I'm not familiar with Otis Gibbs' music but he has a podcast where he interviews other musicians. Most of them you will have heard of, maybe not super famous, but still. A friend sent me the link to this one with Mojo Nixon and it's manic, hilarious, profane... and interesting.
A couple of notes: Mojo Has a song called "Don Henley Must Die." Here he tells the story of Don showing up at a club, demanding to sing it. Mojo has an album called Otis. It gets a little confusing since the podcast host's name is Otis.
I've listened to a couple other podcasts from this guy and they're good, sometimes funny. Otis himself is about 9 levels less entertaining than the guests are, but he edits himself out almost completely and just lets the guests go off.
I think this episode with Mojo tho is a great way to kick off a weekend!
I'm just confused by that. Is the lift running backwards? Remind me to never go skiing in a former Soviet bloc nation.
Probably the safest way to get the kid unhooked. She'd get dragged face-first at the other end.
I recall big brakes on the bull wheel when I worked lifts and patrol that were specifically designed to stop the lift from being able to go backwards. You never wanted to get that weight started downhill...
I'm trying to imagine what our protocol would be. Obviously, stop the lift asap if it happened on loading, but if the kid fell out half way up, then I would say to stop it asap unless the fall would be fatal... keep the lift running until she's closer to the ground somewhere, then stop it. We can evac someone in that situation, probably, but if it's a 10-minute ride to the top, vs waiting for evac, either way you're hoping the jacket holds. I'd probably stop it at a tower and have someone climb and drop down to her.
I did lifts and patrol in Aspen for a year. We saw several of these. It only takes about a day (which will give you plenty of experience) to learn how far the chairs will run once you hit the stop, and you can slow them way down and tune as you go. For something like this it would have been bosun chair at the next tower. Depending on the lift and the situation, sometimes we would get a patrol person out to the chair, other times just get the chair to the 'hanging chad' and give them enough lift to clear himself before letting them down. Unless they were right at the top I wouldn't let them go more than a pole.
We had one chair that had the bull wheel far past the chair exit. It wasn't uncommon for people to either get hooked or simply fail to exit the chair. As the operator at the top, If you were paying attention, you could stop the chair and it would coast to the motor house where the bull wheel was, then they could get out, take off their gear and climb down the ladder.
This lift was to mid mountain, and there was another lift that people would use to get to the top. One day there was a lady that I could see was clearly not preparing to get off the chair at the exit. So I stopped the lift and let it coast right to the top of the ramp for a perfect save, but she just sat there. I poked my head out the window and said "Okay, time to go. Please pay attention next time - we don't like to stop the lift if we don't have to". She looked over and said "No, I'm going to the top". I replied "you are at the top, please get off". She then pointed at the other lift that goes to the top of the mountain and said "I'm going up there". So I'm half amused, but getting miffed and I want to get the lift running again, so:" that's a different lift, you need to get off here and go load at the other station there, the chair you are sitting in is heading back down". She crossed her arms and said "No, I'm staying here until I get to the top". So I sent her on her way. She went about 50 feet out, which gave her time to get enough speed for an exciting turn around the bull wheel, then headed back. I waved at her when she passed the other side of the house on the way down (looking over her shoulder at the other lift), and called the base "rider on chair 86, let me know when she's close". At the bottom they made her get off and go to the end of the line. Before I worked on the hill, I always wondered how long Warren Miller had to spend on the slopes to get all the crazy lift events for his films. After working lifts I knew: 45 minutes after lunch time. All the outtakes you'll need for two movies.
My very first ski trip - a school trip to Austria, we were having a lesson near the top of the lift and saw the lift operator come out of his shack and look down the hill. Pretty soon a chair appears with a person hanging off the foot rest, or whatever you call it. This was a really slow lift so it seems like it was forever as he watched the person getting closer and closer. Finally, the operator turned around walked casually back to his shack and hit the button to shut the lift, stopping it just before the skier smacked into the very steep ground before the end of the lift. A hand up and all was good.
Yeah the normal protocol is in a normal holy-shit situation, never stop the lift. Stop loading, but keep it running as long as it's able to run. I just think there are a few places on our hill where the fall would hurt, but others where it would be terrible. Not knowing how well put together that jacket is, I'd hesitate to let her fly (slowly) over one of those 100-foot+ sections, when there's a 15' section just before.
I'm just confused by that. Is the lift running backwards? Remind me to never go skiing in a former Soviet bloc nation.
Probably the safest way to get the kid unhooked. She'd get dragged face-first at the other end.
I recall big brakes on the bull wheel when I worked lifts and patrol that were specifically designed to stop the lift from being able to go backwards. You never wanted to get that weight started downhill...
I'm trying to imagine what our protocol would be. Obviously, stop the lift asap if it happened on loading, but if the kid fell out half way up, then I would say to stop it asap unless the fall would be fatal... keep the lift running until she's closer to the ground somewhere, then stop it. We can evac someone in that situation, probably, but if it's a 10-minute ride to the top, vs waiting for evac, either way you're hoping the jacket holds. I'd probably stop it at a tower and have someone climb and drop down to her.
My very first ski trip - a school trip to Austria, we were having a lesson near the top of the lift and saw the lift operator come out of his shack and look down the hill. Pretty soon a chair appears with a person hanging off the foot rest, or whatever you call it. This was a really slow lift so it seems like it was forever as he watched the person getting closer and closer. Finally, the operator turned around walked casually back to his shack and hit the button to shut the lift, stopping it just before the skier smacked into the very steep ground before the end of the lift. A hand up and all was good.
I'm just confused by that. Is the lift running backwards? Remind me to never go skiing in a former Soviet bloc nation.
Probably the safest way to get the kid unhooked. She'd get dragged face-first at the other end.
I recall big brakes on the bull wheel when I worked lifts and patrol that were specifically designed to stop the lift from being able to go backwards. You never wanted to get that weight started downhill...
I'm trying to imagine what our protocol would be. Obviously, stop the lift asap if it happened on loading, but if the kid fell out half way up, then I would say to stop it asap unless the fall would be fatal... keep the lift running until she's closer to the ground somewhere, then stop it. We can evac someone in that situation, probably, but if it's a 10-minute ride to the top, vs waiting for evac, either way you're hoping the jacket holds. I'd probably stop it at a tower and have someone climb and drop down to her.
I'm just confused by that. Is the lift running backwards? Remind me to never go skiing in a former Soviet bloc nation.
Probably the safest way to get the kid unhooked. She'd get dragged face-first at the other end.
I recall big brakes on the bull wheel when I worked lifts and patrol that were specifically designed to stop the lift from being able to go backwards. You never wanted to get that weight started downhill...