• Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!

    You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!

Whos fault?

skiNEwhere

Active member
Joined
Oct 29, 2006
Messages
4,141
Points
38
Location
Dubai
Even though per skiers code it's red skiers fault, I'll reiterate that I think the other skier is just to blame just as much.

I think a driving scenario is a good analogy. If you're in the #3 lane going 55, and you want to go into the number #2 lane where the driver is going 75, you need to yield or at least make sure that you can change lanes cleanly. If the driver in the #3 lane goes into the #2 and cutoffs off the driver so bad that he doesn't have time to slow down to 55, and rear ends the driver previously in lane #3, it would be the fault of the driver that was rear ended for cutting off the other driver.

While there are no actual lanes so to speak of on the hill, I do believe that each skier has a responsibly to stay in their imaginary lane. If you've been making 20 foot turns, and then want to carve a huge 100 foot arc perpendicularly across the slope, you should look back uphill.

If you cause an accident by making a completely random turn that an uphill skier wouldn't be able to anticipate, you're just as much at fault in my book.
 

shwilly

Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2006
Messages
311
Points
16
From descriptions of the incident (she blindsided a guy who was standing still), it certainly sounds like GP was at fault by the "code," but it also sounds like she didn't know how to ski and was taking a beginner private lesson on a green trail.

Everyone starts out as a beginner. Sometimes novices get in over their head and get out of control. If a beginner is taking a lesson to try to get better, can you really call them negligent? Just another reason to keep your eyes peeled on green trails.

On the topic of passing and so forth, my pet peeve this year is groups of goobers congregating at a rise or turn who look uphill, see me about to pass them, and then drop in in front of me anyway! I don't mind passing these folks far closer than I ever pass otherwise.
 

dlague

Active member
Joined
Nov 7, 2012
Messages
8,792
Points
36
Location
CS, Colorado
From descriptions of the incident (she blindsided a guy who was standing still), it certainly sounds like GP was at fault by the "code," but it also sounds like she didn't know how to ski and was taking a beginner private lesson on a green trail.

Everyone starts out as a beginner. Sometimes novices get in over their head and get out of control. If a beginner is taking a lesson to try to get better, can you really call them negligent? Just another reason to keep your eyes peeled on green trails.

On the topic of passing and so forth, my pet peeve this year is groups of goobers congregating at a rise or turn who look uphill, see me about to pass them, and then drop in in front of me anyway! I don't mind passing these folks far closer than I ever pass otherwise.
I agree about beginner skiers! They do not have the skill to take corrective action. They look at an obstacle when they should look where they should go to avoid the obstacle whether it is another skier or an object.

My wife got hit by a beginner out of control resulting in her breaking her shoulder ( humerus and humerus ball compression).

The real question is - would there be a lawsuit if it was not a celebrity?


Sent from my SM-G930V using AlpineZone mobile app
 

Not Sure

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 14, 2013
Messages
2,858
Points
63
Location
Lehigh County Pa.
Website
www.youtube.com
I agree about beginner skiers! They do not have the skill to take corrective action. They look at an obstacle when they should look where they should go to avoid the obstacle whether it is another skier or an object.

My wife got hit by a beginner out of control resulting in her breaking her shoulder ( humerus and humerus ball compression).

The real question is - would there be a lawsuit if it was not a celebrity?


Sent from my SM-G930V using AlpineZone mobile app

Recently? Hope she heals up fast. Almost have to have an eye up the hill when we stop anymore .
 

Edd

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
6,537
Points
113
Location
Newmarket, NH

NYDB

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 13, 2016
Messages
1,704
Points
113
Location
Southeast NY /Southern VT
That’s tough. Probably shouldn’t be charging gs turns on a crowded slope, but she was uphill skier, no? And it looks like she was looking at him in the beginning of the clip.

he was trying to avoid the slower skier in front. It’s best to just straight line those situations. His line was straight down skiers left next to the lift towers.
 

Edd

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
6,537
Points
113
Location
Newmarket, NH
She MAY be slightly uphill, hard to tell for sure but her line was much tighter than his. He was even facing her direction, should have seen her sooner, IMO.
 

cdskier

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 26, 2015
Messages
6,412
Points
113
Location
NJ
I wouldn't really say she was uphill at the point where the boarder hit her. They weren't that far apart from each other in terms of who was more uphill from the other one. At the start she was likely a bit more uphill, but the boarder was nowhere near her at that point. Also don't think the uphill factor matters much here. With the angle the boarder took to avoid the other person, she may have been too far downhill at that point for her peripheral vision to have seen him coming. She was maintaining a nice tight line and the boarder seems to have made a substantial deviation from his original line (although the video is too short to know exactly what kind of line he was riding earlier on that trail). If you're going to deviate from your line and cut across the trail that much, you need to look at who is around you. Same as if you were driving on a highway and there was debris in your lane that you wanted to swerve to avoid. You can't just swerve into the next lane without making sure it is empty first.
 

ss20

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 13, 2013
Messages
3,919
Points
113
Location
A minute from the Alta exit off the I-15!
If you strictly follow how the code is written, she's at fault, imo. He's downhill of her and she has 1.5-2 seconds where he should be in her peripheral vision on the left but she does nothing to adjust her line. He may be travelling at excessive speed or in an unpredictable fashion- but that's bad etiquette, unfortunately there's nothing about that written in the skier's responsibility code.
 

MidnightJester

Active member
Joined
Oct 7, 2011
Messages
871
Points
43
Here is a interesting video that the article says the Skier has right of way to the boarder(other rider). Isn't the skier coming across the trail after landing should yield some to the same trail jump bypass he is crossing regardless if he was slightly ahead. He made a almost 90 degree turn, Hmmmmm


Bad trail and trail, side by side set up. Looking at the video there is a 3rd trail side by side in the background behind the jump.
 
Last edited:

Abubob

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 9, 2010
Messages
3,531
Points
63
Location
Alexandria, NH
Website
tee.pub
Here is a interesting video that the article says the Skier has right of way to the boarder(other rider). Isn't the skier coming across the trail after landing should yield some to the same trail jump bypass he is crossing regardless if he was slightly ahead. He made a almost 90 degree turn, Hmmmmm


Bad trail and trail, side by side set up. Looking at the video there is a 3rd trail side by side in the background behind the jump.
If he cut over to lift access then it’s a grievous design flaw. Too much snow to move so they’ll probably just put poles up to stop folks from cutting over so abruptly. Yeah, they’re gonna get a lot of grief over that.
 

ThatGuy

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2021
Messages
1,602
Points
113
Location
America
100% skiers fault imo. No reason ever to fly across a blind spot like that.
Terrible trail design either way.
 
Top