“I’m not sure if injuries and incidents have declined because of safety week,” said Briana Schaub, marketing director at Spirit Mountain, Minn., “but we are seeing much greater awareness of safety on the hill.”
“I think people in the last five years have become much more aware of the importance of paying attention on the slope, keeping space around themselves and others, and checking their speed, especially in family zones and no bump zones,” said Christina Schleicher, spokeswoman at Beaver Creek, Colo. “That kind of awareness wasn’t there 10 years ago.”
Awareness should be up. Beaver Creek, alone gave away more than 4,000 hats, pins and buttons during safety week. In fact, giveaways dominated the week: hot chocolate, lift tickets, helmets, sunscreen and other items to all who could recite the responsibility code. Following is a look at some safety week highlights, as well as some other ski area safety trends.
National safety week
“Safety week gives us a chance to kick up our safety efforts, take them to a higher level,” said Terry Hernandez, risk manager at Heavenly Valley, Calif.
This year, in addition to the free hot chocolates, poster contests, scavenger hunts, helmet discounts and other safety week staples, Heavenly went internal, challenging departments to come up with the best safety promotion. “By having our employees participate in the week at such a high level, the spirit naturally flows to the guests,” Hernandez said.
Breckenridge, Colo., also got its employees involved, challenging departments and offering monetary rewards for the best promotions. Sustainability—ideas that could be put into practice on an ongoing basis—was a key criterion. Guest services put safety messages around the resort and challenged guests to find them for a prize. The terrain park crew created a park CD with safety messages between songs. The parking lot crew did free car safety checks for guests.
“We had a great, great response from skiers,” said Emily Jacob, communications manager. “I was in uniform one day and was literally attacked by a guest who wanted to tell me the safety message of the day. People assume safety is just a ski patrol job. We wanted to expand it to our other employees. Longevity was a key criterion and everything we got back we can and will use again.”
Season long safety initiatives
In fact, the hype of national safety week aside, safety remains a year round commitment at ski areas. Many are beefing up on-hill safety patrols and making terrain changes to ease dangerous intersections and lessen slope congestion. Keystone, for example, dramatically improved traffic flow this season by widening runs, taking out trees and regrading high traffic intersections to make entry pitches more gradual. The area also relocated its terrain park to the more remote west side of the mountain.
“There was a lot of friction between skiers and park users when the park went right down the center cruiser runs,” said Michael Lee, communications manager. “Those two behaviors don’t interface well. By reformatting the mountain, we’ve created a natural separation between them and are better utilizing an under-used part of the mountain.”
Keystone also reassigned its yellow jacket safety patrol from guest services to ski patrol. “It’s resulted in a more professional mountain watch program,” Lee said. “We’ve also focused on more one-on-one conversations with people who are skiing or riding too fast instead of just waving them down. We’ve had a really positive response from people we’ve communicated with.” Beaver Creek’s yellow jackets are also emphasizing proactive measures—rewarding safe skiing rather than just punishing prohibited behavior.
Safety patrols have been bolstered nationwide. Northstar-at-Tahoe, Calif., has brought back its volunteer safety patrol to augment the paid patrol it instituted last year. Killington, Vt., has also increased the size of its safety patrol and increased signage around its borders. (Even with the additional warnings, two skiers got lost in the woods earlier this winter, although Steve Wright, communications manager, noted that number is down from previous years.)
Big Mountain, Mont., has spent considerable effort this season to offer weekly avalanche clinics to educate skiers about the dangers of skiing out of bounds. The area has also improved inbound safety with new trail markers and indicators to help skiers make their way down in heavy fog. “Obviously, in-bound safety is our priority because that is our jurisdiction,” said Dan Virkstis, communications manager. “But we also feel a need to educate skiers about out of bounds even though it’s not our land.”
Rather than “trying to retrain teenage snowboarders and college skiers,” Schaub said Spirit Mountain is focusing on educating youngsters about slope safety. The area partnered with its local CBS-TV affiliate to create three public service announcements on safety featuring a local youngster. The area is also partnering with Snow Monsters to hand out DVDs to children in its lessons program. The disk features four video clips, including one on safety. “We want safety language to be part of kids’ vocabulary,” Schaub said. “This way they’re absorbing it without being sat down and taught. If kids grow up learning ski area etiquette and responsibility, they’ll become more responsible adult skiers.”
Helmets
Spirit also held its first-ever helmet sale for season passholders last fall and sold more than 100.
Almost everywhere, helmet usage is rising.
“I would say seven out of 10 people in the liftline have helmets on,” said Seth Boyd, risk manager at Stratton, Vt.
“Helmets have really become the standard here,” said Virkstis at Big Mountain. “There are so many varieties people don’t worry any more about the fit or how they look.”
“Helmets have become more of a thought process for people,” added Jacob at Breckenridge.
A few areas, though, haven’t seen evidence of that change. “Four years ago, after a trip to New England, I came back and said, ‘we’ve got to get helmets in our shop,’” said Carl Kerstetter, marketing director at Jack Frost, Pa. “I ordered a couple hundred and people didn’t buy them.”
Terrain parks
Many ski areas are also trying to make terrain park use more thoughtful, such as the relocation of Keystone’s park to create a more natural separation between skiers and park users. Beaver Creek has introduced a “parkology” program of terrain park safety instruction and competitions in its children’s ski school.
Stratton is now requiring all double black diamond park users to go through a terrain park education program. After the half hour video and talk, users get a pass to use the park. “It’s been very, very well-received,” Boyd said. “I was actually surprised at the response. We did it to raise awareness, but it’s also had the effect of funneling only those users who really want to be there.”
Boyd said the education program has cut down on the number and severity of injuries and is generating much interest from other ski areas. The program was modeled after a similar program at another Intrawest resort, Blue Mountain, Ont. “They started an education program two years ago and the first year it lowered the incidence of injuries by 66 percent,” Boyd said. “I don’t know if we’ll hit that incredible mark, but it’s certainly noteworthy.”
