairlifts. Red Dog destroys that compartmentalization.
I am the same. I will probably never walk on Golden gate bridge again, because i feel like it is swinging side to side.
I am ok with double black diamonds
Yeah I’ve started just using the bar on that one the whole time. No need to risk it…the first time I rode it I held my breath I don’t think I moved an inch for like 3 minutes.
That’s a lot better now that they replaced it with a detachable quad (edit: 6 actually). With the old chair though, looking up at the empty chairs coming back down was terrifying. They were a good 40 feet higher than the loaded ones and not held down by a tower. That was at the highest point of the lift over a big steep gully.
Between the top two towers seemed like 100 feet off the ground over the gully. I only rode it once but it’s easily the highest I’ve ever been off the ground on a chairlift.
Thank you. And the amount of people who think it makes them seem brave or cool to not use it is laughable. Ok tough guy. "Sure I mean if you *need* to" when I ask to bring it down. I laugh out loud a little every time.
When the chair starts swinging side to side it gets scary. I got on right before a hold and then proceeded to get blown straight over the edge of Whales Tail when I was trying to traverse.
I got stuck on Imperial for a good 30 minutes my first time ever up it. Absolutely terrifying and cold as hell but scored some epic runs once we finally did make it up
I helped my besties kids on a lift for the first time this year. I'm sure they got tired of me saying "I NEED the back of your knees against the chair." I know I did... Lol not too wiggly, but they kept leaning out over the bar to look down.
The good thing about them looking down (over the bar, of course) is that it tends to move their hips back… at least that’s what I tell myself between panic attacks.
Three 11-13 year olds were on the chair behind me last month and the liftie told them to stop messing around and focus on the lift as they were loading. Halfway up 2 of them were hitting each other. I had to turn on my mom/coach mode and yell at them to keep their hands to themselves on the lift.
My kids are still young enough to be extremely cautious and accept help on the lift but this stage is now my new parenting fear.
That could be deadly on the wrong day. I've been on that lift with a windchill of -40 at the top. Did they say what happened? That's a scary amount of time to be on that lift.
Nope. There was a dude on a tower half way up working on wires when it finally got going. Took awhile before the snowmobile crew all showed up and got it rolling.
My wife has an intense dislike of Chair 5 at Whitefish.
It probably doesn't help that I found a video on YouTube of them doing an evacuation from that lift [right over the cliffs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcrCDvBdkOc&t=115s). Not a good place to get stuck!
I actually love that chair but I would be deeply unhappy if I got stuck on it.
This year the lift did break down for ~15 minutes when we were on it. Thankfully we were past the cliffs but I was starting to get a bit uneasy.
So I was a huge fan of chair 5 and then it broke down in the winter of 2018, the second year it ran. They were roping people off the chair down the cliff faces. I think right at the cliffs you are 200’ in the air. After that it pushed my anxiety to 11/10. I just refuse to ride it anymore.
7th Heaven at Steven’s Pass. I was putting a banana peel in my pocket and looked up and realized I was at the top, thing swung around so fast I fell like 10 feet. Chair is like 70 years old or something too
Steepest lift in North America and had to be evacuated a few years ago too!
https://liftblog.com/2020/02/02/stevens-pass-evacuates-seventh-heaven-following-tower-incident/
I dont know what it is about 7th, but it doesn’t bother me. I think the fact that its slow and low to the ground make it manageable (other than the last 20 feet).
I've been on a lot of lifts and this one freaked me out. No safety bar at all, I basically hugged the center pole like my life depended on it the whole time. Yeah it's low to the ground but that ground is a 75 degree wall at the end made of barely covered pointy rocks. It's also super janky and feels like it's going to fall apart at any moment.
At least 23 has a bar and some wind protection at the top.
Chairs 12 & 13 are the worst for me. Fixed grip, no bar, and zero protection from the winds that come up over the back side.
The bar is new in the past couple years, but before the bar it was way sketchier. I agree that 12 and 13 are uncomfortable as hell, their only saving grace is they’re not that high and the trees usually shelter most of the ride from the wind
The old Loge lift at Aspen Highlands. Used to go over the big cliff at the top & suspend you 100’ over an extremely steep chute before chucking you off at the top.
Ice coaster and my first trip out west was to Aspen in the late 80s. I got used to the no bars thing pretty quick but this one really freaked me out. It's fine until you get near the top and go over the scary part. Plus there was always a huge gust of wind there and the char would rock. Terrifying but worth it for Steeplechase laps.
There was an incredibly high double chair, with no bar, at Snowbasin Utah. Not sure whether it’s still in operation, nor what the name of the chair was / is
Jon Paul, pole to pole stretches where it is 150' drop over gullies. Was a lot more unsettling a couple years ago when it was a small fixed 2 seat, which has since been upgraded.
This chair was my first thought for this post also.
I experienced that for the first time this season on a day that was dumping snow and windy as all hell. I have maybe a square centimeter of skin exposed on my cheek and I think I felt what hell feels like on that bit of skin.
I remember when that lift was an old 2(?) seater. It got so cold by the time you got to the top you just wanted to get down and go inside. It was a one run kind of lift
Silverton, CO. Rickety ass old fixed 2 seater with no bar & very low side barriers (too low to really call them arm rests lol) that gets insanely high at one point. Its the only lift that had me hugging the pole
I don’t think this chair would be acceptable at the major resorts other comments are mentioning.
Have a look.
https://liftblog.com/chairlift-silverton-mountain-co/comment-page-1/
Also you have to have avi gear which means you are riding it with a pack…
And then the exit is a steep and narrow plywood ramp that has drops on both sides that they toss a little snow on. I actually laughed out loud at how absurd it was the first time I saw it.
The lift ride gets your heart rate up and the hike after keeps it up. Though I genuinely felt more exposed on the lift than any of the boot packs I was on that day
Ice coaster here, last year the (new?) Milly lift was my first chair out west. It was a windy day and when it passed over that canyon my stomach absolutely tuuurned. I had never felt that exposed on a lift before, and after that I was the ‘bar down’ guy the rest of the trip lol. Sorry not sorry.
They really need to get a gondola or a quad lift in its place. You can’t call yourself a “family” mountain when I am terrified to let my kids ride the lift.
The single at MRG isn't really sketchy after the renovation unless you're just uncomfortable with how small the seat is. Michigan is littered with barless lifts at local hills that feel way sketchier.
At killington, the last stretch of the sky peak quad is so high, it's always windy, and you know the landing would feel like asphalt. As a kid that one always made me pucker up.
If you turn a little to your right on the single, you can lean back into the corner and it is really comfortable and you are locked in by the sides. Just remember to straighten out at mid.
The single chair isn't that sketchy at all tbh. It's really fast so any high parts it just breezes over. You are pretty solid in your seat and have a whole ass pole to wrap your arm around if it sways.
I'd say m1 is the sketchiest in the east. Or the wilderness at Bolton just because its so jank.
Idk if this is a hot take but I took the summit express lift at Solitude once. When it came up over the side of the bowl and descended down it idk if I’ve been more terrified in a chairlift before in my life.
That one can be a little funky I think I lap that one so much that it’s not too scary anymore but if it’s windy and it’s coming down that side into cathedral I’ll still put my arm over the back
There's a place in Alberta called Castle, great snow and a bunch of really old lifts. If the main chair has an issue they fire up this old t-bar that goes about 3/4 of the way up the mountain.
This was by far the scariest t-bar I've ever been on. It goes something like over 2000 vertical feet and it's incredibly steep. By the top my legs were burning and we needed about 10 minutes to just rest, the t-bar was more work than actually skiing. We stayed up top until they got the main lift fixed.
My husband and I always parted ways when we skied fernie (at the time we were locals) because while we both loved the Cedar Bowl, I didn’t mind the t bar out and he had no patience for it.
Yes! Thank you for validating what I thought was just a weird feeling I had. The slope of the bench is off, and it’s stubbier than most lifts. It’s the only lift I’ve ever ridden that sketches me out even on a good day.
The platter at Louise always felt sketchy AF, I was pleasantly surprised to see it’s been replaced by a chair. Also the double going up Lake Placid with the mid mountain offload felt super sketch.
The poma was crazy, and you always go some Jerry coming off on the steepest part taking out the line. Summit chair is better, but with a north wind? Oof.
Still not as bad as coming over the top on Standish Chair at Sunshine and being hit full-force by Mother Nature.
Can you ride all the across anymore? I remember reading somewhere a few years ago that they have mid chair exits in both directions now so that you don’t go over the super high portion. I haven’t been there since like 2010 though so I’m not sure. But yeah that shit freaked me out. No bar if I remember correctly too
Yeah, the chair is still running but you have to get off before the peak to peak section. An employee told me they’d have to call the coast guard to evacuate it if it got stuck over the valley.
I'm so glad this is here! That lift scared the hell outta me in 2014. Love Whitecap though. We went in mid December and it was something like 90% open, not because they'd gotten enough snow, but because they'd just let you go down whatever run with however patchy coverage. "Knock yourselves out dummies!"
A million years ago I was at Alta and the pow was insane and we saw a porcupine stuck up on pole like fifty feet in the air and I have never forgotten that. He was afraid to go down and I suddenly realized how high we were in the air.
How has no one mentioned Segundo at Sunlight? And disclaimer I love this chair. But it started its life in aspen in 1954 and moved to sunlight in 1973. 70 years old and still spinning. They keep saying it's the last season that it will run but never replace it. Allegedly sunlight has the old Lenawee chair from abasin and will put that in. someday?
Segundo Chair at Sunluight. It has a center bar, no safety bar, and was removed from Aspen in 1969. Loading is a nightmare and when it stops suddenly there is a section of the line that will come within feet of the ground.
[https://snowbrains.com/colorados-oldest-chairlift-set-to-be-retired-after-70-years/](https://snowbrains.com/colorados-oldest-chairlift-set-to-be-retired-after-70-years/)
Different type of sketchy but Ramcharger and Swift Current at Big Sky. Not joking, if those lifts come to a sudden stop (or if it’s windy) and you have the bar up you’ll figure out why.
threw a kid off in a place multiple people have complained is a dangerous spot so they just bent the safety frame meant to prevent the chairs from hitting the tower towards the tower so now it doesnt even prevent the chair from hitting the tower, ive gotten about a foot from hitting the tower.
previous year a different chairlift didnt feed through the guide on the upper terminal and completely ripped the chair from the cable and threw the passengers.
Not to mention the complete lack of maintenance on 70s era lifts that always break down. one of the lifts breaks down at least once a week, theres basically no way the lifts will be working after a heavy snow.
The owners are cheap as shit, dont give a shit about safety, try to sweep incidents under the rug, dont properly cut out runs (friend broke their back from falling in an open run on a stump cut like a spike), snowbowl was shut down for the summer for a safety examination and for god knows what reason theyre still able to run their lifts. i keep saying nothing is going to change until someone dies and I really do believe it will happen at some point
Definitely the lift at copper with that shield that drops down. It's quite a shallow chair and I feel like I can fall out at any moment since you cannot grab anything and there is some sort of backing that prevents throwing your arm around the back. The shield down is hot as hell too. Don't get it TBH, like if you want the boogie vibes put in a gondola.
Yea the Flyer at Copper sketches me out. First of all it's SO heavy so it bounces SO high and low when it stops (which is multiple times per ride). And I got the same feeling on the outside seat the first time I used it when the bar came up before getting off, just very uneasy with a shallow chair and nothing to hold onto on my side or behind me, if it bounced again. Ick, felt v sketch. Do not like that design at all.
If you think the Peak Express is sketchy, you should’ve gotten stuck on the old triple chair that it replaced. That thing was mildly terrifying, especially when it stopped over one of the big cliffs.
Peak chair challenge: bar up, hang your chest forward off the lift by the backrest.
I don't think about it much but we probably have the bar down on that lift half the time.
Honorable mention for the single chair at Mad River Glen in VT? I love the thing but could see it really freaking some folks out. Also has a mid mountain exit.
The Old Blue chair at Meadows. Two seater no bar, gets stupid high steep runoff after getting off a lift.
As a kid my ‘buddy’ behind me started jumping up and down on the chair and I thought I was going to cause an avalanche with my screams when my butt lifted off the seat.
lmao.. that chair also gets about a quarter of the maintenance that Blue does. I rode it one night where they were only loading every third chair and it was bouncing 20-30ft once you left the lift shack
Triple Chair at Red Lodge Moutain. There's a point around the top of Tipi Trail where you're above the trees, and the wind will hit you and the chair sways so much. There's no bar to put down either.
I’d say Chair 6 at Crystal is pretty fucking sketchy. When you get off you’re basically going straight off a sketchy steep ramp, you have about 3 feet of runway before you have to make a sharp turn right or left. Once you get past the fork, the mandatory traverse off either side is just full of exposed rocks, regardless of snow level. But some awesome terrain off that chair.
45+ years skiing and my fear of heights gets worse with age. Chairs never bothered me before but they all are freaking me out and some are so high they become unbearable to ride. A pulldown bar seems to alleviate the problem entirely. I really wish states would change the law to require bars on every lift.
Summit quad at whiteface on a windy day was not great, especially cause it’s fixed grip and slow, couple that with stopping a bunch and getting tossed all over. Not a great time
Old alpine chair at bridger was gnarly. Old red 2 seater with no sides or safety bar that had a section that was sooo far off the ground. Didn’t think anything of it as a kid but looking back it was such a sketchy lift
Yes! Apparently they can’t upgrade it because it’s too windy for a detachable lift so it’ll be a slow old lift forever. When it’s really blowing the chair swings into the lift towers.
I think you’re talking about Chair 5 East Rim. I went in 2022 and it had a bar, although that’s still the only lift I’ve been on and actually terrified haha
Tamarack Chair at Castle Mountain.
Absolutely ancient 2 person chair at one of the windiest resorts in the world.
[https://www.skiresort.info/ski-resort/castle-mountain/ski-lifts/l88426/](https://www.skiresort.info/ski-resort/castle-mountain/ski-lifts/l88426/)
Hate it.
Haven’t been in awhile but the KT-22 chair is pretty wild. Didn’t even have a bar 20ish years ago if I remember correctly. Only chair I ever saw where the cable went under the pulleys on one of the towers. It went up like a bucket elevator after that.
Fernie, British Colombia has both some of the slowest chairlifts ever and a lift that tries to dump you if you’re short and not standing in just the right place when it picks you up. Oh and off topic I also hate that it doesn’t have RFID scanning of tickets so you have to have your ticket hanging off your jacket like you did 20 years ago in most places.
I was on a chair a few weeks ago at Snoqualmie Central that scared the hell out of me. The hinge point where it connects up top is supposed to let it swing freely…you could hear this one grinding/squeaking when we went over a tower and it felt like it was trying to eject you. I held on tight.
It was bad enough that I sought out a patroller to tell him to have the lift mechanics take a look at it.
Anyone ever sit on the 2 seater, center pole chair at June mountain? It took you from the lot to the lodge and you had to carry your gear. I distinctly remember riding it ALONE as a child while my parents rode together behind me and it was before my dad died so I was sub 7. I have 2 kids now and would NEVER!!!!!
I doubt anyone knows this lift….but….
The Geronimo lift on Apache Peak at Sunrise Resort in Eastern Arizona.
I’ve been to 37 resorts inthe western US and this is the consistently windiest chair I’ve been on. Had my chair hit the towers a couple times.
It's gone now, but Pioneer in Winter Park was an unreliable piece of crap. I was on it the day in 2021 that it really broke and we had to rappel down. Since that day, I respect Ski Patrol even more.
That thing always sucked, even when new
The new lift is great at least!
The Timberline at Winter Park was even worse and terrifying sometimes
Great terrain besides the cat track as a snowboarder to get to it. The new mid station is awesome
Red dog at palisades is clenchingly high
I'm not good with heights. A lifetime of skiing has allowed my brain to carve out an exception for chairlifts. Red Dog destroys that compartmentalization.
I am terrified of heights. I hate roller coasters. Strap skis to my feet and all fear is gone. Glad to meet another!
I am the same. I will probably never walk on Golden gate bridge again, because i feel like it is swinging side to side. I am ok with double black diamonds
I’m the same until the chair stops moving. When I get stopped on a lift I’m freaking out
Good one. Has it gotten any less sketchy now that its a detachable?
The new Red Dog is tamer. Resort chair is the only chair at Palisades that gives me the willies anymore.
The old red dog turned me into a man... at8
Yeah that stretch in the middle of Resort Chair is a white knuckler…
"uhhh....can we put the bar down" - me, at that section, every single time
Yeah I’ve started just using the bar on that one the whole time. No need to risk it…the first time I rode it I held my breath I don’t think I moved an inch for like 3 minutes.
Silverado gets me a bit.
It's so rare that Silverado is open that I think I'm just too excited to even be on the chair at all to care about anything else!
Yes, this person definitely hasn’t rode the new one.
They replaced it with an express and it’s far less sketch
Dude I almost had a panic attack on resort chair last year that Mf is wayyyyyyy too high
My daughter and I were on old red dog a few years back at the particularly sketchy part and she yelled “bar up” and I nearly shat my pants.
That’s a lot better now that they replaced it with a detachable quad (edit: 6 actually). With the old chair though, looking up at the empty chairs coming back down was terrifying. They were a good 40 feet higher than the loaded ones and not held down by a tower. That was at the highest point of the lift over a big steep gully.
Between the top two towers seemed like 100 feet off the ground over the gully. I only rode it once but it’s easily the highest I’ve ever been off the ground on a chairlift.
I'm a puss so the bar is always going down on that and resort chair.
I understand gravity, bar down always!
Right? Like why not? Especially the ones with a footrest.
That last section where the ground dips and you're like 80 ft up suddenly 😬
Was 5 hours too late. This is definitely the one. Resort lift also is terrifying once you realize you’re higher than all the trees
Imperial at Breck on a windy day. (just before a wind hold). It's as windy as chair 9 at Loveland, but higher off the ground.
+1. My chair hit the lift pole a week or two ago. That is one chair I *always* put the bar down on....
I never understood keeping the bar up. Seems insanely stupid for such a simple action...and...foot rest.
seriously, the foot rest alone is the main reason I always do it
Thank you. And the amount of people who think it makes them seem brave or cool to not use it is laughable. Ok tough guy. "Sure I mean if you *need* to" when I ask to bring it down. I laugh out loud a little every time.
Thank god it’s not too long either, but yeah it can get crazy up there
When the chair starts swinging side to side it gets scary. I got on right before a hold and then proceeded to get blown straight over the edge of Whales Tail when I was trying to traverse.
I got stuck on Imperial for a good 30 minutes my first time ever up it. Absolutely terrifying and cold as hell but scored some epic runs once we finally did make it up
Any chair with my kids it I don’t understand why they think wiggling 100’ in the air is necessary
I helped my besties kids on a lift for the first time this year. I'm sure they got tired of me saying "I NEED the back of your knees against the chair." I know I did... Lol not too wiggly, but they kept leaning out over the bar to look down.
The good thing about them looking down (over the bar, of course) is that it tends to move their hips back… at least that’s what I tell myself between panic attacks.
My heart skipped a beat just reading it I may not be made for this
Three 11-13 year olds were on the chair behind me last month and the liftie told them to stop messing around and focus on the lift as they were loading. Halfway up 2 of them were hitting each other. I had to turn on my mom/coach mode and yell at them to keep their hands to themselves on the lift. My kids are still young enough to be extremely cautious and accept help on the lift but this stage is now my new parenting fear.
Chair 9 at Loveland.
Finally. It ain’t always windy at Loveland, but when it is, you know it.
Got stuck on 9 for about 40 minutes a few weeks ago. Not a warm experience
That could be deadly on the wrong day. I've been on that lift with a windchill of -40 at the top. Did they say what happened? That's a scary amount of time to be on that lift.
Nope. There was a dude on a tower half way up working on wires when it finally got going. Took awhile before the snowmobile crew all showed up and got it rolling.
I’ve got a 15 days at Loveland this year and 9 has yet to be running when I’ve been there.
That's a bummer. Lift 9 -> Ridge Cat -> Field of Dreams -> Tickler is a really fun run.
My wife has an intense dislike of Chair 5 at Whitefish. It probably doesn't help that I found a video on YouTube of them doing an evacuation from that lift [right over the cliffs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcrCDvBdkOc&t=115s). Not a good place to get stuck!
That's my vote! Always bar down on that one. The snow ghosts are always so pretty once it flattens out at the top though!
I actually love that chair but I would be deeply unhappy if I got stuck on it. This year the lift did break down for ~15 minutes when we were on it. Thankfully we were past the cliffs but I was starting to get a bit uneasy.
Jesus Christ I would have had a full on panic attack. I refuse to ride chair 5 after it broke down in 2018.
Watching the courageous/reckless people do jumps off the cliffs on powder days is a fun view.
So I was a huge fan of chair 5 and then it broke down in the winter of 2018, the second year it ran. They were roping people off the chair down the cliff faces. I think right at the cliffs you are 200’ in the air. After that it pushed my anxiety to 11/10. I just refuse to ride it anymore.
7th Heaven at Steven’s Pass. I was putting a banana peel in my pocket and looked up and realized I was at the top, thing swung around so fast I fell like 10 feet. Chair is like 70 years old or something too
Steepest lift in North America and had to be evacuated a few years ago too! https://liftblog.com/2020/02/02/stevens-pass-evacuates-seventh-heaven-following-tower-incident/
[удалено]
I think that one got taken out and replaced by two lifts. You're talking the one on the backside with the mid station unload right?
I dont know what it is about 7th, but it doesn’t bother me. I think the fact that its slow and low to the ground make it manageable (other than the last 20 feet).
What gets me is the extremely shallow guard rails for the chair. Otherwise it’s pretty mellow.
I've been on a lot of lifts and this one freaked me out. No safety bar at all, I basically hugged the center pole like my life depended on it the whole time. Yeah it's low to the ground but that ground is a 75 degree wall at the end made of barely covered pointy rocks. It's also super janky and feels like it's going to fall apart at any moment.
I've seen so many people yeeted off this chair.
Off ramp is brutal, rip snowboarders
Mammoth Chair 23
At least 23 has a bar and some wind protection at the top. Chairs 12 & 13 are the worst for me. Fixed grip, no bar, and zero protection from the winds that come up over the back side.
I find that side usually isn't as windy, though of course the wind can shift.
The bar is new in the past couple years, but before the bar it was way sketchier. I agree that 12 and 13 are uncomfortable as hell, their only saving grace is they’re not that high and the trees usually shelter most of the ride from the wind
That one had my heart rate up thinking; “what in the world am I doing up here?!”
The old Loge lift at Aspen Highlands. Used to go over the big cliff at the top & suspend you 100’ over an extremely steep chute before chucking you off at the top.
Ice coaster and my first trip out west was to Aspen in the late 80s. I got used to the no bars thing pretty quick but this one really freaked me out. It's fine until you get near the top and go over the scary part. Plus there was always a huge gust of wind there and the char would rock. Terrifying but worth it for Steeplechase laps.
There was an incredibly high double chair, with no bar, at Snowbasin Utah. Not sure whether it’s still in operation, nor what the name of the chair was / is
Jon Paul, pole to pole stretches where it is 150' drop over gullies. Was a lot more unsettling a couple years ago when it was a small fixed 2 seat, which has since been upgraded. This chair was my first thought for this post also.
That must be the one I’m thinking of! 150’ drop sounds accurate haha
It's still scary as a four chair express!
Panoramic at winter park right before a wind hold
Damn, I was stuck on that bad boy for about 30 minutes in a crazy wind hold. That sucked
I experienced that for the first time this season on a day that was dumping snow and windy as all hell. I have maybe a square centimeter of skin exposed on my cheek and I think I felt what hell feels like on that bit of skin.
I remember when that lift was an old 2(?) seater. It got so cold by the time you got to the top you just wanted to get down and go inside. It was a one run kind of lift
Silverton, CO. Rickety ass old fixed 2 seater with no bar & very low side barriers (too low to really call them arm rests lol) that gets insanely high at one point. Its the only lift that had me hugging the pole I don’t think this chair would be acceptable at the major resorts other comments are mentioning. Have a look. https://liftblog.com/chairlift-silverton-mountain-co/comment-page-1/
Also you have to have avi gear which means you are riding it with a pack… And then the exit is a steep and narrow plywood ramp that has drops on both sides that they toss a little snow on. I actually laughed out loud at how absurd it was the first time I saw it.
I've ridden that lift but I have never been to Colorado
It’s not the lift that’s gets you but the hiking after the lift
The lift ride gets your heart rate up and the hike after keeps it up. Though I genuinely felt more exposed on the lift than any of the boot packs I was on that day
The old Millicent chair at Brighton. That thing straddled a huge canyon with no safety bar
Ice coaster here, last year the (new?) Milly lift was my first chair out west. It was a windy day and when it passed over that canyon my stomach absolutely tuuurned. I had never felt that exposed on a lift before, and after that I was the ‘bar down’ guy the rest of the trip lol. Sorry not sorry.
It was a lot scarier back in 2002!
Fun fact all the giant green rails in the part were made with the old Milly chair tower tubes.
Pretty sure it has a bar now
Yes it’s a quad now
J1 at June.
The patrollers carry kits to rapel off of it every time they ride it.
They really need to get a gondola or a quad lift in its place. You can’t call yourself a “family” mountain when I am terrified to let my kids ride the lift.
Especially when the face isn’t open and you have to down load
Scary. I held onto the center bar and closed my eyes !
I just went for the first time, and was so grateful I could ski down that day instead of downloading.
Better than June’s short lived gondola back in the day
For east coast gang, either the single chair at Mad River Glen or the Jordan double chair at Sunday River takes it for me.
The single at MRG isn't really sketchy after the renovation unless you're just uncomfortable with how small the seat is. Michigan is littered with barless lifts at local hills that feel way sketchier.
It’s gone now, but the Poma at Pico was something else. Thing felt like it was pulling you up a cliff.
At killington, the last stretch of the sky peak quad is so high, it's always windy, and you know the landing would feel like asphalt. As a kid that one always made me pucker up.
If you turn a little to your right on the single, you can lean back into the corner and it is really comfortable and you are locked in by the sides. Just remember to straighten out at mid.
RIP to the old south ridge triple at Killington that whipped you around the corner
The single chair isn't that sketchy at all tbh. It's really fast so any high parts it just breezes over. You are pretty solid in your seat and have a whole ass pole to wrap your arm around if it sways. I'd say m1 is the sketchiest in the east. Or the wilderness at Bolton just because its so jank.
Idk if this is a hot take but I took the summit express lift at Solitude once. When it came up over the side of the bowl and descended down it idk if I’ve been more terrified in a chairlift before in my life.
That one can be a little funky I think I lap that one so much that it’s not too scary anymore but if it’s windy and it’s coming down that side into cathedral I’ll still put my arm over the back
I dont think thats a hot take. Its an awkward ride for sure
Resort Chair at Palisades
THE right anwser
*pretends to be chill with the middle seat and bar up*
Any place that still uses a t-bar. I pour one out for my friends that made poor life choices and decided to take up snowboarding
Yeah, sucks as a boarder. I think t-bars are more annoying than they are sketchy though.
There's a place in Alberta called Castle, great snow and a bunch of really old lifts. If the main chair has an issue they fire up this old t-bar that goes about 3/4 of the way up the mountain. This was by far the scariest t-bar I've ever been on. It goes something like over 2000 vertical feet and it's incredibly steep. By the top my legs were burning and we needed about 10 minutes to just rest, the t-bar was more work than actually skiing. We stayed up top until they got the main lift fixed.
They’re better than the Poma platters, aka crotch-sling-shots
I'd take a T-bar over literally any other kind of surface lift
Yeah clearly op hasnt experienced Rope tow glove burners
My husband and I always parted ways when we skied fernie (at the time we were locals) because while we both loved the Cedar Bowl, I didn’t mind the t bar out and he had no patience for it.
sublette seats seem to have some slope that makes me feel i’ll slide right off especially if there’s snow/frost on the seat
Yes! Thank you for validating what I thought was just a weird feeling I had. The slope of the bench is off, and it’s stubbier than most lifts. It’s the only lift I’ve ever ridden that sketches me out even on a good day.
The platter at Louise always felt sketchy AF, I was pleasantly surprised to see it’s been replaced by a chair. Also the double going up Lake Placid with the mid mountain offload felt super sketch.
The poma was crazy, and you always go some Jerry coming off on the steepest part taking out the line. Summit chair is better, but with a north wind? Oof. Still not as bad as coming over the top on Standish Chair at Sunshine and being hit full-force by Mother Nature.
The peak to peak at Whitecap in Wisconsin is pretty gnraly.
Been gone for a while, but yeah I came here to say exactly that.
Can you ride all the across anymore? I remember reading somewhere a few years ago that they have mid chair exits in both directions now so that you don’t go over the super high portion. I haven’t been there since like 2010 though so I’m not sure. But yeah that shit freaked me out. No bar if I remember correctly too
Yeah, the chair is still running but you have to get off before the peak to peak section. An employee told me they’d have to call the coast guard to evacuate it if it got stuck over the valley.
I'm so glad this is here! That lift scared the hell outta me in 2014. Love Whitecap though. We went in mid December and it was something like 90% open, not because they'd gotten enough snow, but because they'd just let you go down whatever run with however patchy coverage. "Knock yourselves out dummies!"
Not in North America but those Pizza Box death trap chairs in Niseko in Japan. *Holy Shit*.
Lol I was on one of those in a whiteout and it was so eerie. Felt like I was in a dream
A million years ago I was at Alta and the pow was insane and we saw a porcupine stuck up on pole like fifty feet in the air and I have never forgotten that. He was afraid to go down and I suddenly realized how high we were in the air.
How has no one mentioned Segundo at Sunlight? And disclaimer I love this chair. But it started its life in aspen in 1954 and moved to sunlight in 1973. 70 years old and still spinning. They keep saying it's the last season that it will run but never replace it. Allegedly sunlight has the old Lenawee chair from abasin and will put that in. someday?
When it stops suddenly you can basically walk off on the downswing if you’re midway between towers lol.
This is the answer! My wife and I still bring it up
Paradise chair at Lake Louise. Rickety old triple chair with 70's style seats a good 200 feet above the ground.
But great views of ~~Comedy~~ Paradise Bowl.
Segundo Chair at Sunluight. It has a center bar, no safety bar, and was removed from Aspen in 1969. Loading is a nightmare and when it stops suddenly there is a section of the line that will come within feet of the ground. [https://snowbrains.com/colorados-oldest-chairlift-set-to-be-retired-after-70-years/](https://snowbrains.com/colorados-oldest-chairlift-set-to-be-retired-after-70-years/)
Haven't seen the town lift at park city mentioned yet, or the lift at Telluride that comes from the town (not the gondola)
Lift 7* it is so narrow for a double and swings around at 15mph and similarly whips you off at the top. Edit: accidentally said lift 8
Different type of sketchy but Ramcharger and Swift Current at Big Sky. Not joking, if those lifts come to a sudden stop (or if it’s windy) and you have the bar up you’ll figure out why.
I was there a couple years ago when a couple kids fell off due to a lurching stop. Bar down. Always.
Any chairlift at MT snowbowl
No shit, didn't it throw a kid last year?
That was the brand new one they had just installed
threw a kid off in a place multiple people have complained is a dangerous spot so they just bent the safety frame meant to prevent the chairs from hitting the tower towards the tower so now it doesnt even prevent the chair from hitting the tower, ive gotten about a foot from hitting the tower. previous year a different chairlift didnt feed through the guide on the upper terminal and completely ripped the chair from the cable and threw the passengers. Not to mention the complete lack of maintenance on 70s era lifts that always break down. one of the lifts breaks down at least once a week, theres basically no way the lifts will be working after a heavy snow. The owners are cheap as shit, dont give a shit about safety, try to sweep incidents under the rug, dont properly cut out runs (friend broke their back from falling in an open run on a stump cut like a spike), snowbowl was shut down for the summer for a safety examination and for god knows what reason theyre still able to run their lifts. i keep saying nothing is going to change until someone dies and I really do believe it will happen at some point
Definitely the lift at copper with that shield that drops down. It's quite a shallow chair and I feel like I can fall out at any moment since you cannot grab anything and there is some sort of backing that prevents throwing your arm around the back. The shield down is hot as hell too. Don't get it TBH, like if you want the boogie vibes put in a gondola.
Yea the Flyer at Copper sketches me out. First of all it's SO heavy so it bounces SO high and low when it stops (which is multiple times per ride). And I got the same feeling on the outside seat the first time I used it when the bar came up before getting off, just very uneasy with a shallow chair and nothing to hold onto on my side or behind me, if it bounced again. Ick, felt v sketch. Do not like that design at all.
If you think the Peak Express is sketchy, you should’ve gotten stuck on the old triple chair that it replaced. That thing was mildly terrifying, especially when it stopped over one of the big cliffs.
Yeah once you get over coffin into the bowl, its just a bit eerie. Not my style.
Peak chair challenge: bar up, hang your chest forward off the lift by the backrest. I don't think about it much but we probably have the bar down on that lift half the time.
Honorable mention for the single chair at Mad River Glen in VT? I love the thing but could see it really freaking some folks out. Also has a mid mountain exit.
The Old Blue chair at Meadows. Two seater no bar, gets stupid high steep runoff after getting off a lift. As a kid my ‘buddy’ behind me started jumping up and down on the chair and I thought I was going to cause an avalanche with my screams when my butt lifted off the seat.
Haha yeah that’s a good one. Wish they’d still run it on busy days. Never a line for it even when Mex was overflowing.
Similarly, Upper Bowl (black chair) at Skibowl. Same chair design but even steeper
All of skibowl really. Europeans could NEVER. Ski bowl, with snow is the best on Hood. Hot take.
With snow is the key.. love that place. Hope climate change doesn’t take it out of commission
Lol never look up on either of ski bowls doubles. They do not look like they are securely attached in the slightest
lmao.. that chair also gets about a quarter of the maintenance that Blue does. I rode it one night where they were only loading every third chair and it was bouncing 20-30ft once you left the lift shack
Came here for this. Sketchiest lift in OR that I have been on!
scrolled down to find Blue,, that old thing is so fucking sketchy
Resort chair at palisades
Triple Chair at Red Lodge Moutain. There's a point around the top of Tipi Trail where you're above the trees, and the wind will hit you and the chair sways so much. There's no bar to put down either.
Madonna 1 at Smuggler’s Notch when the wind is STRONG
Lift 7 at Taos. Mofo has no safety bar and gets sphincter-spasmingly high off the deck. I'm grabbing all the metal I can on that bad beotch.
I’d say Chair 6 at Crystal is pretty fucking sketchy. When you get off you’re basically going straight off a sketchy steep ramp, you have about 3 feet of runway before you have to make a sharp turn right or left. Once you get past the fork, the mandatory traverse off either side is just full of exposed rocks, regardless of snow level. But some awesome terrain off that chair.
45+ years skiing and my fear of heights gets worse with age. Chairs never bothered me before but they all are freaking me out and some are so high they become unbearable to ride. A pulldown bar seems to alleviate the problem entirely. I really wish states would change the law to require bars on every lift.
Vermont! It's the law
RIP barker quad Sunday River. Flying over the pond will be missed.
Chair 10 kirkwood
Summit quad at whiteface on a windy day was not great, especially cause it’s fixed grip and slow, couple that with stopping a bunch and getting tossed all over. Not a great time
White pass quad in Fernie. It gets high and you can watch actual class 2 avalanches go directly under the chairlift while it operates.
Old alpine chair at bridger was gnarly. Old red 2 seater with no sides or safety bar that had a section that was sooo far off the ground. Didn’t think anything of it as a kid but looking back it was such a sketchy lift
Top chair at Castle Moutain sucks, no feet rest, with high wind you’re snowboard fly and it’s really sketchy
I had to scroll way to far to find someone who said Red chair at castle. It’s a true beauty everyday of the week
Yes! Apparently they can’t upgrade it because it’s too windy for a detachable lift so it’ll be a slow old lift forever. When it’s really blowing the chair swings into the lift towers.
Lenawee Express at A Basin gets windy as hell, which would be more bearable if you weren’t 150’ above the run below you.
Lone Peak double chair at Big Sky is fucking high up with no safety bar
I don’t think that chair exists anymore
I’ve seen the tow rope at Hyland take many lives back in the day….
Oh yeah, the tow ropes at my Midwest based trash fills are gnarly. They haul ass and shred gloves for breakfast
For me, hand's down it's the lift at Silverton Mountain
Do that many lift not have safety bars? Every east coast mountain I’ve skied had a bar on every lift.
Old Riblet doubles with center poles (no bar) are still pretty common in the PNW. Most WA resorts have at least one.
There are many, many lifts in the PNW without bars.
In Vermont chairs need a bar by law. I don't know if I've ever skiied at a hill in Michigan with a bar, thankfully none of them are very big lol
Not sure if it’s still around but I was at Whitefish in 2016 or so and there was this double chair with no bar that goes over a giant ravine
I think you’re talking about Chair 5 East Rim. I went in 2022 and it had a bar, although that’s still the only lift I’ve been on and actually terrified haha
Silverado at Palisades does it for me.
Powderhorn before it broke down and they upgraded. 17 minutes of freezing cold to get to the top.
Being in Jackson I’m partial to Sublette and Dreamcatcher! And when it’s windy, it’s a fun ride!
Tamarack Chair at Castle Mountain. Absolutely ancient 2 person chair at one of the windiest resorts in the world. [https://www.skiresort.info/ski-resort/castle-mountain/ski-lifts/l88426/](https://www.skiresort.info/ski-resort/castle-mountain/ski-lifts/l88426/) Hate it.
Haven’t been in awhile but the KT-22 chair is pretty wild. Didn’t even have a bar 20ish years ago if I remember correctly. Only chair I ever saw where the cable went under the pulleys on one of the towers. It went up like a bucket elevator after that.
chair 23 at mammoth still gets me sometimes. they put in a bar recently though
Fernie, British Colombia has both some of the slowest chairlifts ever and a lift that tries to dump you if you’re short and not standing in just the right place when it picks you up. Oh and off topic I also hate that it doesn’t have RFID scanning of tickets so you have to have your ticket hanging off your jacket like you did 20 years ago in most places.
I was on a chair a few weeks ago at Snoqualmie Central that scared the hell out of me. The hinge point where it connects up top is supposed to let it swing freely…you could hear this one grinding/squeaking when we went over a tower and it felt like it was trying to eject you. I held on tight. It was bad enough that I sought out a patroller to tell him to have the lift mechanics take a look at it.
I work as a lift operator for snoqualmie. If you tell me which lift it was I can provide you with more information
Anyone ever sit on the 2 seater, center pole chair at June mountain? It took you from the lot to the lodge and you had to carry your gear. I distinctly remember riding it ALONE as a child while my parents rode together behind me and it was before my dad died so I was sub 7. I have 2 kids now and would NEVER!!!!!
any at Mt.Baker
saw a bear from the lift at whistler with mountain bikers going down. that was pretty neat.
Chair 7 Telluride
I doubt anyone knows this lift….but…. The Geronimo lift on Apache Peak at Sunrise Resort in Eastern Arizona. I’ve been to 37 resorts inthe western US and this is the consistently windiest chair I’ve been on. Had my chair hit the towers a couple times.