New Crappy Ski Law

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Reckless skiing won't fly in Park City

subtitlebylineBy Christopher Smart

The Salt Lake Tribune

dateArticle Last Updated: 03/07/2008 08:32:45 PM MST

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Posted: 8:32 PM- Shredders, you've been warned: The Park City Council has outlawed reckless skiing and snowboarding.

In a unanimous vote Thursday, the council made out-of-control

sliding within the city limits a class B misdemeanor, punishable by a

fine of up to $1,000 and up to six months in jail.

And the city limits include Park City Mountain Resort and Deer Valley.

That means that ski patrollers at those resorts can detain

reckless riders and ring up Park City's finest who will cite alleged

lawbreakers and drag them to court. The patrollers would then be called

as witnesses at trial.

Would-be schussers eyeing The Canyons resort - just north of

Park City's boundary - for high-speed heroics also should take note,

Summit County already has a similar law against sliding with "willful

and wanton disregard" for those sharing the slopes in a responsible

manner.

The punishment is equivalent to that of a DUI. But neither

Park City nor Summit County have regulations against imbibing while

shredding, as long as its done safely.

Although Park City is within Summit County, the municipality

decided it was a good idea to have its own law against reckless

sliding, said spokeswoman Phyllis Robinson.

The move is aimed as a preventive measure that could help ski resorts dissuade would-be speed demons from skiing or boarding out of control, she said.

"The ski resorts wanted this," Robinson said.

Presently, Park City Mountain Resort has posted "slow" signs in

congested areas, in addition to others that warn riders to stay in

control, according spokeswoman Krista Parry.

To date, however, none warn against unlawful reckless riding. That could now change.

WOW, so knowing the patrollers at park city we are all going to be fined$1000 for skiing switch in the early season....this is great.

 
wow utah is seriously a country of their own. from beer to skiing they put so many restrictions on the fun shit to do.
 
as if patrollers in america werent fucking cops enough already.... fuck that shit i hope whoever invented that shit goes down
 
not all mormons are gay i guess but i dont understand why else utah would have so many gay things that colorado doesnt
 
Um, I am mormon and i am the one that posted this, and by the way, park city is one of the least mormon towns in Utah, go figure. Anyway, I have heard of a few patrollers at Park City with speed detectors.
 
Summit County already has a similar law against sliding with "willful

and wanton disregard" for those sharing the slopes in a responsible

manner.

read people.
 
You know that people are going to be wrongfully accused of "reckless" skiing and are going to get screwed. Ski patrollers are bad enough already, I'm scared to even think about them when they have the power to get you in real legal trouble. Our freedoms in this country are slowly but surely being taken from us.
 
exactly, "control" is very relative and hard to judge. how do you prove in a court of law that you werent being reckless? there has to be laws outlined, like reckless driving.

"willful and wanton disregard"?
 
This whole thing sounds unconstitutional for many reasons:

1 - Unlike reckless driving nobody has to sign a contract to ski (basically receiving your license is a contract between you and the state saying that you will obey the traffic laws, and if you don't then there are pending consequence). Anybody can ski, there are no traffic laws to skiing, so how can you be cited for breaking a "traffic law" that doesn't exist. Now you might argue, there is no contract that you have to sign to "live", and there are laws that people can break every day just by living their life. However, to be a citizen of the United States (or any other country) you are basically accepting to the terms of living in that country, and if you don't agree to those terms then you are punished. All of these laws are also very specific in their nature. Park City may put the terms on the reverse side of their day passes, and in your season's pass contract, but without specifics, there is no way to uphold or break any law.

2 - Ski patrollers don't work for the government, which is why they aren't citing people. They worked the legalities here really well actually by using patrollers as witnesses. However, Patrollers are lacking the authority to detain civilians I believe, which this law explicitly gives them the right to do. I am not sure about this point, but it seems to me that patrollers don't have the authority to hold someone against their will.

3 - If there are no traffic laws, who decides what is considered wreckless? I am better at skiing backwards than most recreational skiers can ski forwards. If I am just crusing around switch at 20mph and some guy is unable to stop going forward at 30mph, isn't he more reckless than I? Most Park City patrollers would disagree with that logic.

I can think of a bunch of other reasons, but it is Friday night, so I am going to leave for a while. I will type of the rest later, maybe.
 
Actually a statement like "willfull and wanton disregard" would tend to target skilled riders because they are the ones who are going to be skiing "willfully". Its usually the gapers who come flying into a crowded area out of control pizza style who end up hurting someone. Its going to suck when you are the one getting in way more trouble than you should be because you were skiing "recklessly". Seriously, if I was caught skiing "recklessly" and I thought I might be getting the smackdown legal style, I'm going to run or ski away as fast as I can.
 


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dang thats rough for your Utes. Like stated before how do you asses when someone is out of control? I mean I had a patroler give me shit for skating faster then a tourist was on a flat zone at breck that had a slow sign. I mean jesus, i see tourists going half my speed with less control and alot more dangerous to the people around them than I am. Not to mention the best skiers in the world could eat shit on any run I mean at any point something could happen that could cause an accident. This is something so hard to asses, i cant believe this even was able to get passed as a law. Sorry but the government of UT is probably the worst in the US.
 
According to the article the resorts wanted these laws passed, which means they want to be able to enforce them.
 
Well, according to the a 2000 survey by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies only 36.8% of Park City is Mormon (as compared to over 60% of the rest of the state). I imagine that since 2000 the percentage of Mormon's in Park City has even decreased, so what does this have to do with a religious affiliation, please tell me.

 
I dont think you all mean to be hating on ski patrollers so much, they are fucking awesome, if you look like you know what you are doing and not about to hit anyone, they would never say anything, they are respectable people there for your safety, they save lives.
HOWEVER, there are all they fucking safety patrol DUCHEBAGS all over the place now who are fucking pathetic and dont even know how to ski, two secrets about these people: if you dont stop they wont be able to catch you. If they touch you can legally punch them in the face
 
so...erm a few things.

1. How are they going to "Detain" you? tackle your ass half way down the mountain and sled you down?

2. How are they going to prove you were doing anything wrong? Speed traps, but its your word against theirs if you were in control or not. (unless you hit somebody)

3. How are they going to prove it was actually you that they saw? many people wear similar gear, and unless they FILMED/ TOOK A PICTURE of your face while you were *recklessly* skiing, they cant prove it was actually you.

4. If they meet you at the bottom and start asking questions/ saying you did shit, couldn't you just say you were on a different run, assuming that you outskiied them to the bottom.

5. If somebody tried to detain you at the top of a mountain, couldn't you just beat them to the parking lot and get out of there?

stupid law, but they can't actually do much once you think about it
 
Yeah, I have done that at park city, I was close to the base anyway so I just skied to the village, took my skis off, walked around for 5 minutes with my skis, came back and went back up the lift.
 
So basically they're going to arrest every beginner on the mountain? Seriously, speed doesn't necessarily mean one is out of control. It all depends on the person, and I'd venture to say most beginners sure as hell aren't in control.
 
haha, that's funny that they are making a law out of it. i guess they are just trying to prevent reckless skiing that would cause injuries of others besides the skiier, but still, worst wording ever
 
"But neither

Park City nor Summit County have regulations against imbibing while

shredding, as long as its done safely."

Holy shit, Utah is completely backwards.
 
thats a good point but the beginners who are out of control cant help it. the skiers who are going to get in trouble are the ones who can actually parallel ski but are still out of control
 
Even more frustrating is that snowboarders could be completely out of control going switch and people would just think they are beginners because it is not obvious whether a snowboarder is going switch or regular. Skiers, however, are obviously going forwards or backwards and even when we are in complete control going backwards patrol assumes it must be more dangerous.
 
That's bullshit.  I got my Park City pass hotlisted opening weekend this year for skiing "recklessly" because I was going too fast on a beginner trail (I wasn't even skiing very fast).  But they can do that because it's their property.  If the city tried to give me a citation, on the other hand, I'd appeal that shit all the way up.  I don't see how they'd prove someone was "skiing recklessly" in court unless you ran into a bunch of people.  
 
Oh great more law, just what we needed. Maybe this will bring back the hayday of my beloved skiing and stop all those kids, in clothes that are too big for them, from scaring me when I'm doing my stem christies with the most beautiful open wristed pole plants you have ever seen. They should make a rule about how wide skis should be because that is also getting out of hand. When will we see a helmet law is what I really want to know. Yes, more laws are definately in order, lets get the federal goverment involved!
 
There will only be patrollers near the bottom of the mountain on easy beginner slopes that everyone uses to get to the bottom at the end of the day.

And everyone knows to ski as fast as they want and then just slow up (or turn around) once they get to the slow sign.

I think this law will only affect those who actually run into people.

But its worded terribly
 
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