Despite Whistler Blackcomb COO Belinda Trembath’s spirited defense of Whistler Blackcomb’s focus on safety, she overlooks the fact that there are two components to safety; having rules and guidelines is one thing, but more important is the enforcement of the rules and guidelines. Whistler Blackcomb gets a failing mark in that regard. The reality is there are far fewer mountain safety personnel (“yellow jackets”) on the mountain since Vail Resorts acquired ownership.
This was confirmed to me personally last month when I rode up the Red Chair with a yellow jacket, and I commented that I hadn’t seen very many of them this year. He replied they were down to four that day, versus their normal complement of six (for both mountains). I seem to recall, going back a few years, that you would see the Whistler crew of eight or nine Yellow Jackets meet at the bottom of the Emerald Chair on the weekend to get their assignments for the day.
The bottom line is there are not enough yellow jackets on the mountain to enforce mountain safety—but maybe Vail Resorts is not interested in enforcing mountain safety.
