A youth on the chair in front of me jumped off. It did not go well. He screamed a lot, which when you think about it, was better than the alternative.
I’m NOT an experienced skier. I’d been on several ski trips with my son’s Boy Scout troop, and on the second or third, I was ready to go to a regular beginning slope (i.e. not the bunny slope).
The “green” (beginner) slopes at this place involved either going up about halfway, and hopping off the moving lift, or staying on that same lift to the top of the mountain, to the really long beginner slope.
So the day I decided to try it, I was with my husband - and I did not react in time to get off midway. So my choices were to ride to the top and go down the long slope - which had been closed for the day (it was about 4 PM and it was not lit for nighttime skiing), or one of the blue / black slopes :eek: No, they would not have let me go back down on the lift - because they were not set up for that.:eek:
They wound up having me go down the long slope (there was still plenty of light, they just didn’t want to lose track of people). They did send someone down after me after a bit to make sure I was making it down OK. As I recall I wound up walking about the last half.
I can’t help thinking would have been safer to let me ride back down on the lift, but I’d never looked that closely at the downside part of the lift. The thing stopped often enough that I’m quite sure they could have paused it briefly to let me get out of the way safely.
Again, if the lift isn’t set up for downloading it’s simply not safe to download. Walking down a ski slope may be annoying and time consuming, but from Ski Patrol’s point of view, it’s much better than violating their safety rules. It may also be that their insurance policy doesn’t allow that type of downloading.
A little kid fell off the lift at my hill yesterday while preparing to unload. A skier (a retired doctor celebrating his 84th birthday) checked him out and the ski patrol sledded him away. His ankle was injured. I’m glad it was not worse. Poor little guy. 
I confess I’ve never seen a dangerous incident on a lift during normal operation. Plenty of crashes on offloading that are pretty much always minor, lots of tumbles on T’s and buttons that are embarrassing and tiring, but never actually falling out.
The worst crashes I’ve seen are on the run-in to the lift itself, last year one young girl came tearing down towards the lift, caught a edge about thirty yards (unsurprising as the run-ins can chop-up) and ploughed through the queue and smashed head first into the turnstile frame. What a horrible noise that was. She was flat out unconscious with a trail of bodies behind her. We were getting on the chair so saw the whole thing but not the aftermath. There were several helicopter evacuations but checking the news afterwards, thankfully no fatalities. She had her helmet on (a legal requirement in Austria) and I don’t doubt for second that it saved her from much more serious harm.
Wear your helmets people!
I ride a ski lift once a year and am surprised I’ve never seen a problem. I ride at Seven Springs Ski Resort during their annual wine festival. After tasting a way too much wine we’ll buy a bottle and ride the lift up the mountain to drink our wine and enjoy the scenery.
My gf skis and has pointed out that riding the lift is easier in shorts and a tshirt then it is in full ski gear.