Safer Slopes

I asked a group of staff on a recent trip to their ski area how many have ever seen something unsafe happening but didn’t intervene. All the hands in the room went up. If you’re a living, breathing human being, you’ve witnessed something unsafe or you’ve sensed that something was headed in the wrong direction and never said anything. Hopefully in that situation, the outcome wasn’t tragic. 

Why is the intervention question so important? Because it’s necessary to ask ourselves why we don’t step in when action is needed. I don’t believe that it is a matter of not caring for others, but more likely, it’s because it can be uncomfortable to confront unsafe situations. We need to get past that, because that discomfort pales next to the consequences that can follow from unsafe skiing and riding.

I lost my 5-year-old daughter in a tragic ski collision on Christmas Eve 2010. The snowboarder who collided with my wife and daughter was traveling at 50 mph when the collision occurred. He also tragically lost his life that day, and my wife was severely injured. 

I wonder how the outcome could have been different had staff or guests checked in with the snowboarder who collided with my wife and daughter; resort staff had noticed that the snowboarder appeared inebriated that day, and for years he had been known to ride recklessly.

To be clear, I don’t harbor any ill will toward those involved the day of our accident. After all, these were also staff who assisted in saving my wife’s life, and did everything they could to save my daughter and the snowboarder. Had they known that something so tragic was about to occur, I am certain they would have done everything in their power to prevent it. This tragic incident nonetheless shows that we can get used to and then accept unsafe behavior from certain people at times, and that we need to find a way to break the habit.

To promote collision awareness in the wake of the accident, I partnered with the National Ski Areas Association on the Ride Another Day safety campaign, and in 2023, my wife and I formed Snow Angel Foundation. Through Snow Angel Foundation, we provide slope safety training to ski area employees. Here is some of what I’ve learned about why people don’t intervene when they see dangerous behavior, and the steps ski areas can take to improve on-mountain safety.  

Orientation training at Snowbasin, Utah, in 2023 included a conversation with Johnson.

WHY WE DON’T INTERVENE

What hinders us from stepping in when action is needed? Often it is fear of not knowing what to say or how to approach another person, and uncertainty about how they might react. Questions enter our minds, such as: Will I be able to de-escalate the situation if they react badly? Will I escalate the situation if they react in a negative way? 

These are valid questions, concerns, and fears. We don’t want to make a situation worse, and furthermore, it can be very uncomfortable. Anyone who has ever served in a leadership role knows and understands these fears in a personal way, but only true leaders learn how to step in effectively when the stakes are high. 

Back to the training session, the next question I asked the group was: How many of you have ever had to break up with a significant other? In all of my training sessions, with the exception of two men, everyone has raised their hand. For the vast majority of us, navigating a breakup is a very real and very human experience that has something to teach us about bystander intervention. 

Physiological response. Think about what feelings came to you right before you had to have the breakup conversation. Anxiety, fear, cold sweats—the list goes on, and the looks on the faces of some in the staff training group go right back to the negative moment. It’s almost palpable. 

These are the same types of physiological responses we all have in similar situations, which include, for many, times when we need to intervene in an uncomfortable situation at work, with guests, when safety is on the line. 

Communicating and connecting when the stakes are high is difficult at best. While some are born with an innate ability to do this effectively, the majority are not. Fortunately for the majority, it is a skill that can be learned.  

LEARNING TO INTERVENE

To start developing this skill with staff, I focus on a few concepts that allow them to approach conversations with reckless skiers and riders in a constructive way. 

Patrollers at Vermont’s Saskadena Six with the author (third from left).

Our first reaction when we see unsafe behavior on the slopes is usually frustration and anger. Add adrenaline to that equation and the results can be catastrophic. You don’t have to look very far on social media to see poor outcomes when tempers flare. This is exactly what we want to avoid. Yelling matches never result in peaceful outcomes with mutual understanding. A calmer approach is needed in order to achieve desired outcomes. 

Be an example. The first concept to support a more reasoned approach that I ask staff to commit to is to be the example of safe skiing and riding. As an employee of a ski area, they represent the culture of the company whether they’re wearing their uniform or not. A culture of safety among staff is necessary if they wish to see that reflected by their guests. When difficult conversations about reckless skiing and riding must happen with guests, staff also need confidence that they’re living up to those same slope safety expectations to which they want to hold guests accountable. 

The conversation card. The next concept utilizes a tool that I call “the conversation card.” This is a small two-sided card with the Snow Angel Foundation graphic, the Ride Another Day collision safety tenets, and a QR code to the Ride Another Day collision safety video. Approaching a reckless guest and presenting them with the card provides an object that both the staff member and reckless skier or rider can focus on. The card calls attention to the skier or rider’s reckless behavior in a constructive way and helps the staff member know what to say. 

The method has been tested, and the card is currently used at many areas around the country with positive results. It opens the conversation and ends the conversation on collision avoidance while simultaneously taking the individuals’ emotion out of the situation and explaining how things can go drastically wrong when a collision occurs. 

Human connection. The last concept encourages staff members to utilize human connection to initiate a stressful conversation. When I speak to a training group, I ask them to consider me a friend—I’ve shared a very personal experience with them, which is something friends do. I then ask them to utilize our friendship to their advantage when initiating conversations with reckless skiers and riders. They have the freedom to say, “My friend Chauncy lost his daughter in a tragic collision, and I don’t want you to get hurt or hurt someone else in a similar situation when that can be avoided.” 

This opening makes the conversation more human and de-escalates the emotions of the offender once they understand the personal connection involved. It might feel uncomfortable at first for staff members, but I plead with them to do this without shame. Sure, we don’t have a long history filled with memories together, but nonetheless, in my mind, we are friends. We have interacted and connected on a personal level, and since I’m asking them to use our friendship as a tool, I hope that they feel free to do so.  

A Snow Angel Foundation tent at Utah’s Snowbasin helps open the conversation with visitors about the importance of collision avoidance.

LEAD THE WAY

I’ve had the benefit of working with staff across the country at several ski areas, and there is a notable desire at mountains to improve in all aspects of safety—staff and guest safety are top priorities. I do not travel to resorts to design, implement, or enforce policies at each mountain. My focus is on creating an open conversation about collision avoidance and providing practical communication tools that get results. 

The skills to have difficult conversations are necessary for effective leadership and communication beyond collision avoidance, but also especially when safety is in question.

At Snow Angel Foundation, our goal is to prevent collisions by tweaking a mountain’s safety culture through education and awareness. Keeping the fun in skiing and riding means providing an environment where we commit to our personal safety and the safety of others. Our hope is that you’ll join us in this important cause. 

Author Chauncy Johnson and his wife, Kelli, pose in front of a “Ride Another Day” poster. They started the campaign after losing their daughter in an on-slope collision