Ski Safety Blog

It happened at Loveland this year - the first Colorado ski run of the season opened Sunday. Arapahoe Basin started the season a day later.

Loveland reports that Mother Nature gave its snowmakers a helping hand by delivering nearly 3 feet of natural snow since this past week. So terrain has been opening on nearly a daily basis, and on Friday, October 29th Chair 6 will open. The total number of runs open will be up to 16. A-Basin reports two blue runs and two green runs are open.

And a third Colorado ski resort is opening for the season this coming weekend. Wolf Creek Ski Area in southwest Colorado says it will have three lifts running for opening day Saturday. Wolf Creek's base was helped by 10 inches of new snow from a storm that passed through this week.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 2:06 PM | Permalink

Malaguit, 19, was a high school sophomore while visiting Ski Sundown on Feb. 17, 2006, when he lost control coming off a man-made jump in the terrain park on the ski area's Exhibition run, subsequently landing on his head. His injuries left him paralyzed from the chest down. Malaguit and his family sued Ski Sundown for compensation for his permanent injuries.

In the plaintiff's closing arguments, the attorney claimed that one reason for Ski Sundown's negligence was the fact that there was no terrain park fence. The defendants argued that Malaguit made his own decision to go over the terrain feature, and that fences do not keep people out of the terrain park, they keep traffic from crossing through and disrupting the park.

Jurors came to a verdict favoring Ski Sundown on Tuesday. The plaintiffs, Malaguit and his mother Nona, were awarded no compensation for the injuries suffered after the jury came to a unanimous decision favoring the defense. The jurors deliberated for approximately one hour and 15 minutes.

There was no argument or motions filed at that time by the plaintiff's attorney. Nothing indicated Monaco would file an appeal in the case. The plaintiff's counsel asked to see both verdict forms and went to the clerk's desk to view them.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 2:04 PM | Permalink

Warren Miller is synonymous with ski movie. Almost every skier on the planet has watched at least one of his adrenaline-fueled documentaries of extreme skiers. This week a Colorado arbitration panel has denied Warren Miller Entertainment's breach-of-contract claim against the filmmaker. But while the decision gives Miller more control over his name, it could force him out of the ski-film industry he created more than 60 years ago.

Miller created the genre as a camera- toting ski bum in 1949. Miller sold his movie company in 1988 and signed endorsement and noncompete contracts with the company as part of the sale. Warren Miller Entertainment argued that his narration in a competitor's movie violated those contracts.

The arbitrating panel last week ruled that the noncompete clauses in five contracts negotiated between the man and the company between 1988 and 1998 had expired but that Miller's participation in "Refresh," a movie produced by Denver's Level 1 Production, breached his promises for exclusive publicity of WME's annual movies. The ruling comes 13 months after the Boulder-based Warren Miller Entertainment group sued to block screenings of "Refresh."

The ruling states that WME owns the exclusive right, in perpetuity, in all media, to the name, the personal endorsement, use of voice and the likeness of Warren Miller, only when used with its existing business, and the fruits of its related efforts. The ruling also forbids Miller from working with other ski-film makers, essentially banning him from the ski film business, but Miller can use his name and support for projects outside the scope of WME.

Even though Miller broke his contractual obligation for endorsement, the arbitrators could not determine the financial impact of that violation. They found the company's claims for damages to be "speculative, insufficient and lacking credibility to support any specific damage." That lack of specific evidence led the arbitrators to ultimately rule there was no breach of contract.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 11:58 AM | Permalink

Snowboarders and skiers will launch themselves a mile high -- and then some -- when Denver's Civic Center park is transformed into a "Big Air" venue in January with one of the largest man-made ramps ever constructed. The two-day Denver Big Air presented by Sprint event, which is expected to draw some of the top on-snow athletes in the world, was announced this month by Mayor John Hickenlooper and officials with Denver Sports and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.

Denver marks the first-ever U.S. stop for the LG FIS World Cup Snowboard Big Air event. In the past, competitions have been held in Moscow, Barcelona, Quebec, Seoul and London, putting Denver in pretty impressive company.

Organizers said they will manufacture a layer of crushed ice with snow. In the event of a warmer-than-normal January, the required material will be made early and stored elsewhere until show time.

Unofficially, the ramp for the event will be 10 stories tall and nearly as long as a football field (officially it will be 102 1/2 feet tall, 300 feet long and 80 feet wide). It is expected that the event will attract top competitors from each sport.

The event will feature one day of World Cup snowboarding competition. The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association will add a day of Big Air ski competition to complement the snowboarding action. Negotiations are underway to try to bring Shaun White, the Olympic gold medalist in snowboarding, to the event, organizers said.

The Jan. 25-26 event will also cement Colorado as the center of the snow sports universe in late January, as it precedes Snow Show, the SnowSports Industries America annual exhibition in Denver, as well as ESPN's annual X Games in Aspen, both of which are scheduled Jan. 27-30.

Big Air is expected to draw at least 20,000 spectators and should visitors from throughout the Rocky Mountain region, said a spokesperson for Denver Sports, which recently changed its name from the Metro Denver Sports Commission. The organization has pushed to attract sporting events to Denver as a way to help fuel economic development. The organization helped bring to Denver the Sportaccord convention, an international gathering of the world's sports federations. It also played a role in bringing the Olympic trials for curling to Broomfield.

Big Air is expected to be the first of at least four such annual events. The economic impact is not yet known, but officials hope it will further showcase Denver as a destination for both winter sports and international events and further burnish Colorado's chances for eventually hosting the Olympics.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 2:07 PM | Permalink

Vail Resorts announced last week a 3.9 percent increase in its yearly mountain-related revenue during the company's fourth quarter and fiscal year earnings call. Snowfall in Colorado was at a 30-year low during the 2009-10 ski season, but Vail managed growth in mountain revenues, which includes lift ticket, dining, ski school, retail and rental revenues. Season pass sales have improved significantly from the third quarter report in June, when they were down about 15 percent from the previous year. Pass sales are now down about 1 percent compared to the same time last year.

Overall, the company saw an 11.1 percent decrease in total net revenue, with $868.6 million in fiscal 2010 compared to $977 million in fiscal 2009 - the company attributes this difference to the timing of real estate closings.

Retail and rental revenue was up 5 percent, or $7.4 million, mainly because of higher retail sales and rental volume at Vail, Beaver Creek and Breckenridge. Retail and rental revenue got a boost in the spring when snowfall was better and the resorts had higher skier visits than earlier in the winter.

Season pass prices across the board are up about $10 to $20, depending on the pass. Pass sales tend to increase just before a deadline for when a certain pass price is guaranteed. Those deadlines come up in mid-October and mid-November. Of course, the cost benefits of a season pass should be weighed against the potential cost of signing a waiver releasing Vail of liability for injuries.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 2:39 PM | Permalink

Blackcomb Skiing Enterprises is being sued by the British Columbia Government, for medical expenses incurred by a snowboarder for treatment of her injuries inflicted when climbing up a cliff, two years ago.

Amanda Yan's snowboard got caught by an edge and she fell, when she was snowboarding on the mountain on April 19, 2008. As the legal action claims, she fell off on the Crystal Road run which was located over a cliff and below a steep embankment.

The lawsuit filed in B. C. Supreme Court expressed that the fall caused Yan a mild damaging brain injury, her two vertebrae got displaced and three other vertebrae got fractured. It added that her right thigh bone and a wrist bone in her right hand also got fractured. Her left kidney and a lung got affected with injuries. Yan is currently pursuing her own lawsuit against Blackcomb Mountain, which remains a separate legal entity to Whistler Mountain despite the merger in 1998.

Both lawsuits allege that Blackcomb is negligent for not placing a barrier and sign warnings on the ski run where Yan fell. The lawsuits also accused the Company for not performing measures such as maintenance and investigation of the site to prevent an accident. The province alleges that warning signs were inadequate, and that the company should have placed a barrier in that area to prevent this kind of accident.
The health care costs have been demanded under the Health Care Recovery Act by the Government. The incident in question involves Amanda Yan, who was snowboarding on the Crystal Road run when she caught an edge and went off the road and then over a cliff.

Under the Health Care Recovery Act the province is committed to recouping some of their costs of providing health care to accident victims through the court system. From April 1, 2009 to June 2010 the province launched 5,069 such cases, of which 974 were closed. In the first fiscal year of the legislation (2009-2010) some $2.4 million was recovered.

Whistler Blackcomb must file a Response to Civil Claim 21 days after receiving notice from the province.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 1:57 PM | Permalink