Do you use the Safety Bar on Ski Chairlifts?
Upon loading a chairlift, do you lower the safety bar when you’re skiing?
I do… always have, always will! I like the protection of a restraint bar when traveling 20-50-feet above the cold hard ground with no other “safety net” to speak of. Quad and six-pack chairlifts (for example) are swift, heavy, 500-pound, metal objects traveling at 1,000 feet per minute. Think about the logistics when a cable moving your chair at 16 feet per second stops suddenly for some “gaper” that missed loading?!
I also love a chairlift footrest to rest my 12-pound skis, plus the 5-pound ski boots, a short respite for the 5-8 minute ascent, before my next ski down the mountain.
Bonus, most ski lift safety bars also help define the space in which I should sit, and where my chair neighbors should fit their butt, their backpack, poles, gear. Just like on an airplane, I put the armrest down so you “stay on your side”. Flashback to my parents’ station wagon backseat with my two brothers. I digress…
Skiing out west, Colorado, Utah, California, I am flabbergasted by the number of skiers and riders who do not, will not, put down their safety bar. As if its uncool to be seen having a restraint and foot rest?! Ski season 2025, Colorado reported 18 skiers & riders fell from chairlifts, in ONE SEASON! 18 people fell from chairlifts in Colorado last year. In The Alps, no one fell from a chairlift in the last two seasons!
More preventable accidents: A Park City Ski Patroller fell from the Shortcut chairlift to his death, when a tree fell on the line causing the chair to bounce, then stop abruptly. A young dad riding at Keystone chair without the safety bar down, leaned forward to adjust his snowboard bindings, slipped and fell 50 feet, he died from injuries months later.
A ski mom and her two children at Grandby Ranch in Colorado slid from their chair when the lift started traveling backwards, their safety bar was up. The mom died from impact. Others on the malfunctioning lift had their bars down, and they remained in their chairs, uninjured. Its so simple. And conversely so sad…
Chairlift emergency stops can and will happen. Picture your slippery ski pants, perhaps with a little snow or ice build-up on the chair, and no safety bar to stop your forward inertia. Where is your ass going to slide? We have all seen chairlift falls, in person or on Jerry of the Day. It ranges from funny to fractures, to fatal!
Snowboarders, sorry dudes, in particularly seem to think its cool to hang without the protection of a safety bar. So when I happen to join a group of dudes, or dudettes, on a six pack or quad, I politely ask to please put the bar down. Inevitably they reply “no problem”, “sure,”… some even remark with an epiphany the foot rest “is actually quite comfortable.”
Vail Resorts company-wide policy requires all employees to “restrain themselves by lowering the safety bar when riding a chair lift.” But that does not apply to the public, Vail Resorts finds us replaceable when they sell 2.3 million season passes, I suppose!
New Englanders are better adopters of chairlift safety bars. Its the law in New Hampshire, the live free or die state. Vermont Tram Safety code states, “Always bring down the restraint bar. Before you lower the bar, make sure your child is safely seated and then ask others if they’re ready for the bar. Teach older kids to do the same. Getting off, raise the bar when prompted by signs, not before.”
Is it a wild-west phenomenon to blow off the safety bar? Like the Colorado California cool factor? A few lifts out west don’t even have a safety bar. Slippery little kids whose backs don’t reach the seat back tend to lean forward, yikes!
In Europe, lowering the safety bar immediately upon loading a chair is the law. Many chairlifts in The Alps have automated safety bars that lower immediately, latch and lock just after loading. A camera 5-meters from loading will stop the lift if the safety bar is not down! And the safety bar lock doesn’t release until the top station. Its seamless, safe, no discussion, no debate, no option. You will be yelled at by the lift attendants if you disobey, just FYI!
Its fascinating, ok silly to me, when skiers lift the safety bar a full two or three towers prior to the unload ramp. To me, keeping that bar down until I am safely in the unload area is most important. The likelihood of a stoppage is continual, and I don’t want to fall out of the chair where there is any big gap to the ground. Besides, there is plenty of time to lift the bar, it takes all of 5 seconds, once you announce “bar up.”
I am all about personal freedoms, I’m from NH’s “live free or die” state, like Bode Miller, he and I love the freedom that only skiing brings. But this is one risk you don’t need to take on your free ski day!
Safety bars on ski lifts are just – “safe”! And a simple metal bar certainly doesn’t infringe upon your freedom. If I ride the chair with you, I will politely announce, or request if I sense people are not “bar people” (you are so obvious), that I wish to put the safety bar down. So pay attention, be agreeable, don’t lean forward as the bar comes down. And don’t say “good thing I’m wearing a helmet,” if you are so far forward that the bar taps your skid-lid. Meanwhile, Italy is the first country to mandate ski helmets in 2026… another controversy..
In The Alps, by the way, no one asks, it’s just standard protocol, you load the chairlift, sit down, the bar is coming down immediately. Go ski the Alps, you’ll see! Happy trails ski friends! See more on ski etiquette and the Skiers Responsibility Code.
