Collecting Resort Safety Scores, Knowing The NAO, Outdoor Therapy For Vets, Tow Boat, Lessons Learned From Coaching Seniors.
We continue to receive comments about the skier safety issue we raised when we published our “Things That Piss Us Off” findings from our Spring Survey. Clearly, we’ve struck a vein of passion about the unsafe skier issue.
And as you have probably read in last week’s edition, the National Ski Patrol has stated the responsibility for enforcing the Skier’s Code of Responsibility is up to the resorts. Although some readers were disappointed with that response, when you think about it, it makes sense. NSP are volunteers at a resort, and the resort usually maintains a paid staff of patrollers who administer safety policy. However, as we have heard from the comments, some resorts are good at this, and some aren’t.
The answer to that question is partly taking form through the work of the Snow Sports Safety Foundation which was featured in last week’s Short Swings. This non-profit provides safety ratings for ski resorts, currently displaying “Resort Scores” for some California, Nevada, and Colorado resorts.
The question now turns to who among the many and diverse resorts are serious about lifting the tickets and passes of out-of-control, hit-and-run, high-risk skiers and boarders and who is, well, less serious.
Some resorts understand the value of enforcing the Skier’s Code of Responsibility. For instance, Vail Resorts, at Vail in Colorado, displays an electronic scoreboard of how many season passes or tickets have been lifted for reckless or dangerous skiing or boarding. So, this is a serious issue being addressed by some resorts. Emphasis on “some”.
SeniorsSkiing.com is planning to collaborate with Snow Sports Safety Foundation in the coming months on its efforts to bring skier and boarder safety into focus. Watch this space for upcoming developments.
This Week
We know that many SeniorsSkiing.com readers are veterans of the armed forces. This week, correspondent and XCSkiResorts.com publisher Roger Lohr reports on a number of programs that bring disabled vets into the outdoors for therapy. Click here.
Our Mystery Glimpse presents an odd vehicle for getting skiers up and around a ski resort somewhere out West. And yes, the snow-dusted mountain top photo from last week was indeed Killington. Our thanks to a friendly pilot who happened to snap a great aerial shot of the mountain.
Our UK-based ski coach correspondent Bob Trueman has a really interesting article on the five things he’s learned about teaching seniors. Bob has a unique approach to ski “coaching”, based on a cognitive understanding of what the body is being asked to do.
The Skiing Weatherman, Herb Stevens, introduces us to a meteorological concept: The NAO or North Atlantic Oscillation. The strength and relative position of the NAO between the Iceland Low and the Azores High determines the kind of weather we will be getting on the east coast. Fascinating stuff. Click here.
If you have any updates and/or corrections to our listing of 157 Ski Resorts in North America that offer free or really big bargain discounts for seniors, please send to [email protected]. To locate the listing of Free or Big Bargain Resorts, go to COMMUNITY>SUBSCRIBER-ONLY CONTENT and scroll down.
Once again, thanks for reading SeniorsSkiing.com. Tell your friends and remember there are more of us every day, and we aren’t going away.
What!?!
“NSP are volunteers at a resort, and the resort usually maintains a paid staff of patrollers who administer safety policy” ???
That is totally wrong. NSP is paid and volunteer. Any resort that is NSP is NSP for all patrollers. Stowe, VT – which is all paid – is NSP as are a ton of resorts.
Please check before posting. Thanks.