Should Resort Skiers Be Responsible For In-Bounds Slides?

A ski patroller at Vail prepares the mountain for opening day. Vail Resorts photo. 

Avalanches are definitely an inherent risk of backcountry skiing. To combat these dangers we bring safety equipment, receive training and monitor conditions, but should the same standards be true in-bounds? Colorado’s Supreme Court says yes.

The ruling comes as the result of a lawsuit regarding the death of Christopher Norris, who was killed in an in-bounds avalanche at Winter Park in 2012.

RELATED: Colorado Avalanche Victim's Family Sues Winter Park Resort

Skiing in the backcountry requires an enormous amount of preparation, planning, and physical skill. Before doing any backcountry skiing, skiers should take at minimum a Level 1 avalanche course. In addition to their usual gear, backcountry skiers also carry a beacon, probe, and shovel to mitigate potential injury or death should they be caught in an avalanche. 

The Ruling

Colorado's Supreme Court. Denver Post photo. 

The Court’s ruling found that resorts are protected from avalanche-related lawsuits under the Ski Safety Act, and that resort operators are exempt from liability when a death or injury occurs due to “difficult to mitigate threats, such as terrain and weather.”

The Colorado Ski Safety Act includes a list of dangers skiers assume risk for including cliffs, trees, rocks, packed powder, ice, but does not specifically mention avalanches. The Court’s decision cited the act’s snow conditions clause, which covers the fact that snow conditions ‘may change.’ “One obvious way in which a snow condition ‘may change’ is through the movement of snow, including by wind and gravity…at its core, an avalanche is moving snow caused by gravity,” the decision reads.

The Risk of In-Bounds Avalanches 

In-bounds avalanche deaths are fairly uncommon. Summit Daily Photo.

Only a handful of people die in in-bounds avalanches. Since 2000, just 11 of 448 people killed in slides died inside the boundaries of a ski area in the U.S.The National Ski Areas Association said that these deaths amount to one death per 100 million skier visits, or about one every two seasons (Denver Post).

Comparatively, the U.S. sees about 20,500 motor vehicle deaths every two years per hundred million drivers.

“Resorts do a phenomenal job with avalanche mitigation, given how few fatalities there have been,” said Dale Atkins, vice president of the Avalanche Rescue Commission for the International Commission on Alpine Rescue.

Justice Monica Márquez, in opposition of the decision, said that the court’s ruling makes ski area operators immune from liability for injuries or deaths related avalanches regardless of the circumstances, citing that the Ski Safety Act does not require ski area operators to mitigate avalanches or issue avalanche warnings.

We talked to a ski patroller and avalanche professional, who could “only but utmost agree with this decision,” knowing how much the snow can potentially change during the course of an average 8 hour ski day. The patroller said that if people want absolute security in their skiing experience, the terrain a mountain resort could open for the public would be extremely limited. After any storm event, most resorts would be limited to greens and blues for a while, meaning we’d all miss a lot of that super deep, super awesome powder. 

Should the Average Skier Be Responsible for In-Bounds Slides?

 In addition to worrying about Thing 1 and Thing 2, are average riders responsible for looking out for avalanches? Winter Park Resort photo. 

Justice Márquez said that average skiers should not be required to assess the risk of an avalanche while skiing at a resort.

Melanie Mills, President of the Colorado Ski Country trade group, said, “In our industry we have long believed that avalanches are inherent risks of the sport, and have continued…to do a great deal of work to mitigate that risk. But the risk can’t be eliminated.” Mills said that is is too early to talk about potentially amending the act to include the word “avalanches.”

As resorts continue to expand higher and wider, and as more and more people access more challenging terrain thanks to accessibility and better gear, these deaths serve as a reminder that skiing inbounds doesn’t make you immune to the risk of avalanches.

About The Author

Follow

stash member Katie Cooney

Skier, photographer, dog lover, adventure seeker. Native of the land of cheese and beer, sometimes called Wisconsin.