Narrative:

We landed in ZZZZ and held for 45 mins waiting on a gate. Once our gate opened; the ground crew tried to marshall us to the wrong gate. Once ops got them to the proper gate; we started our parking process. It was a very tight spot and almost all of the line were covered with snow. [Another airline] left a cargo can elevator parked on our right side that was very close but our wing walker and guide man were giving us go signals. I proceeded very slowly towards the gate knowing it was a tight fit. I had given instructions for the first officer to say stop if he was uncomfortable with what he saw as I could not see the equipment any longer. The wing walker responsible for the right wing dropped his wands and ran towards the guide man. I stopped the plane just as my first officer (first officer) said stop. Not once did I get a stop signal from any ground personnel. There we sat for about 45 minutes. [The other airline] arrived to try to start the elevator; but it wouldn't start (common for diesel engines in -10 temps). They finally found another gate for the company plane behind us and pushed us back and took us to [a different] gate. I get the harsh temps; blowing snow and 25 knot wind environment is trying for the ground folks; but the communication between ops and ramp personnel is limited at best and the lack of basic ground handling skills is still very apparent.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Captain reported unsafe gate parking process due to non-standard marshaling crew; ramp conditions and vehicles illegally parked.

Narrative: We landed in ZZZZ and held for 45 mins waiting on a gate. Once our gate opened; the ground crew tried to marshall us to the wrong gate. Once ops got them to the proper gate; we started our parking process. It was a very tight spot and almost all of the line were covered with snow. [Another airline] left a cargo can elevator parked on our right side that was very close but our wing walker and guide man were giving us go signals. I proceeded very slowly towards the gate knowing it was a tight fit. I had given instructions for the First Officer to say stop if he was uncomfortable with what he saw as I could not see the equipment any longer. The wing walker responsible for the right wing dropped his wands and ran towards the guide man. I stopped the plane just as my FO (First Officer) said stop. Not once did I get a stop signal from any ground personnel. There we sat for about 45 minutes. [The other airline] arrived to try to start the elevator; but it wouldn't start (common for diesel engines in -10 temps). They finally found another gate for the company plane behind us and pushed us back and took us to [a different] gate. I get the harsh temps; blowing snow and 25 knot wind environment is trying for the ground folks; but the communication between ops and ramp personnel is limited at best and the lack of basic ground handling skills is still very apparent.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.