I was at Skyloft for Family Day.

From 9am-4pm lift tickets and rentals were roughtly $20 off.

Though I was impressed by their cheap holiday deal and decent runs, my excitement was outweighed by the poor crowd, pompous staff and terrible ski pole system.

Poles are normally rented out with the skis and boots. However at Skyloft, the skier rents their boots and skis, then outside, there are two barrels full of ski poles to choose from. They are not matched or organized in any way. Myself and others from my group were lucky to get one pole, which were bent and missing the pick on the end. I would have been better off skiing with a tree branch.

The hills were quite nice, a few black diamonds, mostly blues and one long, multi-pronged green run. Angela’s Run was a nice blue hill, which had a steep drop at the top that tapered into a flat trail back to the one chair lift. Unfortunately with a mild winter comes icy conditions. Some of the hills were patched with ice.

Moving farther into the resort, there are other blue hills which take the skier down to a T-lift.

There was a nice run that led to the T-lift, though unfortunately I can’t remember the name. It had a few twists and a sudden drop to the bottom.

I’ve never used a T-lift. I found the staff that worked at the T-bar very rude and actually insulting. My friend tripped and fell because the terrain was uneven, and the worker insulted him to one of the other skiers.

I took the T-lift up to my friend and jumped off to catch a free one with him. Ski patrol happened to be near us on his ski-do, and told us how to grab the bar from where we were. My friend didn’t grab it in time. I did grab the bar, but lost my footing and fell down. Ski patrol scolded me about sitting down, which was so obviously not the case; there was a pothole in the middle of the track that my feet fell in to and I bent my knees. I tried to explain I lost my footing and fell, and he responded by telling my friend and I to take our skis off and walk back. He did not offer a ride on his ski-do, and he was quite rude. Together we hiked up a steep, blue hill to the chalet.

I did not go to Skyloft to hike.

The rude, embarrassing behaviour did not end with the staff. I also found the crowd to be very righteous as well. A woman started a fight with me at the top of the chairlifts because I was apparently standing too close to the chairs. Maybe I was closer than I should have been, but I do not believe I deserved to be yelled at in front of two-dozen other patrons. The self-righteous soccer mom then started yelling and whistling to the guy in the chairlift booth to stop the lift, even though we were both already out of the way. He looked at her with a confused face, and did not stop the lift. I tried to apologize, but she was already ranting to another skier about how “this girl decided to have a party in front of the chair lift.”

If you are looking for a fun place to enjoy yourself, with plenty of long runs and friendly staff, I would strongly recommend spending your money somewhere else. The impatient, condescending staff need to be reminded that not everyone is born a professional. I’ve been a guest to private clubs, such as Horseshoe Heights when I had never skied before, and was treated better than at Skyloft.

If you are a perfect skier and you can walk on water, I would recommend Skyloft. But bring your own poles.