Every time I ski, Vail Resorts is kind enough to send me an opinion survey, and one of the questions is: did you feel safe? And I always answer, “no.”
The fact is there are too many collisions that result in injuries with no responsibility. A friend of ours was recently hit while skiing on the Dave Murray Downhill run and sustained a broken clavicle and a fractured tibial plateau. The guy (a good skier) denied he hit her and skied away. Would not identify himself.
When my wife visited her at the clinic, she was told by a health-care worker collisions with injuries are up dramatically this year.
Reckless and dangerous skiers would have their pass lifted for collisions in the past. I have it on good authority Ski Patrol would lift about 150 passes per year for speeders and careless skiers and boarders. I suspect Vail Resorts doesn’t want to do that anymore because it puts their people in harm’s way confronting an aggressive individual. Ski Patrol is there to save lives and attend to injuries, not to be a police force.
Vail Resorts doesn’t have a solution so far, but it needs to find one! It is operating a major piece of vacation real estate, and some of its guests are committing crimes. Causing personal bodily harm is a crime.
It’s sad collisions happen, but usually it involves culpability on someone’s part.
It might come to having CCTV cameras on all the runs reviewed daily to monitor accidents, reckless behaviour, etc.
Big Brother would be watching. Surely hope not!
Concerned for safety (on the mountain),
