January is National Safety Awareness Month, a good time to be reminded about safety on the slopes we all love, to keep us, the kids and the grandkids all safe and smiling on the slopes we all love.
We invite you to add your comments about experiences with downhillers who have violated the safety code. Even more, we invite you to contribute a full article on your opinion of the current state of safety and courtesy on the slopes today. Add your comment directly to the article, or send us your full article to info@seniorsskiingmedia.com
This list of ten “must do” safety tips is from the National Ski Areas Assn. (NSAA), which represents more than 300 alpine resorts that account for more than 90% of the skier/snowboarder visits nationwide. Additionally, it has several hundred supplier members that provide equipment, goods and services to the mountain resort industry.
- Always stay in control. You must be able to stop or avoid people or objects.
- People ahead or downhill of you have the right-of-way. You must avoid them.
- Stop only where you are visible from above and do not restrict traffic.
- Look uphill and avoid others before starting downhill or entering a trail.
- You must prevent runaway equipment.
- Read and obey all signs, warnings, and hazard markings.
- Keep off closed trails and out of closed areas.
- You must know how and be able to load, ride and unload lifts safely. If you need assistance, ask the lift attendant.
- Do not use lifts or terrain when impaired by alcohol or drugs.
- If you are involved in a collision or incident, share your contact information with each other and a ski area employee.
Ski and snowboard safely – in January and in all months of the ski, snowboard and XC season.
I like to think that the revision of the Code was result of the research and resulting recommendations made by SeniorsSkiing. In 2019 and 20, co-publisher Jon Weinberg and I polled our senior readers about what they didn’t like about skiing. The results showed that safety on the slopes was a huge concern. We wrote several articles based on that research, culminating in a set of recommendations in April 2020 to the NSAA that included staying around in an accident.
See “Editorial: Too Many Incidents And Accidents.” April 2, 2020. This is a prime example of how the vote of readers can make an impact on the sport and the role of SeniorsSkiing as an advocate for our readers.
This past weekend at my norquay we had two incidents
On two separate incidents never skied before people rented gear and went up to a blue run
One took out my son who is a level 4 instructor and later the second was avoidable
Not sure what we can do about these kind of folks
Rated ski level abilities.
Just 3 to start with: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced.
We have a similar system in hang gliding.
Once a participant answers questions re ski code of conduct erc. and completes a demonstration of skills then they are permitted to hop on certain lifts to ski those runs.
I can remember when you didn’t have to have eyes in the back of your head so you didn’t get hit from behind. A few years ago I was elected to the PSIA-ASSI Board of directors. The induction was at Killington. My wife and I attended and booked for three days. On our first run of the first day we were cruising down Super Star. I was on the far right side…up on the burm and off. I heard someone behind me and as I turned to see who it was a snowboarder hit me on the opposite side…. Dislocated shoulder and he didn’t even bother to stop. No more skiing for that season. Even worse is as an instructor I often have to ski with my poles out to the side to help protect my student. Wouldn’t if be nice for people to avoid…stay far away from those downhill from them and even announce “on your left” of “on your right” as they pass?????
Only stricter enforcement will get the word out. Clip tickets or confiscate equipment until end of day.
When I was instructing many years ago we started beginner lessons by going over the code.
People ski with the same lack of consideration for others they use when driving – or worse. I was coaching a group of junior ski racers who I had lined up by the trails edge when a ski patrol skied in the small space behind them and snow making steel at high speeds. Collisions are so common that to protect myself I stop just downhill of a lift tower or snowmaking tower. Amateur ski patrol refuses to police out of control skiing. Ski areas need to sell tickets and are loathe to pull a ticket – I get that. And yet, skiing shouldn’t be a simulation of a WW II ship defending against kamikaze attack.
Yes, I do the same thing frequently – stop on the downhill side of lift towers. I’ll trade the occasional drips for safety any day!
I don’t mind drips–but it’s a rare day of teaching when I don’t see a ski fall down off the lift.
Thanks for the idea of stopping just down hill of a lift tower or any other solid object that would suffice.
The Skiers Code needs to be featured prominently at the bottom of every lift. The majority of the NW resorts I ski might have one small sign as you enter the resort but it is not emphasized enough.
I was skiing on the Palmer at Timberline last spring making linked turns down the right side when a snowboarder who was straight bombing down ran full on into me. I came flying out of both skis and lay dazed on the slope. My friend who is an instructor forced him to stop taking off until it was determined that I was OK. He and his friend kept saying it was my fault and they had video of me turning in front of him. They were self taught by friends and had no concept of the skiers code. Instructor read them the riot act and told them they were lucky that their passes weren’t pulled. I was lucky to escape with only a few bruises.
Education and vigilance are needed with more ski patrol willing to do the job.
The work Mike Maginn and Jon did on the subject in 2020 was great. If we look at what has happened since then, we find Hills have moved to promoting season passes over day tickets, more people have taken up our sports, lesson series are fully booked so many newer skiers and boarders take only one/two lessons or none, and in general I find a lot of skiers and boarders are just plain going faster. Finally, social media is everywhere – either showing high end and pro athletes or compilations of crashes – nothing to help newer participants understand the safety code and just plain courtesy on the slopes. As an instructor, I spend time teaching the rules, how to stay safe and keep my students safe. As an industry which involves risk, it needs to do better to avoid losing the growth momentum by not addressing these issues.
Like probably all of us, in recent years I’ve had an increasing number of “close calls” with speeding skiers and riders whizzing by, even when I’m stopped on the side of the trail in plain view. I think one reason for this trend is the prevalence of what I’ll call “app-driven” skiing style, especially among younger males. It’s all about maximizing the things that ski apps can track, such as number of runs, total verts, and speed (and then boasting about it on social media). This leads to straight-lining, excessive speed, and lack of control. Not sure what can be done about this, other than more Responsibility Code signage at ski areas and more rigorous enforcement of items #1-4.
Inbound Ski Areas should take safety seriously by having patrols on runs especially high risk areas, not in the patrol shed. The CODE should be on a document that is required to be signed (can be done electronically) when the ticket or pass is purchased with the consequences of violation. Patrol should be required to pull tickets with EVERY violation because the perpetrator had signed the agreement. But, the resorts wonʻt do it because they wring their hands, shrug and count the money. Social Media drives the business, not the needs of skiers. That means we must resort to spring corn back country randonee, snowshoeing or the skinny ski track.
I’m a ski instructor in Colorado, and this is a matter of great concern to my colleagues. Accidents are a complex problem, caused by many factors, including greater numbers of skiers/boarders, changing demographics, behavior, attitudes, and terrain accessed. The National Ski Areas Assocation publishes limited data on accidents. Catastrophic injuries have increased by about 20% over the past decade, with a fluctuating rate per million skier/snowboarder visits. Deaths have increased by about 50% over the same period, with about a 20% increase per million visits. These numbers are clearly going in the wrong direction, and it is most unfortunate that NSAA is not more pro active in addressing the problem, the revised Code notwithstanding.
I am a retired National Ski Patrol Mountain Host. Our group sponsored a contest with door prizes for skiers who “Knew the Code”! As we skied/gave area tours, we passed out cards that listed the Code. Anyone who came to our tent in the base area was quizzed about the Code. Door prizes were given for anyone who could recite the Code, without looking at the cards! This was a great PR event and hopefully prevented a few accidents.
I got hit by someone launching out of the woods off trail as I went down the left side of the green run at Steamboat in January. I am blind in my left eye so I never saw him coming until he was on my skis. I crashed and had a serious dislocation of my shoulder and broke my arm bone. I believe it was a young child whose parents said let’s go Johnny (not the name I heard) and they did not stick around to help me. Steamboat had no one in sight to control the skiers. I think that ski resorts (the big business side) have their collective heads in the sand and will not do anything to control the madness until some how market/economic reasons force them to act. I am skiing again but will never be the same. Human decency and common courtesy is not what it once was.
As an instructor I teach students of all ages the Responsibility Code. I like to explain things in terms of driving a car. When I ask a group of 6 year olds “So all of you know how to drive a car right?”– I get reactions ranging from giggles to incredulity. But believe it or not they know a lot about the rules of the road. I ask questions like:
-If you are are parked, would you just drive into the road without looking in the direction the cars are coming from to see if a car is coming (just like crossing the street)?
-If someone is going slowly in front of you and you want to pass them do you roll down the window and should “Hey, get out of my way!!!” or honk your horn a bunch of times?
-If you come to a corner and there is a red sign (what do you think that sign says?) what do you do?
-If you see a barrier that says road closed, do you just go around it?
You get the idea. The reality is they do know the rules of the road (as do adults, even those who don’t drive) and I use those as a jumping off point for the Responsibility Code (and for older kids and adults including drugs/alcohol). And in my state (Washington) it is illegal to leave the scene of a ski accident if you are involved (again, like driving).
Hey Bob,
Super comment…best of the bunch here! Your analogy to cars is really great…have never used that with kids in my lessons, but will start doing so.
Bottom line, most important thing is helping people to avoid accidents/collisions, and there’s only several on the NSAA’s “Code” list that truly pertain to collision avoidance.
My suggestion: 1) post the most important collision-avoidance items at each ski lift…in the liftline…people are slowly trudging thru liftlines on weekends, and plenty of time to read 4-5 items from the list. 2) Require restaurants/bars to post the item about NOT SKIING AFTER DRINKING OR DRUG-TAKING, and
3) post the remaining items on lift towers (which some ski areas do already), but repetition is important.
I made it skiing 50 years collision-free before I got wiped out one day – 7-8 years ago, while free skiing in my instructor jacket between morning/afternoon lessons. It was the last time I would ever think of my ski instructor jacket as an insurance policy against getting hit!
Having read plenty of horror stories, I was lucky to simply get flipped around 360 degrees and stuck in soft snow on side of trail…no injury. Clearly not everyone so lucky, and it certainly changed my “head on a swivel” approach to NEVER STOP KEEPING YOUR EYES OUT FOR DANGER.
Bottom line: resorts will never do much about this. Why? Just read the waiver you are required to sign before purchasing a season pass – YOU are responsible for absolutely everything that happens to you on the mountain. The resort has zero liability. And for the most part, it’s written into state laws from coast to coast. Don’t believe me? Google: Sunday v Stratton 1974 — it’s the lawsuit that started everything, and is partially the reason why the ski industry was not sued out of existence in late 70s-80s
All the more reason for the customer (skiers) to know the code and practice its rules whenever they’re skiing
I like the idea to post the skier safety “Code”, but here is an idea. INSTEAD OPOSTING AT THE BOTTOM OF THE LIFT, , Post the rules on the towers where the skiers and boarders attention is not distracted.
I think another item that should be added to the Responsibility Code is that parents need to take complete responsibility for seeing that their children ski safely, on the appropriate trials for their ability and stay out of the way of others. I am an extremely experienced skier and I always ski in control, and one day when I was skiing, out of the blue a young child skied right in front of me. In order to avoid hitting the child I took some evasive action which resulted in a very bad fall. Long story short, I ended up with a tibial plateau fracture which ended my ski season. It was my 1st day skiing of the winter on my 70th birthday, and after skiing most of my life, my first accident. The grown up with the child never stopped to see if I was alright, nor did anyone else. The child should probably not even have been on that trail.
I agree that parents need to take responsibility for teaching their children to ski safely, and teach them to obey the Skiers Responsibility Code. It is for their protection on the slopes as well as that of others. Sorry to hear that you suffered a tibial plateau fracture from the incident that you described. 20 years ago I too suffered the same when hit by an out of control skier. I felt like I had been hit by a mack truck. When I mentioned broken leg and screamed in agony, the guy (not a kid) got up and skied off. He never alerted ski patrol. I still ski but not without wearing braces on my knees. Pain is a daily part of my life from this accident. It is life changing when this happens. Hopefully you recovered well and were able to ski again.
I was at Steamboat last March-Skiing with my family down sunshine lift line performing some close linked turns when I was hit from behind by a snowboarder-square in the back knocked out of my skis several feet down the hill.–no warning, no glancing blow-square in the back-both forearms across the shoulders- fortunately I had a helmet on, also that he did not hit my kids-would have sent them to hospital-Good size line backer size guy in late 20s to 30s-sevral other boarders also–Ski patrol came–but nothing done to person who hit me-just warning to be in control–They were not on trail when we had stopped half way down–caught us toward bottom I am not a small guy to throw me several feet down the hill and pop my bindings–they were going way too fast and obliviously out of control. In old days the pass would have been taken–Steamboat used to do that-Saw them take all the passes from a college group that were going down Right of way with horns on their poles and scaring the slower beginning skiers–this was in late 70s/early 80s
Evelyn do you remember the American ski instructor in New Zealand who sped by me on a trail runout to the lift and then started badgering me about flinching when he passed me? I believe he said I was not looking in the right direction (hunh?). Yes I was guilty of looking where I was going. When I said he could have said “on your left” as he flew by me he yelled that that is not a requirement of the Skiers responsibility code, betting me $100 I would not find it there. What are we going to do with the instructors and patrollers who are so crazy?
I am a retired ski instructor and I would like to see the National Ski Areas Assn. (NSAA) start a discussion of adding saying “ on your left” or “ on your right “ when passing another skier or boarder to the code. That is how I was taught and that is what I taught as a ski instructor. I still use the terms and usually get a thank you. I have had this discussion with several current instructors and teaching on your left/right is frowned upon. The rationale is that saying on your left/right startles the skier/boarder you would be passing. I don’t understand the logic!!
I still believe some senior could invent a “bluetooth” type computer the size of a cell phone that when a ski resort employee, be it ski patrol or a instructor, etc. witnesses an endangering act, the employee could march ski/board up to the person having committed the act, press a button on their cell phone size computer and temporarily disable the RFID card within the perpetrator’s possession. Then, only after writing the sacred safety tip rules of etiquettes in skiing/sb the mtn., the customer service could reactivate the RFID card for the remainder of the day-multi-day. Violations could be counted and a remedy could be deemed appropriate for repeat violators. The design needs to be controlled, to prevent hackers from becoming fake disablers.