We survived skiing at Seven Springs. PA. No broken bones for any of us! It is official my daughters are now better skiers than I am! I am proud of them. My oldest crushed a blue/intermediate run several times. Her sister was happy doing a double green/beginner’s run. My son is a little speed demon. He has learned to turn, but often does not. He is small, so does not go fast.
I will upload pics tomorrow. But, first a quick story.
At noon today, I took the girls on one lift and my husband had our son on another lift. We intended to ski runs suited to the girls’ and our son’s abilities.
The girls did well on the runs. My legs were burning toward the end of one of the runs. When we got back to the bottom of the run, I told the girls to go back up and do the run again while I waited for my husband. I gave my husband a quick call. He sounded breathless on the phone…I immediately knew something was wrong. He told me that he and our son were on a 4-person chair lift. At the top of the lift he got off. He assumed our son got off as well. As he moved down the short slope, he noticed our son was not beside him. He turned around to see our son still sitting on the chair lift. He must have been “scooped” back on the lift as he was trying to get off. My husband yelled for the guard to stop the lift. By the time he got the guard’s attention our son was already on his way down.
The guard was not paying attention (this is inexcusable)–my husband told the guard to radio down to the guard at the bottom of the lift to not let our son ride back up. So, can you imagine my husband’s horror at seeing our son sitting on a chair lift without the restraining bar down as the chair glides down 20 feet above the ground? He told our son to sit back and wait for him at the bottom of the ride.
My husband then skied down like a “bat out off hell” to meet our son at the bottom of the lift. He made it down to the bottom of the chairlift as our son was getting off the lift. When asked if he was scared to ride the chair lift by himself, our son said he was “medium” scared…he is a brave kid!
Honestly I feel badly for my husband. He is very vigilant with the children, more so than I am. He was disappointed in himself, but really he did what he could under the circumstances. The guard should have been watching to see that all passengers got off the chair lift. There also should be a way to stop the lift and get a person down. My son is 5…what if he had fallen off the chairlift!
My husband reported the guard to the safety officer at Seven Springs ski resort, but that doesn’t erase the fact that our son was in danger due to someone not doing their job.
That is completely inexcusable. The resort we went to this past weekend would slow the lift down every time a younger child came to the exit point. I can’t imagine the guard not noticing that someone didn’t get off or got scooped back onto the chair. Crazy!!
Wow. That is scary. I wonder what will happen. Where is Seven Springs? I feel like it is close to me.
Wow first off why did the boys father not pay more attention to his son and make sure he got off the lift after all he was only 5. If you go to any ski resort and ask not one of them will tell you that it has never happened all it takes is a turn of the head for a split second and boom around the bullwheel they go.
PAY MORE ATTENTION TO YOUR CHILDREN!!!!!
The workers at 7 Springs have enough to do without watching that your child gets off the lift. That is the parents responsibility. I hope you are happy with the fact that you got the poor ski lift operator fired. No jobs to be had in that area and a family to raise and you got him fired. How very nice of you all because your husband can’t watch his own child.
Since when is a 5 year old another adults responsibility?? Your husband should have been watching him! The ski school instructors grab the kids and make sure they get off the chairs. Oh and btw the chairs do not “scoop” you back up on said chair lift! Ive been to Seven Springs many times! It is not much different than many ski resorts either! People, watch your children, oh and read the back of your lift ticket!! Ski at your own risk and take responsibility for yourself! Skiing is not a romper room sport.