Hair Cutting Skills Save Skier’s Day
Your Support Helps!
Help us keep SeniorsSkiing.com free. Please support SeniorsSkiing.com with a donation.
Editor’s note: Virtually all of us have amusing or near-miss skiing stories. Send in your stories and we’ll publish the most interesting…along with an original Mike Roth cartoon depicting the event.
An original Mike Roth illustration.
Reader Michael Hudson writes: I was a ski patrolman at Mt Hood, Oregon, back in the 60’s. I helped rescue a young lady whose long hair got twisted into the rope. Thanks to an alert lift operator and the scissors I was carrying, the event didn’t end in tragedy.
Mike Roth is a ski journalist who writes a regular ski blog for the Albany Time Union. He is also a talented cartoonist and and architect.
Latest posts by Mike Roth (see all)
- My 80 Plus Patch and Its Potential - March 19, 2026
- Optimism vs. Pessimism: Update on Skiing Private-Public Powder Mountain - March 5, 2026
- Skiing is Less Expensive Than Other Activities - January 8, 2026
Nowdays, part of a rope tow safety inspection is to put a piece of ribbon on the rope and watch it go up. Standards now require the ribbon to turn around once or less in the distance of the rope. That way, when it’s released, it doesn’t spin and grab loose clothing, scarves, hair, etc. Modern tows have a bull wheel angle adjustment for this.
Many years ago, my local ski hill, the Pines in northwestern Indiana, had only rope tows. I was young enough that it was a big stretch to hang on until the very top of the hill and my hair got twisted in the rope. It pulled a quarter size chunk out of my scalp. Ouch!
double ouch! hope it all grew back in?