Lift Queues, Snow And Pictures
Feb 15, 2010
8 Comments
Greek holidays combined with school holidays caused the biggest queue I have seen. Please see pictures below. Please also forgive me for saying it was Saturday in the video. It was Sunday.
Weather Forecast
Good and bad news today. It’s snowing so there is some excellent powder conditions to be had. The bad news is that there is a significant risk of really quite high temperatures. I’ve just been taking a look at the weather charts here: https://www.meteonet.nl/aktueel/brackall.htm
It’s going to be getting very warm and snow will turn to rain. Too early to see these temperatures dropping for next week.
Tips Of The Day
- Avoid Greek holidays.
- Join us to see the amazing Ani Lozanova and her band at JJ Murphy’s. A very special first birthday party guest. Free beer offer ends 12pm Wednesday. Subscribe today (be sure to confirm your email) and receive the voucher.
- Avoid first day hassle. organise ski hire, lift pass, tuition in advance and save cash. For your no obligation quote please subscribe and you will receive a form where you can detail your exact requirements (family/private/ group lessons or combinations of all three)
We queued for almost two hours on Sunday morning to get up the mountain. There was some outrageous behaviour from some people, blatant pushing in and creating crushing whilst the gondala security staff just looked on and did nothing. Severe lack of management of queues/lines and organisation. I would like to think that behaviour would simply not happen in the UK, those people should be ashamed of themselves, they displayed nothing but total arrogance and showed little respect for anyone. When challenged they simply laughed and took little notice. Still blame the gondola management staff for letting the situation to occur in the first place. We were trying to help a woman from California avoid her 3 kids getting crushed. The people we encountered were Greek, although i would hope they were a tiny minority and reflection of the Greek's who were in the resort over the weekend due to the Greek holiday, shameful behaviour.
Hi Adrian,
Thank you for your comment and yours and many others lift queue experience on Sunday is sad to hear. It was without doubt the busiesnt day of the year and after I took the photo I was sure this was not a day for skiing.
Lift line, and piste, etiquette has been a popular subject for all ski resorts. But I agree with you, staff should be on hand to manage lift lines and check that people are decent to one another. I would like to see signs explaining a standard of behaviour and etiquette to be observed.
Skking is a time to forget your worries, enjoy the mountains and feel at peace. I hope your experience will never happen again. But, like you, fear that it will.
Any more thought on this topic?
Hi Adrian & Lance.
I was in Bansko for the first time in January of this year and were I not such a laid-back, patient and forgiving guy (who totally enjoys snowboarding), I would never return !
Like Adrian, I and my partner encountered shocking behaviour at the queues for the Gondola and chair lifts. It bordered on dangerous at times.
Like Adrian, I was aghast that the lift operators simply stood by and watched it happening.
What I found most annoying was that the Ulen operators didn't seem to offer any mechanism for customer feedback. Maybe they see so many people coming to Bansko, that they think they can let this kind of behaviour slide and even afford to loose a few customers.
The current economic climate would seem to suggest otherwise!
Also i fear that it becomes "acceptable" for this to happen.
It could so easily be improved, with some careful management of the queues.
A few specifically placed barriers adjacent to the swipe machines would mean that there was no funneling effect of 100 people trying to squeeze into the space of 2 or 3 to get through the barriers.
Also, (& this is not a snowboarder having a crack at skiers, I have friends who ski and who I shred with) but when in the queue, please could skiers take off their skis? I lost count of the time I got jabbed in the ankles & legs with skis and/or poles.
I appreciate that they can't carry them onto the chair-lift but whilst waiting to get through the barrier, holding them would mean that the queue would move so much quicker.
Also how about separate queuing lanes for skiers & snowboarders?
The lift staff should also ensure that no chair goes up with just one person on it! What a waste of resources. Organising and monitoring the queues better should prevent this.
The same applies to the gondola. Getting up on the mountain as quickly as possible is everyone's wish first thing in the morning. So why then do the operators allow cabins to go up with only 1 or 2 people in them and stand-by looking at the 100's of people trying to cram in?
Again, I couldn't see any way of providing these comments and feedback to the operators.
Lance, you seem to have your finger on the pulse in Bansko, any chance you could get them to listen?
My partner and I are coming back to Bansko the week of 7th March & I am hoping things might have improved. Comparing it to Pamporovo where we have been twice before, Bansko seems to have a lot to learn when it comes to getting people up the mountain as quickly and effortlessly as possible.
I agree with your final comment Lance. Being up on the mountain is probably one of the best feelings I've ever had and, fortunately once I've strapped my board on, I can forget everything that went on before. How nice it would be though, for it not to happen and for the whole Bansko experience to be a massively pleasurable one.
Rant over!
Get yer wig on & hit some pow!
Hey Rickers, thank you for your comments. You have made the points very well and provided the exact solutions. I can add no more!
There is a petition going round on the queue management. I support this inistiative and, if they give me permission, I will send this out to subscribers.
Yours, and most others standards of behaviour are not always 100% shared in this world — and I've seen nasty, selfish queue behaviour around the world.
On a constructive point, on any given busy day, there are always lifts available with few queues. think about getting up to the Plato via Shiligarnika, for example.
Once again, commets here are welcome, Lance
Yep that ulen lot need to train their staff but the owner dosent care and lets his wife run the show who is a complete idiot and wont hear any constructive critacisim. So a costomer feed back book would only be used as bogroll by the lift operators b4 and after you've written in it. I live here and have been trying to get ulen to pull up their socks but to no avail.
I have a small chalet biz here and i beat the queues by driving up to the secret chair or mid station in our company minibus. normaly i dont need chains but they are definately a must.
Sometimes i take people up to the next lifts but the mafia run taxi drivers tend to threaten me and friend of mine had his tyers slashed.
Our guests like to wave at the people in the queue but i think it is appaling that they havent worked out how to run a ski resort in 6 years… who should we send in to fix it? mabey Arnold Scwartzerneger? he is austrian and he knows how to manage california…
Hi Marty,
thanks for your comment. There is no doubt that the most simple of measures seem to allude Ulen. Peak times are busy and avoiding the queues by going up to Chalin Valog is a good tip. I tend to just arrive to the queue early… and most days were fine: but then again i did not bother on the 14th Feb and some other days around New Year.
I am continually saddened to hear of mafia like practies… your story is one of many. Does anyone else have any more? Do write and share your views: Ulen read this blog and of course they are welcome to reply here.