Ill-Trained, Badly Behaved Are Taking Over The Ski Slopes

I am an avid skier who loves nothing more than the thrill of ripping down the mountainside, wind in my face, snow crunching beneath my skis.

Over the Martin Luther King holiday, I headed up to Schweitzer Mountain, planning to enjoy three great days of skiing with friends. On my first run, as I was heading down the Great Divide on my way over to the backside, I was hit from behind by a 17-year-old snowboarder traveling between 30 and 40 mph.

By the time the two of us stopped tumbling down the slope, I was gasping for breath. My pole bent, the lens from my goggles ejected and cracked in half. I was so battered and bruised that I was out for the rest of the weekend. The snowboarder was uninjured. Three men from the safety ski patrol came to my aid but no one wrote up a report or reprimanded the snowboarder in any way.

If this were an isolated event, I would chalk it up to bad luck. But I have had so many near misses with out-of-control snowboarders and skiers that it was only a matter of time before my number was up.

Every year people are injured or killed on the slopes because of others who are out of control. Why don’t the resorts post warnings that dangerous behavior will not be tolerated and then have patrol members clip the lift tickets of those who endanger others by the way they ski or board?

I later learned that the run where I was hit is referred to as the “Great Collide.” Yet nothing is done to deter unsafe behavior on that run.

At one time, skiing was considered a genteel sport. The courtesy and civility that once defined the sport are long gone. What ever happened to “on your left” or “on your right” when passing a person from behind? One would think that basic courtesy and safety would be emphasized in skiing or boarding classes, but I have not heard these issues mentioned in the classes I have taken. Until safe practices are taught in the classes and enforced on the hill, unnecessary injuries and deaths will continue to rise.

Skiing is inherently dangerous but the danger ought to be in the relationship between the skill of the skier and the challenge of the mountain. It ought not to come from others who ski and board as if they own the hill.

I was lucky enough this time to be out only a pair of goggles, a couple of doctor bills and the balance of a weekend skiing - not paralyzed or dead.