Overcoming your fear of the chairlift

Chairlifts are an integral part of skiing. They act as transportation from the bottom to the top of the mountains. It would not be practical to walk to these starting points while wearing and carrying all of the equipment.

Before reading on please know that I am not a certified Psychologist and all of the advice below is based on my own experiences and research.

Most skiers take chairlifts in their strides but some are more intimidated by the prospect of riding a chair attached to a cable suspended on poles and having to maneuver off at the top, while it continues to move. The anxiety might be mild and only rise during the first chair taken of the day, but sometimes it is severe enough to keep a ski enthusiast from enjoying the sport.

Chairlifts can cause anxiety for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the fear is an expansion of a fear of heights. Sometimes the skier is afraid the chairlift is not safe. Sometimes and most commonly, the fear is centered around not being able to get off the chair properly while wearing skis and carrying poles and other equipment, knowing the lift isn’t going to stop for them to do so.

Anxiety sometimes has a factual, historical basis. It may be triggered by a bad experience related to heights, riding a chairlift, or an accident that gets lots of publicity. Sometimes it appears out of nowhere with no logical explanation. The person feels frightened even though they have never had a bad experience and have no first hand knowledge of a chairlift accident. This may mean that their fear is linked to another existing fear, such as worry for their children or experiencing new things.

Chairlift anxiety might be part of something much bigger. It may be a manifestation of a broader anxiety disorder that you may or may not know about already. If you think this may be you, my advice is to seek specialized professional help. See a psychiatrist, psychologist or counselor if you are anxious about a variety of things to the point that your fears are inhibiting everyday life and activities.

Importantly, if you are trying skiing for the first few times, be sure to tell the people you are learning with that this is something you ae experiencing and whether you have any existing anxiety disorder because friends, instructors, and lift operators will more than likely be able to help you should you need it.

If you have identified that your fear is minor but worth trying to overcome to improve your ski holiday experience, here are a few simple things to try that may help.

Education is key. Learn about how chairlifts operate, the different types, the procedure that are in place when something goes wrong. Knowledge is most certainly power when it comes to fear and there is so much information out there on rusted websites. A few hours of reading my just set your mind at rest.

Engage in controlled breathing exercises to help you curtail your panic. Yoga and deep breathing methods are designed to enhance your calm, and while numerous coping mechanisms exist, the basics are very simple. Close your eyes and try to shut out any external stimuli. Become aware of your body's movements, your heartbeat and your breathing. Take in a deep breath lasting five seconds. Hold it for five, then breathe out for five. Hold the out breath for five seconds and then breathe in again. Repeat this process for 10 or 15 minutes until you feel your panic begin to subside.

Ask for guidance. In a private lesson it is possible to spend the entire time working through the steps to get you more confident taking various mountain lifts. Some ski instructors will have more experience helping students with these fears, so talking to a ski school about getting a private lesson with a patient instructor who has experience teaching people with such fears is a great place to start at the beginning of your holiday. To read a little about my fear success stories in Japan click here.

Get comfortable on your skis before you push yourself too far, especially if it is the fear of getting off the lift that is getting in your way. Sometimes taking an alternative lift such as a button/POMA lift is not possible. Either way, I always encourage my more anxious students to walk around in their ski boots more in the snow, practice some one ski balance gliding and flat push off gliding with two skis as warm up. Get confident skating across the flat without using your poles, and practice getting up from a bench or mound of snow with your skis on. All of these activities help you to be balanced on your skis and break down the elements of getting on and off a chair lift.

Once you feel ready. Make sure you are physically and mentally ready. When getting on the lift at the bottom, physically it is a good idea to give your ski poles to a more experienced skier or your instructor so that they do not get in the way and you are not tempted to use them to slow down at the top. If you do not have a willing helper, take your hands out of the pole straps and put both poles in one hand. Use the other hand to guide the seat round behind you. When you are at the top, make sure the bar is lifted up, wait until your skis have become flat on the landing strip and glide off with your skis or snowboard pointing straight forward in parallel. Once you have exited the lift away from other people on the chair, point your skis to a free space and glide into a wedge stop.

Practice, practice practice. Sometimes a technique called ‘flooding’ can help fear. This means being immersed repetitively in the activity that causes fear. Doing something a lot with a conscious effort to think about the elements of it that you enjoy, can really help. I have found the best way to do this is to find a short chairlift as close to the main base as you can, a chairlift that accesses an easy green slope to the bottom of it and ski the run again and again until you have turned the anxiety of getting on it into a thrill of wanting to get to the top to race down.

Speak to a therapist about the source of your phobia. While therapy isn't a magic bullet in the short term, it can help you conquer your fears for good over the long term. Phobias are a type of anxiety disorder, which means they often have roots in your personality and upbringing. A professional therapist can help uncover those roots and teach you methods of coping with your fear.

Ask your therapist about medication. While it won't cure your fear of skiing, it may help you remain calm while you continue to undergo treatment. Beta Blockers and sedatives are commonly prescribed for other phobias, which reduce the effects of adrenaline in your body. Use them in conjunction with the coping methods described previously only at the recommendation of your doctor and therapist- some may not be safe to use during sports such as skiing. On this note, if you are already taking anxiety or sedation medication, please speak to your doctor or therapist to make sure it is safe for you to go ahead with skiing.

For more tips on how to get on and off the various mountain lifts safely and confidently, click here.

TheSkiNomad