Magnestick will stop your child from slipping out of ski chairlifts and hurtling down the mountainside to certain rocky doom. It will do this even if the lazy lift attendant forgets to lower the safety bar because he's goofing off and chatting up girls instead of doing his damn job.
Chairlifts at participating resorts are equipped with electromagnets in the seat-backs. These are activated throughout the whole journey, and stick to a lightweight 200-gram (0.44-pound) back-protector which has a metal plate on its surface. At the top of the ride, the magnets are deactivated and the kids can ski safely away.
I have been skiing precisely once, on a school ski trip when I was a kid. I was terrified on the chair-lifts, as the instructors would often leave the bars up, presumably to impress the 12-year-old girls in my class. I can also say that I'd love to sit down in the lift and feel a sharp tug and a "clunk" as the magnet clicked into place. That back protector has got to be a good idea, too.
There are a few resorts that currently use the Magnestick, spread across the world from Alpine Meadows in California to Arcalis in Andorra, which is just up the road from me. If you really want to try them out, your best bet right now is in France, where there are seven participating resorts. Also, great cheese.
Operation Magnestick [Magnestick]
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