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Skier/Snowboarder responsibility code
- Thread starter Sea&SkiGirl
- Start date
Trailside Trixie
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
If someone is a jacka$$ and mows or almost mows someone down then I'm all in favor of their pass being pulled. This is an area where I have little tolerance.
Sheena
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I honestly wonder if there is any solution here? Pulling passes, sure. But there can't be someone everywhere on the mountain. Yesterday, I was taking an access trail to the other side of my home mountain. Conditions were getting soft and on the right side of the trail kids/teens like to jump off into the trail, there was a lot of that and just s bunch of people skiing way too fast. I was trying to avoid one of the kids jumping and hit one of the soft moguls wrong and tumbled a bit. I moved way over to the left side of the trail. A ski patrol happened by, and asked if I was ok. The. Said I should be careful because people are basically just flying down.
snoWYmonkey
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
On the bright side a ten year oldish kid cut us off. Stopped. Asked if we were OK. When I told him nicely that he should look and be more aware he stopped again and said how sorry he was. We all make mistakes. This one is clearly open to learning from them. My heart melted.
That is true, and there always are going to be incidents that truly are accidents. However, I also think that if people knew pass pulling was actually a possible consequence of hitting someone or just skiing like a lunatic in general, they'd dial it back a bit.
I thought of this thread yesterday, skiing at Belleayre with my kids. At one point I saw a snowboarder bombing down the heavy-merge-area green circles near the base, literally holding an open can of beer in his hand! Maybe I’ve just gotten spoiled by all my weekday skiing, but I was honestly shocked.
Later on, as we approached the cusp of the steep part of a black diamond, there was a large (15-ish people) group of adults blocking the whole entire slope, just stopped and chatting but really, really spread out. We had already found these people to be pretty reckless (straight-shooting down crowded slopes in a massive herd) and just oblivious to others (stopping directly off the chair lift in a giant wide group, to chat and adjust boots etc, causing a pile-up as more and more people exited the lift), so we were trying to stay decently away from them, and I had my kids pull over to the side to give that group a chance to go first. They kept chatting for about 30 seconds, and the slope was otherwise empty and I wanted to take advantage of that, so I finally told my 6-year old to go. It was a wide black diamond and it was his first time on that one, so he started out making a pretty wide side-to-side sweep, to get a feel for the slope a little. I know people can get annoyed by kids on steeper slopes going wide, but I that’s why I only had him on super-wide ones, and only ever had him take a turn when the coast was fully clear. Basically, I would not have him in a situation where he could not be very easily passed by anyone who might come up behind us. Just as he crossed in front of some of that group, about 10’ down the slope from them, they just pushed off and started going – without even looking downhill at all, still looking backwards over their shoulders chatting with each other. I instinctively yelled “DOWNHILL!” because I was honestly terrified they were going to barrel at full speed right into my kid – like, no one even had their head turned downslope for several seconds of their bombing down.
Later on, as we approached the cusp of the steep part of a black diamond, there was a large (15-ish people) group of adults blocking the whole entire slope, just stopped and chatting but really, really spread out. We had already found these people to be pretty reckless (straight-shooting down crowded slopes in a massive herd) and just oblivious to others (stopping directly off the chair lift in a giant wide group, to chat and adjust boots etc, causing a pile-up as more and more people exited the lift), so we were trying to stay decently away from them, and I had my kids pull over to the side to give that group a chance to go first. They kept chatting for about 30 seconds, and the slope was otherwise empty and I wanted to take advantage of that, so I finally told my 6-year old to go. It was a wide black diamond and it was his first time on that one, so he started out making a pretty wide side-to-side sweep, to get a feel for the slope a little. I know people can get annoyed by kids on steeper slopes going wide, but I that’s why I only had him on super-wide ones, and only ever had him take a turn when the coast was fully clear. Basically, I would not have him in a situation where he could not be very easily passed by anyone who might come up behind us. Just as he crossed in front of some of that group, about 10’ down the slope from them, they just pushed off and started going – without even looking downhill at all, still looking backwards over their shoulders chatting with each other. I instinctively yelled “DOWNHILL!” because I was honestly terrified they were going to barrel at full speed right into my kid – like, no one even had their head turned downslope for several seconds of their bombing down.
Trailside Trixie
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
That is great. Wish learning opportunities happened more often.
Too often it's a jerk who stands watch out and crashes into someone.
Mistakes do happen and it's wonderful when a conversation can occur and people learn.
floatingyardsale
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
At Snowbasin the green jackets were at their wits' end, I think. I pulled behind the slow sign to stop to wait for my tree-cruising goslings just in time to hear the guy bellow "everyone on this slope SLOW DOWN." Then we chatted.
I also will yell at people if they buzz the kids. The downhill skier is allowed to ski badly. It's still the uphill skier's responsibility.
I try to get the kids to be predictable and I'm pleased to see my 7yo checking up hill before merges, but man, there are just a lot of people. 7yo nearly got hit by a snowboarder and I had a close call an elderly woman who was trying to traverse across a busy run. She didn't look, but I did, and even with a busted knee I apparently can do a hell of an emergency stop.
I also will yell at people if they buzz the kids. The downhill skier is allowed to ski badly. It's still the uphill skier's responsibility.
I try to get the kids to be predictable and I'm pleased to see my 7yo checking up hill before merges, but man, there are just a lot of people. 7yo nearly got hit by a snowboarder and I had a close call an elderly woman who was trying to traverse across a busy run. She didn't look, but I did, and even with a busted knee I apparently can do a hell of an emergency stop.
Sheena
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Maybe, but also on Sunday as I was taking a lunch break there was a dad and his two sons (prob around 9-13) laughing about how they keep getting told to slow down. even the dad. It makes me sad, because yeah, we all like the feeling of cruising down a run, but seriously there seems to be so little consideration for others.
TiffAlt
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Well, the apples don't fall far from the tree. Parents model behavior for their kids and when that's lacking, it's hard to watch.
brooksnow
Angel Diva
This.
"You cut me off" is only valid if the downhill person just started or came out of the woods/another trail.
Today I was skiing in a slow skiing area, actually going relatively slow, when a skier decided it was time to head across the hill when I was about 10 feet above her. An adult woman who didn't look up. I was on guard for just such an occurrence and was able to avoid her, but still.... I would consider giving her the benefit of the doubt if she were a beginner, but she was clearly very far from just learning and should have known better.
Thank you for saying this. It perfectly articulates something I have not been able to put my finger on before. My kids are decent skiers but they sometimes do things that confident, capable adults wouldn't do. I do not bring them on terrain that they can't handle, but sometimes they (and, heck, I) ski badly! Sometimes they go slow. Sometimes they are making super wide arcing turns where an adult maybe wouldn't. Sometimes they randomly fall down for no reason! I mean, sometimes all of us do! A couple weeks ago I hit a giant pile of powder unexpectedly on a green that I've skied 800 million times, and fell.
So often, I feel like I need to qualify my dislike of reckless skiing by justifying my kids' presence on the slope in the first place. But they don't have to be perfect skiers at every moment to justify not being crashed into. And even if they are skiing badly, the uphill skier is still responsible.
