Most interesting person you shared a lift with

**AlpineKevin** · 09-19-2018, 11:55 AM

At Mammoth I would occasionally see film stars. Usually at Vons or at Main Lodge, but never shared a lift with anyone particularly interesting. I remember one poster here got on the chair with Daron Rahlves at Sugarbowl as they talked how Squaw is too crowded to ski. Who is the most interesting person you shared a lift with?

**Buster Highmen** · 09-19-2018, 12:05 PM

I saw Jackie Onassis @ Snowbird once.

**GeezerSteve** · 09-19-2018, 12:10 PM

flowing alpy

Silas Wild ; )

Jean Enerson (local news anchor)

Vince Lombardi III

**RustyGroomer** · 09-19-2018, 12:13 PM

Gary

**AlpineKevin** · 09-19-2018, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by Buster Highmen

I saw Jackie Onassis @ Snowbird once.

What an awful choice of a ski resort for her, especially being before Mineral Basin. She must had done boring laps of Chip's Run all day. Not to assume but I really don't see her charging down Great Scott or much else at the Bird. She should have gone to Beaver Creek or Park City.

**duffski** · 09-19-2018, 12:18 PM

Rode with Glen Plake on Gunbarrell at Heavenly a couple times. Gives great pointers on how to shred the bumps and is always so stoked.

**TurxSki** · 09-19-2018, 12:19 PM

Interesting? In what way?
Sounds like you mean Celebs?

For me, it'd have to be Splat.
Or Susan Lopez, from Wildflour in SV,usa.

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**AlpineKevin** · 09-19-2018, 12:23 PM

Originally Posted by duffski

Rode with Glen Plake on Gunbarrell at Heavenly a couple times. Gives great pointers on how to shred the bumps and is always so stoked.

Was never on a lift with Glen Plake but after hours once the lodge was all closed and locked up I would see him in the Main Lodge sometimes at Mammoth. Dave McCoy gave him his own little condo right behind the cafeteria on the top floor. I remember thinking he's a lot shorter than I expected.

**AK47bp** · 09-19-2018, 12:25 PM

At whistler some 80 yr old guy with a season pass that was number 001. Said he used to climb up to whistler peak or roundhouse area and ski down before the lifts were there. Said he'd bring wine and ladies with him too.

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**AlpineKevin** · 09-19-2018, 12:26 PM

Originally Posted by TurxSki

Interesting? In what way?
Sounds like you mean Celebs?

Whatever way you want. Could be a celeb, or maybe a guy who was in the room with Khrushchev when he decided to back down in Cuba. I've seen tons of douchebag celebs in Vegas but the most interesting guy I talked to there was a black dealer who for 30 years dealt to everyone including the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia who tipped him like $100k (unfortunately tips in Vegas have to be split with ALL dealers).

**OregonDead** · 09-19-2018, 12:37 PM

OP Mammoth is a very interesting place.
I shared a lift there with Hutash and he is very interesting. Dude knows his way around Mammoth. Took me on some very interesting and super fun runs that required ski carries on the way up and down.
Same trip I shared a gondola with a random snowboard kid that insisted that skis should not be called boards in any instance. I spent the whole ride having a very heated conversation and I explained that I often call my skis boards and how people can ski on one ski no problem and call it a board or a ski. In the same gondola there was a very amused man from Topaz lake that asked me to ski with him. Guy turned out to be a personal friend of the Plakes and a pilot and fishing guide and a heck of a skier. Dude was almost as interesting as Hutash and we had a crazy couple of hours of some very fast steep skiing and ski bumming in which time we racked up a ton of laps, (dude basically runs in his ski boots through the gondola station),met some very nice lady ski instructors from Argentina and ate free soup at the upper gondola station.

**Timberridge** · 09-19-2018, 12:38 PM

The 10 yr old in the Skyeship who asked me and a friend if we had any weed for the ride up. We ignored him and he proceeded to hurl gay slurs at us for the remainder of the ride.

**duffski** · 09-19-2018, 12:39 PM

Originally Posted by AlpineKevin

Was never on a lift with Glen Plake but after hours once the lodge was all closed and locked up I would see him in the Main Lodge sometimes at Mammoth. Dave McCoy gave him his own little condo right behind the cafeteria on the top floor. I remember thinking he's a lot shorter than I expected.

Nah Glen is not short, probably just under 6 feet tall but with the mohawk up he's probably well over 7 feet. You probably saw him when he wasnt rocking the hawk.

**brutah** · 09-19-2018, 12:40 PM

Originally Posted by AlpineKevin

Whatever way you want. Could be a celeb, or maybe a guy who was in the room with Khrushchev when he decided to back down in Cuba. I've seen tons of douchebag celebs in Vegas but the most interesting guy I talked to there was a black dealer who for 30 years dealt to everyone including the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia who tipped him like $100k (unfortunately tips in Vegas have to be split with ALL dealers).

Still not very interesting.....

I rode up a lift with a guy in the afternoon on a storm day at Alta. Dude cracks open a beer and hands it to me saying "first tracks?" I've been using that line ever since whenever I offer someone the first bite or sip from a freshly opened beer.

I've found most celebs to be quite boring and terrible skiers. Glen Plake is a great person to ride a chair lift with, always stoked and always ready to go off on a tangent about one of his millions of ski tales.

**Ted Striker** · 09-19-2018, 12:53 PM

maybe it was fake-plake? how tall is spatts?

**AlpineKevin** · 09-19-2018, 12:59 PM

Originally Posted by pisteoff

maybe it was fake-plake? how tall is spatts?

Wasn't fake Plake. He was coming out of his condo (more of a closet than condo) right behind the cafeteria in Mammoth Lodge. It was like 11pm and he was walking around in his socks with his mohawk down but he was still short, well short of 6ft.

**SumJongGuy** · 09-19-2018, 01:00 PM

Over 40 years of lift served from coast to coast, north to mid atlantic. One that sticks out from last season was a guy about my age, mid 50s who was skiing on 140 cm twin tips and wearing a resort ski school jacket and name tag. He had no poles. At first I assumed those were his new noobs teaching skis but when we started chatting I noticed something else was a little off. I asked him how long he had been working there, telling him I worked in a ski school at a similar resort loooong ago. He said he had worked there 30 years and was a race coach... But was recovering from a recent stroke and only had about 40% movement on the left side of his body, said that's why the short twins. He was just doing whatever it took to get back out on the snow and share his knowledge with the little kids on the race team however he could. I hope to see him again this season out there. I'll go out of my way to catch another lift ride with him and comment on his improvement and motivation.

**GoldMember** · 09-19-2018, 01:08 PM

Plake's about 5-9. Don't know his actual measured height but he seemed about two inches shorter than me when I talked to him.

**F#*k you cat** · 09-19-2018, 01:09 PM

Had the great fortune to ride up old Collins with Alf Engen. Such an inspiration to me. He was so knowledgeable about the mountains the snow and the conditions. I just shut up and listened. Alf lived for Alta and it was crystal clear to me after that short ride.

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**nutmegchoi** · 09-19-2018, 01:16 PM

Rode with a kiddo (middle schooler) who had no idea how old I was.
Tried to pick me up and asked me how I got to the mountain.
“I drove”
“You have a car??!? That’s rad!!”
Didn’t have the heart to tell I could’ve been his mother’s age (or even older).

**muted** · 09-19-2018, 01:16 PM

I've ridden with Plake, Tom Jungst, The Turk, and T Hall at Bridger Bowl.

Saw Seal on the tram deck at Snowbird with a smoking hot girlfriend a long time ago. I think my jaw dropped when I walked by her. Later found out it was Heidi Klum.

**Timberridge** · 09-19-2018, 01:16 PM

Originally Posted by GoldMember

Plake's about 5-9. Don't know his actual measured height but he seemed about two inches shorter than me when I talked to him.

That would make you around 5'11".

**AlpineKevin** · 09-19-2018, 01:23 PM

Originally Posted by GoldMember

Plake's about 5-9. Don't know his actual measured height but he seemed about two inches shorter than me when I talked to him.

5'9" is about right. I was 6ft wearing boots and he was 5'9" wearing socks. 5'9" I guess is technically average, but in sports I usually expect guys to be bigger than average. He was definitely not built though so maybe that is why he seemed small.

**teledad** · 09-19-2018, 01:23 PM

Rode up with a guy at Sugar Bowl who told me about skiing there after returning from WW2. Had a bunch of stories about the rivalry with Squaw in the early days. This was about 10 years ago so he must've been in his 80s and had been skiing there for 60+ years.

**FJ62** · 09-19-2018, 01:24 PM

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.

Not on a chair lift, but fast forward a couple years and I was at the base of Telluride buying Chapstick when I noticed a bozo in front me in a fur length coat down to his ankles. It was Trump alongside Marla Maples.