Ski and board check ins

[NHpowderhound]

In the Eastern forum joegm brings up an excellent topic.What do you do with your sticks when you need to go inside and you want to secure them?
IMO,EVERY mountain should have some sort of FREE ski and board check.It's ludicrous to make your patrons risk losing a thousand dollar investment.
I've seen state police make roadblocks and check for stolen skis on I89 in NH near the Vt. boarder.That would never have been nescasarry if the mountain had a free ski check.
((*
*))NHPH

 

[hamdog]

about 5 or 6 years ago there was a huge lift at Loon of a whole mess of
snowboards. only snowboards. people were not happy. i guess they
came in, took all they could in a short amount of time and bounced. gone
before anyone even knew what hit them. i'm just guessing cause it was
awhile ago, but if i remember right, there were there for like a half hour,
got about 20 boards and hit the road. i hope they ended up gettting
caught for that and are still paying for it. to understate this circumstance,
that is just wrong.

personally, i never leave my board unattended except for to go take a
leak. i carry a sandwich with me for lunch so i can eat on the lift and don't
have to go inside. if it's incredibly cold, i ride the ganje. maybe a PBR at
the picnic tables, but still, board never leaves my site. i don't know what i
would do if i even saw anyone trying to lift my board. i thinkthat's where most of us would lose our "cool". glad i haven't heard of anything like that
loon example happening around here.

i must confess though. when i was a teenager on vacation at sunday river
we were staying trailside and walked down the hill to the gameroom one
night at about 9pm. all the ski racks were pulled onto the deck so
groomers can groom the base area. anyways, i saw a rental board that
was never returned just lying kinda hidden in the cluster of ski racks.
seeing that i was a young hoodlem, there was only one thing going
through my head. free board! woohoo! threw it in the woods, grabed the
car and threw it in the trunk. i'm not exactly sure how i got it home
without my parents saying anything about a board in the trunk, but i
ended up getting it home. i never rode the thing cause it was a piece of
junk, but i let my freinds ride it if they didn't have a board. then i sold it
to play it again sports. sorry about that sunday river, and my friends
thank you. i'll be up there to buy a full price ticket this winter to make up
for it..........and not use a season pass that is available for my use. haha.

oh, and i bought a hot board too. still have it. it's my rock board. i was
the second person to own it, but they guy whole sold me the board told
me that it was lifted from a reps van. a board company out of oregon
that is no longer in business...........and not becuase i bought a hot board
from a freind who bought it originally from a freind who knew the dude
who lifted the van either. don't be silly now. those are my stealing
stories.

 

[LobsterTeleGrrrl]

I have a lock that I use for my skis. I usually don't leave much in my ski bag that stays in the lodge. My shoes and stinky old socks....extra liner mitts. Stuff that nobody would want to steal. if I'm leaving something expensive in the lodge, I'll pay the 50 cents for the cubicle locker.

 

[salida]

Not to sound obnoxious, but I hardly ever stop long enough during the day to have my skis get stolen. If I am paying for a lift ticket I'm going to ski from 8 - 4 and maybe 10 minutes to eat a sandwhich in the woods, on the side of the trail. Or I'll sit in a lodge up top where my skis are less likely to get stolen.

porter


ps the only time I ever had anything stolen (poles) was Dec 8th of 2000 (I know the date cause I kept the ticket) at Killington, It was a complimentary day for everyone to show off their snowmaking

 

[Admin]

Not to sound obnoxious, but I hardly ever stop long enough during the day to have my skis get stolen. If I am paying for a lift ticket I'm going to ski from 8 - 4 and maybe 10 minutes to eat a sandwhich in the woods, on the side of the trail.

Yeah, just wait 'til you're my age! :evil: :wink:

It seems that I'm the only one thus far who's had skis stolen. And much to my surprise, it was at Taos. I expected it at a ski area somewhat remotely close to an urban area, not at a place like Taos. We had gone in for drinks in the bar near the end of the day, and when we came out my kid's skis (rentals) and my wife's snowblades were gone, along with one old bent and mangled pole of mapadu's. They apparently scooped whatever they could find, including that single twisted pole that mapadu had as an emergency spare.

I'm now much more careful about locking them. And I concur with joegm from another thread -- I love those SkiKey thingamabobs.

 

[riverc0il]

IMO,EVERY mountain should have some sort of FREE ski and board check.It's ludicrous to make your patrons risk losing a thousand dollar investment.

i disagree with this. wire locks are available for purchase for a few bucks and are highly effective against ski theft. i don't think it should be the mountain's responsibility to look out for other people's stuff. ski areas have enough trouble making a profit without raping customers with lift prices without having to build storage areas and hire two or three additional employees to service customers.

i DO think ski areas have the responsibility to provide enough racks for skis, and provide racks that are lock accessable. i think having a lock that is flexible enough to work on any rack is important and up to the skier to provide for themselves and their gear. a $5 investment on a $700 pair of skis is a no brainer. people wouldn't leave their car or bike unlocked in a crowded area known for break ins and thefts, why risk it at a ski area?

 

[JimG.]

I agree with Porter...I keep my skis on my feet and my poles in my hands for the most part. If we stop for lunch, one of us stays with the equipment while the other gets food, then we eat on the lift or with our equipment. I usually bring food, so it's rare I even stop to get it.

I have a season locker at Hunter, but it's just too time consuming to lock my equipment up the few times I'm tempted to leave it somewhere.

 

[Patrick]

Can I change my vote???? I forgot about the gear bag.

I entered "NO" before I remember about that last day of skiing in 2002 (May at Ste.Anne).

I had left my gear bag (clothes and stuff) at the lodge, like I have been doing everytime for at least 20 years.

At the end of the day, I couldn't find my bag. There wasn't any valuables inside, just a few t-shirts (all the clothes for the weekend in Montreal), a few hats including a beloved Tuckermans' Ravine t-shirt and my favorite cap. My wife was happy that my old goretex gloves with 3 generations of ducktape on them were also in the bag. :?

No shoes, no pants, nothing to wear for the trip back to Montreal, lucky it was in MAy. I went to see customer service, they mentioned that thelf was very common in the lodge. :evil:

The issue here is similar to joe's, lockers are too small and no check-in in the late season.

When we left Ste.Anne, I just realized, while driving next to the factory outlet store in Ste.Anne de Beaupré THAT I NEED SHOES AND PANTS for the weekend. Not to cool to go see a Peter Murphy concert the next day with ski pants and ski boots :roll: .

I walk in the store bare feet and with my ski pants, I said, "This is going to be a easy selling job... if the shoes/pant fit and aren't pink... I will buy them."

 

[Tony Crocker]

I'm with salida (eat at an upmoutain facility when possible) and riverc0il (use my own cable lock at a base area facility) on this subject. I've had one theft incident. On a blazing hot day at Mt. Baldy in 1992 I stashed my daypack for a couple of hours to ski in a t-shirt. The pack was stolen and it contained my ski jacket, which contained my wallet and car keys.

My now ex-wife was none too pleased having to drive out to Baldy with an extra car key. The good news is that a then-liberal homeowners policy allowed me to replace the ski jacket. So now I carry the pack no matter how hot it is. And Baldy is an exception to the upmountain lodge rule. It gets a lot of weekend scenic ride visitors who come up from SoCal cities to gape at the snow.

 

[Ryan]

I had a set of ski's lifted once at Holiday Valley in NY. Somewhere around 1996. It was as close to my own fault as it could be though. Newer, clean pair of Salomon's left on an unlocked rack right near the parking lot after dark while I was in on a food break for about 45 minutes. If there is a stupider way to leave one's ski's I can't come up with it. I was just a kid though. 17-18. No I don't really leave them outside unless I have to and that is with a lock. I also try to put my gear next to something else really nice. Don't let your $1000 investment sit next to a pile of rentals and beat up straight boards from the 80's.

 

[JimG.]

If there is a stupider way to leave one's ski's I can't come up with it.

The only thing I can think of would be if you had actually put them in the thief's car and told them see you later. Don't feel too bad, I had a pair of poles stolen because I was equally careless. Hard to avoid skiing at an area like Hunter.

 

[Ryan]

Hard to avoid skiing at an area like Hunter.

Do you think that there is any more theft at Hunter than other major resorts in the east?

 

[JimG.]

Do you think that there is any more theft at Hunter than other major resorts in the east?

No, I don't think so. However, its' proximity to NYC promotes the image that Hunter is a place where there are alot of thieves. In reality, Hunter hires security personnel who set up equipment as bait and who then stake that equipment out from a distance and move in for the arrest if there are any takers.

I think they do a good job of discouraging theft, but if you make it easy, stuff will still get stolen.

I once had the pleasure of riding a lift with a daytripper who was bragging to his buddy about the bag in the lodge he rifled thru to steal the gore-tex shell he was wearing. Got on my cell phone and called a buddy who had no idea what I was talking about when I told him that I was riding the lift with the thief who stole his jacket and that we would arrive at the summit soon, to meet us there so he could kick this kid's ass.

Probably the fastest descent that little jerk ever skied!

 

[Sharon]

In addition to skis, I've also had a bag stolen, it had boots, keys and other gear in it. Luckily, the kid who stole it didn't find the contents interesting enough and left it near the school buses. My husband however, wasn't so lucky. His Hotronics, wallet, new hiking boots and car keys were in it.
It was a weds night at our local area and we've been going there for decades. At night there are a lot of kids. This is also when my skis were stolen (Olin Mark IIIs in 1982).

One time I had one pole taken, and left behind was another pole, similar to it, but longer. Someone goofed. I wonder how long it took him to realize it.

I rarely lock stuff up b/c I hate carrying a lock. I do, however, always seperate my skis and poles, and at big resorts, I try to lunch on the mountain instead of the base lodge. Now I leave my bag in my car at Greek Peak. Obviously we can't trust the little brats.

 

[Jay Suds]

My dad has had his ski's stolen once at Stowe, probably 94 or 95 season. We drove around for a while, and finally found some brat who stole them walking down the mtn road. My dad - 6'1 and about 240lbs at the time - jumped out of the car, pulled the kid by his collar and got his ski's back. The kid was so scared that he started crying when my dad told him we were going for a ride to the police station - apparently, crying worked because my mom set him free. Other than that, someone stole my brother's pole - a single pole - at WaWa. When I ski, I usually just seperate my skis and hope for the best.

I do agree that resorts should have a free ski check available ... after all, if you shelled out enough for a season pass, or $60+ for a day ticket, you'd think they would want to keep you a happy customer and do what they can to keep your ski's from getting stolen.