How to Ride a Ski Lift [VIDEO INSTRUCTION]

I’m Kim the Abundant Traveler and welcome back to the channel today i’m going to be sharing with you tips and tricks and hacks for getting on and off the chairlift for the first time in my 20s a few years ago i was a ski instructor in austria although i cannot ski the way i used to be able to i have some amazing tips to make your life easier the first time you come to the mountains and go skiing trying to get on and off the chairlift which can be absolutely daunting the first time that you go skiing there is so much to think about you have to get your gear your skis your poles your boots learn to walk in your boots learn to carry your skis all of those things get all the right clothing and then you’ve made it oh get your lip tickets too and then you finally made it to the mountain and this crazy thing called a chair lift is there in front of you that you have to learn to navigate well this video will share all of my tips first let’s talk about preparation what is the chair lift well sometimes it’s called a t-bar which is a thing that you slide in between your legs there aren’t many of those anymore most of the time now you have a two-person six person and sometimes an eight person chair lift well what is it like getting in line well first of all you have to alternate that means that there are several lines getting in and you have to go this group and then this group and then the next group and the next group there’s also something called the singles line that way if you are skiing on your own which i don’t recommend but it’s not any fun skiing on your own but if you are skiing on your own you just pop over to the singles line and then when they have four or five people on say a three or four or five person chair lift you can pop in and be the extra person in that group it’s all about being kind when you’re getting into the lift line please don’t ski over other people’s stuff don’t come flying in out of control and running over people that is not nice there are also some apps now that give you information as to how long the lift line weights are so if you want to check those um apps like the epic pass app or the icon pass app those are a great way to find out how long the lift lines are because standing in the lift line for 20-30 minutes is exhausting it wears your legs out it’s either cold or it’s hot and it’s pretty miserable so you do want to check out these lift line times and go to the lift lines that don’t have a long weight also something else to note when you are going for the first time on the lift line at the bottom of the mountain that’s when you have to show your lift pass so make sure that you have it handy with you and not tucked in a pocket where the guys checking the lift passes can’t get to it i keep mine right here in my pocket right here and it’s super easy i just show my arm and then off i go so as you are going into the lift line something that you want to do as you’re pulling you can snow plow you can keep parallel just make sure you’re in control of your skis as you get to the front of the lift line there’s typically a bar there what you want to do is you want to have your poles off your hands and just holding them like this as you go as the little bar opens and you go into the lift line please don’t push too hard if you push too hard you may go over the end of where the chair lifts are and that is not cool also make sure that you don’t have any loose clothing and you know things hanging off that might get stuck in the chair lift as well when you’re to the front of the lift line if it’s your first day at doing this go ahead and tell the lifties those are the guys working the lift lines that you are new to this they can slow down those chair lifts and give you a little more time to get on and off well i don’t know about off but getting on they can slow it down for you so as the gates open and you’re pushing yourself to the chair lift make sure to put your poles in one hand put your poles in one hand look over your other shoulder and watch for that chair lift behind you once you see it coming go ahead and sit down sometimes they’re awfully low so be prepared to sort of just fall back into it once you’re sitting down the next thing you want to do is scoot yourself all the way back all the way back makes it a whole lot better and a lot less scary when you are going up the chairlift once you’re on the chairlift a couple of tips that i have for you one is don’t start messing around pulling off your gloves getting out your phone doing all these things shifting around because it’s very possible to drop something when you drop something you’re basically screwed because if you’re new to skiing most of the runs underneath the chair lifts are moguls and very narrow and hard to get to or there’s no skiing at all so just go ahead and keep everything on keep everything zipped up and don’t worry about needing to get out your phone or talk to your friends or whatever wait till you get off the chair lift also another tip i recommend that you always ride if possible cheerless that have foot rests when you are able to pull down the bar and you are able to put your skis and feet on the the rest at the bottom it makes it much easier on your legs again when you are skiing for the first time or the 50th time it is a serious sport and you want to give your body a break as much as possible so bars where you can rest your legs is ideal especially if you have long legs because if you don’t have a bar where you can rest half your leg is hanging off and it feels like you’re gonna slip out additionally if you it’s a cold day i suggest that you sit to the inside of the chair lift because the coldest seats on a chairlift are on the outside think about it all the wind is coming at you but if you’re sitting in between two different people you’re much warmer and cozier and you can hide behind them also i do think that when you’re on a chair lift go ahead and talk to your neighbors you never know where they’re from what they’re doing what brought them to the area or are they local either way they may have some great tips and tricks for you they might have a restaurant suggestion or a great run and i have met some amazing people on the chairlift that i ended up skiing the rest of the day and having dinner with i mentioned just a second ago don’t start taking off your gloves and doing all this stuff you might drop something that also goes for clacking your skis you see people on a regular basis they have snow on their skis and they’re there on the chairlift clacking well skis for beginners are not very tight on your boots and i have seen multiple times where somebody is clacking their skis and all of a sudden their ski falls to the ground not a good idea so if you’re going skiing for the first time and you’re interested in what to pack and what to wear make sure to go to the description below and click the link for my free packing guide for going skiing it’s a great guide it tells you everything that you’re going to need and if you can’t afford to buy everything or you don’t want to buy everything then you can always borrow it from a friend so go to the description below and click the link to the free packing guide now let’s talk about getting off of the lift most of the people that are new to skiing that i have seen are most afraid of getting off the lift and it can be really scary because you don’t want to fall stop the lift make everybody wait on you so here are the ideal things that you should do one keep your poles in one hand do not put your poles on and have two hands because if you do this off the lift it’s likely that the pole it’s not likely but it’s possible that your pole is going to get stuck in the snow and then you’re going to tumble over also when you’re about to exit the chair lift and you lift up your bar go ahead and scoop to the end of the chair lift what that does is that poisons your body ready to stand up well here we have our poles in one hand and you’re ready to stand up but honestly there’s a lot of leverage in a weird position that you’re sitting your knees are typically up like this and it’s actually really hard to stand up so the best thing to do is once you scoot it to the front and your poles are in your hand this hand or that hand it doesn’t matter let the chair lift lift you up there is a point on every chair lift where it tips down the chair lift does this go straight but the run off the chairlift goes down at that point the chairlift can actually lift you up and it’s very easy to stand up here you are you’ve stood up and you just ski straight ski straight just relax ski straight and ski out of the way of oncoming traffic that is going by as well as ski out of the way of people behind you getting off of the lift it can be easy if you do these things pull in one hand scoot to the edge of the seat and let the chair lift lift you up for you to ski off so that covers my tips and tricks and hacks for riding a cheerlead for the first time if you have any additional suggestions please leave them in the comments below also if you’re interested in skiing for the first time i have some videos on skiing for the first time as well as different resorts throughout north america so i am kim the abundant traveler and thank you so much for watching and i wish you a wonderful first trip skiing and i will see you out there on the slopes somewhere thanks for watching see you soon