I think its safe to say… I should stay clear of ski school groups on the mountain.
Generally, when the class needs to take the lift, the teacher just asks adults waiting to ride if theyll go with one of the kids.
This afternoon at Chamrousse, no one asked me when I ended up riding the lift with a little boy. I dont know how old he was.. Id guess 5 or so. He didnt say a word to me the entire ride up. I didnt say anything to him, either. Its hard to strike up a conversation with a little kid, especially in a foreign language. So I opted to enjoy the quiet. He did start to count the chairs passing us going down the lift, confirming that he was French.
As we got to the top, I raised the safety bar, said un, deux, trois! then hopped off the chair…. realizing too late I didnt know how to say stand up. But I figured theyd at least gotten briefed by their teacher, if they hadnt already made the trip up this afternoon. Apparently, I was wrong.
As I started to ski away from the lift, I realized the little boy wasnt next to me. I turned around and saw he was still on the lift, riding it as it turned around to go back down the mountain. The operator stopped it, and the boy leapt off. The operator then lept from his booth and yelled at me that its dangerous to jump. Well, no shit, dude. I didnt tell the boy to jump. The operator seemed to chalk up my stupidity to not speaking French. Whatever. I struggled to help the boy get his wayward ski back on… moving him out of the way of the chairs. Finally his teacher made it up. He probably didnt see the boys leap of faith and he thanked me for helping. Little does he know….
This is in the no good deed goes unpunished category. The difference is you didn’t ask for the opportunity to do a good deed, the deed simply sat down next to you.