"It's only put there to create an atmosphere of awareness".

A snowHead

I have not long returned from skiing in Utah and like most fellow snowheads, had read that stern report about certain ski resorts in Utah severely clamping down on reckless skiing / excessive speed, and rude and abusive behaviour. So I'm sure you will all understand if I admit that on my first day venturing onto the slopes of Park City, I was a little paranoid. Uhmm.. I think that was a slight understatement. On approaching the base lift station, I made a hurried effort to display my most sweetest and most benign of smiles to the lift attendant as he scanned my lift pass. "Phew! made it." I said to myself. Fortunately for me it was snowing heavily at that time, goggles were down, neck warmers were up - thankfully I was spared exposing my cockney accent to my huddled chairlift companions. On alighting from the chair, I could feel my heart beats pounding against my chest erratically. Two guys with big white crosses emblazoned on their ski tunics stood side by side arms akimbo, legs astride, staring straight at me as the chairlift unweighted me. Head down, I tried to be as inconspicuous as possibe. I set off on my virgin ski run with my entire being screaming to throw itself down the piste. With superhuman strength I resisted. The thought of spending 6 months in a prison chain gang was a sobering thought. As I skied down, huge slow signs greeted me in loud orange. I tried to concentrate on my skiing, but in vain. My head constantly swivelled to and thro, straining to look behind me. Tensing for a piercing siren sound. Imagining a huge snowmobile, siren blasting with two ski patrollers hanging on each side of the machine, flagging me down furiously. Discipline, I hissed to myself.. Discipline. Then all of a sudden, young skiers were whizzing past me at break neck speed - some narrowly missing me. One or two almost cut me out impatiently. Then the familiar blue uniform of maverick ski instructors flailed past me, yes, some of them were none too good skiers. I thought, what the hell's going on here.
Needless to say, I had it out with several ski instructors, two ski hosts, a barman and my hotel manager. And in a roundabout way they all stated in a secretive way: "Don't worry about it. We locals don't take any notice of it. It's only put there to create an atmosphere of awareness for you Brits. We have no intententions of making prosecutings, the most we will do is isuue a warning and a lecture on a first offence... Well I'll be darned.

A snowHead

The thought occurs to me, looking at that sign: Would a fully qualified European high mountain guide have any restrictions on what he would be allowed to ski if he led a group in the USA? (As far as I know the US has no real equivalent.) What about back country?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

p1sh

skiing ain't a privilege, it's a g0d-darned right (or an old charter or something... wink

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I'm in Copper Mountain at the moment.

What the slogan seen around and about is as follows:

"Ski fast, lose your pass, go to class"

The area is well patrolled and the above really refers to areas around where runs merge, beginner areas and areas towards the bottom of the mountain as that is where the guys tend to be stationed. I have seen people being pulled over and quite rightly. However, they are not there to be like some sort of ski police.

The overall atmosphere is of a fab, safe mountain, I think it makes a difference. I feel safe here. I didn't feel safe in Flaine in January.

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S Neal, Thanks for you nice personal experience on this. As the father (alledgedly) of some young skiers, and the owner of a fragile body, I think the actions and stance being taken. Not such a problem in the Ski Amade and La ROsiere this year, but when in Tignes during a quite week I saw lots of accidents, injuries, near misses, and dangerous skiing.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Just so I understand - are you referring to skiing an inbounds area or ducking a rope to go into a permanent closure etc.? There have been multiple Avy deaths at the Canyons in past seasons including inbounds avy IIRC so I would be surprised if ski patrol have a relaxed attitude to poaching permanent closures. Of course some perm closures are there to save people from themselves - locals do ski them but then they also know where cliffs top out, slide paths etc

After all it is free

From my cold dead hands.

I think he was talking about speed/speeding on pistes (ie trails).

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Or were you answering me?
Well, you wouldn't really need a proper mountain guide for inbounds skiing - you could just employ anyone who knew the area if you felt you needed it.
As I understand it all back-country involves passing ropes. In Europe a High Mountain Guide (UIAGM in France) is qualified to lead anywhere (and in any Country - though I don't know about America) including on glaciers (he normally always carries ropes, harnesses etc). This will often involves ducking ropes. It involves many years of apprenticeship - and tough exams (I recently heard of someone who died doing one of these). I am often awed at the precision of their knowledge that one patch of snow is dangerous and a patch next to it which I would have thought was identical, was not (and having it proved right). They have normally spent most if not all their lives on the mountain, and usually taking people climbing in the summer. If you want to do off piste skiing in Europe you should hire one since only the pistes are avalanche patrolled and many off-piste routes go many miles from any piste..

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I take it that's a No then Toofy Grin

snow reports

snowball,

Wasn't answering you but I was confused by the original post. I'm not sure UAIGM status gives you carte blanche in the US as I think there are some areas where it is against County, State or Federal law to duck a rope. Curiously if you skin up to the same point staying outside the ski area you may be within the law. Lots of ski areas, of course have access gates which I expect any responsible guide would take you out of.

I think its a key difference from Europe where ropes are really only advisory and only in extreme cases like Chamonix's mayor a couple of years ago have I heard of ducking a rope being mooted as a chargeable offence (fines for encroachment on nature reserves notwithstanding).

Patrol do take it seriously some places. I knew a guy in Fernie had his season pass suspended for a week for cutting a corner through a closed area while patrol were still doing control work. Now he was just being a bit daft rather than deliberately poaching but they said that control closures were to protect them and they had to exercise zero tolerance or people would just take the wee wee. On another occasion I saw a patrol guy in the eagle's nest at the top of a bowl with binoculars calling out attire on a walkie-talkie so a colleague could nab poachers when they ran out to the lift during a closure.

You know it makes sense.

Martin Bell, your website does not appear to be working, either via your sig line or google. You probably know this already.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

fatbob, just to clarify things, I was solely referring to fast and reckless skiing on piste and so were the resort officials. I displayed the piccy of the notice board just for everyone's interest. I wasn't sure who was supposed to be policing the pistes. I did notice that the ski patrol guys in Park City were kept very busy carting blood wagons up and down the lower runs and I did notice that many of the young skiers (including some young ski instructors) ignored the slow zone signs. With many of the young skiers in Park City and Deer Valley, it was made clear to me that their sole aim was to ski fast anywhere on the piste and at all times irrespective whose on the runs. In fact they behaved no differently than the young reckless and thoughtless skiers to be seen in the European resorts. I was very annoyed because there was me skiing with safety awareness and it looked as if every one around me wasn't!. That's why I confronted resort staff about it.
Now The Canyons is a different kettle of fish. To get the best out of that resort you would have to be at least an advanced skier. You only have to hiccup and you suddenly find yourself forest glading. All I encountered there were happy families and mature skiers (some very mature) wink

.

A snowHead

snowball,
I believe in some states (Colorado?) it is actually illegal to ignore the ropes and go into the backcountry except through designated gates (when open) so it doesn't matter who you are. They have the Colorado ski saftey act that makes ducking ropes a criminal offense. I think I recall seeing a few years back that the shiffs office gave offenders the choice of a big fine or to participate in "avalanche simulation" where the participants were totally buried!!

A snowHead

S Neal, Thanks I suspected as much but I know there is also local's lore where they will tell you about skiing some areas which are very dangerous for Joe Punter (i.e me).

The speed zone thing is an odd one - I once got pulled on a snowboard at the end of the day when I'd just swapped over from my skis. I was travelling much slower than I had been when skiing in the same area and was sure the guy only stopped me because I was on a board I also pointed out to him that there was barely another person on the slope by that time of the day which he reluctantly acknowledged but not without a certain amount of "don't give me backchat" attitude. You can take a jobsworth to the mountains but you can't make him think.

Help!!

"It's only put there to create an atmosphere of awareness".

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