Confrontation with Holiday Valley Ski Guides

[thetrailboss]

Not sure if this was posted, but it is from February. Seems like a misunderstanding. Thoughts?

How To Get Your Pass Pulled (Confrontation With Ski Patrol)

Check out this GoPro footage of two kids getting their season passes temporarily pulled at Holiday Valley Resort in New York. Do you think they were in the wrong? It seems like the whole incident c…

unofficialnetworks.com

 

[jaytrem]

Ski Patrol 100% in the wrong, but at least they weren't total jerks like the Keystone safety assholes.

 

[cdskier]

I disagree that Ski Patrol was "100% in the wrong". I'll go with partially wrong. Holiday Valley's website says "Do not go in the woods after 3PM". While I agree patrol should be also roping off the entrances to marked trails/glades after that time once they close, unless they changed their policy on wood skiing since last season, the policy does give a time (so the argument in the video about "well it is still light out" is irrelevant if it was actually after 3PM at the time the video was shot).

I thought those patrollers were pretty nice all things considered. Some of the text comments added to the video seemed more over the top than anything the patrollers said. "We should have demanded to speak to their manager over the radio" - Really? "We wasted an hour and a half of skiing time" - How so? The encounter with patrol took 5 minutes. I can't imagine it actually took 1 hour and 25 minutes to show the footage to the manager at the base and get their passes back at the end of the night.

That said, I don't understand the whole point of taking the passes and making them wait until the next time they come back to get them if you're giving them temporary passes to allow them to keep skiing that night anyway. If you're just giving them a warning, just take their names off the passes so you can put it on file and be done with it.

 

[jaytrem]

Okay, 99.9% in the wrong.

They were NOT skiing in the woods. There is lots of nice woods skiing at Holiday, and the also have a few marked "glades". What they were skiing was clearly labeled a glade. There is no sign at the top of "Happy Glade" saying it closes at 3PM (they did the google snowmobile camera right by it). They do seem to differentiate between woods and glades on their website. Since their was another group coming in, even with patrol right there, I'm guessing a lot of people don't know about the no glade skiing after 3PM policy (that does not actually exist). Rather than harassing every skier that enters after 3, you would think one of them would have a little ambition and put up a sign that says something "Happy Glade closes at 3PM ". But that would get in the way of their daily power trip, so why bother.

 

[thetrailboss]

Ski Patrol 100% in the wrong, but at least they weren't total jerks like the Keystone safety assholes.

These guys look like guest service guys/ambassadors/guides to me....

 

[Edd]

These guys look like guest service guys/ambassadors/guides to me....

Yeah, they do. I’ve pictured myself keeping busy with a job like that closer to retirement. But, no way in hell would I want to perform tasks like this. I just can’t with a straight face.

 

[jimmywilson69]

This is pretty common at the smaller hills and I suspect the larger hills if you get caught. These "safety" folks think they have all the power. I get it skiing closed terrain is a big risk but they entered through an entrance that clearly was open. I've entered that very glade from the same way these kids did numerous times. There's a point where these guys and even ski patrol get a little overzealous. that being said its nothing like it was in the 90s when I learned to ski. At places like Holiday Valley, 7 Springs, if you got caught "jumping" they'd chase you down and you'd go through a "chat" like this with a warning to not get caught again.

 

[gittist]

I hate 'safety zealots.'

 

[dblskifanatic]

They are like the yellow jackets at Vail Resorts. They have a little power and probably like the feeling when they drop off peoples passes or hand in warnings. My son got a waring at Breck for skiing backwards in a beginner zone that was wide open near the base of Peak 8. My son can ski better backwards that most that were on that beginner trail. Then he got another at Vail for spraying a slow sign as he was stopping. The yellow jacket thought he was showing dis respect. How many of us have done both and how many would do what those kids did. There is often no reasoning with those safety folk!

I do not think they needed to be so rigid! Redirect back on the trail and call ski patrol to put up a trails closed sign.

 

[VTKilarney]

It's not the safety patrol's fault that the ski area has the system they have for warnings.

I thought that they were courteous and professional. Whether or not they should have stopped the skiers in the first place is grey area. They could have just told them to get out of the woods and stay out. But who knows what their directives are from management.

 

[ne_skier]

These guys are 100% in the wrong. These are actually not patrollers but safety guys, and anyone who's dealt with them can note a prominent ego and snippyness associated with a good number of them. Based off of the video I saw, there was no indication that the trail was to close when the lights went on, and there was no rope, net or other direct indication that the trail was closed. They seemed to be somewhat nice in that they didn't yell too much, but otherwise they knew damn well that the skiers had no indication that the trail was closed ("You should know" isn't a reason) and they just weren't in the mood to admit that they were wrong. Kudos to management for dealing with the situation appropriately.

 

[tnt1234]

Completely absurd and uncalled for.

Jus the very fact that the kids stopped, and walked back up to talk to some people in yellow jackets proves that they were not out flaunting the rules, or being jerks.

Absolutely ridiculous.

 

[Bandit2941]

If it was me I never would have stopped. Usually I have tunes on so probably wouldn’t even know they were calling anyway.

Patrol was wrong.