On a Saturday morning in mid-December, I was lined up waiting for the Snowflake Lift at Breckenridge to start spinning. A man asked someone standing behind me in line, “you a single?” He replied, “Yeah, but I’m not putting the bar down.” The questioner found someone else to partner up with.

A week or so later I was boarding Peak 8 SuperConnect. I put my hand up, turned to my chairmate and said, “bar coming down.” He angrily turned to me and replied, “Only Jerrys put the bar down.” The bar went down anyway. 

I guess I’m a Jerry.

It would be less polarizing in Summit County to write a column about my thoughts on Donald Trump’s upcoming presidency than on the issue of bar down or bar up. Yet I find the militancy of some people who want to keep the bar up strange. (Admittedly most people are not as vocal as the two I encountered in December.) Who puts on skis for a trip up the mountain on a chairlift? The goal is a great ride down.

Admittedly, there are arguments on the other side. Chairlifts are one of the safest forms of transportation in the United States. My generation grew up skiing when many — if not most — of the lifts didn’t have safety bars. We also grew up skiing without helmets and only a beanie protecting our heads as we zoomed down the mountain. However, I was glad I had one a few seasons ago when an out-of-control skier slammed me from behind on Four O’Clock trail. My helmet was cracked, but my skull was not.

Safety is always about trade-offs. We could virtually eliminate motor vehicle deaths by reducing the speed limit to 10 miles per hour, but that would obviously be insane. We do require drivers and passengers to undergo the minor inconvenience of wearing a seatbelt, however.

While ski lift fatalities are rare, they happen. Two seasons ago a man died after falling from the Zendo Chair. So far this season in Summit County, two riders have fallen off lifts at Breckenridge and another at Keystone. And while most lift accidents happen because of rider error, at Breckenridge we’ve had chairs come off the line in high winds and we’ve seen accidents at other resorts outside of Summit County this season.

I enjoy activities others might find dangerous or even insane. When not on the slopes, I enjoy photographing sharks, most of the time without a cage. I’ve been up close with great white, tiger and bull sharks among other large predatory species. SCUBA diving itself is an activity that could be risky.

How you mitigate risk is by following established protocols and taking steps to maximize your safety while making sure you can still engage and enjoy the core aspects of the activity.

When riding on a lift several stories off the ground it just seems obvious to have a barrier between me and the ground in the case of a wind gust or other freak event. It would ultimately be the dumbest trade-off to end my season or even my day on the mountain because I was too cool to put the bar down. 

Here is the issue — when it comes to helmets, it’s your head. Do what you like. You not wearing a helmet has no impact on me. That’s the definition of personal responsibility.

Chairlifts are different. They are a communal form of transportation. While observational surveys have found that most riders in our region keep the bar up, how often is this because of peer pressure and the fear of looking uncool traveling up the mountain with a bar across your lap.  

I don’t care about being called a Jerry. I’ve been called far worse. Yet that type of peer pressure, or suggesting in a crowded line, you won’t double up because you want the bar up has an impact on others. People should be free to ride without feeling coerced to engage in a way they feel is unsafe.

To my fellow members of team bar-down — we have some responsibilities too. When putting the bar down you should always give a warning and make sure not to bump people on the back of the head. That’s common courtesy.

But as a default, let’s put the bar down.  

Ari Rabin-Havt lives in Breckenridge and served as deputy campaign manager on Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign and was a Sanders aide from 2017 to 2021. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Jacobin, The American Prospect, The New Republic and other publications. You can find him on Twitter @arirabinhavt or email him at summitdailyari@gmail.com.