BEAVER CREEK — Doug Lovell and Addy McCord twist in the chairlift to watch the snowboarder flying down the icy face, skidding as he approaches a slow-zone banner.
“He’s one of our employees,” said McCord, director of the ski patrol at Beaver Creek.
“That was pretty fast, but it is a black run and no one’s around,” said Lovell, the chief operating officer at the hill. “Still, employees are our role models.”
The scrutiny is a part of a sweeping effort just launched at Beaver Creek and five other Vail Resorts ski areas to buoy safety with a fresh approach. The company’s multi-tiered program rolling out now at all six Vail hills is dubbed “Play it safe/Play all season.” The push begins with brightly colored signs that put a concise, new spin on longstanding admonitions and a robust zero-tolerance policy on reckless behavior.
The company has endured a rough start to the season, with a snowboarder dying after crashing into a tree at Breckenridge in mid-November and a beloved local doctor dying on Vail Mountain’s opening day. Late last month, a Florida woman filed a lawsuit against Vail Resorts in U.S. District Court in Reno, Nev., alleging an on-duty employee at the resort company’s Heavenly ski area failed to stay in control while snowboarding in a designated slow zone and struck her last January.
The new safety push at Vail Resorts was sparked long before the accidents and the lawsuit and largely evolved from guest surveys that continually rank safety as one of the most important aspects of a ski day.
The campaign is designed to spur a second-thought about the indelible yet often overlooked rules in the skier’s responsibility code. Using high-visibility signage with new takes on old rules, public service announcements by Olympic ski racer Lindsey Vonn, increased numbers of safety staff and employee safety training, the effort unifies six safety programs under a single Vail Resorts program.
The campaign starts with a fresh take on the skier responsibility code, with wordy warnings like “Whenever starting downhill or merging, look uphill and yield,” boiled down to “Merge with care” or “Look before you go” printed on bright signs stuck at a crossroads.
“If you put the same sign in the same place year after year, people stop seeing it,” Lovell said. “We’re trying something new and different.”
“Something that catches people’s eyes and makes them think for a second,” McCord said. “Think about their surroundings and what’s happening around them.”
Beyond urging awareness and personal responsibility on the slopes, the new campaign includes increased numbers of Mountain Safety Team members — the arm-wavers who urge speed checks on crowded runs who were formerly known as “Yellow Jackets.”
Both the safety team members and ski patrollers received special “Verbal Judo” training aimed at defusing contentious encounters.
Speed patrollers will be joining empowered safety-team members in slow zones, enforcing a renewed crackdown on reckless skiing — especially in beginner and family zones — and people skiing beyond their ability.
“We have always been serious about holding people accountable for skiing safely and this is a broader and more consistent effort,” said Vail Resorts co-president Blaise Carrig. “We are taking a zero- tolerance stance on irresponsible and reckless behavior.”
It’s not an effort to quash fun or jumping or riding fast. It’s a push to make sure the speedy riders and jumpers are doing it in the right place, far from the kids and wedged beginners slowly winding down gentle slopes. With Vail’s collection of hills offering a variety of terrain parks and vast swaths of expert terrain, the new campaign urges the experts to ponder their place.
“If people want to go fast and jump, we have places for that now,” Lovell said.
Dave Cramer and his family welcome the invigorated focus on mountain safety. Learning to snowboard, the Texas family regularly visits Beaver Creek and while never having any issues, “we are real concerned about safety,” Cramer said.
“Especially where trails merge,” he said. “We try to be very cautious, but it can be scary sometimes. Whatever they can do to increase awareness, especially at critical junctions, is good by me.”
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com
