"It cost several hundred thousand dollars, which wasn't cheap for an area our size, but we think it's a good investment and will pay off by getting school and other beginner groups to come back out here again. "Ever since our carpet opened, we've had great reviews, hands down, of how much more pleasant it is for beginners and instructors alike," he said, noting that it goes another hundred feet higher than the old handle tow and gives access to more novice terrain. It also gets them to try his resort in the first place, he said.
I haven't snowboarded since.įaber said he's convinced that Tyrol's magic carpet surface lift entices novice skiers and snowboarders to come back. But on the snowboard, because I was a newbie and both feet were strapped to one plank, I was clueless. On my skis, I would have been able to easily find my balance. I got in the way of 5- and 6-year-olds behind me and ended up finishing the lesson early - bruised and humiliated. I tried as hard as I could to get to the top of a bunny run via a rope tow on my rental snowboard, but I kept catching the front edge of my board and getting knocked down. It's been more than 15 years, but this writer remembers all-too-well a painful snowboard lesson at White Pass resort in Washington. No one falls and nobody's gloves or mittens get mangled because you're not holding onto anything." But a magic carpet is about as easy as it gets because you just stand on it and it takes you up the slope. "To be honest, it's hard to learn this sport at first and rope tows are hard to manage if you are trying to negotiate one to get up the beginner hill the first few times. Josh Faber, the new general manager at Tyrol, said his resort purchased the surface lift - which is much like the conveyor belts travelers find in airports - for this winter because he wanted to make the learning experience "as easy and positive as possible for our new skiers and snowboarders." Tyrol still has one rope tow, however, which serves the terrain park on the Barnyard run. The new surface lift greatly improved the learning experience for novice skiers and snowboarders. The resort near Mount Horeb also had a rope tow and a cable tow with a handle serving its beginner areas.īoth of those lifts are gone now, replaced by a 500-foot magic carpet lift that serves the Trollway and Gentle Ben beginner slopes. They enjoyed the experience on the slopes and making s'mores in front of the ski club cabin fireplace immensely, but over time they begged me to take them to resorts that had chairlifts.Įventually, we bought a family season pass at Tyrol Basin, which has three chairlifts. When my kids were little, they learned to ski at the Blackhawk ski hill on the west side of Madison, with its whopping 100-plus feet of vertical descent and several rope tows - which shredded numerous pairs of gloves and mittens.
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