Gapergenuity

[rideit]

Jer is it time for an avatar realignment yet?

Hey, don't you be taking over as the avatar puppet-master!
Politics!

[Tye 1on]

Hey, don't you be taking over as the avatar puppet-master!
Politics!

whoops, my bad. Was just curious to see it with the hair all hang down....wait, that wouldn't happen. Never mind, move along, nothing to see here...

[SKISC]

A few weeks ago, I was riding a chair that just had a lap bar without the foot rests. For those of you who know it, this is the Sierra lift at Copper. Slowish, but also a short lift ride.

Anyway, 2 guys are next to me on the chair, they look like your average person who likes to ride off this lift with somewhat dated equipment. No big deal. Then they ask to put the bar down. "Sure", whatever, no big deal as well, although somewhat annoying.

Then this guy pulls out 15 feet of rope and a carabiner tied to one end.
Im pretty confused right now

He proceeds to clip the 'biner around the lap bar, sling the rope under his skis, and then throws the rope over the top of the chair, yanks on the rope to sinch it tight, and then ties it off on the arm rest.

"Gotta rest the feet, this run's a killer" he says in proud justification.

I watched in a state of amazement how stupid someone could be yet showing some genuine gaper ingenuity, or gapergenuity.

Has anyone else witnessed anything similar or an equally amazing feat of gapergenuity?
not sure if this is tech talk related or what, maybe we need a gaper forum

I saw the same thing years ago in NC. Seemed like a lot of extra shit to tote around and it looked pretty ghey. I think he was pretty proud of his ingenuity though. Sad part was that this lift had foot rest.

[icanseeformiles(andmiles)]

I don't mind the shots to the head too much, it's part of the reason I use a helmet. But, I too have had the hand crushers who couldn't understand why I was screaming in agony as they put all their weight into getting the bar all the way down.

I'm really used to using the bar, comes with teaching kids. Got on the zephyr a couple days ago, and asked if it was OK to put the bar down. Snowboarder said "no" he didn't want it down, cause he wouldn't be able to let his board just hang: one, snowboard gapers need to learn that I don't want your board going across and scratching the hell out of my topskins, and two, dickhead hadn't noticed that the bar does not have footrests.

[Dickeymotto]

Sitting on Sublette with a backpack makes me want the bar. Of course the return of the Tram would fix this.

[Jer]

Jer is it time for an avatar realignment yet?

Sorry, but the word "douchebag" has to be used at least 10 times (by myself)for the avatar to spin - and even then it's usually only on the advice of rideit. Given the subject matter of this thread, that's highly unlikely.

I don't mind the safety bar bludgeonings nearly as much as the "ski poles in the face" gaper flail upon boarding the lift. Maybe I should start wearing a full-face.

[G]

"Beetledouche"
"Beetledouche"
"Beetledouche"

[totallybrandon]

What's a Gaper? Is that someone who fly's down the mountain and purposely hits you? Just teleskied St. Anton and had a huge german snowboarder slammed into me! He came out of know where and almost broke my ankle! And he asks me, "Are you OK, it was icy!" I WAS SURPRISED BY THE LACK OF RESPECT FOR OTHER SKIERS! I didn't see any skier responsibility codes. Maybe Europe needs more Lawyers? I met another American who say's they kill 7 to 10 people a year, but I didn't know what he meant? Avalanches or some Gaper flying down the mountain and trying to kill you to get the ski rescue helicopterS $$$ OR eUROS? Wondering, cause I didn't see a single ski patrol in several days. Watch out for the Gapers that want to kill you! However I did see three helicopers helli lifting people off the mountain. No ski patrol or sleds? Is there really people that purposely hurt you?

And really if you ski at least once in a year are you really a Gaper? Are you really that cool and better of a person. Seams like this forum needs a little more respect among its participants, kind of like the skiers/snowboards/gapers/people. Its a small world and we all live in it!

Better advice:

If you're going to St. Anton, its sweet skiing, and yes those upper lifts are pretty gripping and make you want a safety bar and yes I'm born in Colorado and ski Alta and Snowbird. But bring you're beacons and probes. And maybe get a guide to show you the mountain and to watch out for the people that want to purposely hurt you!

[subtle plague]

the bar thing will always be some "americana" i don't understand... but when you're skiing with a pack with shovel and probe etc. all the time you sit pretty much on the edge of the chair. so if you're too lazy put your pack down every chairlift ride you get comfort out of the safety bar. Even if you have to watch out for it while wearing a helmet

Of course "inbound" bro brah guys sitting back in the chair don't need those gaper bars
and apparently they don't need shovels and probes and packs either......

[2nd mate]

What's a Gaper? Is that someone who fly's down the mountain and purposely hits you? Just teleskied St. Anton and had a huge german snowboarder slammed into me! .... And maybe get a guide to show you the mountain and to watch out for the people that want to purposely hurt you!

This cant be real?

Is my sarcasm meter/detector malfunctioning?

[solstice]

There was an old lift at flail (don't ask the name/number or even where it was cause I don't remember) that had one particularily loooonnngg span and was way off the ground for a fixed grip chair, when that lift would stop and if you were in the middle of that span you would bounce a long way up and down ( >6') and guess what? No safety bar.

Sounds like the old lift up Pierre's Knob at Bridger back in the 70's.

[mnflyfish]

2nd'd

Once my pack got stuck on the bar as they were lowering it without saying anything and it nearly just pushed me over the side.

anyway, this isnt so much as a gaper rant, but gapergenuity

I had a couple guys join me on a lift last year but it wasn't my pack but my hand that got caught when they dropped the bar without saying anything. Then, puzzled at the bar not going down all the way, they kept trying to force it down, all the while ignoring the shouts of pain coming from me. Finally I grabbed the guy closest to me turning him with my one free hand and asked him polietly as possible to please raise the fucking bar enough for me to get my hand out.

PSA, if you want the bar down just ask first so everyone's on the same page. They should add that to the signs at the bottom.

Jay

[hartzejr]

Not really gaper-genuity here, but watching gapers and people unfamiliar with the logistics of a poma (stand, don't sit) is about the most funny thing ever! Especially the storm king at Copper!

This is all void if it's a powder day and there a huge line going up to Spaulding, then it's just plain annoying, just fall and get to the back of the fucking line....

[pechelman]

yay for old thread bumpage, although i will say the thread topic got skewed to gaper ranting rather than gapergenuity

[Huckin eh?]

When the designed ventilation system of my pants isnt enough to cool me down on a good skin up, I drop the fly and open up the fornt ventilation hole. (does that count as Gape?)

However, I often forget to do it back up before the downhill segment and find myself with a chilly willy pretty damn quick!

[splat]

I always lower the safety bar. Always.

A classic example of gapergenuity that comes to mind is the ski tote improvised with poles.

I have come far closer to getting seriously injured by people dropping the bar on me than I ever have riding chairs without them.

I know it's a Euro standard to put it down, but its obvoiusly to protect the gapers who would fall out of the chair. And you gotta be a real fukkin gaper to fall out of a chair. For a place that lets you ski anything anywhere you want and if you die it's your fault, don't you think the enforcement in some places of putting the bar down is little over the top, considering?

[KungFu Eddie]

I'm sure i witnessed some gapernuity but can't remember off the top of my head so I will rant instead.
Working as a lifty in a real eye opener. Some people seem to totaly incapable of understand the basic premis behind loading a chair. I blame detachables for making the gapers soft. More than once I would have a group of kids come through the Paradise tripple (fixed grip) at Lake Louise, all aged about 10. Their parent/guardian would shout to me from the line "can you put the bar down for them?" All of the kids could have easily reached it them selves but it fell to me to sprint dowm the ramp chasing a fixed grip and knocking the bar down before running back to bump the next chair.

As for euro chair action. Me and some buddies made a trip to seen some friends in St Moritz. Almost every chair there has a bubble which everyone we rode with (typicaly dressed in fur) demanded we use, despite the fact it was bluebird with no wind. They would then proceed to chain smoke the whole way up.

[KungFu Eddie]

I saw a guy with a very homemade looking nose protector (atleast I assume that what it was) made from what looked like a cut up coke bottle attached to his goggles with selotape. It kinda looked like something a 5yr old would make in a school craft lesson to look like a spaceman.The thing is the guy wasn't a gaper he was a long time local in his late 60s. He was at the hill every second day and wore it religiously, really makes you wonder why he didn't spring for a propper one for about five bucks from the gift store?

[Rideski]

_____________

[Lemmiwinks]

A gaper hit me in the head with the bar on a lift once.

[Ed el Loco]

In 88' I skied with a neon green fanny pack. But hay I lots of neon stuff then.

[bluespark]

i didn't read everything already posted, so i didn't notice if the Pocotello Ass Flap had been mentioned yet. i've spotted this several times at the ghee. its a nylon mud flap type thing that goes from the waist ,down to about the back of the knee. looks homemade and i think its supposed to keep your ass dry on the lift.

[plugboots]

About 5 years ago or so my friend and I get off the Sublette chair and there's a guy standing there with a rod attached to each of his boots that goes straight up towards his ass and through his pants, (with a nice sewn finished hole there to accommodate the rod). Dumbfounded, I had to ask. The guy tells me it's some sort of spring mechanism that helps you ski somehow. I still stare, so he goes on and says that, "You know, when you're tired, at the end of the day, and you want to go in, well this will help you out." Or something like that. I'm still staring. "Huh?"

My buddy turns and starts down while flapping his arms up and down like a maniac and yells back at the guy that he needs some for his arms so he can fly, yelling like some bird thing: "Caw, Caw, Caw"

Best response to gapergenuity I'd ever seen. I still don't know what the hell that rod thing was.

[pechelman]

ive seen something like this before too
but it was for a disabled skier
with one leg

craziness

great report plugboots!

[plugboots]

My pleasure.

Oh yeah, Arno:
3200 M at La Grave, Non?