OT: Save The T-Bar!

[skicdave]

Surf is up today.. and I'm out and about. Found this site. Not too much there but interesting to see that someone is following the trail of T-bars that still exist...

http://www.savethet-bar.com/

[Tommy T]

I'll bet they're not snowboarders.

Tommy T.

[skicdave]

I'll bet they're not snowboarders.

Tommy T.

Ha ha! Yup where I ski locally one of our fav slope is served by a T-bar. We always dread a snowboarder trying the T-bar for the first time. Mind you all the :yardsale: are entertaining.

As a kid I was VERY light. Going up the T-bar was a hoot. Along the way I would end up being lifted up in the air with just the tips of my skis touching the snow.. just enough to keep myself facing uphill... most of the time :wipeout:

[DMC]

When I've been to Crested Butte they had a rule about the poma..
You got like two tries then you had to go to the back of the line...

[Affix Snow]

I took a buddy to Breckenridge.
I forget now which peak it was, but you could only get to the top by t-bar.
It was really funny at 1st how he could only make it a few yards...

Then as more people showed up (2ft of fresh and we had been 2 or 3rd in line).
I just told him id meet him at the bottom.....

He never made it up at all that day.
Poor guy.....but i sure made enough tracks fro him!

[Bannick]

riding t-bars solo suck....
It is so much easier to ride em with a skier. I lock my board tight against their ski and let them steer....works every time. When ever I ride them solo they seem to stop right at the steepest part then when they crank it up again it is like getting shot out of a cannon.

[Tommy T]

I took a buddy to Breckenridge.
I forget now which peak it was, but you could only get to the top by t-bar.
It was really funny at 1st how he could only make it a few yards...

Then as more people showed up (2ft of fresh and we had been 2 or 3rd in line).
I just told him id meet him at the bottom.....

He never made it up at all that day.
Poor guy.....but i sure made enough tracks fro him!


I think that's Peak 7 and it's the only really good stuff at Breck.

By the way, the easiest way for a snowboarder to ride a t-bar is with a skier on the other side. Second easiest, two snowboarders. Hardest, one snowboarder alone. On that Breck chair there is a change in direction of the bar line about half way up. That's almost impossible for a boarder because the boarder can't steer onto the new direction without leaning and leaning causes a balance problem.

In fact, steering is the major t-bar problem for a boarder. That's why it's easier to have a skier who can keep the bar under the line.

When I'm solo and there is a t-bar, especially that one at Breck or some of the really, really steep ones they have in Switzerland, I just say to the skier who's going to be next behind me something like "You've got a choice. You can let me go alone and I'll fall at the bend and take you out too or you can ride with me and we'll both make it with no trouble."

I actually teach surface tow riding to all of my private students and I generally get it into the multi-lesson program groups at some point when conditions up on the main hill are bad and there isn't much else interesting to do. I'm what is called a "staff trainer," which means I teach instuctor candidates, and I insist that they all have good surface lift ability and a method for teaching it.

Tommy T.

[M@]

Breck T-bar: Some of the deepest powder I've ever skied in my life.

M@

[Justin]

They ain't got Sunday River's old T barh...

[Skilasnow]

Dang! I haven't rid a T since I was in Zermatt! Long live the T

[skicdave]

We had a hoot at Fernie one year. Top area is serviced by one of those pull handle surface lifts like they have on some beginner hills these days.

The problem was the slope was a bit steep for this type of lift, and most people had a real problem grabbing a handle and either hold on (yikes!), or pull themselves forward to get the handle behind their :bum:

Got some great video of everyone failing to get on and laughing their pants off (is that expression still valid in 2004??). :yardsale:

[Jolly J]

We recommisioned our T-Bar 2 years ago. It had been dormant for several years due to derailment issues. We bought a new transmission to unfortunately slow it down a bit and re-engineered a bunch of the towers. When we first fired it back up two years ago. We banned snowboarders on it for the first month (It only ran on the weekends) to make sure we had worked all of the bugs out of it. It was a difficult decision to make and we took a lot of heat over it from the snowboarders and especially friends that snowboard. But after the month was up and we had the bugs worked out we let the snowboarders back on. Many of them perfer to stratel (sp?) the T which looks really painful but those riders say it's easier. Others ride it more traditionally. We have had one derailment in the two years and it was a snowboarder and a skier that were riding way off track and pulled the cable off.

[Tommy T]

But after the month was up and we had the bugs worked out we let the snowboarders back on. Many of them perfer to stratel (sp?) the T which looks really painful but those riders say it's easier. Others ride it more traditionally.


Hooking one end of the bar behind the front knee is a legitimate technique that some boarders prefer. The low pull point improves balance and the fact that the pull is directly transmitted to the board through the front foot improves the tracking if the board is kept flat.

Hooking the entire bar between the legs (I've only seen this done with the bar vertical so one leg of the T more or less sticks up behind the butt) invites entanglement in the case of a fall and should not be allowed by the tow operator.

Tommy T.

[Affix Snow]

I think that's Peak 7 and it's the only really good stuff at Breck.


Tommy T.

I beleive you are right.

I did go up that by myself once......REAL hard!