SuZieCoyote
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I ran across an interesting web site run by a a couple who are attorneys specializing in ski safety law. There is a lot of good information on the site. I understand, accept and even relish the inherent risk in the sport...but I'm tired of putting up with yahoos who ride out of control as if they own the mountain and put the rest of us at even greater risk. It isn't a boarder/skier thing. It is mostly a young male thing (statistics, not stereotype).
https://www.skisafety.com/articles.php
It all left me pretty discouraged. The laws basically do very little to hold out-of-control skiers/boarders accountable. And the resorts have done a lot of lobbying leading to legislation that protects them from being held responsible. They put the skiers code on napkins and feel they've done their job.
I found an interesting demographic from the article: Liability Of A Skier For Collision With Another Skier ".... women continue to drop out of the sport, arguably in part due to safety concerns and an overblown male, risk-taking marketing message." It talks about how almost all the marketing is aimed at the young male who fancies himself a macho extreme rider. What this says to me is that the industry is driving beginning women out of the sport in favor of the 15-30 year old male. Perhaps an industry insider amongst us could set me straight if I don't have this right?
I feel the resorts do bear a lot of the blame for out-of-control riders. Yes, there is personal responsibility, but last week at Keystone I saw so much obvious bad behavior, yet not one instance of ski patrol stopping anyone. They need to rip up a few passes. There were only two runs open, for pete's sake, you'd think Keystone could put a few staff members out there to encourage a bit of restraint. I see them standing around the "slow" signs....but the real danger is out there on the runs.
Last year, I put my granddaughter, Catie, on skis and in ski school for the first time. She was 9 years old. On her third day in school, a young male boarder, riding fast, took a blind jump and rammed into her. She ended up at the emergency center in Breckenridge. Fortunately, she had good insurance and even more fortunately, her injuries were painful, but not permanent. But she went from enthusiastic skiing to fearful, eyes darting over the shoulder, nervous movement. She didn't even want a pass this year. The name/number the boarder left were likely false....at least the number was not in service.
This year at opening day at Keystone a boarder slammed into me from behind. There was no one else around; this meant the guy was so out of control he couldn't even adjust his line the 12" it would have taken to miss me (I was doing a slow traverse to get to a good stopping point to wait for a friend.) He didn't even stop to see if I was OK, but took off like a chickenshi*. He was wearing black on black, like scores of others and he was gone so fast I couldn't get a good description for the patrol. Chances are, though, he'd been ripping down like this run after run and no one bothered to intervene.
https://www.skisafety.com/articles.php
It all left me pretty discouraged. The laws basically do very little to hold out-of-control skiers/boarders accountable. And the resorts have done a lot of lobbying leading to legislation that protects them from being held responsible. They put the skiers code on napkins and feel they've done their job.
I found an interesting demographic from the article: Liability Of A Skier For Collision With Another Skier ".... women continue to drop out of the sport, arguably in part due to safety concerns and an overblown male, risk-taking marketing message." It talks about how almost all the marketing is aimed at the young male who fancies himself a macho extreme rider. What this says to me is that the industry is driving beginning women out of the sport in favor of the 15-30 year old male. Perhaps an industry insider amongst us could set me straight if I don't have this right?
I feel the resorts do bear a lot of the blame for out-of-control riders. Yes, there is personal responsibility, but last week at Keystone I saw so much obvious bad behavior, yet not one instance of ski patrol stopping anyone. They need to rip up a few passes. There were only two runs open, for pete's sake, you'd think Keystone could put a few staff members out there to encourage a bit of restraint. I see them standing around the "slow" signs....but the real danger is out there on the runs.
Last year, I put my granddaughter, Catie, on skis and in ski school for the first time. She was 9 years old. On her third day in school, a young male boarder, riding fast, took a blind jump and rammed into her. She ended up at the emergency center in Breckenridge. Fortunately, she had good insurance and even more fortunately, her injuries were painful, but not permanent. But she went from enthusiastic skiing to fearful, eyes darting over the shoulder, nervous movement. She didn't even want a pass this year. The name/number the boarder left were likely false....at least the number was not in service.
This year at opening day at Keystone a boarder slammed into me from behind. There was no one else around; this meant the guy was so out of control he couldn't even adjust his line the 12" it would have taken to miss me (I was doing a slow traverse to get to a good stopping point to wait for a friend.) He didn't even stop to see if I was OK, but took off like a chickenshi*. He was wearing black on black, like scores of others and he was gone so fast I couldn't get a good description for the patrol. Chances are, though, he'd been ripping down like this run after run and no one bothered to intervene.
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