Blue Hills closed

[Phildozer]

WBUR 90.9 here in Boston reported that Blue Hills Ski Area will be closed after losing their liability insurance.

Apparently Ragged is leasing the area from the State and hopes to regain coverage in a few days.

 

[Angus]

see

http://forums.alpinezone.com/12795-ragged-5.html

for link to Boston Herald article and some continued discussion on Ragged thread

 

[Bumpsis]

The Boston Herald article mentions that some injured skier sued the mountain, thus the ever urgent need for insurance coverage (on the part of the operator).

I wonder what portion of every lift ticket goes to cover insurance costs and protection from rapacious lawyers and greedy people who refuse to be responsible for their own mistakes.

 

[pimothy]

Anybody who has insurance should look at:
hhtp://www.badfaithinsurance.org

I wish I had read it before our house exploded in Jefferson, NH, 3 weeks after Katrina hit the Gulf coast. We had Peerless/Liberty Mutual insurance (6th worst) on the FBIC listing. We lost all last year ski season, also nearly our lives. It is still way off from settling and now we have Amica Mutual Insurance (3rd best).
If you want to find out the dirty nitty gritty check out the above.

 

[persee]

I would caution to take those lists with a grain of salt. They list Norfolk and Dedham on the good list and I recall an absolutely awful experience dealing with them on a renters insurance claim - they never did pay the claim and after fighting them for 2 years we finally gave up.

 

[KingM]

I wonder what portion of every lift ticket goes to cover insurance costs and protection from rapacious lawyers and greedy people who refuse to be responsible for their own mistakes.

What portion of EVERYTHING. As a small business owner and fighting the ever-increasing insurance, we just went with a new provider. Their guy came out, made a few more CYA requirements to keep people from drowning themselves, climbing under balconies, etc., and the cost to me will be in the thousands of dollars. So much for changing providers to save money. I've got to think this sort of thing happens in practically every situation. Can't think what liability for a ski resort must cost, but it's got to be astronomical.

 

[billski]

not as big as you think.

The Boston Herald article mentions that some injured skier sued the mountain, thus the ever urgent need for insurance coverage (on the part of the operator).

I wonder what portion of every lift ticket goes to cover insurance costs and protection from rapacious lawyers and greedy people who refuse to be responsible for their own mistakes.

I saw the stats about 5 years ago, don't recall the source, but it was trade industry. I was suprised that insurance only makes up 10-15% of the cost. I was expecting a LOT bigger percentage. The largest variable item is of course snowmaking. Then there is infrastructure costs, which tend to be debt payments for equipment. Labor costs are another very large chunk, that's why they are picking up dozens of lifties from South Africa, etc. and billeting them up for the season.