Resort Safety
February 13, 2007
17 posts
10 users
3k+ views
My wife and I skied at Whitetail this past weekend. Conditions were great and it was nice to see the resort get a big crowd. On Sunday afternoon after two days of hard skiing my wife and I decide our legs were done and that we would take a couple of runs on the quad on the left of the resort that services a low intermediate run and do a few drills.
On the way down a kid screamed past my wife and then continued straight line down the mountain. This kid was a beginner and didn't make one turn. He barely missed several other skiers and could have easily ended up in the woods. I skied down and spoke to the kid and told him he needed to make some turn to control his speed or he was going to hurt either himself or someone else. He was a nice kid and told me he didn't know how to turn. He also told me he had been running the same run all day.
Here is my point. When we got off the lift there were at least 4 ski patrol at the top. I spoke to several of them that I'm friendly with. It seems to me that if one ski patrol simply yo yoed this run and another on Angel Drop making one stop each run and watching for 30 seconds or so, that they would be able to run into a large percentage of dangerous skiers on that mountain. I think this would go a long way towards accident prevention and make the slope safer for everyone.
I'm not meaning to pick on Whitetail, I saw an almost identical thing happen at Timberline the week before. It just seems that resorts in the Middle Atlantic are more tolerant of out of control skiers. At my (formerly) home mountains in upstate new york ski patrol was very vigilant about pulling passes of out of control skiers.
Well, that's my vent. Thanks, I feel better.
Tom,
I have to agree. I've spent a lot of time at TLine this year and seen the same thing. I chalked it up to bad timing - me not being on the slope when the patrol is, but that seems highly unlikely. Specifically this weekend, the "park" was overrun with skiers and boarders playing on the mounds from the guns. Problem is, they had to go right by three "closed" signs to get there (two in the shape of an "X"). There is no way that a patrol member could have missed this on a trip up the lift, so they must have ignored it because they were doing it all day. The devil's advocate in me wondered how Timberline would escape liability if somebody got hurt. Saying "it was closed" probably wouldn't cut it because they ignored all of the people going around the closed signs, tacitly agreeing it was open.
Clay
Here is another chilling thread about the saftey / patrol issues at whitetail.
Epic
The EPIC posting is very interesting. The slope the instructor was on is the exact same one I was on when I had my incident. It is clearly one of the focal points on that mountain for incidents of this type.
I actually think Timberline's Ski Patrol has been pretty active this year. The last couple weekends I recall seeing a pair of patrollers working White Lightning constantly -- escorting many beginners down and off the slope. Saw much of the same on the Drop. As for the terrain park this weekend, I believe they opened soon after the poaching began - it was definitely open when I skied it with my daughter Sunday.
Tom
the link to epic ski did not work for me --- which forum and what was the title?
Agree 100%. I can't count the number of times I have seen someone straightline a trail out of control with a lot of near misses. Extremely dangerous.
You should soon see a lot less of straightlining or other reckless skiing/riding at Liberty Mountain. Both Ski Patrol and Mountain Safety have been directed by management to directly address the issue through increased enforcement. The initiative started mid-week last week and is going to continue indefinitely. Too many collisions and near collisions have led to a large number of complaints. Accordingly, Ski Liberty is doing something about it.
Last Friday evening, double digit numbers of passes were pulled for reckless boarders AND skiers. So hopefully, you will see a difference soon!
It is nice to hear that Liberty is doing something about this issue. It really is a win-win for everyone involved, although all might not realize this. Of course, things can go too far the other way as well. I've been at other mountains when speed was the main variable that patrollers were using as their "pull-over" criteria when the real issue is control.
Quote:
You should soon see a lot less of straightlining or other reckless skiing/riding at Liberty Mountain. Both Ski Patrol and Mountain Safety have been directed by management to directly address the issue through increased enforcement. The initiative started mid-week last week and is going to continue indefinitely. Too many collisions and near collisions have led to a large number of complaints. Accordingly, Ski Liberty is doing something about it.
Last Friday evening, double digit numbers of passes were pulled for reckless boarders AND skiers. So hopefully, you will see a difference soon!
I was just up at Liberty this past Saturday (the same day as Connie as described in her write-up), and got to personally experience this from the patroller point of view. They were stepping up enforcement, which was awsome, and believe me, I've seen a few, including one coming staight down upper East Wind! 
Damn shame I was not in uniform, because I definitly would've yanked that clown's ticket myself (and believe me, when I came up to Liberty, I did offer to wear my jacket to help out, when I saw those crowds that day)! I did eventually get the chance to tell somebody from the patrol about it. Don't know if they found that kid or not, though. From what I understand, if somebody gets thier ticket yanked at Liberty, they have the option to watch a video to get it back? I didn't think to ask if they were found to be in violation again, if that would be it - no more skiing!
The patrol at Massanutten certainly take the speed control seriously and tries to do what they can. Unfortunatly, much like the state police on the interstate, they can't be everywhere everytime.
Unfortunatly, with the smaller mountains with so few precious skiable acres, the slopes get packed pretty quickly. Also, these mountains, being smaller and generally "easier" tends to attract many more "never-evers". After all, somebody around here is not going to think about going to Colorado or Utah to ski for the first time. No, they are going to try it out at one of the local places around here, ala Liberty, Whitetail, Massanutten, Timberline, etc. for the first time.
Mrs jimmy and I were both VERY lucky this weekend at Timberline.
Friday i'm skiing the right edge of Lower Almost Heaven, just above the entrance to the rail park. Just as I turned to my left, WHOA, the chick was trying to turn to her right kinda back up the hill to hit the trail into the park. Luckily our arms brushed but that was it.
Saturday, MrsJ just started down the same trail, couldn't have made three or four turns, when a snowboarder launched off the cross trail, hit her in the air and knocked her down. She got bruised up pretty bad but is ok. This was not a novice out of control rider. Neither of them was seriously hurt, but that boarder was very lucky my wife wasn't.
I think that there's a new problem in that area with cross traffic and thru traffic. Be careful on Lower Almost Heaven.
Jimmy,
I hear you. You definately need to stay on the LEFT side of LAH until you get by the park. While riding the lift (when not in physical danger) it can be amusing to watch the boarders trying to get to the park on LHA. I am assuming that these people will prefer the ropetow when TLine gets it going...
Clay
Oh, duh....... I wuz trying to think of a solution to the problem.......you mean all they'd have to do is turn that tow on? Good idea Clay, hope they figger that out
.
I wus just trying to help
Did you take my third star away or is that a battle scar from the Global Warming wars?
We need to hook up again at Timbers so I can buy you a cold one...
Clay
Ok, Clay and Jimmy. I'm flying under the radar cuz my home computer doesn't remember my password for the kwillg6 handle so you won't know where I live in the alps by this handle....
If you're talking of buying, I'm in for receiving
. BTW, Did they ever get that tow working on Sunday? I saw the king of the hill looking and scratching as they were attaching hand grips. Maybe Tucker can tell us.
When we left on Sunday after Snowboard team pratice, it was not running. However, this information comes from my son who smacked his head at the beginning of practice doing a 180, so it might be suspect.
And yes, if we can hook up, I'm buying.
Clay
Should be in the valley on Friday, late, unless we don't have work, then it will be friday, noonish. listen for culpeper county schools.
