As above really. The kids, 11,9 and 6 are getting jittery when I tell them about the chair lifts that we might go on to get to the swimming lakes etc this summer.
I have to admit being a little nervous still on some of the higher passes and the chairs might just be a little flimsy for little ones. Are there any restrictions on height/age and has anyone else taking kids on them and what was the reaction.
Sort of a once on it, can't get off situ isn't it!?!?!
Chat Forum
Morzine with the family. Are the lifts going to terrify the kids though?
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Posted 4 months ago #
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Dude who owned the chalet we stayed in last year took his dog on, if that's any help. He happily sat on a chair.
Posted 4 months ago # -
No restrictions on height, just who they travel with. In winter skiing, they always ask the adults if they dont mind taking a small one on the chair for ski school - reckon must be some who are 3 or 4 years old.
My kids love chair lifts, from a very early age - summer and winter
Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it
Posted 4 months ago # -
by ski standards you don't have little ones. They'll only panic if you build it up, otherwise they should love it!
Posted 4 months ago # -
If you are nervous you will pass the fear onto your children. They have no reason to be scared really - they are perfectly safe if used correctly.
Posted 4 months ago # -
good call....panicing a bit as someone on here just directed me to snowheads website and one of the headines is about a 7 yo falling from a lift.
And that is in the US where I imagine saftey is higher than France.Posted 4 months ago # -
safe...yes.
high....yes
11 yo made them stop the pirate ship at alton towers she was so terrified....Posted 4 months ago # -
Take them up on a high building so they can look out and see.
and ask them if there ok with hight'sPosted 4 months ago # -
Well at Les Gets just round the corner our wee boy was on the Chavannes chair at three years old. The liftees did stop us and have a word, but only because they liked the look of the LOCT child seat on my Five.
Posted 4 months ago # -
I've seen plenty of babies being carried and all ages up from that. So long as you are confident you have control of them, no problem.
Rachel
Posted 4 months ago # -
Kids use chair lifts (with an adult) as soon as they can walk pretty much.
They will be fine.
The two main lifts out of Morzine are enclosed gondolas, and you have to try reeeeeally hard to fall out of those
Posted 4 months ago # -
KTFU?
Posted 4 months ago # -
it's alright, a lot of the lifts have a kiddy safety feature that will catch em by the neck should they wriggle beneath the bar. then it's just a gentle dangle to the top.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Went last Summer with a 2.5 yr old & 4 yr old. As has been said, keep your fear to yourself and the kids will be cool.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Get them to walk up one day. I'd imagine that would make the lifts more attractive...
Posted 4 months ago # -
Believe it or not the lift operators are as concerned as you are for the safety of your kids. The fast modern lifts are "debrayable" meaning the chair comes off the cable and slows right down to less than walking pace before the cable picks it up again, older fixed lifts are faster through the station but the operator will slow them down for kids or even stop them.
Posted 4 months ago # -
liitle ones's used chair lifts from around 4 and thought it fun when they stop and swing in the wind
when skiing I use a ski pole tight across my and their knee to reduce tendency to slide down (and potentially under bar) rather than sit up straight - i guess in summer a treking pole could do similar service
as said above lift operators usuallu look after kids without saying no
Posted 4 months ago # -
Agree with all the above - perfectly safe. Really little ones are best held, and I did a 'one-parent, one-child' pairing for the two-person lifts to start with, just to make sure they didn't freak.
By the way, the best swimming lake is Lac Montriond, which you'll need to drive to - 10 mins from Morzine town centre. Canoes, rafts etc for hire, a couple of cafes - it's great.
Posted 4 months ago # -
get a grip 11 years old!! Man what has the world come to!!
Posted 4 months ago # -
"... 7 yo falling from a lift.
And that is in the US where I imagine saftey is higher than France. "Rockhopper, although my US skiing experience is limited to a weekend in Mammoth, no American I was on a chair lift with ever pulled the bar down. The only time I saw a bar down was if I was on the chair on my own. Complete contrast to Europe, and none of the Yanks could explain why they don't use the bar.
Posted 4 months ago # -
The two main lifts out of Morzine are both bubble cars so there's nowt to worry about there. Our 4 year old loved the lifts last year and kept asking to go on the "chair rides".
If you're going to the swimming lakes at Les Gets and Lac Montriond just get the bus.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Last time I was snowboarding in Avoriaz a kiddies ski school came along and the instructor plonked a 5 year old kid next to me.
I spent the whole trip up the chairlift hoiking him back onto the seat as he kept sliding forward towards the abyss. He was fine, I was the traumatised one.
Posted 4 months ago # -
As above you need to stop fretting so much. In the winter the lifts are full of kids from about 5 and up on their own or in mass ski school groups. I took by boys on from about 3 months sat on my lap and then sitting on their own but holding hands from about 3. When my boy was 4 at ski school they were all loaded up onto the lifts, just a few parents to help out.
Posted 4 months ago # -
I don't want to scare you but...
The last time I took my girls snowboarding, they went ahead on an old(ish) chair from Morzine back up to Avoriaz and it stopped. It was stationary for ages and we were getting quite cold in the cold windy snow that was falling and there was a rocky outcrop just ahead of the girls chair so the first hour or so was spent with me shouting at the more courageous of the pair not to attempt to jump.
Then it became obvious the lift wasn't about to move again anytime soon as a rescue crew were slowly working their way down from the top chair by chair. Ages past, telling them to keep moving, playing patacake anything to prepare them for what was to follow.
Now a chair rescue isn't that technical, a guy shuffles down the wire, enters your chair from above, passes a rope round your middle then lowers you to the ground. There's a team below, belaying the rope beneath you, so, you're watching your kids being lowered forty or fifty feet down this chasm into none pisted broken woodland (you've seen what it's like beneath some lifts, this was awful.
It was a nightmare and it hadn't ended once we were on the mountainside, we were then left to make our own way out and I think we got a lunch voucher as compensation for our lost day from the lift company.
So, be warned, never take lifts for or mountain pursuits for granted and always be prepared for the worse.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Derekrides - that sounds like absolutely no fun at all!
I've been skiing 20+ years in the Haute Savoie and have never expereinced anything like that, so I can only assume it to be incredibly rare.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Its that rickety 2-man on the Swiss side (grande conche?) of the PDS that gives me the willies.
[brown trousers]It stoppped when I was between the two highest pylons the last time I was on it.[/brown trousers]Edit: Fortunately not for as long as Derek
Posted 4 months ago # -
I saw a fat woman get on a lift very badly in Whistler and she really leaned forward without the bar after about 5 seconds and fell 10ft onto her face. It was really really funny.
Posted 4 months ago #
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