Don’t Harsh on My Thrill-Seeking Buzz But Keep Me Safe on the Slopes – Part 2

A  life-changing skiing hit and run made me think – how could we change safety conditions on mountains without messing with what we advanced skiers treasure most? Here’s part 2 of 3 of my blog. Thanks for reading!

On February 12, 2022, what started out as a quick lesson for a friend’s kid at a Poconos ski resort turned into a nightmare. Having only broken fingers and toes playing sports, I had no idea how to handle having my body not do what I wanted, much less stop me. My identity has always been tied to my physical strength and agility. I raced slalom and giant slalom as a kid growing up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and I learned to run as a means of transport to get to friends’ houses when my parents couldn’t drive me. I was recruited to play division one ice hockey at Yale, and even though I switched to the a cappella singing group scene, I came back to the sport as a parent, coaching budding hockey players up until my accident. An adrenaline junkie, I don’t just like being active, I need to move to stay sane. 

I bet many people reading this right now are thinking, it’s skiing for God’s sake. Don’t you know you sign your life away in the fine print of a lift ticket? To that I say, sure, skiing no doubt has its dangers and I’m not advocating for increased mountain liability. I ski for the thrill seeking buzz. Taking on a steep vertical at high speed is like taming a wild stallion. As we used to say when I was a kid: dude, it’s wicked gratifying. However, I was the victim of a hit and run while giving a lesson on a beginner slope to a small child who luckily walked away unscathed. In reflecting back now a little more than a year later, it’s clear that mountains could put in place common sense safety standards that don’t harsh on the adventure-seeking ski culture or experience. 

It’s important to acknowledge that I arrived at this conclusion as a result of a life altering accident. My injury wasn’t a break that gets casted and heals and then you’re back to normal. The collision I experienced resulted in tibial spine avulsion fractures in both my legs, one displaced and the other non-displaced (translation: my left tibia cracked and my right one came apart, breaking off shards that had to be surgically removed). I suffered anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) damage and multiple meniscus tears to my right knee. Overall, as the surgeon explained to me before the six hours he and his team spent repairing me, basically my soft tissue engaged in a tug-of-war with my bones and, while my ligaments took hits, they won, breaking the tops of my tibias. 

Unfortunately, what happened to me is on the rise. Planet Ski is among those highlighting the increasing number of ski accidents and how there are mounting calls for out of control skiers to be held accountable. A recent celebrity case involving Gwyneth Paltrow has heightened public awareness of this issue. I’m writing this because my ski injury immobilized me, which gave me lots of time to think about my accident and what could prevent it from happening to others. Here are three immediate measures that have the potential to dramatically increase safety standards. 

Code beginner trails properly. Danger fuels the rush for intermediate and advanced skiers. I love that feeling of going so fast you almost lose control. You know you’re pushing your limits and if you hit a bump wrong or a patch of ice you might just wrap yourself around a tree; but you do it anyway, because moments like these make you feel alive. I vehemently support protecting that freedom to live on the edge for experienced skiers. But there should be places where budding skiers and boarders have a chance to learn safely. And instructors on those slopes shouldn’t be vulnerable to conditions that increase their odds of being injured by unsafe conditions. By definition, green trails should be wide, relatively straight, and not too steep. The trail I was on started out straight and wide but then it became narrow and winding. While not technically steep, The boarder who hit me had cut through the woods on an unsanctioned path at an S turn between two vertical segments, which made her drop quickly into slower paced traffic and, I suspect, caused her to lose control. Slopes with these circumstances aren’t for newbies and there should be a way to ensure they’re coded blue for intermediate skiers. 

Patrol hazard areas on beginner trails with vigilance. Right before ski patrol arrived, I saw multiple boarders barrel through the woods as the one who hit me did. Almost to the person, they struggled with entering the flow of traffic that forced them to turn a hard right and control for speed. When ski patrol showed up, I asked one of them why they didn’t block off that path, which was clearly creating a safety issue. He told me it was impossible. “You try stopping them,” he said. “They just keep coming through there.” While I’m not a tree skier, my husband and son love dodging trees and going off jumps in the woods. I get that people will push those boundaries. That’s half the fun and, again, fair game on trails for experienced skiers. But having ski patrol throw up their hands and say they can’t help ensure safety standards in known hazard areas on beginner trails is unacceptable. I reiterate, I’m talking beginner trails. It can’t be that hard to ensure mountains regularly plant a ski patroller with a whistle at spots like this and maintain netting that blocks unsafe traffic flow. And since everyone now carries cell phones, signs could be strategically placed near lifts and along runs that give the number to text and report out of control skiers or trail hazard areas. Note: I have great respect for ski patrol and know they’re committed to safety. I’m just suggesting we find a way to more uniformly report, patrol, and shut down known hazards on beginner trails.

Stop hit and runs. I’m not the punitive type. But where in our society are hit and runs acceptable? How about a screen pops up as you buy your lift ticket that makes you agree to stay with the person you collided with if they can’t get up. Wait until ski patrol comes. Understand you may be liable if you cause harm. That might give some pause to the yahoos who’ve never participated in a snow sport a day in their life but strap on boards or skis, and then hurt someone because they’re looking to achieve another notch in their belt, a mechanical bull to say they rode, not understanding their responsibility to share the slopes safely with others. Bottom line, people shouldn’t be able to leave you lying there without consequence. It shouldn’t be that if you’re injured by someone and in shock and not able to move or think about liability that the person who causes you harm gets away with it. Having people wait for ski patrol to arrive and sign off on injuries is good for everyone. It provides all those involved the opportunity to share their account of what happened with a neutral party at the scene of the accident. 

I know implementing the changes that I’ve proposed isn’t as simple as waving a magic wand. For my day job, I’m an organizational strategic planning consultant. For the past twenty-five years, I’ve worked with higher education institutions, private foundations, and nonprofits to create multi-year plans and implement them toward better organizational and mission-oriented outcomes. Sure, this kind of change requires work, but the mission of running a ski resort should have safety not only as a value but as a business imperative.

Being able to demonstrate what mountains do to promote safety can help grow the next generation of skiers and boarders. According to the National Ski Areas Association, while skier visits nationally hit a high of 60.7 million in 2021-22, that’s not so much higher than the 50.2 million visits in 1978-79. Overall, in the last 45 years, total ski visits nationally have generally fluctuated between 50 and 60 million. And estimated unique snowsports participants at U.S. resorts only increased from 9.2 million a year in 1996-1997 to to 10.7 million a year in 2021-2022. With climate change threatening shorter seasons and skiers and boarders having to absorb the rising costs of snowmaking in ticket prices, mountains should be considering whatever they can to attract more people to their slopes.