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wyowindrunner

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Have posted this elsewhere: The "she was 5 you were doing fifty " safety campaign started by the Johnson family from Casper WY, doesn't seem to have gained a bunch of advertising prominence. For those unfamiliar, in 2010(?) a boarder/skier collision at Hogadon resulted in deaths to a five year old girl and a twenty something boarder and an extended hospital stay to the girl's mother. On the Targhee site under mountain safety- speed and collision. Has anyone else seen orheard of this campaign- would be great if it was posted in various places?
 

Ken_R

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Yeah the straightlining thing is beyond ridiculous. Seems to be moving East. I encountered one sat. Towards the bottom, maybe 200 yards to the lift a green blue trail that most beginners take, is crowded and has choke points everywhere. It is also return to the lodge. I'm skiing with one student. I usually ski with my head on a swivel. This guy I didn't see at all. Maybe because he was doing 40+ straightlining and he wasn't in the field of view. He whizzed right behind me. I could feel the air. If he hit a lift tower I would of testified he deserved it. If he'd hit someone he absolutely should've been prosecuted.

Once again 30+ male. Honestly I'm so sick of these guys. I really don't care how cool you are buzzing kids on your Enforcers. Go ski somewhere challenging.

That is why steep runs full of moguls are the safest :D , the terrain takes care of a-holes like that :D
 

AmyPJ

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Yeah the straightlining thing is beyond ridiculous. Seems to be moving East. I encountered one sat. Towards the bottom, maybe 200 yards to the lift a green blue trail that most beginners take, is crowded and has choke points everywhere. It is also return to the lodge. I'm skiing with one student. I usually ski with my head on a swivel. This guy I didn't see at all. Maybe because he was doing 40+ straightlining and he wasn't in the field of view. He whizzed right behind me. I could feel the air. If he hit a lift tower I would of testified he deserved it. If he'd hit someone he absolutely should've been prosecuted.

Once again 30+ male. Honestly I'm so sick of these guys. I really don't care how cool you are buzzing kids on your Enforcers. Go ski somewhere challenging.
The downfall of putting less-than-skilled skiers on fairly stiff, stable skis? "Hey, I can't turn them worth a damned, but I can go 70 mph according to (insert GPS tracking program here) and that makes me an awesome skier!"

Have posted this elsewhere: The "she was 5 you were doing fifty " safety campaign started by the Johnson family from Casper WY, doesn't seem to have gained a bunch of advertising prominence. For those unfamiliar, in 2010(?) a boarder/skier collision at Hogadon resulted in deaths to a five year old girl and a twenty something boarder and an extended hospital stay to the girl's mother. On the Targhee site under mountain safety- speed and collision. Has anyone else seen orheard of this campaign- would be great if it was posted in various places?

I shared this campaign all over social media. I think part of the message that is "lost" in that campaign is that the snowboarder who caused the crash was also killed.

I am seriously considering at the very least a petition signed by as many people as I can gather (preferably local passholders) asking my mountain to start taking safety seriously. We have new management. There was a glimmer of hope when they installed a new "family zone" on a run that is rather famous for a youtube video taken several years ago, but, they quit enforcing with yellow jackets or patrol in that area. There are not only full-grown meat missiles flying through there now, there are also younger meat missiles straight lining in a wedge with mom or dad tailing behind (or not.)
 

James

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The downfall of putting less-than-skilled skiers on fairly stiff, stable skis? "Hey, I can't turn them worth a damned, but I can go 70 mph according to (insert GPS tracking program here) and that makes me an awesome skier!"
I don't think it has much to do with the skis. But if there's soft snow, then yeah fat skis are to blame. Restrict waist to 85 and see what happens. Powder would last.
It's really an attitude. Driving home it's probably the same people on the highway driving like aholes.
 

Fishbowl

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Let me know where do you normally ski. I'll make sure I don't go there. :nono:

I don't know, but collisions are not a common occurrence to me. A collision is a totally unacceptable event for me.
Even thinking a collision with another skier/object is even remotely acceptable is opening the door to lots of bad stuff. Like a little pregnant

All resorts are different, and it’s undestsndsble to make judgements based off your own criteria. AZ Snowbowl has a large college influence with a lot of the younger crowd snowboarding and skiing st speed. We also have a lot of fast, steep groomers that ice up over night, which also encourages speed. Finally, we have a pretty extensive beginner area which is always packed with students and beginners. I think this all adds up to a high chance for collisions.

Twice last year I was knocked down. Once was just standing in the lift line and being bowling balled by a skier who came in too fast and lost and edge, the second was being struck from behind by an out of control beginner snowboarder whilst I was drilling rail road tracks. I also stopped to render aid on three occasions, to collusion victims, prior to ski patrol arriving. I’m a paramedic, so I always stop to help. Not sure if this is unusual compared to other resorts?

I have a feeling your comment is really about the fact that good skiers shouldn’t be in collisions, rather than the reality that it does happen more frequently in other demographics on the slopes?
 

tball

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At Breck, the yellow jackets at least deal with the bad guys in the slow zones. But we can't expect the ski areas to patrol every run, all the time.
I disagree that the enforcement by the yellow jackets is sufficient. If you take a look at the Breck map there are slow zones all over the mountain. The yellow jackets are only present at the most congested choke points. There are not enough safety patrol at Breck or any other ski area to patrol the extent of the runs labeled as slow zones.

I'm really just advocating for zero tolerance enforcement in these slow zones, and particularly those where kids and never ever skiers spend their time. If they label it on the map as a slow zone they should enforce it.

If a hit and run happens, I'd also like to see the resorts have abundant video and RFID/ticket scanning data to share with authorities and victims for prosecution and civil proceedings. It would be easy to have prominent cameras on each lift (smile, you are being recorded!) Setting examples with a series of cases like this one could be both a deterrent and motivator for folks to learn how to behave on the slopes.
 

Wade

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Have posted this elsewhere: The "she was 5 you were doing fifty " safety campaign started by the Johnson family from Casper WY, doesn't seem to have gained a bunch of advertising prominence. For those unfamiliar, in 2010(?) a boarder/skier collision at Hogadon resulted in deaths to a five year old girl and a twenty something boarder and an extended hospital stay to the girl's mother. On the Targhee site under mountain safety- speed and collision. Has anyone else seen orheard of this campaign- would be great if it was posted in various places?

They had those posters up around Snowbird when I was there last week.
 

Nathanvg

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RFID/ticket scanning data to share with authorities and victims for prosecution and civil proceedings

Kim (victim’s husband) was implying using this data. I doubt Vail will do so without a subpoena. It’s likely very easy to produce a list of people using that lift the 30 or so minutes before the collision. Vail would have mug shots (from season pass) for most of those people. Kim could likely identify the kid pretty easy.

I don't like the big brother aspect but it's likely such information would make the hill safer if people knew that was a risk.
 

cosmoliu

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Have posted this elsewhere: The "she was 5 you were doing fifty " safety campaign started by the Johnson family from Casper WY, doesn't seem to have gained a bunch of advertising prominence. For those unfamiliar, in 2010(?) a boarder/skier collision at Hogadon resulted in deaths to a five year old girl and a twenty something boarder and an extended hospital stay to the girl's mother. On the Targhee site under mountain safety- speed and collision. Has anyone else seen orheard of this campaign- would be great if it was posted in various places?

They had those posters up around Snowbird when I was there last week.

I also saw them at Snowbird. And they had them up at Jackson Hole when I was there in Dec.
 

doc

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They were still prominent at Jackson Hole when I was there last week. I assumed, quite irrationally, they were referring to a speeding car driver hitting a 5 year old pedestrian.
 

Philpug

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IIRC, Mad River Glen has one of the lowest, if not the lowest fatality rate of all resorts because you just cannot go that fast there, trails are too narrow and you jsut don't hit (pardon the pun) high speeds. This wide manicured open blue cruisers are playgrounds for people skiing above thier ability in speed.
 

RJS

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IIRC, Mad River Glen has one of the lowest, if not the lowest fatality rate of all resorts because you just cannot go that fast there, trails are too narrow and you jsut don't hit (pardon the pun) high speeds. This wide manicured open blue cruisers are playgrounds for people skiing above thier ability in speed.

I'm not surprised. Even as someone who has been skiing since I was young, steep icy groomers is the terrain that scares me the most. Both in terms of myself and other people hurting me. You're correct that it's easy to bomb these kinds of runs, but it's also easy to catch and edge and not be able to self-arrest. I've heard that most resort fatalities come from people losing control on intermediate runs and crashing into trees/towers/other people (I don't have any data to back this up).

When I'm skiing steep moguls or trees, I'm going slowly, really considering each turn. There are fewer people on the trail, and the other people are also going more slowly. Even if I make a mistake or hit an icy patch, I'm not going fast, and if there are bumps/trees it often makes it easier to self-arrest, or at least not put other people in danger.

Mad River Glen also does a good job at limiting uphill capacity in addition to having narrow glade/bump runs. What a cool place.
 

Ken_R

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IIRC, Mad River Glen has one of the lowest, if not the lowest fatality rate of all resorts because you just cannot go that fast there, trails are too narrow and you jsut don't hit (pardon the pun) high speeds. This wide manicured open blue cruisers are playgrounds for people skiing above thier ability in speed.

Yep. For me the most scary runs are exactly that. Wide blue groomers in crowded resorts.

This past holiday the only place I feared injury was in Vail on the Northwoods Zone where the Northwoods trail merges into Flap Jack and to the bottom of Chair 11 (Northwoods Express). It is a scary place. I spent most of my vacation in Beaver Creek which is MUCH more mellow but still, Centennial into Spruce Saddle gets pretty hairy and the catwalk where Powell merges into Cinch ( most people are there avoiding the slick steep face of Centennial and the Moguls of Sheephorn ) gets very very crowded.
 

Coach13

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The catwalk from Eagle’s Nest down into the Game Creek Bowl can be something special at Vail on a crowded day.
 

pchewn

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The ski areas are making this worse by overstocking the uphill capacity of the lifts without a corresponding increase in the skiable terrain. Sure, the lift lines are short but the crowd is now on the hill. I don't know of people getting injured by collisions in the lift line, but they sure do on the crowded runs.
 

chilehed

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I agree with everybody here that this is a major problem that the resorts haven't done a good enough job at solving.
I think the idea that the resorts are even capable of solving it is nuts, unless a totalitarian state is implemented.
 

Coach13

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I think the idea that the resorts are even capable of solving it is nuts, unless a totalitarian state is implemented.

I feel the same way to a certain extent. I don’t expect resorts to install cameras everywhere or hire tons of extra slope monitors to police things. That said, when the mountain staff (patrollers, mountain hosts, lifties, etc) see grossly unsafe behavior they have a responsibility to address it imo. I think even the awareness that there will be consequences will help. I think the resorts could also place a person here and there in crowded areas where a history of issues and I think in some cases do. At the end of the day though, slope safety is up to us. Really, the only thing I took exception go in this case was the departure of the parties involved.

Regardless of resort and skier efforts though, a certain number of these things will certainly continue to occur. I think the best we can hope for is to increase awareness of the issue.
 

Andy Mink

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Have posted this elsewhere: The "she was 5 you were doing fifty " safety campaign started by the Johnson family from Casper WY, doesn't seem to have gained a bunch of advertising prominence. For those unfamiliar, in 2010(?) a boarder/skier collision at Hogadon resulted in deaths to a five year old girl and a twenty something boarder and an extended hospital stay to the girl's mother. On the Targhee site under mountain safety- speed and collision. Has anyone else seen orheard of this campaign- would be great if it was posted in various places?
I've only seen that at Snowbird, at the gathering last year. It is a very sobering sign.
 
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