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3640. alistairConnor - 3/13/2006 12:29:42 AM Shared a chair lift this afternoon with one of the ski station staff. Reprovingly he noted that my two daughters were not wearing helmets. I'd never really understood what they were for, so he explained : you've seen people slaloming going up the ski tows? Strictly forbidden. Get caught, and you'll lose your ski pass.
I'd known that too, but again, hadn't understood why.
So he goes into clinical detail : Slaloming, you're pulling the ski tow cable out of line, and it sometimes jumps off the pulley at a post, and goes zzzzzzing and decapitates someone.
Not often. But recently, he saw a guy get scalped, from the centreline of his skull to the ear. Long stay in hospital, many many stitches, but the worst (for the staffer) was spending all evening at the police station filling in forms.
OK... I make a mental note to buy some headgear...
Ten minutes later, we are on a ski tow : two daughters ahead of me. And the four guys ahead of them start doing ... what? Zigzagging all across the track and well outside it, having a great time, and me in a cold sweat...
Nothing happened, of course. 3641. ronski - 3/15/2006 8:04:29 PM What kind of lift is that? T-bar, "pomalift," or something else?
3642. ronski - 3/15/2006 8:04:54 PM Simon was a cutey! 3643. alistairConnor - 3/15/2006 9:18:36 PM uhm I don't have the technical vocabulary. Rubber disc on the end of a broomstick : the classic French "tire-cul", I have no idea what is used elsewhere. A fairly modern version with a retractable rope.
But I imagine the problem is generic to any sort of ski tow : the vulnerability is where the wire cable can potentially jump off the pulley at any post. 3644. thoughtful - 3/15/2006 9:21:53 PM Comme ça?
 3645. thoughtful - 3/15/2006 9:24:33 PM vs. a t-bar?
 3646. alistairConnor - 3/15/2006 9:25:41 PM Yes but the rubber disc should be visible between her legs. 3647. ronski - 3/15/2006 11:21:28 PM It's not visible only because it is the same color as her ski suit.
In any case, it is what in the U.S. is called a pomalift, made by Poma, now called Leitner-Poma and now better known for chairlifts, such as detachable quads.
3648. ronski - 3/15/2006 11:25:05 PM 
Mt. Mansfield, from Spruce Peak, Stowe, Vermont, Sunday.
3649. ronski - 3/16/2006 12:09:14 AM 
Moss Glen Falls, Granville, Vermont, yesterday.
3650. ronski - 3/16/2006 12:10:54 AM 
Clover-Dale Farm, Waterbury, Vermont.
3651. ronski - 3/16/2006 12:12:41 AM 
Balsam firs, summit of Mount Ellen, Waitsfield, Vermont.
3652. alistairConnor - 3/16/2006 12:13:28 AM I spent three days in Vermont in 1998
Definitely a place I want to go back to.
Granville surely refers to French settlers, from the eponymous port in Normandy? 3653. ronski - 3/16/2006 12:14:13 AM 
Dead weeds in a cold rain, Stowe.
3654. ronski - 3/16/2006 12:15:04 AM 
Ice jam, the White River.
3655. ronski - 3/16/2006 12:18:50 AM Granville surely refers to French settlers, from the eponymous port in Normandy?
More likely from an English surname, anglicized from the French, in that part of the state (central). For all the French-ancestry residents in Vermont, and the state's name itself, most place names are Abenaki Indian or British (including English names for foreign cities or countries, such as "Moscow" and "Peru.")
3656. ronski - 3/16/2006 12:19:54 AM 
Mountain birches.
3657. thoughtful - 3/16/2006 12:21:00 AM It is generally assumed that the Vermont Granville derives from Granville in either Massachusetts or New York, both of which were named for John Carteret (1690-1763), the first Earl of Granville, one of the most illustrious men of his day. Already a peer by the time he was six years old, he became one of the best classical scholars of the 18th Century, and was second to none in political infiuence under the first three Georges. Horace Walpole, said the Earl was "handsome, open and engaging; ... his genius was magnificent and lofty; his heart was without gall or friendship, for he never tried to be revenged on his enemies or to serve his friends."
Strangely enough, some of the earliest Vermont records for the town of Granville show its name spelled Grantville. This gives rise to the thought that possibly the name merely meant that the town was granted by the Vermont legislature.
3658. ronski - 3/16/2006 12:21:33 AM 
Moi.
3659. ronski - 3/16/2006 12:22:27 AM thoughtful,
Cool. Thanks.
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