Fear of ski lifts; anyone else have this problem?

I heard that hypnosis works wonders...I have this same fear...I have resorted to only going to resorts that have gondolas...and now I sometimes fear those also. I am going to try hypnosis before the next snowboard season!

This winter I was skiing, and watched this probably 12 year old kid jump off the lift. It was about 15 feet high and we'd gotten snow so it would have been ok, but he wound up landing in one of the drainage ditches so that his skis landed wrong and he wound up breaking a leg or something.

I was riding up behind him and saw him jump off, and just face plant as soon as he landed, and I started cracking up but then he started crying and yelling for help and I realized he was in trouble. We saw a guy giving lessons a bit further up the hill and sent him down to assist. As we were on the lift for our next run we heard the ambulance driving up to the mountain.

I went back and forth between feeling bad for him, and cracking up at how stupid he was the rest of the day.

There have been other times I've heard of kids falling off lifts, It happened to a guy I knew while he was trying to strap in his board on the lift. Stupid. Most of the time you can't fall off unless you're doing something stupid, or you jump off.

Unfortunately that is not true, because there are actually many ski lift accidents every year. Most of them have nothing to do with the lift itself, but there are equipment failures and so in high winds or if people are screwing around and bouncing on chairs, things can happen. For eg, sometimes the cable comes off the pulleys

Unfortunately that is not true, because there are actually many ski lift accidents every year. Most of them have nothing to do with the lift itself, but there are equipment failures, high winds and people screwing around and bouncing on chairs; things can happen. For eg, sometimes the cable comes off the pulleys. Statistically, your fear is irrational and if you want to really lower the chances, ride on safer, newer lifts. Whatsmore, your chances of getting hurt on the slopes skiing or boarding is so much higher, it would be insane to do anything but relax, stay warm and loose and enjoy the scenery on the lift. Lifts without restraints in 2013 (Europe mostly) should be avoided. Check out this site.

Definitely don't ride a lift which is also along a low level military jet terrain flying route (Cavalese tramway accident of 1998, but don't get it confused with the Cavalese tramway accident of 1976), there is at least one way that can go horribly wrong. Finally, definitely don't see this film:

For anyone else who skis or boards, I highly reccommend this film!!!

In all seriousness, the chairlift is probably the safest place on the mountain. I've seen tons of people get carried off in a Ski Patrol sled, helicoptered out of terrain park, or get in car accidents leaving the mountain. My dad got a compound fracture that effectively ended his running career on a blue square (his bindings failed to release). I've even seen people get concussions getting on the chairlift. Never once in over a decade of skiing have I seen anyone fall off a chairlift by accident, though. Out of all the things to worry about while skiing, the chairlift should be low on the list.

I have been skiing 50 years.

I shattered my leg in 96 ,20 feet off the ground ,landed on an edge set .boom ,done !

1year on my back ,three surgeries!

I started to have problems with chairs that had no safety bar.

Last year I had an extension ladder leave without me,got all busted up ,couldn't walk for two months.

Today was day 46 this season.

And I am TOTALY freaked on the lifts!

Yesterday, bar up and my friend starts swinging her legs,I had a death grip on the back off the chair.

No you are not alone,just hang on ,and grab the outside spot!!there is more to hang onto!!?

quack wrote:

i like to ski wrote:

Which mountain do you go to? I've been to 6-7 different mountains and every lift I've been on has restraint bars. I've never been afraid of them.

Apparently you've never been to arapahoe basin (just down the road from keystone, in CO). There's a really old double there that goes all the way up the steep face, and it gets probably 100+ feet off the ground at times, and has no restraints. Not for the faint of heart.

Ha! When I saw this question I immediately thought of the Pali chair at A-Basin. A rickety old double chair, 100+ ft up in the air, over a ridiculously steep double diamond run, with no safety restraint what so ever. I've been skiing since I was 4 years old, and riding up that chair still makes me sweat a bit to this day.

Any luck ever getting past this? I suffer from the exact same thing but it's with anything that places me up high. High rise balconies, Angel's Landing, ridge-line trails, ski lifts, etc. It's this overwhelming thought that you are going/want to jump and you won't be able to restrain yourself from actually doing it even though you know it's the most absurd thing in the world. Put me in containment, behind a high fence, roped in to a safety harness, etc and it vanishes.

Ihearyou wrote:

Any luck ever getting past this? I suffer from the exact same thing but it's with anything that places me up high. High rise balconies, Angel's Landing, ridge-line trails, ski lifts, etc. It's this overwhelming thought that you are going/want to jump and you won't be able to restrain yourself from actually doing it even though you know it's the most absurd thing in the world. Put me in containment, behind a high fence, roped in to a safety harness, etc and it vanishes.

I know exactly what you mean. "The call of the void" -- the same sort of intrusive thoughts people experience standing on the balcony of a tall building and morbidly wondering about jumping, or driving down a freeway and having that fear that if you wanted to, you could just steer into oncoming traffic. It's weird and irrational but those thoughts can be terrifying.

skifree wrote:I know exactly what you mean. "The call of the void" -- the same sort of intrusive thoughts people experience standing on the balcony of a tall building and morbidly wondering about jumping, or driving down a freeway and having that fear that if you wanted to, you could just steer into oncoming traffic. It's weird and irrational but those thoughts can be terrifying.

i like to ski wrote:

Which mountain do you go to? I've been to 6-7 different mountains and every lift I've been on has restraint bars. I've never been afraid of them.

Snowboard in Utah and there are still a few resorts that have older lifts that don't use restraint bars.

Go to one that uses an enclosed gondola like Aspen.

restraint bars are a nuisance and they probably make the lifts more dangerous, not less.

Probably shouldn’t watch this video then

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a19461292/ski-lift-goes-into-overdrive-injures-eight/

Here’s a bit of science...

I read somewhere that at lower elevations and really high elevations, most people don’t feel so bad, but it’s the in-between heights that are worse - which is basically what chair lifts are all about. And I can’t imagine ever going on a chair lift without a barrier. I’ve been going up and down ski hills for a very long time, and sometimes it’s fine, other times it’s not so easy.

I dont ski because of my fear of heights. Being on a lift to me is like a cruel joke.

I have this exact problem, and this was the first year in 35 years I haven't skied. I was fine most of my life, a little uneasy at times particularly when the lift stopped, but over the last 5 years or so it began to get worse and worse to the point it ruined skiing for me. I would totally want to jump off the lift to end the feeling, and maybe to feel in control. I tried drinking booze, listening to music, closing my eyes, but when the lift stopped it was rough... fuckin bummer. I might do a little cat skiing, or get into snowmobiling. Or, like others have said, stick to low, fast local lifts on weekdays when they stop less, or maybe try cognitive behavior therapy with anti anxiety meds. Also, perhaps aging and deteriorating balance have something to do with it.

Put that frickin' bar down.