Court Says Avalanches Are Inherent Risk of Skiing

[ski diva]

A ruling today from the Colorado Supreme Court contends that avalanches are an inherent risk of skiing, ending a debate over a ski area's liability when an avalanche kills a skier inside a resort boundary. For the complete article from the Denver Post, go here.

What do you think?

 

[VickiK]

I do agree with the decision, as much as I feel what a tragedy the loss of these lives were. I think the resorts do what they can for avalanche control but the mountains are not a controlled environment, resort boundaries or not.

 

[bounceswoosh]

I agree. In-bounds avalanches are incredibly rare. There are also difficulties with marking the boundaries - in at least one of the recent Colorado cases, there was a claim that a child hiked up from the gate to get more good turns. I don't know the facts and don't want to re-legislate, but it is really hard to block every possible avenue. Sometimes you pop out of the trees and you're on a trail that ski patrol had roped off from the top. I don't think it's realistic to expect that patrol can protect us from every possible scenario.

What I think is missing is understanding of the fact that avalanches are a possibility. This will likely now go on the back of the lift ticket, but how many people read that or really internalize it? I think resorts should get away from the playground advertising a bit and be upfront about the fact that they mitigate avalanches and that there is no such thing as 100% safety. They should provide free mini avy clinics to guests the same way they provide mountain tours. I know that until I lived out here several years and had already been skiing avalanche slopes in bounds, I had no understanding of avalanche risk or how much ski patrol does to attempt to keep us safe. I think it wasn't until I started learning about skiing in the back country and thus learning about avalanches that I realized what had to be going on within the resort.

 

[Christy]

I was glad to see all the publicity an in bounds avy at Crystal got here a few years ago, when it wiped out a chairlift. Good reminder that these things happen. When I started skiing I'm not sure I realized they did (which sounds funny to say--I guess when I was conquering the bunny hill I didn't really think about much else).

ETA: Actually this isn't a good example, I just remembered it was intentionally set but got a little out of hand.

 

[sibhusky]

Well, I was almost taken out season before last inbounds by an avalanche on a slope I was traversing under and my daughter was inbounds on a different slope above a cliff that started releasing that same season. She ended up getting harness-lifted out by ski patrol as she could not move without fully triggering it. The slab opened right in front of her skis. Before that, the idea that this could happen here never occurred to me. I put it down to severe rain the night before and, frankly, a new ski patrol head. Because we actually heard of yet a THIRD person that same period who had a similar experience as my daughter. I think they had been maybe a bit more restrained with their explosives that season, because my daughter had heard something about "patrol learning a few things". I've been skiing here thirteen seasons, so three occurrences in one season and none that were in the "regulars" rumor mill other years? Anyway, it's in my mind now.