• Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.

Alta Successfully Defends Right to Keep Snowboarders Out

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
Alta successfully defended itself at a federal appeals court on Friday from a lawsuit saying that their exclusion of snowboarders is unconstitutional.

You can read more about it here.

What's your feeling about this?
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
To clarify, there is no date set yet for the appeal by the group of 4 snowboarders who started the legal battle quite a while ago. Alta won in Sept 2014 when the judge ruled that snowboarders don't have a constitutional right to practice their sport. The case was dismissed. The 10th Circuit Court is dealing with the appeal according to this article dated June 26, 2015.

Having skied Alta without snowboarders and Snowbird with snowboarders, one reason I prefer Alta is that it's for skiers only.
 
Much love to my snowboarding friends but I can't say I am unhappy about this. I am a former snowboarder who still boards on occasion and yes there are reckless skiers out the also. However, I have had too many snowboarders do hard back edge stops right in back of me and scare the hell out of me. I have also been taken out by a few boarders over the years. I wish Alta was closer so I could ski it all the time as there would be one less thing to worry about.

Besides, lots of resorts in Utah, particularly snowbird which is close by I believe.

I am curious how those who have received major injuries resulting from reckless boarding feel.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Alta and Snowbird are next door to each other. Possible to ski between the two in a few ways with a combo ticket. An upgrade for a day is around $30. I think folks who book a ski vacation at Snowbird that includes lift tickets may be the most likely to upgrade.

Those who get the Mountain Collective Pass (MCP) end up with a combo pass for Alta/Snowbird as one destination.
 

gardenmary

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I've always been told by locals that ALTA stands for "Another Long Traverse Ahead" - the one day I've skied there would make me agree with that. I understand traverses to be the bane of a snowboarder's existence - so it seems this whole escapade isn't so much about boarding great terrain as it is about pushing the envelope and making Alta spend money on a potentially frivolous lawsuit.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
^^^ My thoughts exactly! Maybe snowboarders are uninformed as to the terrain challenges?
The 4 snowboarders who started the original legal battle know exactly what terrain exists at Alta. Hard to say what motivates them to keep spending time and money. It's not as if they don't have plenty of terrain available in the SLC area.

One reason that snowboarders were ultimately banned from Mad River Glen in VT is that they were unloading improperly from the single chair and pulling the cable off. First they were limited to the double chair. At some point, there was a confrontation between a few boarders and the owner at a local bar. She opted to ban snowboards completely after that. Snowboarders were allowed 1986-93.
 

gardenmary

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I will say, though, that Alta needs to find another argument besides "safety" given what they did when they reworked Corkscrew down to the Collins base. That was hands-down the most dangerous run I've ever skied anywhere.
 

mustski

Angel Diva
I will say, though, that Alta needs to find another argument besides "safety" given what they did when they reworked Corkscrew down to the Collins base. That was hands-down the most dangerous run I've ever skied anywhere.
Yes, I have to agree. The day we were there, that was one congested run and the snow had been stripped to a dangerous point for sure.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
I will say, though, that Alta needs to find another argument besides "safety" given what they did when they reworked Corkscrew down to the Collins base. That was hands-down the most dangerous run I've ever skied anywhere.
Taking away the cat track that crosses Lower Rustler was what really made it difficult on Corkscrew because there was not an easier way down for intermediates who ski on the Collins side. The instructors don't like it either because taking the cat track to the very lowest section of Lower Rustler was good for intermediates ready for a few bumps. I gather that not grooming the cat track has been done before, with similar results. Will be interesting to see what exists for 2015-16.
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
I will say, though, that Alta needs to find another argument besides "safety" given what they did when they reworked Corkscrew down to the Collins base. That was hands-down the most dangerous run I've ever skied anywhere.

Interesting. I thought it was a big improvement and was skiing much better than it used to, and rather enjoyed it this year.

I think it's a pick your poison sort of thing. I know several people who have been injured hitting that cat track drop in fog over the years. So if you're coming down Rustler, it's safer with no cat track.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Interesting. I thought it was a big improvement and was skiing much better than it used to, and rather enjoyed it this year.

I think it's a pick your poison sort of thing. I know several people who have been injured hitting that cat track drop in fog over the years. So if you're coming down Rustler, it's safer with no cat track.
I agree that Corkscrew skis better than before in decent conditions and when it isn't too busy. I imagine you didn't head up to Alta on days when Corkscrew was skied off by mid-morning or there were lots of advanced/expert skiers bombing down Corkscrew because they weren't skiing off the High-T or Ballroom because of poor snow conditions or those areas were not open yet. In April, patrol put up a fence line all the way across the groomer just below mid-station to slow people down. You can imagine the complaints from the hard chargers about that.

The Sunday in January that gardenmary and other Divas were at Alta was pretty busy. The Supreme corral was completely full. Sugarloaf was busy too. So Collins was the better choice from a lift line standpoint. Solid intermediates can get down the groomers on the Collins side faster than those going off-piste, so they end up skiing Corkscrew more often. Sometimes I went down one of the black groomers near the base of Collins/Wildcat simply to avoid Corkscrew when it's busy. Didn't always feel like taking the time to head over to Lower Rustler, especially in the afternoon when I was getting a little tired.

Seems like many destination resorts have a bottleneck somewhere because advanced/expert skiers end up mixed in with intermediates. At least at times and places where lift lines can be more than a 10 min wait even when it's not a powder day.
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
Yeah, I was skiing Deer Valley that weekend.

I don't think there are many worse snow seasons to compare it to though. Corkscrew has always gotten ugly when the snow is bad, so I'm not sure it would have been better the way it was before. I do understand missing the cat track though.
 

gardenmary

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Yes, I understand the snow being at a premium didn't help matters at all. The last run of the day I stopped at the top of the black runs marznc mentions and each one was a mess. So I headed down to Corkscrew, where I was greeted with huge piles of pushed-around snow. Like, four-to-five-foot-high piles! I crossed over to the far right and side slipped down until I felt able to steer quickly around the remaining piles.

And I hear you on the bottleneck. That is the #1 reason for running snowmaking up Wildcat Bowl at Snowbasin - relieve some of the pressure on Bear Hollow.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Latest report by the AP came out July 31.

"Both sides in the Alta Ski Area case have asked the 10th Circuit Court to hear oral arguments, though no date has been set.

Attorneys for Alta Ski Area argued in court documents last month that it's made a business decision to lure skiers to the private resort east of Salt Lake City with the promise of a snowboarder-free experience, and its well within its rights to keep snowboards off the slopes."
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
And honestly, an experience of which I am covetous.
 

Christy

Angel Diva
I find it really distasteful that the plaintiffs liken themselves to a "class" of people that are being "discriminated" against. Boy these folks must have easy lives.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I find it really distasteful that the plaintiffs liken themselves to a "class" of people that are being "discriminated" against. Boy these folks must have easy lives.

It's just an attempt to use legal terms in their favor, I'm sure.

I was just listening to a podcast interviewing one of the guys originally involved in inventing (?) class action lawsuits. He said it was originally intended for civil rights claims, not for ... all the stuff it's used for now.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
26,234
Messages
497,572
Members
8,503
Latest member
MermaidKelly
Top