Personally, I was skiing afternoon at a small local mountain when an approximately 14 year old girl cut just inches in front of both of my skies perpendicular to them. It scare me to death, but we both kept going. The next run, SHE DID IT AGAIN!!! She did the entire run without a single turn. By now I’ve seen that she’s skiing in a family of 6, two parents and 4 teens. I caught her at the lift and stated to her that she’d twice nearly caused a bad accident and I would have been the one hurt! I’m certain that her parents heard me and I hoped they would help. She did two runs with attempted turns (blue slope) and then returned to her reckless ways nearly wrecking with me again! The next trip up I went to ski patrol who did ZERO!!!

Politeness with calling passing on your left or right is always helpful.
Recommend that folks not wear both headphones, leave one ear open to hear what is going on around them and the other ear for music.

The ski patrol must actively pull lift tickets from folks who are skiing or sliding in a reckless manner. If there is a local newspaper, publish how many tickets are pulled on a weekly bases to let folks know that adhering
to the skier/snowboarder code is the expectation.

Since CO treats skier accidents as car accidents in that if one person is responsible, they can be sued for causing injury, etc. Don’t think most folks know that this law is on the books.

So creative!

At least two things should be done.
1. MAINTAIN A VERTICAL DISTANCE FROM SKIERS AHEAD OF YOU.. Never ski side by side. This is a recipe for a collision. The Skiers’ Code says that you are responsible to avoid the skier in front of you. But, when two skiers are skiing side by side, who is responsible then? Best to avoid this situation. Don’t try to outrun the skier next to you. They will try to keep up with you, creating even more danger at greater speeds. Instead, if a skier stubbornly clings to your side, simply slow down for a turn or two and let him/her go ahead. Raise awareness of this issue.
2. SKI AREAS SHOULD SLOW TRAFFIC DOWN ON STRAIGHT WIDE TRAILS. When a trail is too straight and too wide, it becomes very boring, so skiers speed up to get through the boring part. This speeding is a danger to others. So, ski areas should not build straight and super wide trails. The existing wide trails should be made more interesting and engaging by adding various types of obstacles. Create a terrain park for turning (not jumping) by adding tree islands or single trees, adding a maze of traffic cones or whisker gates, to make the slope more interesting and to let people practice their turning skills. Whisker gates should not be set in a straight line like a race course. Instead, it should be a maze, inviting people to find their own way through. It would give people a taste of what tree skiing is like but on a safe groomed slope.

Emilio Trampuz

I ski weekly at Stevens Pass (a Vail Resort) and have never seen a “Yellow Jacket.” Would love it if they did.

I’m with you 100%. Enforcement is central to the success of this or any code.

– Ski resorts should profile the areas around the lifts, make them smooth and even to facilitate loading on and loading off for both snowboarders and skiers.
– Installing benches in convenient and safe areas will direct snowboarders to those areas.
– Signs – “do not stay/sit in the blind spots” can be helpful.
– In case of reckless behavior a resort may force a person to attend a paid training, pass a test, and watch a documentary with real accidents, blood, etc.
– Ski passes must have Responsibility Code on the back side.
– Cameras are cheap! Resorts and people should use them. Wise people use dash cams.
– Chair lifts with no restraints are not safe!
– More symbols and less words on slopes will work better.

Collisions on skis/ boards must be handled the same way automobile collisions are – seriously. I am continuously amazed, saddened, and furious about the dangerously poor judgement I see everyday on the hill. I was almost hit by National Ski Patrol while standing a few feet from the forest while coaching a group of ski racers. Unacceptable! The amateur patrol is part of the problem, not the solution. At my home area there is no serious effort to control the menace of reckless sliders.

Skiing gives us all a wonderful sense of flying and independence. To have police all over the hill is an affront. Never the less, I can think of no mechanism other than pulling the passes of reckless skiers, and criminally charging skiers who cause injury with assault. If people behave responsibly, we wouldn’t need laws: they don’t, we do.

The skiers responsibility code has no visible impact on the problem other than to manage the liability of the resort. If areas were sued, and found liable for not responsibly managing the problem perhaps they would have more interest in managing the problem. Money talks!