From poster contests to scavenger hunts, to handing out cash, season tickets, free gear, meals, drinks and skiing, ski resorts across the country embraced the NSAA’s first national skier safety awareness week, January 15-22. And for the most part skiers and employees seemed to respond with interest and enthusiasm to the safety message.
“Everybody got into it,” said Judi Bowers, communications manager at Big Bear, Calif.
The vehicle maintenance department painted the heads-up logo on one of its big roll-down garage doors, a couple on a ski holiday spent one day looking for safety codes hidden around the resort and ended up winning a pair of midweek season passes, 30 youngsters entered the skier safety poster contest and the top two won season passes, were interviewed on local television and will have their designs incorporated into Big Bear’s brochure next season.
“It was a great week,” Bowers said. “We had a really good response from both guests and our employees.”
At Mountain High, Calif., from 50 to 75 skiers a day received a $5 discount on their lift tickets for wearing a helmet that week. “We were pleased with the response,” said John McColly, marketing and public relations director. “The number of helmets on the slopes continues to grow every year.”
Instead of one week-long event, the goal at Crystal Mountain, Mich., was to have a different event every day of the week, said Joan O’Neill, public relations manager. There was a morning stretch led by the ski school, a turning contest, a free NASTAR run for every racer who could recite the skier responsibility code, meal deals in the cafeteria, a scavenger hunt associated with safety, an adult racing league helmet demo and a children’s poster contest. Like Big Bear, Crystal used the week to generate media coverage. Each morning the local television station interviewed one of the poster winners or a member of the ski patrol about safety. “For the first year, the response was great,” O’Neill said. “Working with the TV station was a lot of fun. We hope to do more next year.”
At other areas the response was more subdued.
Alpine Meadows, Calif., sponsored a week-long skier safety trivia contest that was upstaged by the snowy weather. Ski patrol, mountain hosts, lift operators, ski instructors—anyone with direct contact with guests—randomly approached skiers and asked them a pop question about the skier’s responsibility code. Correct responses elicited an instant, on-the-spot prize—chapstick, jelly beans, candy bar, handwarmers. More correct answers resulted in vouchers for bigger prizes—clothing, helmets, goggles, etc.
Despite huge crowds all week, especially over the opening Martin Luther King Day holiday weekend, public relations coordinator Rachel Woods said skier response and participation was mediocre. “It snowed quite a few days that week and I think people were more interested in just getting on the lift than any kind of event,” Woods said.
Waterville Valley, N.H. exhibited the heads-up safety posters and banners, put the heads-up logo on all of its fax cover sheets and Website, set up a display table of safety materials in the base lodge and ran special on-hill safety clinics for guests during the week. “We didn’t get a very good response to the safety clinics,” said Debbie Moore, marketing director.
At sister areas Ski Roundtop, Whitetail Mountain and Ski Liberty in Penn., skier response was considerably greater. All three areas offered any guest who could recite the skier responsibility code two free hours of skiing. (Guests buy either four- or eight-hour tickets.)
“It was a very popular event,” said Deanna Painter, public relations director at Ski Liberty. “It was a great debut.”
Some resorts used the official week-long celebration to launch season-long safety campaigns. Jiminy Peak, Mass., has set up non-speed zones in highly congested areas and is for the first time actively patrolling them. “If we see people traveling faster than average, we’ll issue them a warning,” said Sally Johnstone, director of sales and marketing. “If someone insists on speeding, they’re asked to watch a safety video. It they still don’t slow down, we’ll revoke their tickets. We’ve been forced to take remedial action with a couple of people, but if you explain what the thinking is behind the non-speed zones most people understand and slow down.”
But Jiminy Peak is not just looking for violators. This season it also began rewarding courteous behavior with free beverage coupons. “It’s always better to positively reinforce behavior than negatively punish it,” Johnstone said.
At Ski Brule, Mich., where the problem is stopping and standing rather than speeding and cutting off people, the area has also used the national safety week to launch a more formal, season-long effort to manage slope congestion. Ski Brule has also added a “know the code” safety station to its learn-to-ski program and made all the NSAA safety materials mandatory reading for management and on-hill staff.
Spirit Mountain, Minn., also decided to keep the focus on safety all season long. The area added “safety” to its list of talks that mountain personnel give throughout the season at local elementary schools. “If we can get the safety message into skiers’ heads when they are young it will become part of their skiing experience throughout their lives,” said Briana Schaub, marketing director.
Added her boss, Rick Certano, executive director at Spirit Mountain, “You can’t put a price on safety. You can’t ever put too much emphasis on it. I applaud the NSAA for taking the initiative on this issue.”
