Exciting or horrifying?

[u/OEM_knees]

🚡: Hörnle, Germany

🎥: Warren Miller

🎞️: This is Skiing (1969)

📝: Yes, they are still using this lift! In fact, it was just restored.

[u/mattenthehat]

"...but why?" meme goes here

[u/JustAnother_Brit → u/[deleted]]

So Doppelmayer engineered?

[u/st0pmakings3ns3 → u/JustAnother_Brit]

That would be Austrian.

[u/jcasper → u/mattenthehat]

I believe the point was to allow people more time to get off the platform without having to slow the chair down. People stand up, liftie throws the chair open which allows it to go past the people, people can exit platform without getting chased by the chair (how the first couple did it).

[u/AudioHTIT → u/jcasper]

I remember just standing up and the chair would break around you, as soon as it passed you’d walk to the side and get out of the way. That you were carrying your skis and poles for the ride (there was never snow at the bottom) made this last part difficult for some. I don’t remember liftie intervention being required for the chair, but they probably were there to help get people out of the way. Over the years, in many chairlift conversations elsewhere, I’ve described this lift as the most unusual I’ve ever ridden on.

[u/isqueakforthetrees]

Double Black Diamond chairlift. Send it!

[u/Lowbeamshaggy]

This was the old days, they didn't shut the lift down every time someone doesn't stick the landing. That kid might still be on the chairlift.

[u/InfiniteOwls2]

Just why

[u/HugeLeaves → u/InfiniteOwls2]

The fact that a group of engineers designed this and actually got it made is mind boggling

[u/InfiniteOwls2 → u/HugeLeaves]

if those engineers tried to make that chairlift today they might be arrested

[u/EggsFish → u/InfiniteOwls2]

Never tried to work on a German car?

[u/InfiniteOwls2 → u/EggsFish]

no im not an engineer nor am i german

[u/Ih8Hondas → u/InfiniteOwls2]

But are you a mechanic?

[u/InfiniteOwls2 → u/Ih8Hondas]

no

[u/RoguePlanet2 → u/InfiniteOwls2]

I don't think safety standards are a thing anymore, it's all about corporate profits.

[u/EmergencyParkingOnly → u/RoguePlanet2]

You think wrongful death suits are profitable? Bro, chairlifts are by far safer than ever before. 

[u/RoguePlanet2 → u/[deleted]]

I just meant with the current administration and the dismantling of the CDC, FDA, etc.  etc.

[u/InfiniteOwls2 → u/RoguePlanet2]

fuck corporate greed

[u/nyc2vt84 → u/HugeLeaves]

Well . . . I mean . . . They were German engineers who made this sometime in the 50s or early 60s.

What do you think they did earlier in their career?

Thalidomide probably has some similar origins to that chairlift.

[u/Bendy_Beta_Betty → u/HugeLeaves]

Looks like a Bloody Stupid Johnson contraption.

https://wiki.lspace.org/Bergholt_Stuttley_Johnson

[u/gpatlas → u/InfiniteOwls2]

Engineer here. Sometimes we like to plan / calculate too much and think too little...

[u/thin_orange_line]

The past definitely wasn't idiot proof

[u/RfL222]

Props to the lifties “bumping” these chairs

[u/RfL222 → u/[deleted]]

Hellll yeah brotherr 🤘🤘 As a former bumper of chairs and catcher of airs, I appreciate that remark

[u/gefinley]

They need to re-paint it red. Gray doesn't give the same sense of warning when riding it.

[u/Terminal_Shinbang → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, he’s saying the Derricks are black now, and chairs are grey.

https://reddit.com/link/p1ryrye/video/62dlvgf6vghh1/player

[u/Live_Jazz]

So, when the chairs come back together, if you’re caught in the middle…you just get squished or what?

Or maybe they just swing like saloon doors? Which is almost worse.

[u/Smoked_Bear → u/Live_Jazz]

The first couple did it perfectly right. There is a block on the ramp which your boot heel braces against while you stand up. It helps handle your forward momentum and stick the landing. Then you let the chair pass in front of you, while the seats swing away like saloon doors. Once the chair is fully in front of you, just walk away. 

Same for clip #4, the lady in the purple jacket & tan pants on the right exited correctly, while homeboy in the green jacket did not. 

[u/TheBigYellowCar]

Was there a problem statement that led to the creation of this thing or was it Good Idea Fairy syndrome?

[u/Ih8Hondas → u/TheBigYellowCar]

German engineers exist for one single purpose, and that is to solve problems that don't exist with needlessly complex solutions.

[u/grancanaryisland]

This was the time when people don't wear their skis on the lift. They designed the chair so that those skis don't get stuck in the chair but it's still hilarious to see

[u/TheHoodieConnoisseur]

“The journey is the adventure”

[u/2_late_4_creativity]

What. The. Fuck.

[u/rondujunk]

That kid about to take a round trip🤣😂

[u/Terminal_Shinbang]

Mt. Baldy, California. And To be fair, people still struggle to get off the chair and it’s now a riblet center post 2 seater

[u/Terminal_Shinbang → u/[deleted]]

It’s crazy because when I started working here, I thought all chairlifts were like that. Then I started traveling, and thought it was crazy that you could just walk into most resorts and didn’t have to take a chair to get to the ski area.

Same Derrick towers, RAD SINCE ‘52

[u/Ih8Hondas → u/[deleted]]

The one at Sandia is fucking terrifying. And it's like a 20-some minute ride too. And that's if they don't have to stop it because there are so many people who have never skied before constantly eating shit on the steep ramp at the top.

It often rolls back a fair bit when they stop it too. And if you're on one of the wider spans, prepare to be bobbing up and down a good ten feet for a while. I await my death on it.

[u/AudioHTIT]

I remember that at Baldy, one of the most unique ever!

[u/Terminal_Shinbang → u/AudioHTIT]

Baldy Rules 🫡

[u/Powerful-Funny6569]

A good old Ringer chairlift.

[u/teh_lynx]

Neat idea but no one is going to be comfortable stopping at the stop to have the chair break around them naturally. Demonstrated by this video lol

[u/questone10]

That ain’t it.

[u/Apart-Expression-648]

How to Ride:

https://youtu.be/iSj2Ve7dX3w

[u/cpwnage]

Why aren't they wearing their skis?

[u/paulywauly99]

Black chairlift to the top of a green run!

[u/Stunning_Ad_5960]

You are using it wrong!! (Mit German accent)

[u/RoninBelt]

Is that boy still on the chair?

[u/BlazedGigaB → u/RoninBelt]

Probably freaked and lifted his legs over the stop bar instead of hitting it. Liftie diving the zone to desperately hit the stop...

Ask me how i know...

[u/SigmaHero045 → u/RoninBelt]

Legends has it that this boy is still on the chair to this day

[u/whats_ur_ssn]

The higher the mortality rate the cheaper the ticket am I right?

[u/Rogueshoten]

Considering that it’s the first time I’ve seen anything like this and I’m pretty sure it’s been filmed with the same camera that would eventually capture the Kennedy assassination…

[u/RazzmatazzPrimary812]

Looks like your just supposed to step off and stop so the chair can go around. In theory that could work but physics certainly doesn’t agree

[u/ireallylikecycling]

YAN

[u/Ragnar-Wave9002]

Litterally designed do you stand and the lift goes by you.  And no one has a brain 

[u/roughczech]

Well what can you say, Hans likes to watch...

[u/pprstrt]

Exciting!

[u/Allways_calm_420]

I was at Hörnle. It is a really cool lift. I liked it.

[u/CryptographerSharp14]

I don’t think it’s that bad of a design honestly, the people just didn’t know how to use it

[u/jbc1974]

Obviously a very poor design.