Ducking rope laws

ilikeplants

ilikeplants

Active member
Let me just say that today at Loveland was sick. Early season powder/chop = an amazing day. My two friends and I skiied from 9 in the morning until 2 30 in the greatest early season conditions we have had. The runs where getting crowded so we figured why not cut the rope and do a bit of tree skiing. We lap chair 6 and cut off to the right and ski knee deep powder in the trees for a good amount of the day.

My friend was caught cutting the rope at the top of Chair 1 as many people where and he was stopped by ski patrol. Right as he was stopped by ski patrol some other dude dropped in behind him. Ski patrol yells at my friend and tells him that if he is caught doing it again he will be put in jail for ducking a rope.

My question is can you really go to jail (in colorado) for ducking under a rope?
 
technically in colorado its a felony to duck ropes but im sure no one will ever prosecute you. the most people will do here is clip your pass
 
the ski patrol dont have any authority, but they can call the cops for trespassing since its their property and its off limits, and you arent supposed to be on it
 
just deny it.

if they see you going in, get out by a whole bunch of people so when the ski patrol catches up with you,

you can be like i was with these guys the whole time.
 
The run is a connecting run between catwalk and mambo. there was plenty of snow on it to get some nice turns in. its probably a total of 150-200 feet long and not very steep. there is no rope at the bottom when you drop onto the other run, just the one at the top. the guy went off on my friend who is 17 and started telling him how he would rot in jail for 5 days because no body gives a shit that he is in there. pretty messed up for a patroler.
 
I work at Crested Butte and I know that our ski patrol is pretty aggressive with ducking ropes. If an employee is caught ducking a rope, they lose their pass, their job, and get hugely fined.

There are a lot of instances at Crested Butte were people have ducked ropes and lost their pass for a period of time, a lot of times the whole season. The fine is always there though. Jail though, I dont know, but if it wasnt your first time getting caught...I dont see why not.
 
i got caught ducking a rope last year and got my pass taken away for a week.

They just don't want gapers following experinced peoples tracks out of bounds.
 
You kind of got it. It's not so much that darwinism isn't a bad thing but the fact that you endanger others lives with ropeducking actions is fucked. If you don't want people telling you where and when you can ski. Get your hike on. A little bc knowledge and safety gear tends to increase the odds you will be able to keep doing it.
 
thats a dumb law if its ture. i dont think a resort would spend enough on lawyer and whatnot to take someone to cort tho...
 
yeah thats bull shit. i hope he manned up and didnt just take that shit, but it would have ended worse probably if he did, at least would have taken more time, which is valuable on a pow day
 
Deny Deny Deny .... Admit to nothing, and ski your ass off .. don’t get caught out of bounds and you shouldn’t have to worry.

If they are really hellbent on sending you to jail, or fining you .. and they have to be serious be fore you pull this card... be sure to counter with harassment charges all around ... because no doubt the patroller grabbed/touched you in some way .. or used foul language. and the harassment doesn’t stop at the patroller, you would want to charge the patrol organization, and the ski hill. Your lift ticket waver waves allot things .. but not harassment.

But really, they are just giving you guys a hard time. I have ducked ropes all my life and the worst has been a clipped ticket ... once they made me watch a ski safety movie before giving back my seasons pass. Its probably because your young , ski patrol is always ragging on kids. Kids are easy to lie to , take advantage of and push around. as I get older my ski patrol encounters become less abrasive, and now usually end with the patroller just telling me in the lift line that he saw me on the closed run .. "I don’t know what your talking about.. must have been some other guy, sorry man"

Just remember, be cool .. don’t be a dick to the patrol or management, admit to nothing, play dumb … but co-operate and be nice. If you need to pull a “get out of jail card” in the future (as outlined above) being a huge douche on the hill and instigating shit isn’t going to help.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top