JACKSON, WYO. – Peter Landsman fell in love with chairlifts when he first started skiing as a toddler in Washington. He started documenting chairlifts — notes on length, age, capacity, with photographs — when he was 10, adding all the chairs from Crystal Mountain, Summit at Snoqualmie and Stevens Pass into a spreadsheet. Late last […]
chairlift
Posted inBusiness, Crime and Courts, News, Newsletters, Outdoors, Outsider
Colorado appeals court agrees that ski pass waivers protect resorts from liability in chairlift injuries
A Colorado Court of Appeals panel last week delivered the first state appellate decision affirming the use of waivers to protect ski resorts from lawsuits filed by injured skiers. Charlotte Redden, who was struck by a chairlift at Loveland ski area in 2017, plans to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court. A decision […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Outdoors, Outsider
Up to 55 injured skiers and snowboarders arrive at Colorado emergency rooms each day, analysis shows
Chris Arnis was with his crew, carving spring snow on his home hill. It was a good Sunday for the lifelong skier. It was a little shy of 4 p.m., March 15, 2015, when it happened. Arnis, a ski coach in Steamboat Springs, hit some deep ruts where a speed-controlling fence had just been pulled […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors
Vail chairlift attendant wasn’t paying attention during skier’s suffocation, report says
VAIL — A Colorado ski lift operator was not paying attention when a New Jersey man suffocated after his coat got caught on the lift and kept him from breathing, authorities said in a report. Jason Varnish, 46, died of positional asphyxia at Vail Mountain’s Blue Sky Basin area Feb. 13, the Eagle County coroner […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, News, Outdoors
Colorado ski resorts remain open, but change chairlift rules and dining options to avoid coronavirus spread
UPDATE AT 8:42 P.M. ON SATURDAY MARCH 14, 2020: Colorado Gov. Jared Polis orders all ski resorts to close in extraordinary move Increasing numbers of cases of the new coronavirus in the high country prodded health officials in Summit, Eagle and Pitkin counties to ban gatherings of more than 50 people. But the health orders in […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors, Technology
Coroner clarifies circumstances of New Jersey man’s death on Vail chairlift
VAIL — The Eagle County coroner says a skier who died in an accident on a chairlift at Vail did not fall through a gap in the seat as was previously reported. Coroner Kara Bettis says 46-year-old Jason Varnish died of “positional asphyxia” when he became entangled by his clothing after it became caught in […]