Yup. Ski lifts are so safe, it worries me. Let me see, there were 2 chances to stop it if it started running away backwards. An electronic control and a hand pulled brake. This was in 1978, so maybe there are more safeguards. The control room burned up that winter for the main lift, so they wired it back together and the lifties were told only to shut it down if somebody was about to die. I ran what we called the lobotomy chair--the beginner chair.
One summer the lift did go out of control and threw some people off. It had been overloaded with people riding it downhill. That was the end of taking a shortcut to get to the Pacific Crest Trail.
I turned down an offer to ride the rigging up the hill. It was a steep hill, but I made it up to the landing just a bit after the crew did. The yarder engineer went super slow. The boss's kid was riding. Dad showed up the next day and read the riot act to the crew for doing that.
After seeing carriages and yarders break down, there's no way I'd want to ride that cat or the rigging. But I'd take pictures of you guys doing it.
