Fired for skiing an unmarked glade?

Highpeaksdrifter wrote

 

 I think its more about learning how to do the wrong thing the right way.

Words to live by from the great HPD

Harvey wrote

I didn't post the specifics because it came to me third hand and I didn't know if my source was positive about the info. At the risk of providing mis-info I was told the offense occurred under the High Peaks chair when the terrain was closed.

Last Friday I was at the top of Dark Side Glade at 3:20 and so badly wanted to duck the rope.  Knew I had plenty of time to make the chair, but I did the right thing and passed.  Hit Hullabaloo just before they roped it but it wasn't nearly as satisfying.

Harvey wrote

I can see a patron using that defense.  But this was a mountain employee, who is supposed to be helping the mountain achieve their objectives (revenue, safety or whatever?).

Hey, never said it was a defense. Prattville is a funny place with it's own rules.

I think the larger issues are that many times trails, usually glades, are closed for no clear reason and then they are then blatantly poached, which gives rise to an attitude of "everyone is doing it so I'm going to get mine."  This leads to a pervasive culture of rope ducking at Gore and probably is what cost this guy his job.  I don't know if there are different liability laws in VT, but it seems to me that there is a much more open access to skiing up there.  Another example at Gore:  I asked a patroller what is Gore's uphill policy, the answer: "there is none, you can't do it."  Really, Whiteface has a policy ? "no never, nowhere, you can't do it here."

 They were warned of the consequence of skiing closed trails and chose to do so.  Can't cry over it now.  Better luck next year.

evergreen wrote

I think the larger issues are that many times trails, usually glades, are closed for no clear reason and then they are then blatantly poached, which gives rise to an attitude of "everyone is doing it so I'm going to get mine."  This leads to a pervasive culture of rope ducking at Gore and probably is what cost this guy his job.  I don't know if there are different liability laws in VT, but it seems to me that there is a much more open access to skiing up there.  Another example at Gore:  I asked a patroller what is Gore's uphill policy, the answer: "there is none, you can't do it."  Really, Whiteface has a policy ? "no never, nowhere, you can't do it here."

Granted, I was only there once, but from reading these threads and my first hand observations, Gore's policies (or lack thereof) seem to be pretty uptight.  

Skidds wrote

Last Friday I was at the top of Dark Side Glade at 3:20 and so badly wanted to duck the rope.  Knew I had plenty of time to make the chair, but I did the right thing and passed.

Why do some of Gore's chairs stop spinning at 3:30 rather than 4pm?  Other mountains you can be all the way down at the base and you're solid if you're on the chair at 3:59pm, but at Gore you cant even take the short trip on the Straight Brook Quad if you get there at 3:31.  Makes absolutely no sense to me, and annoyed me last weekend when I wanted one more glade run and got there at 3:30.05 only to watch the liftie do the "we're done for the day" sign. Missed it by seconds.

I agree that the disappointment of not getting one more run in that you wanted can be frustrating, but having some lifts close earlier than others isn't that uncommon.  Yes, they are both ORDA, but the same thing happens at Whiteface.  I'm pretty sure I've seen it at some Vermont resorts.  We are talking about big mountains, and Patrol has to be able to start their sweeps from the top down, and I guess they need to get started before 4:00.  Any time I'm at a new mountain I always look to see when the upper mountain lifts close.  Sorry you missed it.  I got to the top of the Summit Quad at 2:26 hoping for one last run in the Slides today (Patrol shuts them down around 2:30), only to find Patrol had just shut them down.

BenedictGomez wrote

Skidds wrote

Last Friday I was at the top of Dark Side Glade at 3:20 and so badly wanted to duck the rope.  Knew I had plenty of time to make the chair, but I did the right thing and passed.

Why do some of Gore's chairs stop spinning at 3:30 rather than 4pm?  Other mountains you can be all the way down at the base and you're solid if you're on the chair at 3:59pm, but at Gore you cant even take the short trip on the Straight Brook Quad if you get there at 3:31.  Makes absolutely no sense to me, and annoyed me last weekend when I wanted one more glade run and got there at 3:30.05 only to watch the liftie do the "we're done for the day" sign. Missed it by seconds.

At Gore you can be all the way at the bottom and get on the ADK express. Its open till 4pm. The other staggered times are for sweep purposes. Especially if they actually find someone that they have to take out on a sled. The glades close earlier because of the added complexity of getting someone who is hurt out of there in a timely fashion. Working daylight isn't an issue now but it is earlier in the season. It common sense. High peaks and straightbrook last chair is 3:30. I think topridge is done when they are finished sweeping everyone down to it. I think burnt ridge is 3:30. North chair and Gondi are 3:45. Ski bowl and adk express are 4pm and sunway chair is 4:15. Anyone correct me if I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure the last chair times are posted on all of the chairs. It is a bummer when you get there right at closing and you don't get on. We were lucky yesterday and got one of the last chairs on the high peaks chair. The straightbrook was already stopped by the time we made it to the top and patrol could be seen on all the trails doing final sweep.

It would be really nice if they spun the adk express till 5pm once daylight savings kicks in, but I don't think the added expense of running the lift and keeping the necessary ski patrol around would be worth it. There aren't that many people still skiing at 4pm this time of year anyway.

campgottagopee wrote

Highpeaksdrifter wrote

 

 I think its more about learning how to do the wrong thing the right way.

Words to live by from the great HPD

That is awesome HPD!!  

This is somewhat of a highjack of the OP thread, but your lift closure comments dovetail with a question I've got.

I was at Gore yesterday (Wednesday the 26th). The ADK chair was not running at day, probably due to the discomfort of wind and the small attendance. They closed the gondola at around 2:45, however. We got to the bottom at 2:55, and were surprised to see the gondi being closed down for the night.

We skied down to Burnt Ridge for another run, but I was surprised to see the early close. Is this uncommon at Gore?

pointpeninsula wrote

This is somewhat of a highjack of the OP thread, but your lift closure comments dovetail with a question I've got.

I was at Gore yesterday (Wednesday the 26th). The ADK chair was not running at day, probably due to the discomfort of wind and the small attendance. They closed the gondola at around 2:45, however. We got to the bottom at 2:55, and were surprised to see the gondi being closed down for the night.

We skied down to Burnt Ridge for another run, but I was surprised to see the early close. Is this uncommon at Gore?

The ADK express generally doesn't run M-Th unless its busy (holidays, big discount day, etc) so that is normal. It's not normal for the Gondi to close that early. It was probably wind related since there were high winds yesterday. Normal last chair for the Gondi is 3:45.

Thanks. Wind-related was my first guess, but it was windy all day. In any event, it was still a better day than sitting at work!

Skidds wrote

I agree that the disappointment of not getting one more run in that you wanted can be frustrating, but having some lifts close earlier than others isn't that uncommon.  Yes, they are both ORDA, but the same thing happens at Whiteface.  I'm pretty sure I've seen it at some Vermont resorts.  We are talking about big mountains, and Patrol has to be able to start their sweeps from the top down, and I guess they need to get started before 4:00.  

That's just it, it's not, "needed", to close lifts at 3:30pm (especially in the spring) it's a choice.  

There are far bigger and/or similar in size mountains to Gore that have all lifts open to 4pm.  Frankly, it's more common to operate this way.

I really like the (8:00 a.m.)- 5:00 p.m hours at Killington on main lifts when the daylight change kicks in (on already).

It is not a choice to close lifts early.  They need to do this at Gore because they have what I call reverse pods.  These are trail pods such as Topridge and the North Side where the only way out is to ride the lift.  It takes time for people to get to the bottom of these areas and then they would need to take the lift back out putting them at the Saddle at almost 4:15.  Killington doesn't have reverse pods and they are able to run all lifts till 4.  Whiteface can run all lifts till 4 since they don't have any reverse pods either, but they don't run all lifts till 4.  The main reason for early lift closures is that they are outside perimeter lifts on reverse pods which cause the final sweep to take a significantly longer time to do.

What does this rant have to do with the original topic?

Well, none. Sorry for the hijack.

I think for April fools they should shut down all the lifts at 4pm. That would be pretty funny.

But then I think they should replace the triple with a surface lift.