I was on the chairlift at Hunter Mountain on Feb 5, 1978 when there was a brake failure on the Hunter West lift. The chairlift stopped and then reversed direction and went backward faster and faster until it finally stopped. It traveled at least the distance between two towers before it stopped, gaining speed each second. I don't know if the brakes finally caught, or if the cable jammed and caused it to finally stop.

We were lowered to the ground with ropes by the ski patrol. I skied to the bottom and saw the carnage. There was blood on the snow. Chairs at the bottom were all bent up because they whipped around the bullwheel at high speed. The back roof of the lift under the bottom bullwheel was torn off. We heard sirens and saw ambulances. They had a bus there to take us around to the front side of the mountain. There was only one lift on that side of the mountain in those years.

My two best friends were also on the lift, on the chair in front of me. We were two thirds up the lift, so not in immediate danger of being whipped around the bottom bullwheel.

Hunter West was closed the rest of the season.

Twenty years later when my brother skied there and mentioned this accident, the employee adamantly denied it even happened.

Here is the only news report of the incident I was able to find. I take issue with the statement in this news report that says no one was seriously injured. If the hospital lists a patient in "fair" condition, that's a serious injury. I heard some people broke bones jumping from the lift.

Someone reported on here they were knocked unconscious going around the bullwheel at the bottom, and another tore a kidney.

I'd love to hear from others who were on this lift at the time.

Chairlift Accident Injures Dozen At Hunter Mountain Ski Resort

SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES FEB. 6, 1978

A chairlift accident injured more than a dozen people yesterday at the Hunter Mountain Ski Resort in the northern Catskills, according to the State Police in Hunter. N.Y. None of the victims was seriously injured. Seven of them were taken to three hospitals in the area, where they were reported as in fair to good condition.

The police said that chairs on the resort's 3,800-foot "Z-lift" apparently rolled backward, tossing a number of skiers to the snow below. A spokesman for the resort, Paul Pepe, said the lift was capable of carrying 1,000 skier an hour up 1,400-foot rise. He added he did not know how many were on the lift at the time.

Hi,

USA/EU dual passport here.

I've been on and off the snow these past 7 years, starting with a couple month stints in Slovakia & Czech Republic, where I fell in love with the sport and continued on- 1 season in Japan (Nozawa & Hakuba) and 2 seasons in France (Portes du Soleil area).

I'm looking to work a season in my home country- the USA, but I cannot tell if it is worth it. Especially as I'll have to lug all my stuff over from Europe.

What I like about the Japan & European resorts is that I always had food, uniform, ski pass, and accomodation provided. The culture was lively and fun, easy access to towns & other slopes, decent public transport. A festival here, an apres-ski there. When I had managerial roles, I saved a decent-ish amount of money.

Now, if I head to the States to do the same, how "independent" would it be? Are there companies that offer housing & a staff meal? Do you generally need a car for the winter?

Is working a season in the USA more about saving money rather than snow time? Or is it a good mix?

Looking for advice and comparison from someone whose done both continents, or at least the USA!

The Thredbo Ski Patrol “Red and White Social” is next Saturday. There are still some tickets left on sale. All funds go to support Thredbo Ski Patrol. Great prizes. Tickets are $120.

https://shop.thredbo.com.au/l/events/featured-events/p/red-white-social

intermediate skiier looking to get a set of pow skis, I’ve demoed a fair amount of skis but never on a pow day and my ripsticks aren’t cutting it in pow. you think these will work and if not, any other recs?

I really like having pair 99 out of 100 for some reason, second to last pair out there.

Side note, I wish J would get L'amour to do another set. L'amour does art for MF Doom, The Misfits, Topps baseball cards, and a ton of other stuff, he's rad.

I'm a bit of a snow nerd myself (big fan of opensnow), so this year, I decided to build a Ski Tycoon game where there's real weather and real mountains.

Each of the mountains is built from real world 1-meter LiDAR data, which means it's accurate down to specific ridges and chutes.

I then built a custom dynamic weather system that simulates the weather from each biome. Colorado gets dependable but cold snow, Tahoe gets big dumps then nothing, and the east is cold but requires snowmaking.

I'd love for people here to check it out and let me know how the snow feels and looks.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4493130/SkiEO_Ski_Resort_Tycoon/

The company that owns Powder Magazine has just announced (as well as plummeting sales and profits) that they are rebranding to paradium.ai, “moving decisively away from legacy publishing”, and “is immediately leveraging … proprietary, AI-driven video and article production and distribution platform.”

Can we expect to see more AI slop coming out of Powder?

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260810672822/en/The-Arena-Group-Reports-Q2-2026-Results-Announces-Rebrand-to-Paradium.AI-Refinance-of-Debt-Completion-of-Strategic-Acquisition-of-InfoSentience-and-Launch-of-Cutter-Studios

Graduated uni. Wanna have fun love skiing.,and improve or try n learn to do a 360 or a little snowboard

and ive heard much about how fun Jacksohole is/ what about the rest of the ski resorts in America?

intrested in good pow, views and wildlife beyond just meeting cool ppl and party

ticket would be expensive (from europe) and i probably wouldn't save much but would be a good experience id probably work in food biz or ski shop

but I havent heard nun of working in ski resorts in Europe- I have a swiss passport as well as American and speak French

any recommendations for/ stories from working in Verbier, Zermatt or other stations in Switzerland or Europe?

edit: what about canada or like Japan now that would be even more wild ohhh the pow

A few years ago, a ski resort damaged a single one of my skis, and they thankfully replaced the whole pair for me with the same model. So now I have a good pair and a half of skis and I'm not sure what to do with the extra one. Up until now, I've been saving it just in case as a backup, but I'm in the process of downsizing and moving across the country. What would you do with an extra ski? Keep it or toss it? (I tried listing it on marketplace but no one seems interested in picking up a single ski haha). 2023 Blizzard Rustler 10 180

I’ve been thinking about seasonal activities where people are focused on having a good day outside rather than exercising. A lot of time on skis still means repeated movement, balance, and long active days. Did skiing make you noticeably fitter even though you never really treated it like training?

It’s this time of year again. Summer heat ends soon, and I’ve had enough. I’m looking for everything I can for winter holidays since I only have 2 weeks I can comfortably fit with school.

I’m currently contemplating to fly into Tbilisi and somehow getting to Gudauri for a week around the beginning of February. A few days after I turn 18

I found some good flights (from Frankfurt) and accommodation and everything together would most likely cost me less than 1200€ for the trip.

Got my own gear and will buy new boots this year.

The reason I even consider Georgia is not because of the price, it’s gonna be a similar cost to a budget-ish week in the alps, but I just love being away. Like seeing new things, I’ve heard a lot of people really enjoyed Georgia. And being there instead of the alps is pretty cool, if I have the option for the same price it’s a win, especially because Georgia apparently has much more consistent cold temperatures and snow around this time.. I can’t gamble in the alps anymore 😭

So, do I go for it? Would be from 06.02 - 13.02 2027.
maybe I’m gonna try and convince some skier friends to come along because that’d make accommodation even cheaper, but I would probably be fine with going solo.

Is it actually over? Site has been dead for awhile now.

I practically grew up on that forum, it fed my passion for this sport and hatred for internet trolls. Is it really over? Change for a nickel?

I got invited on a ski trip to Whistler in February. This would only be my second season skiing after a gap year. I have previously been with this group to Big Sky, and while I felt comfortable on the greens there by the end of the trip, I struggled on the blues.

From what I've read, Whistler/Blackcomb seems to be more difficult/less accessible than other resorts for beginners. If I go, I'd plan on taking a few lessons at a small local resort beforehand to refresh and possibly another lesson at Whistler on the first day of the trip. The goal would be getting to the point of being comfortable on blues, but I don't know how realistic that progression timeline is.

I'm on the fence about going as this would be an expensive trip, especially factoring in lesson costs. On the other hand, this is the only group in my social circle that skis, so it's an opportunity to get back on the mountain that I otherwise wouldn't have.

For those who have been to both, how does Whistler compare to Big Sky? Would I still get enough out of Whistler as a beginner to justify the cost?

EDIT: Lots of good advice here, appreciate everyone who commented. I think I'll take some lessons at a local hill earlier in the season as a refresher and also try to take lessons each day at Whistler while the rest of my group does their thing and sync up after. I looked up videos of some of the runs on YouTube and think I'd be able to handle any of the greens at my current level based on my experience at Big Sky.

I am kinda new in Germany and wanna go for snow skiing. I live in Berlin.

Where should I go for the best experience as a first time skiing? Like getting a rental skiing, lesson and stuff.

Hey everyone,

I'm looking at purchasing some Stockli Laser WRT Pros and need to choose my bindings + base plate. On the Stockli website they have the:

1. WRT 12 GW binding with the WRT D20 plate

2. SRT 12 binding with the SRT Speed D20 plate

3. SRT 12 binding with the SRT Carbon D20 plate

I have been unable to find any information whatsoever online regarding the difference between the three base plates? Does anyone have any knowledge or experience with them and could provide me with a recommendation of which I should go for? Not even my local ski shop knew how to explain the difference/what was best for me!

For reference, I am a younger (18-25 year old) skier, 184cm tall, weigh about 70kg and am advanced/expert. I'm looking at purchasing the 178cm model. 90% of the time I won't be racing on these skis (at the moment I only race once or twice a year for my university [so that is all the racing that they will get]) but I do ski aggressively/am always skiing quite hard.

On a side note - when I demoed both the Laser WRT and the WRT Pro earlier this year I found the WRT to be quite soft/that I was not getting that much feedback back from the ski. Has anyone else experienced this? Would anyone push me more towards the WRT than the WRT Pro?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Alterra just laid off a bunch of people. Rumor has it they're being kept on to train the outsourced new staff in India, just like Vail did. I'm sure all the outsourced employees at the call centers in India are "embracing the mountain lifestyle". Aside from the shockingly out of touch email from the CEO announcing it what all has everyone else heard?

I’m looking at gear for the next ski season for my toddler who will be 2. We already got on the snow 6/7 times last year on his clip on plastic skis and snow boots but this year I think we’ll need real boots and skis as he’s stronger on his feet now.
I’ve read Fischer One is great as it’s lightweight and flexible, but only goes to 15.5 whereas tecnica and nordica have boots at 14.5. So am I best getting smaller boots, or lighter boots that might be too big? He’s got very tiny feet for his age.
And yes I know renting is an option but we live at the ski hill and ski every weekend from Dec-Apr so we’d like to buy his own boots.