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Another sad story of a hit and run incident

mikel

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Colorado law presumes that the uphill skier/rider is at fault in an accident because the overtaking skier/rider has the primary duty to avoid the skier/rider below. Merging skiers/riders have to yield to skiers/riders already in progress, and all skiers/riders are required to ski within their ability and refrain from acting in a manner which may cause or contribute to the injury of another skier.
 
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crgildart

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Why did some other person at the scene tell the kid to leave??? It seems he was there cooperating to some degree and some other bystander told him he could leave??? That's as much a problem as the kid saying OK an skiing off..
 

oldschoolskier

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Why did some other person at the scene tell the kid to leave??? It seems he was there cooperating to some degree and some other bystander told him he could leave??? That's as much a problem as the kid saying OK an skiing off..
This!!

While a kid may or may not be at fault, whoever said they should leave, should bear the brunt of the blame.
 
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KingGrump

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The grooming are way over board at most resorts. Doesn't have to be full on bump runs. Just leave the trails with some character.
 

silverback

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If you can't avoid someone who suddenly is in your way no matter the reason, then you are NOT in control.
So everyone who has hit a deer on the highway was driving out of control? If someone blows through a red light and is suddenly in front of you and you can’t stop in time is that because you were driving out of control?
This attitude/belief only contributes to the fail to yield problem. So many only know skier code #1 and ignore #4.
 

Novaloafah

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Not usually how deer/car collisions happen in my experience. If you can see the deer, you slow down cuz where there is one there is others. They have a tendency to move right in front of you. The red light getting blown is a violation that pretty much assigns responsibility with no leeway. If the teen was bombing downhill with people in front of him or a merge area in front of him he should have slowed up. Common sense (teen right?)
It was an accident, we don't have the whole picture. The kid stopped and then probably in a daze or panic left when dismissed. I won't be surprised if he steps forward now that he's being searched for.
I'm super cautious about where i stop, I try to shoulder check when i decide to move/turn and tend to slow up to get a look at what's in front of me when slope drops away, but in the end it's a sport with alot of folk moving at speed and maybe not always super attentive and I might surprise someone to my regret.
 

crgildart

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So everyone who has hit a deer on the highway was driving out of control? If someone blows through a red light and is suddenly in front of you and you can’t stop in time is that because you were driving out of control?
This attitude/belief only contributes to the fail to yield problem. So many only know skier code #1 and ignore #4.
Skiers code is way different than driving. For starters we don't have seat belts and air bags. We also don't have mandatory insurance. Driving also requires actual training and proficiency exams before folks are allowed to drive on public roads shared by other vehicles.. Way easier to maintain control and stop a pair of skis than a 3,000 pound automobile. still, speed and following distance are usually based on being able to stop/avoid what is in front of you but the variables are way higher for driving.
 

KingGrump

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My name is Karen and I'd like to speak to your manager about those ruts and bumps out there..

1610636363681.png
 

johnnyvw

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So everyone who has hit a deer on the highway was driving out of control? If someone blows through a red light and is suddenly in front of you and you can’t stop in time is that because you were driving out of control?
This attitude/belief only contributes to the fail to yield problem. So many only know skier code #1 and ignore #4.
Did the woman who got hit jump into his path out of nowhere from behind a bush? That's comparing apples to oranges.
 

dbostedo

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Did the woman who got hit jump into his path out of nowhere from behind a bush? That's comparing apples to oranges.
This is my take too... I don't know any more about this particular incident than anyone else. But in that area, it's highly unlikely that anything other than rules 1 and 2 are in effect here. And I agree that it's nothing like driving - that's a poor comparison that leads to other issues confusing what the skier's code actually says.
 

Posaune

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So here's a situation I see often at Mt. Baker. There is a cat track that leads to the bottom of the lift. It cuts diagonally across a steep mogul field (Honkers, if you are familiar). Boarders traveling down the track often hit the steep side of it to get a little air. They then come back out onto the cat track and swing well into the traffic pattern, sometimes going all the way across to the other side of the track. Since their backs are to the uphill traffic they can't see if they are cutting anyone off or not. It's scary as a skier trying to use the track with these bodies suddenly zipping off to the side and then unpredictably re-entering the traffic. Since the boarders are ahead, they ostensibly have the right of way, but there is no realistic way of figuring out where they will be. Add to this the fact that if you don't have enough speed when you get to the bottom of the cat track you will have to walk a fair distance to get to where you can access the lift. It creates a number of traffic issues all at once.

I don't have an answer to the problem, but it's a PITA every time I'm there. Not all situations can be addressed with hard rules.
 

Goose

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The grooming are way over board at most resorts. Doesn't have to be full on bump runs. Just leave the trails with some character.
I respectfully disagree completely.
I think your are extremely underestimating the amount of spills and collisions that would take place. I think id be lenient when suggesting that probably 80% of the ski population (as a whole) has too much trouble once grooming slips. I mean heck,...just look at any average groomed ski run in the morning when the groom is fresh vs later day when its all spoiled up and see how many more people are down.
Maybe not as much in this unique community but by and large we can thank grooming (next to only lift service) for its current popularity. There are tons of people of all levels that never or only rarely come off the groomers and ski their whole lives that way.
Of course every positive is not without a negative. But you cannot remove or cut back or slack on something that the far majority of skiers (from beginners to advanced and everyone in between) count on for their safe and enjoyable skiing. Its still much safer even with the risk of the irresponsible speed demons than it would be if you slacked off on the grooming. Even very many good skiers (tons of folks) tend to have more mistakes and struggles as the grooming slips away.

In my opinion you are way underestimating just how many accidents and injuries there would be. You prevent "some" percentage of one type of danger yet add a much larger percentage of another type. keeping groomed and even grooming more is far the lessor of the two evils and i dont even think its close. And if you groom less over all then the groomed area will be even more crowded and they then become more dangerous too.

Plus on another note and partially due to some the things mentioned far too much of the entire ski industry depends on and banks on groomers. The resorts to equipment and every single financial aspect about it would not be what it is today imo without grooming.
 

Jacob

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The resorts can mitigate much of the out of control skiing by cutting back on the relentless grooming.

Resorts in the Alps groom their trails every day, but they don’t have this problem to the same extent as in the US as far as I’ve seen.

Having grown up in the US and spent the last 14 winters skiing in Europe, it seems to me that the problem in the US is that new skiers aren’t taught to ski safely for some reason. Even people who are introduced to the sport by skier parents seem to have no idea how to ski safely in the company of others, as if no one ever taught them and they were just left to figure it out for themselves.

As a result, you get people who think that those in front of them should be able to see backwards, and they’re often caught by surprise when someone turns in front of them.
 

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