"No Easy Way Down"

[Buster Highmen]

Texans ski Taos. Every lift there has a "relatively" easy way down.

[KQ]

Originally posted by Buster Highmen
But Emma never grew up. She just got saucier!

Esp since they Knighted her

(my hair is getting really long - after seeing that pic over and over I'm thinking I may just get it cut to that length)

[Haus]

Chair 1 @ Baldy
Chair 1 @ Waterman

[Viva]

Originally posted by Haus
Chair 1 @ Waterman

Isn't that, like, the only chair at Waterman?

[Haus]

What more do you need?

[Viva]

Originally posted by Haus
What more do you need?

Agreed!

It's a pretty cool-looking lift too, must be, what, 40 years old or more?

I've never skied there, but I've run the trails in that area extensively. There's a trail crossing Hwy2 at Cloudburst Summit, about a half mile from Waterman and I parked there many times.

[Beaver]

Red chair at Red Mountain. It has one run that is a hard blue. I have seen many people scared shitless sliding down the mountain on thier asses with thier skis in hand. I gave one girl a piggyback ride down the mountain once. I made minimal turns cause it was easier that way. I scared the shit out of her but she still considers me her hero.

[powslut]

Summit platter at Lake Louise is a pretty gaper unfriendly lift on the way up, but does have an easy way down.

I've seen many a gaper eat shit and do a slide for life while trying to get up the headwall.

Edit-

The North American Chair (AKA the big chair) at Mt Norquay just outside of banff. 1300ft of really steep sustained pitch with moguls which usually dwarf small cars. One run named "Memorial Bowl" is named as such after a Japanese tourist did a slide for life from the top and met his untimely demise at the bottom after sliding off a cliff. Doesn't open too often due to lack of snow, but when it does there is a day or two window you get some of the best sustained powder runs around.

[Endlessseason]

I'll vouch for that one. I completely forgot about that chair at Norquay! That's now number two on my list, just after Challenger at BS.

[Endlessseason]

Of the others mentioned above, I have a feeling the single at MRG is much like Challenger and North American, just from seeing pics of it.
I haven't skied MRG and missed out on skiing it last time I was out that way. I skied K and Okemo instead. I realize now I should have skied MRG rather than Okemo.
Oh well, I'll get it next time.

[AntiSoCalSkier]

I was going to list Chair 1 at Baldy, but Haus beat me to it. The funny thing about Chair 1 is that there's a blue run right underneath it, so you would think that any gaper could get down. However, the run in question is about as steep as any blue run you've ever skied, it's ungroomed, in a narrow gully, usually bumped up, and there's lots of rocks and roots to dodge.

What about the Bear Peak Triple at Bear? It only accesses one run (Geronimo). It's your basic steep, icy, groomed black run (think Cornice at Mammoth, but narrower). Fortunately the bottom half is really steep, so you don't get a lot of gapers looking up at it and thinking, "I can shred that, yo"

[SSSdave]

Had a long thread on this at the powder board a couple years back. Zapped from the Powder drive with all the rest of the forum stuff. When you actually examine the trail maps with a topo map, many chairs skiers thought had no easy way down actually do simply because those skiers never bothered taking the easy escape or actually examining the map. Very few chairs have no escape.

Alkasquawlik "KT-22..."

Would say maybe Olympic Lady is moderately more difficult any way down for an intermediate than KT-22 Saddle. Probably second most difficult chair in the Sierra with no easy way down. Per DJsapp, Chair 10 aka Wagon Wheel down The Wall at Kirkwood has no easy way down and is most difficult in California. Most of the present KW maggots would have loved Ch10 back during its first season. There was no escape ramp off the cornice like today. Was either over the cornice for a steep drop or later in the year over the All The Way into that ugly cratered cat track. Most skiers got off the lift to the LEFT instead of the right today and skied a gruesome narrow slot of brutalized pointy nose sharpened drop moguls. For you KW skiers just look at how steep that is sometime. -dave

[DINMS]

Originally posted by Buster Highmen
Alpental: Chair 2 (Edelweiss)

Isn't there a blue off that? I have only wasted a little bit of money at alpental but I didn't find to much hard shit anywhere except that one run thing and thats only hard cuase it's mogaly and weird.

[The AD]

I guess the 7th Heaven chair at Stevens Pass qualifies, too. The other thing that makes this chair somewhat unique is there's really no flat area even at the unloading area. You ski off the ramp then it's all downhill.