Perception or Reality?

[Bubba]

I'm not skiing this season due to eye surgery so I have no direct knowledge but, from what I read on KZone and Facebook, the hill is not only more crowded but there are more collisions and, possibly, more injuries as well. It seems as if every week I'm reading about someone getting run into and/or injured as a result of the actions of others. Do we have more out of control skiers/riders? Do we have more people ignoring or not caring about "the code"? What's the reality?

[Guy in Shorts]

Perception- Skiing Killington is just as dangerous as it always was. Most injuries are bodies impacting a solid snow surface. Amount of steel on the mountain in the parks helps to support the injury rate. Same number of bad skiers as there always has been. As I age feel like less a projectile and more like the target.

[RENO]

Yeah, same craziness as there has been for years for the most part. A lot more people on most Saturdays though because of the IKON passes I'm assuming. Seems like a lot more dangerous/crowded on Saturdays the last couple seasons than previous years. I expected last Saturday and Sunday to be crazy also, but they actually weren't too bad. I guess blacking out the IKON passes helped?

[Finn]

Yes to what you said Bubba. People don’t know the responsibility code.. put it back on the napkins. North ridge have signs on life towers but it should be all over the mountain.

I missed all of late 21 and all of 22 due to some one cutting me off at the top of mousetrap. It was a just accident but the poor choice of a skier who came up on my right side and then stepped in front of me. That person never said a thing as I could maybe moved out of his way if I knew he was there. GIS and telemark Rich were with me.

My first day back was 1/15/23 and it was pstd. I am better now and mostly skiing to the bottom from a peak break.
I ski early and quit when it’s too crowded. I never thought that I would get injured or that it would happen to me.
A rude awakening.


Today, I helped several lost people on my last run down in Snowdon.
I have seen many people take their lower level friends down expert runs like mousetrap that are still snow plowing. I had seen this since I started skiing and it’s getting worse. They just want to tell friends they did an expert trails without the skills to stop or falling and knocking others over. If I am close by and they loose their equipment I try to help them.
Some of my local friends ski early on Saturdays or just don’t.

[PinnacleJim]

Most of the under 30 skiers and riders don't even know there is a code. Much less what it says.

[Spyderman]

First run at 7:45 AM as I crested the Viper Pit at Bear a teen or early 20s male skier shot over the lip within 12 “ of me at Mach speed with poles held horizontal in middle of poles. Clearly on a run to test how fast could he go without falling. So crazy.

[asher2789]

I'm not skiing this season due to eye surgery so I have no direct knowledge but, from what I read on KZone and Facebook, the hill is not only more crowded but there are more collisions and, possibly, more injuries as well. It seems as if every week I'm reading about someone getting run into and/or injured as a result of the actions of others. Do we have more out of control skiers/riders? Do we have more people ignoring or not caring about "the code"? What's the reality?

a little bit of both. today was scary. maybe im crazy but i think theres way more drinking than the past, or maybe i have less tolerance for people who think that skiing/riding drunk is cool. maybe its all the littered mini fireballs making me feel that way. also its been a bad season snow wise so the trails quickly become scraped off and its harder for newer skiers and riders to handle hardpack and ice.

lessons have also become outrageously expensive so people newer to the sport arent taking many or any for that matter and have no clue about safe places to stop and skiing/riding in control. terrain parks of old used to have park passes which mostly kept clueless people out (maybe not killington, but my home mountain during the intrawest years did as did other places run by them).

[snoloco]

The park passes were definitely an Intrawest thing. I'm not sure how useful they are though. It's difficult to enforce, and is inconvenient for day ticket guests to get.

Ultimately, I believe it's a very, very small percentage of skiers and riders who are reckless, but they cause a majority of the problems. It's a fine line between cracking down on them and pulling their passes, and creating a nanny state like Vail Resorts has with yellow jacket speed cops at every intersection. I would not want Killington going that route, but maybe there's more that can be done to stop the very small minority of people who cause a large majority of the problems. I don't think this problem has necessarily gotten worse in recent years, but it's possible that there's just no good answer to solve it.

[brownman]

.. 'same as it ever was' ..
GIS needs a new parka.
.. sight for sore eyes ..

[KingsFourMan]

I wouldn't ski Killlington or most other places on Saturday if you put a gun to my head.

[skiadikt]

it's more than just saturdays. got taken out on downdraft. knocked my helmet off. at least he stopped and made sure i was ok. had an incident on LEF last season where one of those straight line, no pole chuckleheads skied over my tails. i stayed up. he yard saled. buzzed a number of other times. i'm not slow and ski a predictable, narrow line. i know some other good skiers that got taken out and were injured. just last week 2 skiers were tucking on caper and crashed. there's just too much speed where there shouldn't be. and lots of folks don't know or observe the code. from my perspective, it's reality and it's increased the last couple years.

[wtf021]

Killington definitely draws a certain demographic that sucks to ski around. Never noticed it until I started skiing with my kids a few years ago. This is especially true at a Ramshead. Can’t figure out how it makes sense to mix a “family” area with parks and racers.
Try it for yourself. Pick a busy Saturday. Ski Killington half the day and go to Pico the other half then report back.

[Atomic1]

Ironically , I think it’s the improvement of today’s equipment and lifestyles that contributes to the speed and also unfortunately the recklessness. It wasn’t that long ago that not every person wore helmets and goggles, 130 flex boots mounted on skis and snow boards made to rip ! We also were not a society that spent our spare time in the gym, hiking , biking and running! We’re also eating healthier thus the reality is we’re skiing faster and more aggressively… then add in today’s warm and comfortable lifts like the bubble chair which keeps more people out on the hill and there you have it .. more people, skiing faster and better but on the same terrain we’re used to having to ourselves.. oh the irony…

[ski]

Killington needs to ENFORCE SLOW ZONES and pull passes !! Patrol, Ambassadors, and other on-snow staff all look the other way. They(the resort) encourages speed through the Killington App by awarding prizes to the people with the most vertical. The people at the top of the leaderboard are skiing waaay too fast through crowds with no respect.

Shame on you Killington. Putting profit over safety.

[ozzy]

Killington definitely draws a certain demographic that sucks to ski around. Never noticed it until I started skiing with my kids a few years ago. This is especially true at a Ramshead. Can’t figure out how it makes sense to mix a “family” area with parks and racers.
Try it for yourself. Pick a busy Saturday. Ski Killington half the day and go to Pico the other half then report back.

This right here. I feel this.