A mother of a 13-year-old Eagle boy who died in an avalanche in January says she sued Vail Resorts Inc. in hopes of preventing a similar tragedy from happening to someone else.
Taft Conlin was buried in a Jan. 22 avalanche on Vail Mountain after he entered the open lower entrance gate to the Prima Cornice Trail, according to a lawsuit filed in Broomfield District Court.
The negligence and wrongful death lawsuit by Taft’s parents, Stephen Conlin and Louise Ingalls, says that Vail Mountain operators should have known that keeping the gate open following a heavy snow storm was dangerous.
The upper gate had been closed.
Broomfield-based Vail Resorts was served with the lawsuit Wednesday morning, spokeswoman Kelly Ladyga said. “We are reviewing the lawsuit and do not have any further comment.”
Ingalls said Wednesday that she has spoken with Vail officials three times since her son’s death, trying to learn details about how Taft died and get assurances that measures would be taken in the future to ensure it would never happen again.
“I feel like I have a right to know the circumstances of my son’s accident,” Ingalls said. “I don’t want this to happen again for lack of a rope.”
But Vail resort officials told her they would only discuss with her efforts by Vail staff to save her son’s life. At that point, Ingalls said a lawsuit became her only recourse.
Part of what concerned Ingalls were news reports that her son and another boy ducked under a rope closing the run in violation of ski resort rules.
“As a mother, when I learned my son had died after ducking under a rope, it was extremely upsetting to me,” she said.
Conlin’s lawyer, James Heckbert, said the report, which apparently came from a Vail Resorts employee, contradicts statements made by witnesses who said the lower entrance was not blocked off with signs or rope.
“None of these kids would have risked losing a ski pass by ducking a rope,” Ingalls said. “The public was told he did something wrong. He was used as an example of what not to do.”
Vail officials refused to give the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office copies of witness statements, photographs and reports in possession of the Vail Ski Patrol, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit demands that records, including reports about Taft’s death, be opened, Heckbert said.
Ingalls said she was also upset that the U.S. Forest Service determined that no additional signs, rope barriers or gate closures were required under the terms of Vail Resort’s use permits.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, or
