Return to Broadmoor
“A national ski area organization is needed,” was the concensus of a small group of ski area operators who had gathered from around the country at the invitation of National Ski Association president, Merritt Styles. “And if such an organization is formed it will need a voice.”
At that point we agreed to form a national ski area office in New York and to start a publication which we named, on-the-spot, Ski Area Management.
We salute NSAA as it returns to the place of its birth. It has grown marvelously in size, in accomplishment and in stature.
A SAM editorial
We lose two friends
Charles Minot Dole
While still alive, Charles “Minnie” Dole received every accolade and honor a grateful ski world could bestow. And that is good. Now that he is with us no more we can only say our fond farewells.
Minnie, of course, is best known as the guiding force behind the creation of the National Ski Patrol System, and later as the man who helped the Army organize the ski troops who became the 10th Mountain Division.
Beyond these two remarkable achievements, which certainly assure him ski immortality, was the man whom we will always remember as warm, compulsively kind and infectiously in love with life.
Thanks, Minnie, for everything!
A SAM Editorial
Frank Ellis
Skiing recently lost one of its old friends. Be it skier or ski area, Frank Ellis will always be remembered for the service he rendered this industry. It was he, together with his first wife, Gert, who conceived and fostered the idea of providing a clearinghouse for snow information some thirty years ago. Communications in those days was not what it is today. Many of today’s ski area giants were handicapped by the rural communications that served them. Service was often poor to non-existent, as was the case of Killington in the late 50’s and early 60’s. Thus, Frank was called upon to be the voice, or link, between ski area and skier. Virtually every ski area depended upon Frank to provide snow information in the marketplace, especially in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s.
What began as a hobby quickly became a full-time business. Frank, his wife and children took turns at the telephones. Later, neighbors and friends were pressed into service answering the millions of calls as the business expanded with national sponsorship to cover the western states. Through it all, the business burgeoned within the framework of Frank’s home. A home that epitomizes the warmth, pride, dignity and modesty that was Frank.
We tip our hats in sympathy to the family of Frank Ellis, a man who played a key role in the growth of our industry.
Paul Bousquet
Lift evacuation
Item: A man and his 11-year-old son are on a chairlift in Pennsylvania. The lift stops. For over two hours they sit, suspended 30 feet above a pile of rocks. The temperature is 18 degrees. There is no contact of any sort made by anyone. They are down-wind of a snow gun which continues operating, both heightening their discomfort and drowning out their calls for help.
Item: The headline in the New York Times tells part of the story: “Ski Lift Strands 60 for 3 Hours Upstate.” The story goes on to describe how the wind-chill factor was below zero and that the breakdown occurred at ten o’clock at night.
Incidents like these are all too common, and they represent a failure of management, not of equipment. There will always be the possibility of lift failure no matter how diligent the maintenance of the machinery and how careful its operation. But poor handling of the situation when a mechanical failure arrives is almost certainly a case of avoidable human error.
It is avaoidable because there is no aspect of operational lift safety that has been more fully researched than lift evacuation. And the results of this research have been frequently and fully disseminated to the whole industry. (The research continues, as does the dissemination of everything useful.)
The basic text, produced in 1974 by the National Ski Patrol System, is entitled “Lift Evacuation Technical Manual.” Every area should have this—not as a dust collector, but as the basis for detailed planning.
The manual, which includes all relevant sections from the ANSI Standards, also includes a joint statement by NSAA and NSPS setting down guidelines for lift evacuation.
In addition, the Forest Service will soon be releasing a manual on Evacuation of Aerial Passenger Tramways & Ski Lifts, prepared by Chief Cableways Engineer, Charles Dwyer. This should also be a part of the active operations SOP for all areas, large or small, Forest Service permittees or not.
Then there are the evacuation seminars and demonstrations conducted regionally by the NSAA Insurance Plan engineers and the Insurance Plan Managers, Barringer & Williams. “All of us in the industry should be frustrated and concerned about the continuing problems in the field of lift evacuation . . . particularly in view of the substantial efforts that have been made to refine and define the procedural and technical considerations in lift evacuation,” says Dick Williams of B & W.
The majority of these lift evacuation accidents,” continues Williams, “appear to be caused either directly or indirectly by the absence or inadequacy of a lift evacuation program.” Interestingly, most of the lift evacuation problems B & W has been involved with have dealt with injuries resulting from prolonged exposure, rather than equipment failure.
The industry guidelines for chairlift evacuation include the following as minimum: 1) A detailed, written plan of evacuation; 2) Equipment necessary for evacuation; and 3) Adequate training of personnel. This is also a general requirement of the ANSI Standards. But all too many areas are not conforming, and in others there is technical conformance, but no management imperative to make it work.
But let us speak of positives. There are many areas, large and small, which have excellent evacuation programs, with trained and rehearsed personnel to carry them out. In studying these programs and talking to those responsible, we found that, though the management styles differed, the underlying philosophies were similar—as was, of course, the technology.
For instance, there seems to be a concensus that evacuation, either mechanical or manual, should be initiated not longer than 15 minutes from time of lift failure. The time to complete the evacuation is something else, but the 15-minute period is for making a considered commitment.
Secondly, we found a concensus that communications with the stranded skiers is of the essence. It makes evacuation easier because the passengers are reassured; it hopefully deters the panicky from jumping; and it can turn a potential publicity black eye into an occasion for praise for the thoughtfulness and efficiency of the staff.
And here we record a lift evacuation performed flawlessly: the one at Vail following the tragic gondola incident. The long hours put into the writing of a detailed evacuation plan and the painstaking drills paid off in a text-book evacuation of the entire line. It is awful to contemplate the compounded tragedy had Vail not been so well prepared.
Is your area that well prepared? And have you made use of the expertise available from NSAA, NSPS, USFS and the insurance industry? You should. They want to help!
A SAM editorial
On promotional spending
Who is responsible for skier growth? This was the subject of a recent round-table discussion at Stratton. It is an important issue, and is one we will address in a later Issues section of SAM.
But for now, as we prepare for the annual NSAA meeting, we would like to caution against the committing of major promotional funds by NSAA. At least until we know where the hell we are and where the hell we want to go.
From one quarter—especially among SIA types who want to make sure they don’t get stuck again with big inventories—we hear much clamoring for big marketing programs. At the same time, from within our own industry, we hear warnings that there won’t be any place to put all the new skiers at the rate we are going.
Individual areas are doing a great job of promoting new skiers into the market. So are regional area marketing groups. At these levels, targets are identified and costs controlled. Promotional expenditures on top of this at the national level should be scrutinized with a very beady eye indeed!
A SAM editorial
A License to Assault
The sport is safe now. Bindings release reliably. Short skis are short lever arms. Groomers dissolve ice. Snowmaking covers rocks. Better boots, warmer clothes, truer lifts all add a measure of assurance.
Seemingly skiing has the characteristics of a Sunday walk in the park. Unfortunately, this walk is becoming more like a hustle in the bowels of Central Park at midnight. The muggers are out.
Ski muggers are people who get on skis, have the strength to stand up and are reasonably sure they can somehow stop when they get to the bottom of the slope. They are usually not skiers with skill and technique. They are thrill seekers who perceive only the here and now and their own world. Other skiers are merely impediments who must be removed from the ski mugger’s path.
According to ski patrollers and ski instructors at areas across the country, the ski mugger population is on the increase. More and more people are being hurt in collisions, more people are victims of hit and run, more people are becoming afraid to ski.
Yet, it is as difficult to place the blame for the ski muggers activities on the ski area management and personnel as it is to attribute the Central Park mugger’s activities to the local police precinct. The difference is the park mugger can be prosecuted and punished. The ski mugger is seldom caught and rarely pays his due.
These violent individuals who take their lift tickets as a license to commit assault are a growing danger, not only to other individuals, but to the sport of skiing. The reputation that our sport enjoys — fun, harmony, pleasure — may be destroyed by the toleration of the uncontrolled, reckless, inexperienced, uninformed, mindless muggers on skis.
—Janet Nelson
A License to Assault—II
Janet Nelson, who wrote the Speak-out piece above, was hit from behind by a person named Scott Macomber, of Marblehead, Mass. while she was skiing at Steamboat Springs in January. She was knocked unconscious, badly bruised and suffered back pains for six weeks. She is an expert and experienced skier. There were competent witnesses both to the recklessness of Macomber’s skiing immediately before he crashed into her, and also to the whole subsequent course of events.
Janet is general editor of this magazine, is president of the Eastern Ski Writers Association and is a contributing editor of Ski Magazine, in which publication she authored a feature article on the problem of the reckless skier. In doing so she anticipated by a year or so the very thing that happened to her.
We agree with her that our industry faces a growing problem in this regard, and we are of the opinion that we should not, as an industry, sit idly by and simply shell out higher insurance premiums as our answer. For, make no mistake about it, though Ms Nelson is not suing, most injured skiers in such a situation will sue, and will automatically name the area as a defendant. Even though, as skiers, they may understand that the area was not at fault, their legal counsel will correctly advise them that there is a much better chance of a substantial money award from a ski area than there is from an individual skier who is probably not covered by an appropriate liability policy.
It seems to us that the time has come for the industry to strike back. Taking away the tickets of reckless skiers, as practiced in varying degrees by many ski areas, is effective as far as it goes. But it may not go far enough. Indeed, Steamboat “polices” aggressively, but it didn’t prevent Ms Nelson from being crashed into.
We would not be in favor of having real police patrolling the slopes and hauling offenders into the local court for reckless endangerment. This is done in parts of Europe, but even if it withstood court tests, we think there is already enough government interference in our private lives.
One approach would be to sue the reckless skier. If successful, both in court and on appeal, it would perhaps have a salutary effect. We think NSAA legal and insurance experts might give this whole subject some serious thought. It takes money to sue, and an individual skier is not likely to sue another skier because he will be advised by Counsel that the legal fees (which are not recoverable, in U.S. courts) will probably exceed what might be awarded in damages, especially if an appeal is involved. But it might make sense for an NSAA “war chest” to be used in support of such litigation. If the case were carefully chosen with an eye to winning, and is won, and the result widely publicized, it might give some relief from the ever-mounting insurance bill. It might even eventually result in skiers buying their own ski liability policies because the areas had effectively eliminated themselves as targets for litigation in collision cases.
Far-fetched? Possibly. But it is worth looking into.
A SAM editorial
