FAQs
What are you asking for?
We’re asking ski operators to disclose what they do to manage safety and to disclose summary statistics and basic details of serious accidents that happen on their trails.
Why are you asking for it?
We are avid snowsports enthusiasts who want to reduce preventable accidents at Colorado’s ski areas for the long-term viability of our sport. Transparency is a critical step toward safety improvement.
Is there evidence of a problem?
Yes. When it comes to ski safety, we’re flying blind. Skiing and riding generate more serious injuries than any other recreation activity in Colorado. According to OSHA, ski area employees have the highest number and rate of workplace injury in the state, a trend that’s gotten significantly worse in recent years. The sheer volume and frequency of injuries demands more transparency.
Yet, not even the U.S. Ski Patrol — which is charged with responding to skier accidents — has access to statewide accident disclosure to identify opportunities to improve safety. Among the things researchers, regulators, and consumers alike don’t know:
How many serious accidents happen statewide each year?
Is the accident volume and frequency (rate) going up or down?
What are the main contributing factors?
Which ski areas have the highest/lowest injury rates?
Why is it important to improve slope safety?
As Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz recently confirmed, safety is an increasingly important consideration factor for consumers, a fact that’s only reinforced and amplified by the COVID pandemic. Our own research bears this out. Among 135 skiers surveyed by SSCO, more than three-quarters indicated that safety was a “major” factor when planning where to ski or send their children for lessons. Yet, less than half felt they had access to sufficient safety information from ski areas to make decisions for their families.
Who is calling for these changes?
Safe Slopes Colorado has engaged with hundreds pf consumers as well as community leaders, safety experts, legislators, medical providers, and ski patrollers throughout Colorado who support our common-sense proposals.
Are you trying to tell the ski areas how to manage their operations?
No. We seek public disclosure of safety information they already collect.
How would the information be used?
Transparency of accident data and safety plans would enable (1) CDPHE and other government agencies and officials to evaluate and monitor statewide and ski area specific accident and injury trends; (2) skiers and riders to consider safety in their choice of ski areas and agreement to liability waivers; and (3) ski area operators and independent researchers to measure and analyze comparative ski area safety and identify opportunities for injury prevention and severity reduction.
Why do you think transparency will lead to improved safety?
In virtually every other industry in which safety is a public concern (daycares, theme parks, hospitals, automobiles, etc.) transparency of safety information has led to significant improvements in safety