Like to ski? Surrender all rights
Resorts’ legal releases increase danger of sport
As ski season begins, you should know that the big resorts won’t take responsibility for anything — and I do mean anything — that might go wrong on the slopes.
This might not sound like a big deal. Skiing and snowboarding are inherently risky, and resorts have always made customers sign broad liability releases. Up to a point, that’s reasonable.
It’s not their fault if you crash into a tree or blow a 540-degree corkscrew jump. The vast majority of ski calamities stem from things over which a resort has no control.
But as a season-pass holder at Lake Tahoe, I was shocked to read the release that Vail Resorts ordered me to sign this year. Vail, which owns three major ski areas here, demands that we waive the right to sue even if its own equipment or negligence injures or kills us.
If a lift chair falls 40 feet to the ground and kills you, in other words, that’s just too bad.
Buried in the usual boilerplate are these nasty bombshells:
No liability for the “negligence or failure of ... Ski Area employees”;
No liability for “equipment malfunction, failure or damage,” by which they mean Vail’s equipment;
No liability for “improper use or maintenance of equipment”; 1 No liability for “falls from ski lifts” — regardless of the cause. Just in case they forgot anything, Vail added a kitchen-sink clause that releases them from everything else. “I understand,” it says, “that the description of risks described in this agreement is NOT complete ... and expressly assume ALL risks and dangers.” (Their emphasis.)
At first, I thought they might just be referring to malfunctions of my own gear.
But no. When I called up, a rather glum customer-service rep told me that release covers all of its equipment, including the chairlifts.
“Does that mean,” I asked, “that if my lift chair crashes and I get killed, that Vail doesn’t have any legal responsibility?” “That’s right,” he answered. These aren’t hypothetical possibilities. While rare, chairlift and other malfunctions do cause injuries and deaths.
The most recent chairlift death was in 2016, at Granby Ranch (not a Vail property) in Colorado. In that case, Kelly Huber died after she and her two daughters were thrown off their chair and fell 25 feet. According to a state report, an electronic malfunction caused the chair to lurch violently and hit a lift tower. It ruled out both bad weather and rider behavior as causes.
In 2017, five people were injured at a Pennsylvania resort when a chair came loose, slid backward and crashed into the chair behind it.
In 2016, we had a scare right here in Tahoe at Vail’s Heavenly Mountain Resort, when an unoccupied threeseat chair on the North Bowl lift fell off and 65 people had to be evacuated from other chairs.
As it happens, Vail has been at the forefront of evading responsibility. In January, it won a major federal court victory when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit upheld its nearly blanket immunity from customer lawsuits.
In 2011, Dr. Teresa Brigance broke her femur while unloading from a chair at Keystone in Colorado. The problem was that the chair was so low that her boot became trapped between the chair and the snow. The lift operator slowed the lift but didn’t stop it, and the relentless forward movement led to an agonizing bone break.
The federal court did not rule that Vail wasn’t to blame. Instead, it ruled that its hands were tied because Brigance had given up her right to sue.
“What is especially outrageous is that the ski area’s overly broad release is typically in fine print on the back of the lift ticket, so guests usually have no idea they have given up all of their rights until after the injury occurs,” says Denver attorney Trenton J. Ongert, who represented Brigance.
Vail’s language may be unusually over the top, but most, if not all, ski resorts have all-purpose clauses that aim to shield them from everything. And if you want to ski, you have no choice but to submit. As mad as I was, I signed the release, too.
It’s an insult to customers, but it also makes skiing and snowboarding more dangerous. Think about it: If companies don’t face serious financial consequences for negligence or slipshod maintenance, they are much more likely to cut corners on safety. The risk of lawsuits is a crucial incentive for companies to do the right thing.
All of this fits into a broader pattern of corporations evading accountability to their customers. If you want to do business with a bank, a brokerage firm or even a cell phone company, you have to surrender your right to sue and submit any dispute to a private arbitration process — where the company invariably has the advantage.
The ski industry is taking this arrogance to a new level. As customers who put our safety in their hands, we deserve better.