Most interesting person you shared a lift with

[Meadow Skipper]

Like 4 people have said BusterHighman. What the hell is so special about BusterHighman??? Does he have like a 15 inch schlong or something?

I wouldn’t say it’s 15 inches, but you’d have to measure to be sure.

Also, GFYS.

[hutash]

I've skied with every great personality and celebrating living or dead...but with goggles, helmet and a Buff I couldn't tell who was who.

In other words, who gives a fuck. I just chat with whom ever sits next to me if they are so inclined to chat. In the end we are all just skiers/boarders and people having a good time in the mountains.

Second that Gordy is the mang, and all his pro coaches are great as well, just people having fun in the mountains.

[TAFKALVS]

I wouldn’t say it’s 15 inches, but you’d have to measure to be sure.

He does ski on 200cm skis as his daily driver, so...

[TurxSki]

"...it might be 12 inches long, but I don't use it as a rule..."

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[muted]

In other words, who gives a fuck. I just chat with whom ever sits next to me if they are so inclined to chat. In the end we are all just skiers/boarders and people having a good time in the mountains.

Because when you ride with someone that doesn't talk about the weather and what size skis you have for the millionth time, it can becool and memorable. And if it's one of your ski heros, you already know a bit about them, so the conversation is rarely dumb small talk.

[TAFKALVS]

Because when you ride with someone that doesn't talk about the weather and what size skis you have for the millionth time, it can becool and memorable. And if it's one of your ski heros, you already know a bit about them, so the conversation is rarely dumb small talk.

I hate the "Wow, are you water skiing?" line. Uh, dude, fat skis have been around since, 2003? So 15 years? You haven't figured this out yet? Have you been repeating that line with every lift rider for 15 ski seasons?

[auvgeek]

My mom rode the lift at Stevens with a little old lady in her mid-70s, who was apparently up there with her dad who was in his late 90s...but he ditched her.

[comish]

My 2:

-As a kid, maybe high school?, riding ch23 at Mammoth with my prized K2 Extreme skis on, sit down next to Mike Hattrup. He asks how I like the skis and we talk the whole chair ride about how he designed them blah blah blah. Couldn't have been a nicer guy.

-Cham, Riding the top tram of the Grands Montets. I'm skiing solo, the clouds have rolled in, and I didn't exactly know my way around too well. Hear some English and start talking to the guys. Turns out it was Dan Egan running one of his camps. He tells me to follow them and have the best afternoon lapping the upper bin with no line, ripping fast laps down toward the Argentiere glacier.

The dude's story about Doug Coombs was awesome. I also followed him a few times around JH during the '96/'97 season. Dude couldn't have been nicer and was like a cat. He would just bounce off things and always land upright on his feet. Definitely my idol for a few decades...

[ten ply]

Celeb: Shared a lift with James Taylor at his local hill the season before his accident. As nice and soft-spoken as you would expect.

Interesting: A WWII vet still skiing at 94. His destroyer, the Lansdale, was sunk in the Mediterranean during attack. He treaded water overnight before being rescued. He had countless other great stories from being a glider pilot and general adventurer. I'd be happy to be half as good of a skier at 80 as he was at 94.

[snowaddict91]

Rode the lift with Seth Morrison at CB once. It was the first day the North Face was open for the year and we chatted about how good the conditions were. Pretty sure we weren't skiing the same lines lol.

[auvgeek]

I may have posted about this before and I don't know if he's the most interesting person I've shared a lift with but:

I rode a t-bar with Seth Morrison several times when I was like 13-14 years old at ski camp in Whistler. Super nice, very chill dude, who was able to make me comfortable despite the fact that I was hanging out one-on-one with my biggest hero at the time. The camp was broken into groups of kids at roughly the same age/ability, and while it mainly focused on park skiing, when Seth was our coach we obviously skied off piste. We're skiing around for a bit when he decides he wants to show us this pond skim. We stop a few hundred yards above this 10' wide river and he's like, "so you need to straightline it from here to make it across." I'm looking around like, "uh, seems like you'll be going way too fast..." but say nothing cuz it's Seth and I'm not about to argue. Anyway, he hits the water going mach loony, barely touches the water, and hits an unforseen kicker on the other side, does half a backfip, way overshoots the landing and lands on his neck 20-30 feet away, barely missing a huge boulder. We kids are all freaking out, like, "What do we do? How do we get help? Is he dead?" We start to ski down to him when he finally gets up, slowly, and yells back "GO SLOWER" (Needless to say, nobody else hit it.)

Seen him in lift lines and bars a few times since. I sometimes say hi (unless it's obvious he doesn't want to be bothered) and tell him I appreciated his coaching when I was a kid -- he always acts like he'd totally remember me if I had less facial hair or the same ski jacket or whatever. Just a nice guy who seems a little uncomfortable with the notoriety he's achieved.

[XXX-er]

Gary

[ill-advised strategy]

I got a chair with Hannah Kearney at the 2005 Deer Valley World Cup. She seemed frustrated, so I reminded her that the event was absolutely 100% hers because it was abnormally cold and the snow was abnormally hard...both of which totally favored her as a young (19 y.o.) East Coaster. She actually seemed to appreciate the logic, and I was stoked when she did well.

Scott Kauf brought a tiny little girl into the kids ski school rental shop when I was working there in 1997, I set her up, and freaked out when I saw the paperwork and realized it was Scott Kauf....That little kid was Jaelin Kauf....so it was pretty cool to see her in the Olympics last year.

Skiing, ski towns....that's some of the good stuff.

[ill-advised strategy]

Just a nice guy who seems a little uncomfortable with the notoriety he's achieved.

I remember him skiing around at Crested Butte in 1995. Fast, fast, fast. Fucking fassst and tight.

[Dexter Rutecki]

Took my first trip to Whistler with my high school ski club from California, circa 1990. Second chair ride up, I found myself sitting next to local downhill hero Rob Boyd and his buddy. They had a hilarious chat about some date gone wrong. It was just about the perfect Whistler introduction a 16 year old could ask for.

Boyd used to be a pretty regular feature around there. My brothers and I (especially I) used to shadow him around the mountain, and I got to do a few racing things with him and some other Canuck team guys (Mike Carney sticks in my mind). All pretty nice guys.

Splat is a pretty interesting guy to share a lift with. Iceman, Buster, Natty, Cleetus, MD9, ACE...A lot of the OG's (most of whom I haven't skied with for far too long). Kristen Ulmer is a recent one who is pretty interesting (and fun to ski with). Gaffney and McConkey...

edit: phunky, although he doesn't count as a skier anymore, I guess. Gary when he came to VT, enjoyed MPPG this past winter (and what a great pow day for VT). Not sure I've ever ridden the lift with a celebrity from outside of skiing...skiers are almost the only celebs I care about, anyway.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

I got a chair with Hannah Kearney at the 2005 Deer Valley World Cup. She seemed frustrated, so I reminded her that the event was absolutely 100% hers because it was abnormally cold and the snow was abnormally hard...both of which totally favored her as a young (19 y.o.) East Coaster. She actually seemed to appreciate the logic, and I was stoked when she did well.

Scott Kauf brought a tiny little girl into the kids ski school rental shop when I was working there in 1997, I set her up, and freaked out when I saw the paperwork and realized it was Scott Kauf....That little kid was Jaelin Kauf....so it was pretty cool to see her in the Olympics last year.

Skiing, ski towns....that's some of the good stuff.

Rode the K-1 gondi with Hannah a coupla years ago. Didn't want to be that creepy 50+ dude so i pretended like I didn't know who she was and we just talked about how good the skiing and riding was that day.

[garyfromterrace]

Gary

You and Rusty Groomer obviously have another gman in mind.
Fuckers.
Ha!

[wyeaster]

Attachment 248021

that's a really good pick, too

[total_immortal]

Not on a chairlift but I got to gear up in Warren Miller's mud room at the Yellowstone Club over a decade ago and meet the man. He was super nice but old and just came out to say hi. Had a beer with his son after skiing private powder all day.

Got hammered in a bar in Nelson and proceeded to talk a bunch of shit to T Hall, the Petit brothers, and Morrison (sort of regret that one...)

[muted]

I may have posted about this before and I don't know if he's the most interesting person I've shared a lift with but:

I rode a t-bar with Seth Morrison several times when I was like 13-14 years old at ski camp in Whistler. Super nice, very chill dude, who was able to make me comfortable despite the fact that I was hanging out one-on-one with my biggest hero at the time. The camp was broken into groups of kids at roughly the same age/ability, and while it mainly focused on park skiing, when Seth was our coach we obviously skied off piste. We're skiing around for a bit when he decides he wants to show us this pond skim. We stop a few hundred yards above this 10' wide river and he's like, "so you need to straightline it from here to make it across." I'm looking around like, "uh, seems like you'll be going way too fast..." but say nothing cuz it's Seth and I'm not about to argue. Anyway, he hits the water going mach loony, barely touches the water, and hits an unforseen kicker on the other side, does half a backfip, way overshoots the landing and lands on his neck 20-30 feet away, barely missing a huge boulder. We kids are all freaking out, like, "What do we do? How do we get help? Is he dead?" We start to ski down to him when he finally gets up, slowly, and yells back "GO SLOWER" (Needless to say, nobody else hit it.)

Seen him in lift lines and bars a few times since. I sometimes say hi (unless it's obvious he doesn't want to be bothered) and tell him I appreciated his coaching when I was a kid -- he always acts like he'd totally remember me if I had less facial hair or the same ski jacket or whatever. Just a nice guy who seems a little uncomfortable with the notoriety he's achieved.

That's a pretty non-typical funny story.

[tahoearmada]

robin williams at alpine meadows on a super stormy pow day in spring of 2006, heard his voice and immediately knew it was him... followed him around for a couple laps, dude could ride pretty well!

[babybear]

been seeing this thread the past couple days and lots of fun encounters.
funny thing is that I can't think of anything. ridden so many dang times that nothing stands out.
Rd w/ Doug Coombs once - not too much conversation though - basically this

[babybear]

Attachment 248035

I look fwd to riding lifts and skiing with the F. Alpy family members again this winter

[El Kanone]

I’ll share my Warren Miller story in this thread. About 6 or 7 years ago I went golfing solo mid week mid day on a little 9 hole course on Orcas Island. The place was empty except for one two some a few holes ahead of me. I caught up to them and they waved me through. When I walked up it was Mr. Miller and a friend of his of similar age. I was so stoked. I asked if I could join them and they said sure. It was awesome they were great and I got to tell him how much skiing and his films meant to me.
On the ninth hole, a short par four, I drove the green to about 15 feet. Just missed the eagle putt.


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[Self Jupiter]

A 72-75ish year old (he gave us his birth date) absolute ripper on KT, did a few afternoon west face corn laps with the guy. Originally from Maine. Wish I brought the GoPro. Iiinspired, as THall would say.