T-Bars and Tea Bags

This post has nothing to do with Tea Bags. I just thought the alliteration was cool. Anyway, if you have any spare time, you should go Google-Earth Les Collons and Verbier, to see how far apart they are, and then go and select the option under "Points of Interests" that shows all the chairlifts, and then see how using a whole bunch of t-bars, pomas (or buttons as they are so known on this side of the atlantic), a couple of chairlifts and gondolas, its possible to traverse over ten miles (as the crow flies) from one town to the other. And that would be what I did this weekend. I mean, I did a whole lot more than just traverse from one end of 4 Vallees to the other. There was a lot of vertical, a little bit of powder, and a few hundred moguls in between. Anyway, in Les Collons, I discovered the magic of the T-bar. The United States (or at least Colorado) has abandoned t-bars, pomas, and gondolas in favor of their lazier counterparts: the chairlift, the one you can ski on and off of (unlike the gondola on which you must take off your skis) and the t-bar/poma (on which you must stand). Fortunately, some of my favorite skiing back home was poma-access only. This means I know how to ride one. If I didn't, I'd be in a pickle over here. But let me tell you, the Swiss have figured out half of the chairlift-deal, the Americans have the other half. The Swiss only use electronic tickets, what Americans refer to as Bee-line. It works, because there are no silly lift ops standing around directing traffic. And for some reason they work better here, nobody ever gets stuck and can't get through (big surprise-nothing works stateside). However, the Swiss lift-layout is pathetic. They've got double pomas, T-bars that go on bridges over catwalks, chairlifts with both Gondolas and chairs on them, two chairlifts that share stations at the top, and are so confusing to figure out how to get off that you might end up going back down the other side, chairlifts that criss-cross, chairlifts without safety-gates at the top, runs that cross the paths of pomas and t-bars, the list goes on. Swiss chairlift folly means they have about twice as many lifts as they need, so lines are half as long.
I also had my first-ever encounter with Swiss ski traffic. Let me tell you, ITS BAD! The Europeans are king of cutting people off, shoving to the front of the line, and altogether being a total pain in traffic. I thought the Swiss never had problems with traffic. Apparently not. But we can blame it on the German and French tourists. About half of the cars on the highway didn't have Swiss plates.
I should really stop ranting and go do my homework so I don't have to come in off the mountain early tomorrow.
BTW, still looking for new and glorious titles for my blog, because its a little cliche. So if you've got any fantastic ideas, let me know.
<3 Snowflake