Snowboarders and Button Lifts

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    • Snowboarders and Button Lifts

      Hi All

      Just a heads-up for anyone that snowboards and has had a nasty experience with any type of Button Lift ('T' Bars are a completely different beastie) ;)

      The best way to mount :whistling: a button lift as a snowboarder is this. You can either have just your front (leading) foot strapped into the board or both (depends on your ability). As you approach the button lift, make sure you are relaxed :thumbup: You will notice that at the end of the metal bar, just before the 'button', the bar has a curve in it. Now if you are skiing this curved bit of the bar makes perfect sense. As a skier, you are facing up the mountain, the curve is there so that you can more easily position the 'button....on your 'butt'. So as the bar comes down, the curved part curves away from you (towards the ground), so that the button is on your derriere !

      As a snowboarder you need to make sure that the curved part of the bar is turned sideways, so that the curve itself is facing your trailing leg. This allows the bar to curve around your leading leg....yet still be facing up the mountain (the direction we want to go 8)

      The button part will still sit behind your 'butt' and you take hold of the bar with your leading arm ( your arm on the same side as your leg in the front binding). Relax and keep your weight slightly over your rear-binding, once the lift starts to pull you, just go with it.

      Dismounting is easy, just unhook the bar from between your legs as you clear the dismount ramp and simply skate away from the dismount area.

      There are loads of videos on this topic on 'you-tube'...some hilarious examples of how NOT to use a button lift....along with one or two examples of how to do it safely.

      Don't FEAR the button lift...these types of lifts sometimes give you access to some of the best snow on the mountain...and if you want to use the terrain-park...chances are the button lift will be the only way of accessing it...unless you intend to take a chair to the top of the mountain, board down to the terrain-park...have one run through the park...back to the bottom of the mountain...get the chairlift...back to the top...etc etc

      Enjoy :thumbsup:

      Drew
    • Poma's Or Button Lifts

      You got it tho'....it's all about practice. If you get to the top of Pic de Cubilin Pal, you can practice on any of the 3 poma's (Els Coms, La Toss I & II). These are fairly flat, certainly not steep, so the ride 'seems' a little slower. If you intend to come back from Pal to Arinsal, you WILL need to use these. What makes most people fall off them is they're concentrating on trying not to look stupid by falling off....so they fall off :S

      Just relax, watch a few of the vids on you tube of 'how to use a button-lift'....and you'll be fine. :thumbup: