BROOMFIELD, Colo. Vail Resorts (NYSE: MTN) the owner of Breckenridge, has received approval from the US Forest Service (USFS) for a 543-acre terrain expansion in the Peak 6 area of Breckenridge Ski Resort.
Peak 6 will include 400 acres of lift-served terrain and 143 acres of terrain that skiers and boarders can hike-to. The Company expects to open the new terrain for the 2013-2014 ski season, including adding a new high-speed, six person chairlift and a new fixed-grip chairlift to access the Peak 6 area. A ski patrol warming hut with bathrooms is also planned.
Copper Mountain, Colorado ski patroller Rocky Scott Miles died on 5 August in a house fire in Fenton Falls, Ontario, Canada. A memorial service will be held at the outdoor chapel by Solitude Station at Copper Mountain Ski Resort on Friday, 17 August at 10:30 AM.
Miles, 31, was a long-time resident of Summit County and an eight-year patroller at Copper Mountain. He is survived by his wife, Cecilia, and his three-year-old son, Oliver. Miles is originally from Abilene, Kansas, and graduated from Thornton High School in 1999. He has lived in Colorado since 1983. In addition to his ski patrol duties, he was a ski instructor and a firefighter at the Keystone Fire Department and ski tech at Precision Ski & Golf. He also worked for Alem International as a senior product specialist, marketing high-end exotic cars. He was also a jazz trumpet and guitar player, and a charcoal artist. Continue reading Obituary: Service Planned for Copper Mountain Patroller→
Minnie, they’re at it again! The organization founded in 1938 by Charles Minot “Minnie” Dole, the National Ski Patrol (NSP), has been sued again by 6 patrollers, 5 of whom serve on the 28,000-member organization’s National Board of directors.
NSP watchers and members couldn’t forget, as much as they might like to, the last time this happened just 7 years ago. A group of Division Directors and patrollers was forced to sue the NSP in 2005 to have a say in how the organization was run, by electing their representatives on the NSP National Board. That group ultimately represented just under 8,000 NSP members before the organization relented and settled the litigation. That resolution led to a complete turnover of the NSP’s Board and National leadership team over 18 months. The settlement agreement resulted in a re-write of the NSP’s bylaws as it relates to member voting. Well, apparently old habits die hard.
Patty Tasker was just 18 when she moved to Burlington, Vermont from Brattleboro in the late 1930s to work for the government. Skiing was increasing in popularity at the time and two ski clubs near Stowe, the Mount Mansfield Ski Club and the Burlington Ski Club, were helping to attract a lot of young adults to Northern Vermont on the ski trains and via automobile on New England’s rapidly expanding highway network.
A girlfriend of Patty’s in 1937 kept telling her about this guy, Winston “Win” Morris, that she just had to meet. He lived in her friend’s apartment building and worked for the National Cash Register company (NCR) in Burlington. Win spent a lot of time at Stowe in the winter, and was affiliated with the mountain and the Mount Mansfield Ski Club. Win (and later Patty) was among the first ski patrollers of the Mount Mansfield Ski Club when it established one of the first US patrols around 1935, the organization that ultimately spawned the National Ski Patrol. Continue reading Patty (Tasker) Morris Interview: One of the NSP’s First Female Patrollers→
Dr. Gary S. Dankworth, 60, a patroller and Toboggan Instructor Trainer at Heavenly Area in California and Nevada died in an incident after summiting 13,855-foot Norman Clyde peak in the Sierras.
An official from the Carson Tahoe Medical Center confirmed the news, saying, “The Carson Tahoe family is saddened by the news of Dr. Dankworth’s death. The past several days have been difficult and we, like the rest of the community, have been hoping for the best. We are a small, close knit community and tragedies within our medical staff affect us all. Our hearts and prayers go out to his family and we will do all we can to support them during this very sad time.” Continue reading Obituary: Heavenly Area Patroller Dies in Climbing Incident→
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court handed down a decision on 18 July 2012 that reverses a Superior Court decision, in part, related to the Camelback Mountain Resort in the Pocono Mountains. Certain aspects of that decision may increase ski patroller exposure to liability at Pennsylvania resorts.
Background
Camelback Ski Corporation and one of its employees were sued by Barbara Lichtman Tayer in January 2005 after she was injured in December 2003 at one of the mountain’s tubing parks. Camelback is in Tannersville, Pennsylvania and offers a range of winter sport activities, including skiing and snow tubing. Before allowing guests to participate in tubing it has them sign a liability release. Continue reading Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules in Camelback Negligence Case→
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