In the past couple days many of you have read about two skiing tragedies: one affected multiple lives (a 5-yr old girl who was killed by an out-of-control skier), and the family she leaves behind, plus the alleged “killer,” a 40-yr old skier who has been charged by French authorities with manslaughter.   As always would love to hear your thoughts and ideas about this.

The above is horrifying to all of us, and a true example of the most disturbing  trend I’ve noticed over 30+ years: an explosion in reckless skiing and riding.  As a ski instructor I see this ALL the time, and I’m always wary of super fast skiers/riders, particularly when I’m teaching, because then I’ve got real people with me for whom I feel incredible responsibility to keep safe.

Clearly something should be done about this epidemic on our slopes.  But what?

First, I’ve made it a point to start reporting instances of too-fast, or out-of-control skiers/riders. I’ll report occurrences to either “courtesy” patrol or ski patrol, and also ask them “why don’t you position staff on green and blue runs which attract too-fast skiers, and move them off under a threat of getting their ticket pulled”?  If patrollers hear this frequently, they’ll do something – they’re first responders.

Second, whether I’m in a lesson teaching kids/adults, or simply free skiing myself, I take great care to constantly look uphill before starting down, to see whether or not I’ve got clearance for my next 15-30 seconds of turns.  And I’ll always wait the extra time to let fast people go by me.

In a lesson, I’ll make sure to place myself in a constantly turning series of arcs that place me between my students and faster skiers above.  I can still observe them do a skiing task, and yes, it’s risky for me, but I believe the combination of my turning back and forth, along with my students immediately below me, makes that section of trail unappealing to super-fast skiers.

It’s sad ski areas don’t do more to police the trails.  But they don’t need to…by law.  If you read the all-encompassing “waiver of liability” contained on the backs of all day ski tickets, and included as a mandatory item to read and e-sign before you’re allowed to purchase tickets/passes online, ski areas in general have zero liability for bad things that happen on their hills…it’s all part of the inherent risk of skiing.

For me, I’ve got to TELL ski area courtesy patrol, ski patrol or management when I experience a dangerous situation, especially on green/blue terrain where there’s the expectation that skier proficiency is lower; therefore the speed of guests on that terrain should be lower!  If we don’t tell responsible ski area people about dangers we witness, then we shouldn’t expect anyone to take reasonable actions.  It’s up to all of us, because no one wants to hear about an innocent skier or rider being killed by an out-of-control skier – but’s it’s happening.