Datasets:

---

innovation-hacking2

/

shitposting_dataset1

like 0

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut)." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error.", ">\n\nThing about safety is, a lot of 'safety' features are only there to make people feel safe. If people just dont be stupid, a lot of things wouldnt need them." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error.", ">\n\nThing about safety is, a lot of 'safety' features are only there to make people feel safe. If people just dont be stupid, a lot of things wouldnt need them.", ">\n\nA. I have such anxiety for those chairlifts\nB. I can never get off those things gracefully. I always end up on my ass." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error.", ">\n\nThing about safety is, a lot of 'safety' features are only there to make people feel safe. If people just dont be stupid, a lot of things wouldnt need them.", ">\n\nA. I have such anxiety for those chairlifts\nB. I can never get off those things gracefully. I always end up on my ass.", ">\n\nAs a fairly new snowboarder, all of my falling off happens at the top of the lift, I've just never gotten the hang of it, but I can now do a pretty mean army crawl!" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error.", ">\n\nThing about safety is, a lot of 'safety' features are only there to make people feel safe. If people just dont be stupid, a lot of things wouldnt need them.", ">\n\nA. I have such anxiety for those chairlifts\nB. I can never get off those things gracefully. I always end up on my ass.", ">\n\nAs a fairly new snowboarder, all of my falling off happens at the top of the lift, I've just never gotten the hang of it, but I can now do a pretty mean army crawl!", ">\n\nFriendly reminder:\nYour weight leaving the chair will rebound the cable up which can leave the pulley on one of the neighboring lift towers..." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error.", ">\n\nThing about safety is, a lot of 'safety' features are only there to make people feel safe. If people just dont be stupid, a lot of things wouldnt need them.", ">\n\nA. I have such anxiety for those chairlifts\nB. I can never get off those things gracefully. I always end up on my ass.", ">\n\nAs a fairly new snowboarder, all of my falling off happens at the top of the lift, I've just never gotten the hang of it, but I can now do a pretty mean army crawl!", ">\n\nFriendly reminder:\nYour weight leaving the chair will rebound the cable up which can leave the pulley on one of the neighboring lift towers...", ">\n\nEveryone talking about skis and I thought Op meant the chair lifts old people have." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error.", ">\n\nThing about safety is, a lot of 'safety' features are only there to make people feel safe. If people just dont be stupid, a lot of things wouldnt need them.", ">\n\nA. I have such anxiety for those chairlifts\nB. I can never get off those things gracefully. I always end up on my ass.", ">\n\nAs a fairly new snowboarder, all of my falling off happens at the top of the lift, I've just never gotten the hang of it, but I can now do a pretty mean army crawl!", ">\n\nFriendly reminder:\nYour weight leaving the chair will rebound the cable up which can leave the pulley on one of the neighboring lift towers...", ">\n\nEveryone talking about skis and I thought Op meant the chair lifts old people have.", ">\n\nAlways put the bar down, always sit up straight, don’t dick around on the lift and talk to the lifties if you’re not good at getting on/off lifts. If it’s a fixed grip lift they’ll usually slow it down a bit. Use your hand to guide you in to the lift and to push off at the top." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error.", ">\n\nThing about safety is, a lot of 'safety' features are only there to make people feel safe. If people just dont be stupid, a lot of things wouldnt need them.", ">\n\nA. I have such anxiety for those chairlifts\nB. I can never get off those things gracefully. I always end up on my ass.", ">\n\nAs a fairly new snowboarder, all of my falling off happens at the top of the lift, I've just never gotten the hang of it, but I can now do a pretty mean army crawl!", ">\n\nFriendly reminder:\nYour weight leaving the chair will rebound the cable up which can leave the pulley on one of the neighboring lift towers...", ">\n\nEveryone talking about skis and I thought Op meant the chair lifts old people have.", ">\n\nAlways put the bar down, always sit up straight, don’t dick around on the lift and talk to the lifties if you’re not good at getting on/off lifts. If it’s a fixed grip lift they’ll usually slow it down a bit. Use your hand to guide you in to the lift and to push off at the top.", ">\n\nBeing only an occasional skier my goal was always to get off this ski lift without crumpling into a pile at the foot of the little Hill. Everything after that was okay. That's where my stress was always at." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error.", ">\n\nThing about safety is, a lot of 'safety' features are only there to make people feel safe. If people just dont be stupid, a lot of things wouldnt need them.", ">\n\nA. I have such anxiety for those chairlifts\nB. I can never get off those things gracefully. I always end up on my ass.", ">\n\nAs a fairly new snowboarder, all of my falling off happens at the top of the lift, I've just never gotten the hang of it, but I can now do a pretty mean army crawl!", ">\n\nFriendly reminder:\nYour weight leaving the chair will rebound the cable up which can leave the pulley on one of the neighboring lift towers...", ">\n\nEveryone talking about skis and I thought Op meant the chair lifts old people have.", ">\n\nAlways put the bar down, always sit up straight, don’t dick around on the lift and talk to the lifties if you’re not good at getting on/off lifts. If it’s a fixed grip lift they’ll usually slow it down a bit. Use your hand to guide you in to the lift and to push off at the top.", ">\n\nBeing only an occasional skier my goal was always to get off this ski lift without crumpling into a pile at the foot of the little Hill. Everything after that was okay. That's where my stress was always at.", ">\n\nAt the ski lift I go to in my state a water pipe bursted and knocked some person out of the chair. Also my dad keeps forgetting to lower the bar thing so that's scary" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error.", ">\n\nThing about safety is, a lot of 'safety' features are only there to make people feel safe. If people just dont be stupid, a lot of things wouldnt need them.", ">\n\nA. I have such anxiety for those chairlifts\nB. I can never get off those things gracefully. I always end up on my ass.", ">\n\nAs a fairly new snowboarder, all of my falling off happens at the top of the lift, I've just never gotten the hang of it, but I can now do a pretty mean army crawl!", ">\n\nFriendly reminder:\nYour weight leaving the chair will rebound the cable up which can leave the pulley on one of the neighboring lift towers...", ">\n\nEveryone talking about skis and I thought Op meant the chair lifts old people have.", ">\n\nAlways put the bar down, always sit up straight, don’t dick around on the lift and talk to the lifties if you’re not good at getting on/off lifts. If it’s a fixed grip lift they’ll usually slow it down a bit. Use your hand to guide you in to the lift and to push off at the top.", ">\n\nBeing only an occasional skier my goal was always to get off this ski lift without crumpling into a pile at the foot of the little Hill. Everything after that was okay. That's where my stress was always at.", ">\n\nAt the ski lift I go to in my state a water pipe bursted and knocked some person out of the chair. Also my dad keeps forgetting to lower the bar thing so that's scary", ">\n\nWhy? How often do you fall out of chairs? The fact that you’re up in the air doesn’t change how hard it is to not fall out of a chair" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error.", ">\n\nThing about safety is, a lot of 'safety' features are only there to make people feel safe. If people just dont be stupid, a lot of things wouldnt need them.", ">\n\nA. I have such anxiety for those chairlifts\nB. I can never get off those things gracefully. I always end up on my ass.", ">\n\nAs a fairly new snowboarder, all of my falling off happens at the top of the lift, I've just never gotten the hang of it, but I can now do a pretty mean army crawl!", ">\n\nFriendly reminder:\nYour weight leaving the chair will rebound the cable up which can leave the pulley on one of the neighboring lift towers...", ">\n\nEveryone talking about skis and I thought Op meant the chair lifts old people have.", ">\n\nAlways put the bar down, always sit up straight, don’t dick around on the lift and talk to the lifties if you’re not good at getting on/off lifts. If it’s a fixed grip lift they’ll usually slow it down a bit. Use your hand to guide you in to the lift and to push off at the top.", ">\n\nBeing only an occasional skier my goal was always to get off this ski lift without crumpling into a pile at the foot of the little Hill. Everything after that was okay. That's where my stress was always at.", ">\n\nAt the ski lift I go to in my state a water pipe bursted and knocked some person out of the chair. Also my dad keeps forgetting to lower the bar thing so that's scary", ">\n\nWhy? How often do you fall out of chairs? The fact that you’re up in the air doesn’t change how hard it is to not fall out of a chair", ">\n\nExplain how safe ski lifts are to this bunch." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error.", ">\n\nThing about safety is, a lot of 'safety' features are only there to make people feel safe. If people just dont be stupid, a lot of things wouldnt need them.", ">\n\nA. I have such anxiety for those chairlifts\nB. I can never get off those things gracefully. I always end up on my ass.", ">\n\nAs a fairly new snowboarder, all of my falling off happens at the top of the lift, I've just never gotten the hang of it, but I can now do a pretty mean army crawl!", ">\n\nFriendly reminder:\nYour weight leaving the chair will rebound the cable up which can leave the pulley on one of the neighboring lift towers...", ">\n\nEveryone talking about skis and I thought Op meant the chair lifts old people have.", ">\n\nAlways put the bar down, always sit up straight, don’t dick around on the lift and talk to the lifties if you’re not good at getting on/off lifts. If it’s a fixed grip lift they’ll usually slow it down a bit. Use your hand to guide you in to the lift and to push off at the top.", ">\n\nBeing only an occasional skier my goal was always to get off this ski lift without crumpling into a pile at the foot of the little Hill. Everything after that was okay. That's where my stress was always at.", ">\n\nAt the ski lift I go to in my state a water pipe bursted and knocked some person out of the chair. Also my dad keeps forgetting to lower the bar thing so that's scary", ">\n\nWhy? How often do you fall out of chairs? The fact that you’re up in the air doesn’t change how hard it is to not fall out of a chair", ">\n\nExplain how safe ski lifts are to this bunch.", ">\n\nWhy do they need to be so high off the ground? Why not just 10ft?" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error.", ">\n\nThing about safety is, a lot of 'safety' features are only there to make people feel safe. If people just dont be stupid, a lot of things wouldnt need them.", ">\n\nA. I have such anxiety for those chairlifts\nB. I can never get off those things gracefully. I always end up on my ass.", ">\n\nAs a fairly new snowboarder, all of my falling off happens at the top of the lift, I've just never gotten the hang of it, but I can now do a pretty mean army crawl!", ">\n\nFriendly reminder:\nYour weight leaving the chair will rebound the cable up which can leave the pulley on one of the neighboring lift towers...", ">\n\nEveryone talking about skis and I thought Op meant the chair lifts old people have.", ">\n\nAlways put the bar down, always sit up straight, don’t dick around on the lift and talk to the lifties if you’re not good at getting on/off lifts. If it’s a fixed grip lift they’ll usually slow it down a bit. Use your hand to guide you in to the lift and to push off at the top.", ">\n\nBeing only an occasional skier my goal was always to get off this ski lift without crumpling into a pile at the foot of the little Hill. Everything after that was okay. That's where my stress was always at.", ">\n\nAt the ski lift I go to in my state a water pipe bursted and knocked some person out of the chair. Also my dad keeps forgetting to lower the bar thing so that's scary", ">\n\nWhy? How often do you fall out of chairs? The fact that you’re up in the air doesn’t change how hard it is to not fall out of a chair", ">\n\nExplain how safe ski lifts are to this bunch.", ">\n\nWhy do they need to be so high off the ground? Why not just 10ft?", ">\n\nAnyone can get on. Getting off, however, is a skill you develop over many awkward attempts." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error.", ">\n\nThing about safety is, a lot of 'safety' features are only there to make people feel safe. If people just dont be stupid, a lot of things wouldnt need them.", ">\n\nA. I have such anxiety for those chairlifts\nB. I can never get off those things gracefully. I always end up on my ass.", ">\n\nAs a fairly new snowboarder, all of my falling off happens at the top of the lift, I've just never gotten the hang of it, but I can now do a pretty mean army crawl!", ">\n\nFriendly reminder:\nYour weight leaving the chair will rebound the cable up which can leave the pulley on one of the neighboring lift towers...", ">\n\nEveryone talking about skis and I thought Op meant the chair lifts old people have.", ">\n\nAlways put the bar down, always sit up straight, don’t dick around on the lift and talk to the lifties if you’re not good at getting on/off lifts. If it’s a fixed grip lift they’ll usually slow it down a bit. Use your hand to guide you in to the lift and to push off at the top.", ">\n\nBeing only an occasional skier my goal was always to get off this ski lift without crumpling into a pile at the foot of the little Hill. Everything after that was okay. That's where my stress was always at.", ">\n\nAt the ski lift I go to in my state a water pipe bursted and knocked some person out of the chair. Also my dad keeps forgetting to lower the bar thing so that's scary", ">\n\nWhy? How often do you fall out of chairs? The fact that you’re up in the air doesn’t change how hard it is to not fall out of a chair", ">\n\nExplain how safe ski lifts are to this bunch.", ">\n\nWhy do they need to be so high off the ground? Why not just 10ft?", ">\n\nAnyone can get on. Getting off, however, is a skill you develop over many awkward attempts.", ">\n\nJust try to avoid the busted pipes" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error.", ">\n\nThing about safety is, a lot of 'safety' features are only there to make people feel safe. If people just dont be stupid, a lot of things wouldnt need them.", ">\n\nA. I have such anxiety for those chairlifts\nB. I can never get off those things gracefully. I always end up on my ass.", ">\n\nAs a fairly new snowboarder, all of my falling off happens at the top of the lift, I've just never gotten the hang of it, but I can now do a pretty mean army crawl!", ">\n\nFriendly reminder:\nYour weight leaving the chair will rebound the cable up which can leave the pulley on one of the neighboring lift towers...", ">\n\nEveryone talking about skis and I thought Op meant the chair lifts old people have.", ">\n\nAlways put the bar down, always sit up straight, don’t dick around on the lift and talk to the lifties if you’re not good at getting on/off lifts. If it’s a fixed grip lift they’ll usually slow it down a bit. Use your hand to guide you in to the lift and to push off at the top.", ">\n\nBeing only an occasional skier my goal was always to get off this ski lift without crumpling into a pile at the foot of the little Hill. Everything after that was okay. That's where my stress was always at.", ">\n\nAt the ski lift I go to in my state a water pipe bursted and knocked some person out of the chair. Also my dad keeps forgetting to lower the bar thing so that's scary", ">\n\nWhy? How often do you fall out of chairs? The fact that you’re up in the air doesn’t change how hard it is to not fall out of a chair", ">\n\nExplain how safe ski lifts are to this bunch.", ">\n\nWhy do they need to be so high off the ground? Why not just 10ft?", ">\n\nAnyone can get on. Getting off, however, is a skill you develop over many awkward attempts.", ">\n\nJust try to avoid the busted pipes", ">\n\nI think is the angle of the dangle, y’know? The seat tilts up in just the right way" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error.", ">\n\nThing about safety is, a lot of 'safety' features are only there to make people feel safe. If people just dont be stupid, a lot of things wouldnt need them.", ">\n\nA. I have such anxiety for those chairlifts\nB. I can never get off those things gracefully. I always end up on my ass.", ">\n\nAs a fairly new snowboarder, all of my falling off happens at the top of the lift, I've just never gotten the hang of it, but I can now do a pretty mean army crawl!", ">\n\nFriendly reminder:\nYour weight leaving the chair will rebound the cable up which can leave the pulley on one of the neighboring lift towers...", ">\n\nEveryone talking about skis and I thought Op meant the chair lifts old people have.", ">\n\nAlways put the bar down, always sit up straight, don’t dick around on the lift and talk to the lifties if you’re not good at getting on/off lifts. If it’s a fixed grip lift they’ll usually slow it down a bit. Use your hand to guide you in to the lift and to push off at the top.", ">\n\nBeing only an occasional skier my goal was always to get off this ski lift without crumpling into a pile at the foot of the little Hill. Everything after that was okay. That's where my stress was always at.", ">\n\nAt the ski lift I go to in my state a water pipe bursted and knocked some person out of the chair. Also my dad keeps forgetting to lower the bar thing so that's scary", ">\n\nWhy? How often do you fall out of chairs? The fact that you’re up in the air doesn’t change how hard it is to not fall out of a chair", ">\n\nExplain how safe ski lifts are to this bunch.", ">\n\nWhy do they need to be so high off the ground? Why not just 10ft?", ">\n\nAnyone can get on. Getting off, however, is a skill you develop over many awkward attempts.", ">\n\nJust try to avoid the busted pipes", ">\n\nI think is the angle of the dangle, y’know? The seat tilts up in just the right way", ">\n\nChair came out of the cable at my local ski hill. New high speed chairs disconnect and reconnect to the cable. The old school chairs the cable is decompressed and a rod is stuck in it and tension is slowly put back on holding the rod in place. The rod is what the chair connects to and that thing came out" ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error.", ">\n\nThing about safety is, a lot of 'safety' features are only there to make people feel safe. If people just dont be stupid, a lot of things wouldnt need them.", ">\n\nA. I have such anxiety for those chairlifts\nB. I can never get off those things gracefully. I always end up on my ass.", ">\n\nAs a fairly new snowboarder, all of my falling off happens at the top of the lift, I've just never gotten the hang of it, but I can now do a pretty mean army crawl!", ">\n\nFriendly reminder:\nYour weight leaving the chair will rebound the cable up which can leave the pulley on one of the neighboring lift towers...", ">\n\nEveryone talking about skis and I thought Op meant the chair lifts old people have.", ">\n\nAlways put the bar down, always sit up straight, don’t dick around on the lift and talk to the lifties if you’re not good at getting on/off lifts. If it’s a fixed grip lift they’ll usually slow it down a bit. Use your hand to guide you in to the lift and to push off at the top.", ">\n\nBeing only an occasional skier my goal was always to get off this ski lift without crumpling into a pile at the foot of the little Hill. Everything after that was okay. That's where my stress was always at.", ">\n\nAt the ski lift I go to in my state a water pipe bursted and knocked some person out of the chair. Also my dad keeps forgetting to lower the bar thing so that's scary", ">\n\nWhy? How often do you fall out of chairs? The fact that you’re up in the air doesn’t change how hard it is to not fall out of a chair", ">\n\nExplain how safe ski lifts are to this bunch.", ">\n\nWhy do they need to be so high off the ground? Why not just 10ft?", ">\n\nAnyone can get on. Getting off, however, is a skill you develop over many awkward attempts.", ">\n\nJust try to avoid the busted pipes", ">\n\nI think is the angle of the dangle, y’know? The seat tilts up in just the right way", ">\n\nChair came out of the cable at my local ski hill. New high speed chairs disconnect and reconnect to the cable. The old school chairs the cable is decompressed and a rod is stuck in it and tension is slowly put back on holding the rod in place. The rod is what the chair connects to and that thing came out", ">\n\nWell they have seat belts and arm rests that kinda bind you in like a rollercoaster." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error.", ">\n\nThing about safety is, a lot of 'safety' features are only there to make people feel safe. If people just dont be stupid, a lot of things wouldnt need them.", ">\n\nA. I have such anxiety for those chairlifts\nB. I can never get off those things gracefully. I always end up on my ass.", ">\n\nAs a fairly new snowboarder, all of my falling off happens at the top of the lift, I've just never gotten the hang of it, but I can now do a pretty mean army crawl!", ">\n\nFriendly reminder:\nYour weight leaving the chair will rebound the cable up which can leave the pulley on one of the neighboring lift towers...", ">\n\nEveryone talking about skis and I thought Op meant the chair lifts old people have.", ">\n\nAlways put the bar down, always sit up straight, don’t dick around on the lift and talk to the lifties if you’re not good at getting on/off lifts. If it’s a fixed grip lift they’ll usually slow it down a bit. Use your hand to guide you in to the lift and to push off at the top.", ">\n\nBeing only an occasional skier my goal was always to get off this ski lift without crumpling into a pile at the foot of the little Hill. Everything after that was okay. That's where my stress was always at.", ">\n\nAt the ski lift I go to in my state a water pipe bursted and knocked some person out of the chair. Also my dad keeps forgetting to lower the bar thing so that's scary", ">\n\nWhy? How often do you fall out of chairs? The fact that you’re up in the air doesn’t change how hard it is to not fall out of a chair", ">\n\nExplain how safe ski lifts are to this bunch.", ">\n\nWhy do they need to be so high off the ground? Why not just 10ft?", ">\n\nAnyone can get on. Getting off, however, is a skill you develop over many awkward attempts.", ">\n\nJust try to avoid the busted pipes", ">\n\nI think is the angle of the dangle, y’know? The seat tilts up in just the right way", ">\n\nChair came out of the cable at my local ski hill. New high speed chairs disconnect and reconnect to the cable. The old school chairs the cable is decompressed and a rod is stuck in it and tension is slowly put back on holding the rod in place. The rod is what the chair connects to and that thing came out", ">\n\nWell they have seat belts and arm rests that kinda bind you in like a rollercoaster.", ">\n\nI recently went skiing for the second time in my life and spent a day using the things. I guess people that are used to them don't realize how dangerous they are." ]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans.", ">\n\nLike the Ski lifts? Actually pretty hard to fall out. It's balanced with your weight around 20-30% to the back, bit like a rocking chair. It's easy to throw yourself into the landing, because the upper body rocks the whole chair forward with your ski's hitting the ground usually. Tho... it's fairly common for some newer people to take an extra spin around their first time on the hill.", ">\n\nQuoted as the safest mode of transportation in North America. Source: pub quiz masters everywhere \nThe supporting math apparently looks at fatalities per passenger mile...", ">\n\nI'm shocked that it beats airplaines. They travel way further and are very safe. Maybe it is because there are few fatalities for chairlift? I wonder what the numbers look like for smaller injuries.", ">\n\nYea but the lifts ate just going on a continuous circle for at least 8 hours a day with you riding it multiple times. I can totally see it evening out.", ">\n\nHow many times do you need to ride to just match the distance taxiing to the runway? One flight is probably more distance than 99% of people's yearly chairlift distance.", ">\n\nNot sure how long all the lifts are, but I typically ski close to 1 million vertical feet per season, sometimes more. That’s around 190-200 miles per season. The resorts track this information using my lift pass.", ">\n\nIs that just vertical feet, or length of chair? The ones I know of only track vertical feet, and that's a lot less than distance on chair, so it's likely much farther in chair rides.\nFor example, Northwest Express at Mt Bachelor is almost 9,000' long, but \"only\" almost 2,400' vertical.\nBut yeah, even in just vertical, that's well over 200 miles per season. Get some!\n(Edit, just saw you said \"not sure how long the lifts are,\" so yeah, definitely a lot more than 200mi!)", ">\n\nYes it’s just vertical feet, not length of chair cable. Just pointing out that the lift can be much longer than the guy I responded to thought.", ">\n\nYup, misread your comment at first, but left mine up to help illustrate the length of chairlifts.\nSee ya on the slopes!", ">\n\nHaha yeah I think I misread yours too! Can’t wait for snow, I’m headed to Summit county for the whole month of February…", ">\n\nI fell off of one as a kid. Granted it was just taking off and I fell off because I wanted to see if I could skid my ski across the top of the snow and it got stuck causing me to face plant. Dad had to make the quick decision of jumping off at like 6ft. Kids are dumb.", ">\n\nMy mum once pushed my brother off the lift at around that Hight because he couldn't get fully on, and she was seriously worried he would fall off higher up. this was a while back when he was around 10, but still a funny memory", ">\n\nBoy do I have the terrible movie for you, Frozen 2010.\n3 kids gets stuck on a ski lift for 90 minutes", ">\n\nI still think they could have strung their clothes together for a makeshift rope.", ">\n\nYou're forgetting the wolves", ">\n\nYou're right! They could have strung the wolves together to make a rope!", ">\n\nBut would they have the arm strength to climb howl the way down?", ">\n\nYou could probably slide down like a fire pole. But how would you survive the elements at a closed ski resort? Silly premise for a movie but it was cheap to make.", ">\n\nIt shouldn’t be too surprising, people aren’t constantly falling out of regular chairs. All you have to do is sit. That’s not too difficult, now getting off gracefully is a whole nother...", ">\n\nNother. An other. ‘Nother … another. A whole another….?", ">\n\nNo, whole nother. They said it right there!", ">\n\nAs a father with a 4 and 7 yr old .. I think about it a lot now. My stomach drops quite a bit as they are at the very edge of the seat and not big enough to sit all the way back. I always seem to think of the worse outcome, but they are fine so I try my best to relax.", ">\n\nI snowboard every season, if anything my biggest fear is seating next to a psychopath that could push me off the chair. Nobody would know =/", ">\n\nUltimately this is where my thought process is going with this post.\nI don't doubt that the chairs are designed to be safe and secure, but there are stupid and reckless people out there. \nDuring my last trip to the hill I was in a chair behind 3 adult men who were screwing around (crossbar was up) and one of them dropped their pole onto the hill and then shoved the other guy who was laughing and I was just watching the chair shake, with them fooling around and it made me feel sick to my stomach.", ">\n\nProbably the pricetag skiing comes at cuts down on the stupid and reckless behaviours a bit", ">\n\nYou know, you’d like to think so, but from knowing rich people I’m afraid it doesn’t cut it down as much as you’d hope.", ">\n\nRich people are plenty stupid too, but much less so in the fuck-around-and-fall-of-a-ski-lift kinda way\nSource: WHO report showing that accidental injury rates are inversely-correlated to income", ">\n\nI agree. Seems like lots of people don’t like to bother with lowering the bar. \nI’m always afraid that a gust of wind pushing down on my board at the same time I’m a little off balance because of adjusting a glove or bumping over one of the tower transitions and I would be off.\nBut I’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone falling off in real life, and if it happened even rarely, they would probably force people to use the bar out of liability", ">\n\nThe ones on my local mountain don't even have a bar or restraining method. Just plunk yourself down and don't lean too far forward.", ">\n\nWe used to have a 2800 foot vertical lift at my home ski area that had no bars. 18 minute ride up. No bars because my father was chairman of the ski resort association when they built the lift. And bars on the chairs would have cost an extra $67.00 per chair.\nAt the highest point, crossing an indentation in the mountain, you were 300 feet up.\nNo one ever fell off, too my knowledge. Though a friend of mine jumped successfully (at a much lower point) one time when the lift stopped for a half hour. I stayed on. He was fine. Deep snow.", ">\n\nSeems like you dad prioritized a small amount of money over human lives.", ">\n\nI almost fell out once as a kid. Its was very high up, i looked down and it was pure white and i lost my sence of direction and just kept leaning forward. My dad grabbed me and i snapped out of it. \nMost of the time the problems are getting on and off but im also surprised its not more common", ">\n\nDo you have a fear of heights?", ">\n\nI’m a snowboard instructor, and our resort doesn’t have bars on the lift chairs. That being said, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone falling out of one in the years I’ve been around. I’ve never felt unsafe on our lifts even without bars. And small children ride them everyday without incident. \nI did go to another little resort once where I was slightly concerned, the chairs were a lot smaller and older with no bars, it was freezing rain so the seat of the chair was covered with ice, and it was windy. I’m sure it would have been a lot easier to slip off that day. But that was more the conditions than the actual lift itself", ">\n\nPeople fall off lifts all the time, they are just usually right near the top or bottom where it is low. Source-4 years of being a professional ski patroller seeing a lot of people fall off chairlifts.", ">\n\nI once ate shit getting off a lift on the first run of the day, and didn't have a glove on. My buddy's girlfriend came by and accidentally edged my bare hand with her snowboard. I didn't even get a run in, the medic team tied me to a sled and sent me down the hill and eventually to the hospital where I got like 12 stitches across 3 fingers. Good times!", ">\n\nThe way you say it makes it seem like they just sent you on your way hoping you'd find yourself at the bottom instead of around a tree lmao", ">\n\nI just had this thought last weekend while skiing with my kid", ">\n\nI know a guy that scared his friend in a chair lift freaking him out and falling off. He broke a leg or something. \nEver since then, whenever a group of friends want to go snowboarding he discourages everyone telling them how dangerous ski lifts are. \nIt sucks for me, because I always get snowboard season pass. Deep inside I'm mad at him for blaming ski lifts, instead of himself.", ">\n\ni’m a lift operator at a pretty busy ski resort in colorado. the amount of people that fall off at the beginning/end of the lift ride is astronomical", ">\n\nIn Aus it's pretty standard to lower the bar. You couldn't possibly fall with the bar lowered.\nIn north America I was surprised at how much everyone just ignores it. It's s way more comfortable to sit with the bar lowered because it's the perfect spot to put your arms. Made no sense to me.", ">\n\nIts the coolness factor. I always put it down. And luckily never had anyone car if i do lower it. \nIve been on sketch chairlifts around the world. I am more worried about a frayed wire killing me than falling out", ">\n\nI thought you meant one of those chairs that help disabled ppl up the stairs. 😆", ">\n\nWe hear you! We've taken extra safety measures to make sure that doesn't happen, but we appreciate the heads up - just in case!", ">\n\nare you the chairlift gods?", ">\n\nNah, they are fairly deep and slant somewhat towards the back. You’d really have to be trying to fall off of one. Falling while getting off of one is another story, though.", ">\n\nI first read that as just \"chairs\" lmao..I was gonna ask if you've ever been around children", ">\n\nTo be fair to chairlifts I think children sit better on them than regular chairs.", ">\n\nI should hope so.", ">\n\nThey do. But the Chair Lift Lobby immediately replaces them with perfect duplicates. Those few that \"get away\" are acceptable losses.", ">\n\nI had a friend decide to stick his pole up in one of the wheels above that are part of the connection points. The pole was wrapped around his wrist and he was lifted up out of the chair and dropped, far down. Spent weeks in the hospital and a long recovery but just fine today.", ">\n\nWow, that's a Darwin Awards near-winner if I ever heard of one.", ">\n\nSeriously though. Some people are dumb as hell and I’ve still never seen it happen in 29yrs", ">\n\nI can’t believe it’s not a law that all chairs need safety bars. \nI’m an avid snowboarder, but I’m pretty afraid of heights. More so just afraid of falling to my death/injury. If the chair has a bar, I’m fine. But no bar, and anything over a 30 foot drop, I’m shitting myself.", ">\n\nI've never seen a chairlift without a bar, didn't even know it was a thing, seems incredibly disconcerting. (from eu)", ">\n\nEven if it comes to a standstill without the bar down you won’t fall forward. I believe it’s actually a law in VT to have the bar down.", ">\n\nI haven't seen a bar on a ski lift in my area - Upper Michigan", ">\n\nIt’s actually kind of hard to jump out of one. A friend of mine did it.", ">\n\nas someone with a fear of heights, this visual image made me feel clammy.", ">\n\nThere was a lot of fresh snow and it was in an area that wasn’t very high.", ">\n\nI've thought about it, but man they're kinda super comfy. I do find sitting on my poles helps, like I can feel the angle I'm leaning back.", ">\n\nNo - it's not \nThat's their sole means of locomotion in that situation, they're gunna be hypervigilant", ">\n\nLol, they fall all the time. I hear about at least 2-5 a year.", ">\n\nIn Squaw Valley one year we had a bunch get blown off the chairs in a wild storm. It was amazingly bad. No real injuries that I recall, but people were getting literally blown right off near the top of the mountain where the winds were wild.", ">\n\nAs someone who used to ski - I used to have this thought a lot - usually when I was on a chair lift.", ">\n\nLast year me and my husband were getting on a fast moving two man lift (he skis I snowboard) as the chair was coming around to pick us up he didn’t realize he was standing on my snowboard with his skis- he got on, I couldn’t get all the way back into the chair since my board was stuck so as it started going up I fell off and face planted. The whole lift stopped and he had to jump off from about 4 foot to come back down. Absolutely mortifying, and I refuse to use that lift now haha.", ">\n\nI’m actually at a ski resort. I was on the chair lift and to at thing would come at you full speed and when you are on, most people don’t care to even put the bar down. So you are so high up on a chair where if you slip or slide off you will break your legs or die. Worst of all the thing slows quickly and accelerates quickly making it super hard to stay still. They scare\nMe a bit.", ">\n\nThe one and only time I went skiing someone fell out. Just saying", ">\n\nWhat are you doing skiing if you’re afraid of the chair lifts ?", ">\n\nI’m not afraid of chair lifts. I’m afraid of reckless idiots.", ">\n\nTrue that. We try to ski during the off season and stay on the blacks . We are retired so we can do that.", ">\n\nDon't those have straps? That or people riding them have great balance and you'd be right", ">\n\nThey have a bar you can raise up in down in front of you at the place by me but no one really uses the bar except parents with younger kids", ">\n\nAhh thanks I've never seen one in real life. So the OP is right especially since its targeted at seniors with mobility issues.", ">\n\nOh lmao, when I hear chair lifts I think skiing chair lifts which I thought was what OP was talking about", ">\n\nNah I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong one", ">\n\nI did it. Right at the start. Stuck a pole in snow, which started the chair swinging. Reached up to pull the bar down and off I went. Didn’t hurt too much until someone in the next chair clocked me in the head with her ski. I still get panic attacks getting on the chairs, 30 years later.", ">\n\nmy dad did. broke his knee. cannot confirm or deny how much alcohol was consumed", ">\n\nI work ski lifts and it is remarkable how often people do things like see how far they can hang off the chair, ski into an incoming chair, or not put their bar down. Seems like you’d be more aware of the risk but I guess people don’t fall off much so it works", ">\n\nA good friend of mine sneezed and fell several feet off of one when we were kids. He really messed himself good. He was stuck in a hospital in Vermont for a month before he was allowed to travel back home (Connecticut).", ">\n\nFor some reason my brain read this and translated \"chair lift\" to the German word \"Fahrstuhl\" which is elevator and I was like \"What do you mean fall off of an elevator?\" lol", ">\n\nI would probably try and make the fall look intentionally done like a stunt.", ">\n\nThey are infinitely preferable to the anchor lifts (not a native english speaker: the ski lifts that drag you up the mountain). I fell off those so many times :'(. \nWith chair lifts it's kinda scary but if you lower the bar, you really are quite safe.", ">\n\nPeople don't generally fall off chairs Why would they fall off chair lifts?", ">\n\nClearly you've never met children or teenage boys.", ">\n\nHaving been a teenage boy, I'd like to say in their defense... It is not that they fall off the chairs but the chairs intentionally dump them. As for children... let them fall", ">\n\nThe chair lifts are BUILT TO AVOID people falling off. Since they aren't individually operated like cars, there's less accidents because there's less propensity for error.", ">\n\nThing about safety is, a lot of 'safety' features are only there to make people feel safe. If people just dont be stupid, a lot of things wouldnt need them.", ">\n\nA. I have such anxiety for those chairlifts\nB. I can never get off those things gracefully. I always end up on my ass.", ">\n\nAs a fairly new snowboarder, all of my falling off happens at the top of the lift, I've just never gotten the hang of it, but I can now do a pretty mean army crawl!", ">\n\nFriendly reminder:\nYour weight leaving the chair will rebound the cable up which can leave the pulley on one of the neighboring lift towers...", ">\n\nEveryone talking about skis and I thought Op meant the chair lifts old people have.", ">\n\nAlways put the bar down, always sit up straight, don’t dick around on the lift and talk to the lifties if you’re not good at getting on/off lifts. If it’s a fixed grip lift they’ll usually slow it down a bit. Use your hand to guide you in to the lift and to push off at the top.", ">\n\nBeing only an occasional skier my goal was always to get off this ski lift without crumpling into a pile at the foot of the little Hill. Everything after that was okay. That's where my stress was always at.", ">\n\nAt the ski lift I go to in my state a water pipe bursted and knocked some person out of the chair. Also my dad keeps forgetting to lower the bar thing so that's scary", ">\n\nWhy? How often do you fall out of chairs? The fact that you’re up in the air doesn’t change how hard it is to not fall out of a chair", ">\n\nExplain how safe ski lifts are to this bunch.", ">\n\nWhy do they need to be so high off the ground? Why not just 10ft?", ">\n\nAnyone can get on. Getting off, however, is a skill you develop over many awkward attempts.", ">\n\nJust try to avoid the busted pipes", ">\n\nI think is the angle of the dangle, y’know? The seat tilts up in just the right way", ">\n\nChair came out of the cable at my local ski hill. New high speed chairs disconnect and reconnect to the cable. The old school chairs the cable is decompressed and a rod is stuck in it and tension is slowly put back on holding the rod in place. The rod is what the chair connects to and that thing came out", ">\n\nWell they have seat belts and arm rests that kinda bind you in like a rollercoaster.", ">\n\nI recently went skiing for the second time in my life and spent a day using the things. I guess people that are used to them don't realize how dangerous they are.", ">\n\nOr, people who are new to them don't realise how safe they are, while those who have used them a lot realise that they've never seen or heard of an accident." ]

[]

[ "Well obviously it wasn't that quiet." ]

[ "Well obviously it wasn't that quiet.", ">\n\nWon't be quiet for too long" ]

[ "Well obviously it wasn't that quiet.", ">\n\nWon't be quiet for too long", ">\n\nSharing is caring" ]

[ "Well obviously it wasn't that quiet.", ">\n\nWon't be quiet for too long", ">\n\nSharing is caring", ">\n\n2022 is the year of quiets:\nQuiet quitting\nQuiet firing\nQuiet shipping \nAnd my personal favorite: Quiet farting" ]

[ "Well obviously it wasn't that quiet.", ">\n\nWon't be quiet for too long", ">\n\nSharing is caring", ">\n\n2022 is the year of quiets:\nQuiet quitting\nQuiet firing\nQuiet shipping \nAnd my personal favorite: Quiet farting", ">\n\nQuiet farting can easily turn into quiet shitting, be careful." ]

[ "Well obviously it wasn't that quiet.", ">\n\nWon't be quiet for too long", ">\n\nSharing is caring", ">\n\n2022 is the year of quiets:\nQuiet quitting\nQuiet firing\nQuiet shipping \nAnd my personal favorite: Quiet farting", ">\n\nQuiet farting can easily turn into quiet shitting, be careful.", ">\n\nQuit giving up the plan lol" ]

[ "Well obviously it wasn't that quiet.", ">\n\nWon't be quiet for too long", ">\n\nSharing is caring", ">\n\n2022 is the year of quiets:\nQuiet quitting\nQuiet firing\nQuiet shipping \nAnd my personal favorite: Quiet farting", ">\n\nQuiet farting can easily turn into quiet shitting, be careful.", ">\n\nQuit giving up the plan lol", ">\n\nSilent but deadly." ]

[ "Well obviously it wasn't that quiet.", ">\n\nWon't be quiet for too long", ">\n\nSharing is caring", ">\n\n2022 is the year of quiets:\nQuiet quitting\nQuiet firing\nQuiet shipping \nAnd my personal favorite: Quiet farting", ">\n\nQuiet farting can easily turn into quiet shitting, be careful.", ">\n\nQuit giving up the plan lol", ">\n\nSilent but deadly.", ">\n\nTIL the US military had a massive stockpile of ammunition in Israel." ]

[ "Well obviously it wasn't that quiet.", ">\n\nWon't be quiet for too long", ">\n\nSharing is caring", ">\n\n2022 is the year of quiets:\nQuiet quitting\nQuiet firing\nQuiet shipping \nAnd my personal favorite: Quiet farting", ">\n\nQuiet farting can easily turn into quiet shitting, be careful.", ">\n\nQuit giving up the plan lol", ">\n\nSilent but deadly.", ">\n\nTIL the US military had a massive stockpile of ammunition in Israel.", ">\n\nShush now - people will hear." ]

[ "Well obviously it wasn't that quiet.", ">\n\nWon't be quiet for too long", ">\n\nSharing is caring", ">\n\n2022 is the year of quiets:\nQuiet quitting\nQuiet firing\nQuiet shipping \nAnd my personal favorite: Quiet farting", ">\n\nQuiet farting can easily turn into quiet shitting, be careful.", ">\n\nQuit giving up the plan lol", ">\n\nSilent but deadly.", ">\n\nTIL the US military had a massive stockpile of ammunition in Israel.", ">\n\nShush now - people will hear.", ">\n\nQUIET meaning, every shell and bullet wrapped in jerusalem post newspaper pages. XD" ]

[ "Well obviously it wasn't that quiet.", ">\n\nWon't be quiet for too long", ">\n\nSharing is caring", ">\n\n2022 is the year of quiets:\nQuiet quitting\nQuiet firing\nQuiet shipping \nAnd my personal favorite: Quiet farting", ">\n\nQuiet farting can easily turn into quiet shitting, be careful.", ">\n\nQuit giving up the plan lol", ">\n\nSilent but deadly.", ">\n\nTIL the US military had a massive stockpile of ammunition in Israel.", ">\n\nShush now - people will hear.", ">\n\nQUIET meaning, every shell and bullet wrapped in jerusalem post newspaper pages. XD", ">\n\n“Quietly”…also on major news outlets" ]

[ "Well obviously it wasn't that quiet.", ">\n\nWon't be quiet for too long", ">\n\nSharing is caring", ">\n\n2022 is the year of quiets:\nQuiet quitting\nQuiet firing\nQuiet shipping \nAnd my personal favorite: Quiet farting", ">\n\nQuiet farting can easily turn into quiet shitting, be careful.", ">\n\nQuit giving up the plan lol", ">\n\nSilent but deadly.", ">\n\nTIL the US military had a massive stockpile of ammunition in Israel.", ">\n\nShush now - people will hear.", ">\n\nQUIET meaning, every shell and bullet wrapped in jerusalem post newspaper pages. XD", ">\n\n“Quietly”…also on major news outlets", ">\n\nThis is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 88%. (I'm a bot)\n\n\nThe US military is quietly shipping hundreds of thousands of artillery shells to Ukraine from a massive stockpile in Israel, according to a Tuesday report.\nUS officials first brought up the possibility of supplying Ukraine from the stockpile in Israel last year, sparking concerns in Jerusalem about how Russia would react, the report said.\nThe stockpile was officially known as War Reserve Stocks for Allies-Israel, or WRSA-I. It was supervised by the US European Command and is now overseen by the US Central Command, which has included Israel since 2021.\n\n\nExtended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: Israel^#1 Ukraine^#2 stockpile^#3 official^#4 supply^#5" ]

[]

[ "Neil Armstrong was the first man to step foot on the Moon. Who cares who technically had the first word?" ]

[ "Neil Armstrong was the first man to step foot on the Moon. Who cares who technically had the first word?", ">\n\nThis guy does" ]

[ "Neil Armstrong was the first man to step foot on the Moon. Who cares who technically had the first word?", ">\n\nThis guy does", ">\n\nThis is only an unpopular opinion, because you’re the only person to have it." ]

[ "Neil Armstrong was the first man to step foot on the Moon. Who cares who technically had the first word?", ">\n\nThis guy does", ">\n\nThis is only an unpopular opinion, because you’re the only person to have it.", ">\n\nTop trivia right there!" ]

[]

[ "Florida is going easy on us, I was waiting for the twist" ]

[ "Florida is going easy on us, I was waiting for the twist", ">\n\nThey make it real clear the suspect was from Phoenix,AZ." ]

[ "Florida is going easy on us, I was waiting for the twist", ">\n\nThey make it real clear the suspect was from Phoenix,AZ.", ">\n\nI knew something was off about this. Not enough of that 'Florida flourish'." ]

[ "Florida is going easy on us, I was waiting for the twist", ">\n\nThey make it real clear the suspect was from Phoenix,AZ.", ">\n\nI knew something was off about this. Not enough of that 'Florida flourish'.", ">\n\nWe have shit happen over here in the UK, but it ain't on the same level as America." ]

[ "Florida is going easy on us, I was waiting for the twist", ">\n\nThey make it real clear the suspect was from Phoenix,AZ.", ">\n\nI knew something was off about this. Not enough of that 'Florida flourish'.", ">\n\nWe have shit happen over here in the UK, but it ain't on the same level as America.", ">\n\nAnd to think, you all fought and died trying to keep us." ]

[ "Florida is going easy on us, I was waiting for the twist", ">\n\nThey make it real clear the suspect was from Phoenix,AZ.", ">\n\nI knew something was off about this. Not enough of that 'Florida flourish'.", ">\n\nWe have shit happen over here in the UK, but it ain't on the same level as America.", ">\n\nAnd to think, you all fought and died trying to keep us.", ">\n\nlmao...they should've said \"good riddance\" to us." ]

[ "Florida is going easy on us, I was waiting for the twist", ">\n\nThey make it real clear the suspect was from Phoenix,AZ.", ">\n\nI knew something was off about this. Not enough of that 'Florida flourish'.", ">\n\nWe have shit happen over here in the UK, but it ain't on the same level as America.", ">\n\nAnd to think, you all fought and died trying to keep us.", ">\n\nlmao...they should've said \"good riddance\" to us.", ">\n\nFlorida man’s gonna meth gator" ]

[ "Florida is going easy on us, I was waiting for the twist", ">\n\nThey make it real clear the suspect was from Phoenix,AZ.", ">\n\nI knew something was off about this. Not enough of that 'Florida flourish'.", ">\n\nWe have shit happen over here in the UK, but it ain't on the same level as America.", ">\n\nAnd to think, you all fought and died trying to keep us.", ">\n\nlmao...they should've said \"good riddance\" to us.", ">\n\nFlorida man’s gonna meth gator", ">\n\nIs the cop-spitting shoplifter dead, or is he white?" ]

[ "Florida is going easy on us, I was waiting for the twist", ">\n\nThey make it real clear the suspect was from Phoenix,AZ.", ">\n\nI knew something was off about this. Not enough of that 'Florida flourish'.", ">\n\nWe have shit happen over here in the UK, but it ain't on the same level as America.", ">\n\nAnd to think, you all fought and died trying to keep us.", ">\n\nlmao...they should've said \"good riddance\" to us.", ">\n\nFlorida man’s gonna meth gator", ">\n\nIs the cop-spitting shoplifter dead, or is he white?", ">\n\nTake careful notice with all the violence that this guy was exhibiting they still treated him with kid gloves. Do you think they would’ve done the same had he been black or Latino? I doubt it very much the outcome would’ve been the same." ]

[ "Florida is going easy on us, I was waiting for the twist", ">\n\nThey make it real clear the suspect was from Phoenix,AZ.", ">\n\nI knew something was off about this. Not enough of that 'Florida flourish'.", ">\n\nWe have shit happen over here in the UK, but it ain't on the same level as America.", ">\n\nAnd to think, you all fought and died trying to keep us.", ">\n\nlmao...they should've said \"good riddance\" to us.", ">\n\nFlorida man’s gonna meth gator", ">\n\nIs the cop-spitting shoplifter dead, or is he white?", ">\n\nTake careful notice with all the violence that this guy was exhibiting they still treated him with kid gloves. Do you think they would’ve done the same had he been black or Latino? I doubt it very much the outcome would’ve been the same.", ">\n\nThey absolutely would have. Look at the guy that stabbed a random shop keeper in New York. The prosecutor wanted to charge the victim for defending himself." ]

[ "Florida is going easy on us, I was waiting for the twist", ">\n\nThey make it real clear the suspect was from Phoenix,AZ.", ">\n\nI knew something was off about this. Not enough of that 'Florida flourish'.", ">\n\nWe have shit happen over here in the UK, but it ain't on the same level as America.", ">\n\nAnd to think, you all fought and died trying to keep us.", ">\n\nlmao...they should've said \"good riddance\" to us.", ">\n\nFlorida man’s gonna meth gator", ">\n\nIs the cop-spitting shoplifter dead, or is he white?", ">\n\nTake careful notice with all the violence that this guy was exhibiting they still treated him with kid gloves. Do you think they would’ve done the same had he been black or Latino? I doubt it very much the outcome would’ve been the same.", ">\n\nThey absolutely would have. Look at the guy that stabbed a random shop keeper in New York. The prosecutor wanted to charge the victim for defending himself.", ">\n\nSHAPESHIFTER STABS CLERK!?\nWait \nsquints Ohhh, SHOPlifter. For a second there I thought demons were finally making themselves known and the first place they hit was Florida. \nThanks insomnia." ]

[ "Florida is going easy on us, I was waiting for the twist", ">\n\nThey make it real clear the suspect was from Phoenix,AZ.", ">\n\nI knew something was off about this. Not enough of that 'Florida flourish'.", ">\n\nWe have shit happen over here in the UK, but it ain't on the same level as America.", ">\n\nAnd to think, you all fought and died trying to keep us.", ">\n\nlmao...they should've said \"good riddance\" to us.", ">\n\nFlorida man’s gonna meth gator", ">\n\nIs the cop-spitting shoplifter dead, or is he white?", ">\n\nTake careful notice with all the violence that this guy was exhibiting they still treated him with kid gloves. Do you think they would’ve done the same had he been black or Latino? I doubt it very much the outcome would’ve been the same.", ">\n\nThey absolutely would have. Look at the guy that stabbed a random shop keeper in New York. The prosecutor wanted to charge the victim for defending himself.", ">\n\nSHAPESHIFTER STABS CLERK!?\nWait \nsquints Ohhh, SHOPlifter. For a second there I thought demons were finally making themselves known and the first place they hit was Florida. \nThanks insomnia.", ">\n\n\"He's evil Tracy.\" \"HE'S EVIL TRACY??? Oh you mean he's evil comma Tracy\"" ]

[ "Florida is going easy on us, I was waiting for the twist", ">\n\nThey make it real clear the suspect was from Phoenix,AZ.", ">\n\nI knew something was off about this. Not enough of that 'Florida flourish'.", ">\n\nWe have shit happen over here in the UK, but it ain't on the same level as America.", ">\n\nAnd to think, you all fought and died trying to keep us.", ">\n\nlmao...they should've said \"good riddance\" to us.", ">\n\nFlorida man’s gonna meth gator", ">\n\nIs the cop-spitting shoplifter dead, or is he white?", ">\n\nTake careful notice with all the violence that this guy was exhibiting they still treated him with kid gloves. Do you think they would’ve done the same had he been black or Latino? I doubt it very much the outcome would’ve been the same.", ">\n\nThey absolutely would have. Look at the guy that stabbed a random shop keeper in New York. The prosecutor wanted to charge the victim for defending himself.", ">\n\nSHAPESHIFTER STABS CLERK!?\nWait \nsquints Ohhh, SHOPlifter. For a second there I thought demons were finally making themselves known and the first place they hit was Florida. \nThanks insomnia.", ">\n\n\"He's evil Tracy.\" \"HE'S EVIL TRACY??? Oh you mean he's evil comma Tracy\"", ">\n\n\nAccording to a separate arrest report, while Martin was in an officer’s backseat, he began to bang his head against the plexiglass partition.\nThe officer approached Martin to check on him and “caution him of the risk affiliated with his actions,” but Martin spat in the officer’s face and upper torso area and began shouting a “wide variety of ethnic and racial slurs,” at him, the report stated.\n\nSo he spit on the cop and the cop smashed his head in response, right? At least that's how I read it" ]

[ "Florida is going easy on us, I was waiting for the twist", ">\n\nThey make it real clear the suspect was from Phoenix,AZ.", ">\n\nI knew something was off about this. Not enough of that 'Florida flourish'.", ">\n\nWe have shit happen over here in the UK, but it ain't on the same level as America.", ">\n\nAnd to think, you all fought and died trying to keep us.", ">\n\nlmao...they should've said \"good riddance\" to us.", ">\n\nFlorida man’s gonna meth gator", ">\n\nIs the cop-spitting shoplifter dead, or is he white?", ">\n\nTake careful notice with all the violence that this guy was exhibiting they still treated him with kid gloves. Do you think they would’ve done the same had he been black or Latino? I doubt it very much the outcome would’ve been the same.", ">\n\nThey absolutely would have. Look at the guy that stabbed a random shop keeper in New York. The prosecutor wanted to charge the victim for defending himself.", ">\n\nSHAPESHIFTER STABS CLERK!?\nWait \nsquints Ohhh, SHOPlifter. For a second there I thought demons were finally making themselves known and the first place they hit was Florida. \nThanks insomnia.", ">\n\n\"He's evil Tracy.\" \"HE'S EVIL TRACY??? Oh you mean he's evil comma Tracy\"", ">\n\n\nAccording to a separate arrest report, while Martin was in an officer’s backseat, he began to bang his head against the plexiglass partition.\nThe officer approached Martin to check on him and “caution him of the risk affiliated with his actions,” but Martin spat in the officer’s face and upper torso area and began shouting a “wide variety of ethnic and racial slurs,” at him, the report stated.\n\nSo he spit on the cop and the cop smashed his head in response, right? At least that's how I read it", ">\n\nI sure hope that drink he saved from theft was worth those medical bills." ]

[ "Florida is going easy on us, I was waiting for the twist", ">\n\nThey make it real clear the suspect was from Phoenix,AZ.", ">\n\nI knew something was off about this. Not enough of that 'Florida flourish'.", ">\n\nWe have shit happen over here in the UK, but it ain't on the same level as America.", ">\n\nAnd to think, you all fought and died trying to keep us.", ">\n\nlmao...they should've said \"good riddance\" to us.", ">\n\nFlorida man’s gonna meth gator", ">\n\nIs the cop-spitting shoplifter dead, or is he white?", ">\n\nTake careful notice with all the violence that this guy was exhibiting they still treated him with kid gloves. Do you think they would’ve done the same had he been black or Latino? I doubt it very much the outcome would’ve been the same.", ">\n\nThey absolutely would have. Look at the guy that stabbed a random shop keeper in New York. The prosecutor wanted to charge the victim for defending himself.", ">\n\nSHAPESHIFTER STABS CLERK!?\nWait \nsquints Ohhh, SHOPlifter. For a second there I thought demons were finally making themselves known and the first place they hit was Florida. \nThanks insomnia.", ">\n\n\"He's evil Tracy.\" \"HE'S EVIL TRACY??? Oh you mean he's evil comma Tracy\"", ">\n\n\nAccording to a separate arrest report, while Martin was in an officer’s backseat, he began to bang his head against the plexiglass partition.\nThe officer approached Martin to check on him and “caution him of the risk affiliated with his actions,” but Martin spat in the officer’s face and upper torso area and began shouting a “wide variety of ethnic and racial slurs,” at him, the report stated.\n\nSo he spit on the cop and the cop smashed his head in response, right? At least that's how I read it", ">\n\nI sure hope that drink he saved from theft was worth those medical bills.", ">\n\nClerk gets stabbed by aggressive shoplifting man, and the first thought you have is \"clerk was foolish to allow this to happen\"" ]

[ "Florida is going easy on us, I was waiting for the twist", ">\n\nThey make it real clear the suspect was from Phoenix,AZ.", ">\n\nI knew something was off about this. Not enough of that 'Florida flourish'.", ">\n\nWe have shit happen over here in the UK, but it ain't on the same level as America.", ">\n\nAnd to think, you all fought and died trying to keep us.", ">\n\nlmao...they should've said \"good riddance\" to us.", ">\n\nFlorida man’s gonna meth gator", ">\n\nIs the cop-spitting shoplifter dead, or is he white?", ">\n\nTake careful notice with all the violence that this guy was exhibiting they still treated him with kid gloves. Do you think they would’ve done the same had he been black or Latino? I doubt it very much the outcome would’ve been the same.", ">\n\nThey absolutely would have. Look at the guy that stabbed a random shop keeper in New York. The prosecutor wanted to charge the victim for defending himself.", ">\n\nSHAPESHIFTER STABS CLERK!?\nWait \nsquints Ohhh, SHOPlifter. For a second there I thought demons were finally making themselves known and the first place they hit was Florida. \nThanks insomnia.", ">\n\n\"He's evil Tracy.\" \"HE'S EVIL TRACY??? Oh you mean he's evil comma Tracy\"", ">\n\n\nAccording to a separate arrest report, while Martin was in an officer’s backseat, he began to bang his head against the plexiglass partition.\nThe officer approached Martin to check on him and “caution him of the risk affiliated with his actions,” but Martin spat in the officer’s face and upper torso area and began shouting a “wide variety of ethnic and racial slurs,” at him, the report stated.\n\nSo he spit on the cop and the cop smashed his head in response, right? At least that's how I read it", ">\n\nI sure hope that drink he saved from theft was worth those medical bills.", ">\n\nClerk gets stabbed by aggressive shoplifting man, and the first thought you have is \"clerk was foolish to allow this to happen\"", ">\n\nA lot of stores have a policy to let the person take whatever they're stealing specifically so things like this don't happen. It's not your job to stop a theif, it's your job to give as much info as you can to the police so they can stop the thief." ]

[ "Florida is going easy on us, I was waiting for the twist", ">\n\nThey make it real clear the suspect was from Phoenix,AZ.", ">\n\nI knew something was off about this. Not enough of that 'Florida flourish'.", ">\n\nWe have shit happen over here in the UK, but it ain't on the same level as America.", ">\n\nAnd to think, you all fought and died trying to keep us.", ">\n\nlmao...they should've said \"good riddance\" to us.", ">\n\nFlorida man’s gonna meth gator", ">\n\nIs the cop-spitting shoplifter dead, or is he white?", ">\n\nTake careful notice with all the violence that this guy was exhibiting they still treated him with kid gloves. Do you think they would’ve done the same had he been black or Latino? I doubt it very much the outcome would’ve been the same.", ">\n\nThey absolutely would have. Look at the guy that stabbed a random shop keeper in New York. The prosecutor wanted to charge the victim for defending himself.", ">\n\nSHAPESHIFTER STABS CLERK!?\nWait \nsquints Ohhh, SHOPlifter. For a second there I thought demons were finally making themselves known and the first place they hit was Florida. \nThanks insomnia.", ">\n\n\"He's evil Tracy.\" \"HE'S EVIL TRACY??? Oh you mean he's evil comma Tracy\"", ">\n\n\nAccording to a separate arrest report, while Martin was in an officer’s backseat, he began to bang his head against the plexiglass partition.\nThe officer approached Martin to check on him and “caution him of the risk affiliated with his actions,” but Martin spat in the officer’s face and upper torso area and began shouting a “wide variety of ethnic and racial slurs,” at him, the report stated.\n\nSo he spit on the cop and the cop smashed his head in response, right? At least that's how I read it", ">\n\nI sure hope that drink he saved from theft was worth those medical bills.", ">\n\nClerk gets stabbed by aggressive shoplifting man, and the first thought you have is \"clerk was foolish to allow this to happen\"", ">\n\nA lot of stores have a policy to let the person take whatever they're stealing specifically so things like this don't happen. It's not your job to stop a theif, it's your job to give as much info as you can to the police so they can stop the thief.", ">\n\nThe theif attacked him, the clerk just asked him what he put in his pocket." ]

[ "Florida is going easy on us, I was waiting for the twist", ">\n\nThey make it real clear the suspect was from Phoenix,AZ.", ">\n\nI knew something was off about this. Not enough of that 'Florida flourish'.", ">\n\nWe have shit happen over here in the UK, but it ain't on the same level as America.", ">\n\nAnd to think, you all fought and died trying to keep us.", ">\n\nlmao...they should've said \"good riddance\" to us.", ">\n\nFlorida man’s gonna meth gator", ">\n\nIs the cop-spitting shoplifter dead, or is he white?", ">\n\nTake careful notice with all the violence that this guy was exhibiting they still treated him with kid gloves. Do you think they would’ve done the same had he been black or Latino? I doubt it very much the outcome would’ve been the same.", ">\n\nThey absolutely would have. Look at the guy that stabbed a random shop keeper in New York. The prosecutor wanted to charge the victim for defending himself.", ">\n\nSHAPESHIFTER STABS CLERK!?\nWait \nsquints Ohhh, SHOPlifter. For a second there I thought demons were finally making themselves known and the first place they hit was Florida. \nThanks insomnia.", ">\n\n\"He's evil Tracy.\" \"HE'S EVIL TRACY??? Oh you mean he's evil comma Tracy\"", ">\n\n\nAccording to a separate arrest report, while Martin was in an officer’s backseat, he began to bang his head against the plexiglass partition.\nThe officer approached Martin to check on him and “caution him of the risk affiliated with his actions,” but Martin spat in the officer’s face and upper torso area and began shouting a “wide variety of ethnic and racial slurs,” at him, the report stated.\n\nSo he spit on the cop and the cop smashed his head in response, right? At least that's how I read it", ">\n\nI sure hope that drink he saved from theft was worth those medical bills.", ">\n\nClerk gets stabbed by aggressive shoplifting man, and the first thought you have is \"clerk was foolish to allow this to happen\"", ">\n\nA lot of stores have a policy to let the person take whatever they're stealing specifically so things like this don't happen. It's not your job to stop a theif, it's your job to give as much info as you can to the police so they can stop the thief.", ">\n\nThe theif attacked him, the clerk just asked him what he put in his pocket.", ">\n\nI, too, watched the video. Well done." ]

[]

[ "This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.\nRemember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not \"thoughts had in the shower!\"\n(For an explanation of what a \"showerthought\" is, please read this page.)\nRule-breaking posts may result in bans." ]

[]

[ "corners need more work" ]

[]

[ "Build is a Firstblood b67 with Zeal Pearlio switches (l&f), Zeal plate mount switches (Krytox 205g0 and XHT-BDZ), and Lelelab Crystal SuperX keycaps" ]

[ "Build is a Firstblood b67 with Zeal Pearlio switches (l&f), Zeal plate mount switches (Krytox 205g0 and XHT-BDZ), and Lelelab Crystal SuperX keycaps", ">\n\nit makes me uncomfortable" ]

[ "Build is a Firstblood b67 with Zeal Pearlio switches (l&f), Zeal plate mount switches (Krytox 205g0 and XHT-BDZ), and Lelelab Crystal SuperX keycaps", ">\n\nit makes me uncomfortable", ">\n\nThat is pretty clear." ]