Analyzing 5 years of injuries, crashes and hit-and-runs at Colorado ski areas

[Chuyi]

Analyzing 5 years of injuries, crashes and hit-and-runs at Colorado ski areas

The Colorado Sun spent two years assembling hard-to-get data about the number and severity of crashes at the state's most popular ski resorts.

coloradosun.com

 

[ski diva]

Interesting article. Scary, too. How someone can crash into someone and ski/ride away is mind boggling, but apparently it happens all the time.

 

[Trailside Trixie]

Happened to me on lower east falls at Killington a few years. I was making my way down a very icy slope when I heard "watch out".. next thing I knew I was on the ground sliding unaware of what body part was where. They took off and I never saw them. I was uninjured by mentally totalled. Countless people came by asking if I was ok, someone brought my poles to me. I sat there for a long time. One of the folks that came by was very sweet and offered to go tell my guy who was at the bottom likely wondering what happened to me. Another person helped me get up and made sure I was ok before he took off. I skied down and met up with my SO. I tried to ski the next day but one scrap of a ski/board behind me and I instantly went into PTSD panic mode. That was it for that day. It's taken me years to get over this, not still fully over it but I've gotten a lot better. I'm manic now about making tight turns on the side of the trail and if I hear a group behind me I pull over and let them pass. My friends made me go on this trail later in the season when the snow was soft. They swept behind me and made sure I was ok. That was tough but I did it.

 

[newbieM]

Horrible and tragic. It’s definitely one of the things I’m most scared about. I got plowed from behind once and the person just skied off without even making sure I got up. I sometimes wish I could ski with music to calm my nerves, but I’m too nervous about not being able to hear someone come around me.

 

[Christy]

Wow, that is damning in so many ways. Kudos to the Colorado Sun for doing this work.

I mean...

With the state’s ski hills posting record visitation in the past two seasons — reaching 14.8 million in 2022-23 — it would appear that the increasing frequency of injuries coincides with the rising number of visits. We say “appear” because, unlike just about every other industry in the country, the resort industry does not disclose injury data.
...
Working with police and safety people at Vail went nowhere. The eyewitness only saw the man leaving the accident site, not the actual collision “so the resort said they could not release any information about their customer,” Clint says.
...
When Colorado state Sen. Jessie Danielson crafted a bill in 2021 that would have required ski areas to publish annual injury statistics, the industry blasted the plan, arguing it would be an administrative burden and confuse the skiing public. It died in committee.
...

There's plenty more. It's extraordinary that ski resorts are collecting so much data on us, tracking us, yet will not generally allow this data to be used to catch people that injure others.

 

[Trailside Trixie]

Horrible and tragic. It’s definitely one of the things I’m most scared about. I got plowed from behind once and the person just skied off without even making sure I got up. I sometimes wish I could ski with music to calm my nerves, but I’m too nervous about not being able to hear someone come around me.

I'm sorry that happened to you.

Music calms me too. I ski with ODT chips. They go in your helmet pads so aren't directly in your ears so you can hear all around you.

 

[contesstant]

The lack of transparency is definitely maddening. I wonder what could be done to get this changed?

 

[kathuang]

I ski pretty within my limits so I'm most nervous about someone hitting me from behind, which is obviously out of my control. Some things I've learned to avoid are: runs with a mix of abilities and speeds.

In general, I've found groomed blue and black runs to be the WORST offenders. Some people go crazy fast (given how crowded it is) which others are snowplowing. They also tend to be the most crowded runs on the mountain.

I actually find its very hard to people to be completely out of control on bumps in a way that would injure someone else, so I head to the bumps if its a crowded day (it helps that I really like moguls).

I also find, counter intuitively, the steeper the pitch, the less the odds of being hit from behind. Maybe because steeper pitches tend to get people who ski/snowboard at higher abilities and can control their speed fairly well? Also, anecdotaley, I've rarely seen people completely let it rip on a very steep pitch.

The last tip is: try to avoid crowds. Easier said than done of course but that's why I ski a lot at Beaver Creek.

 

[brooksnow]

I wonder if, in time, this recent addition to the responsibility code will help any:

10. If you are involved in a collision or incident, share your contact information with each other and a ski area employee.

One can only hope.

Of course there are hit and runs in cars too, despite laws. My husband has had it happen twice on highways, totaling the car both times. The second time a witness was on the phone with the police reporting the erratic driver when he was hit. The police caught the drunk driver.

 

[Christy]

Here in WA it's a misdemeanor to not share your contact info; that should be tacked on to the responsibility code where applicable. Given that we are all being watched and tracked I have to think that people might be a little paranoid they would be found out if they ski away, but I bet most people don't know this in the first place.

 

[Chuyi]

@kathuang I am with you sister. Groomed black are the worse. Bumps prevent people from sliding down onto you.
@contesstant they have the data. They just won't share. When I asked patroller at DV if they were #1 in collision cuz groomed blue double blu +black - patroller got a bit defensive & told me he thought Brighton had #1 in Utah.
@brooksnow unfortunately most people have not read the skiers code.

 

[contesstant]

Related story: On the Snowbasin FB page they posted an announcement for next year's season passes. A guy replied complaining about how his pass got pulled for skiing too fast in Bear Hollow. Bear Hollow is the ONE monitored zone on the entire mountain, and it's probably 150 yards total in length. Me, feeling snarky that day, replied "it sounds like you got what you deserved". He then replied that he was a "professional ski patroller and the area was empty at the time", called me names, called the employees who monitor those zones names, and generally had a fit. And this, folks, is the problem. ENTITLEMENT. It is literally a 150-yard zone on the entire 3000 acre mountain and you can't ski slowly through there, and if you are confronted about it, you get into the employee's face, then wonder why you had your pass pulled?! Is it that difficult to apologize, slow down, and go on with your day? People amaze me sometimes. The lack of consideration for others in society just seems to be at an all-time low.

 

[Christy]

It may be. We are in an era of heightened individualism. There are certainly plenty of current examples of people doing what they want despite laws or norms, and being rewarded handsomely for it, whether its people filming themselves doing illegal stuff like street racing and racking up tons of Insta followers, or people starting/running companies that weren't even legal to begin with, like Uber, and making a bazillion dollars. Plus politicians of course.

 

[Skac1919]

Is it that difficult to apologize, slow down, and go on with your day?

Sadly, yes. Apologies require accountability for an error and an intention to do better in the future. Neither present in this case…