Pray to the snow gods. We need the fluffy stuff badly.
Like the rest of the country, we have not seen much of any snow in the Pacific Northwest this season. I went skiing at Snoqualmie last weekend and there were large patches of mud showing through many runs. This is certainly not the year to be a skier.
Normally I wouldn’t bother skiing in these conditions, but I had to stop by ski patrol as Snoqualmie wouldn’t return my calls after the accident. I had to refuse to leave before they’d let me talk to someone. Come to find out, the guy that ran Sarah over wasn’t just some random snowboarder. The guy was a Summit at Snoqualmie snowboard instructor.
I was eating lunch in the lodge at Summit East and happened to glance down at the pass the guy behind the counter was wearing. It was the exact same red pass the guy that ran into Sarah had been wearing. So, this guy was an employee.
All of a sudden it made sense why I hadn’t been able to get in contact with anyone at Snoqualmie after leaving 5+ messages. So, I headed over to the ski patrol office at central and asked to talk to one of the supervisors. They said they’d take my number and give me a call but I had enough. I wasn’t leaving until I got to speak to someone. After a 5-10 minute wait, a supervisor came out and spoke to me. He hadn’t read the reports but said someone would be calling me within 24 hours to talk. So, I went home.
It only took me roughly 10 more unreturned calls and a couple unreturned emails to Snoqualmie before I finally got a call back. I had called everyone I had a number for and had been hung up on by guest services. When the head of ski patrol finally called back, he dropped the bomb. The guy that hit Sarah was a snowboard instructor at Summit. However, he said the guy had said something along the lines of Sarah being on the “blind side” of his snowboard. So – as always – it wasn’t his fault.
If anyone should know the code of conduct the entire industry subscribes to, an instructor should. In fact, they’re tested on it as part of the level 1 AASI certification that they have to take before they can teach. Snoqualmie’s take on the matter is that he wasn’t officially working. So, it’s not their problem.
Apparently I’ve been a big enough pain in their side and I finally have a meeting with the head of the ski/snowboard school on Saturday. Unfortunately this means I have to make the hour drive out to Snoqualmie to do this.
We’ll see where this goes, but frankly I’m beyond pissed at this point. When it happened, the only words the guy said to me were that it was Sarah’s fault for the accident because she turned in front of him. At no point did he bother to check if she was alright while she was screaming in pain on the snow. At no point has he said he was sorry. At no point did he bother to call ski patrol. At no point has he shown the slightest amount of remorse like any decent human being would. Did he even bother to stick his snowboard in the snow so someone else wouldn’t run over Sarah if they didn’t see her laying in the snow? Nope. I had to put my own skis in an X above her for that.
All he did was sit in the snow and cry because he was going to get in trouble. Once an onlooker and I had flagged down ski patrol, the snowboard instructor took ski patrol’s attention away from Sarah to point out another snowboarder saying he had ‘only been going that fast’ and that it wasn’t his fault because she had turned in front of him.
As I told the head of ski patrol on the phone this week. It doesn’t matter if Sarah had been drunk, high, and doing jumping jacks on the slope. She had the right of way and it was the snowboarder’s responsibility to avoid her. It scares me that this guy is teaching another generation of snowboarders.
What happens now? God knows. Sarah’s season is almost certainly over at this point after a whopping 3 days on the snow. Last year she got in around 30 and I got in 35. That’s certainly not happening for either of us at this point. Hopefully something good will come out of the meeting on Saturday, but after my discussions with Snoqualmie so far, I’m not holding my breath.
All I am certain of at this point is that I’m never buying a season pass at Snoqualmie again.
When going through pictures a couple days after the crash, I came across the following photo:
This was taken the morning of 12/31/11 (the day of the crash) of the exact part of the run Sarah got hit at. The unfurled slow sign can be seen on the right side of the picture. I had stopped behind it. Sarah was roughly where the skier is on the right side of this photo when she got hit. This is the end of a blue run (Golden Nugget) where it opens up in to a green.
I hope Sarah is recovering well! This is terrible, I can’t believe you are having such a hard time to get through to someone at Snoqualmie. I ride there most weekends and have a season pass… definitely will be re-thinking that next year. Snoqualmie needs to hold this guy accountable, I think he should be fired. Someone who can’t manage to follow common sense shouldn’t be out there teaching more kids to ride.
And thank you for pointing out in your previous post about the accident that it’s not just snowboarders making dumb decisions on the hill. It’s not about what you ride but how you ride, some people just don’t know the rules or choose to ignore them, and that is incredibly unfortunate.
The sign is obviously there for a reason, and, it is around a turn–a blind turn especially if someone is doing 30+ mph!
They never returned your call because fear of a civil lawsuit. Whether the victim has health insurance or not, the defendant (ski resort) should pay for the entire bill and punitive damages espcially because it was an employee disregarding safety guidelines. My blood pressure goes up just reading these postings you have shared since the incident (i would say accident, but, it wasn’t an accident, more like negligent act)
[...] you follow the Daily Hiker, you may remember the story from Jan 1 about how one of the authors, Brandon McIntyre, was skiing at Snoqualmie when his skiing partner [...]
What is it with Sarah’s getting hurt this season? Sarah Burke still in a coma in Utah.
Yeah we saw that. It’s terrifying really and I hope she comes out of the coma without any major issues.
Dude, the slow sign was put away, your girl was making hockey type turns in a flat cat track area and she did not look up hill before cutting across the entire length of the cat track, and somehow the snowboarder is to blame? Entitled much? Que. the typical douchebag response of he was going to fast, etc, but…your girl needs to learn the other rules…..LOOK UP HILL BEFORE CUTTING ACROSS THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE SLOPE.
1) Rule #2 of the skier/rider code of conduct:
“The person in front of you has the right of way. It is your responsibility to avoid them”
2) As I said, she was already on the far right side of the slope. She was making a turn maybe 5ft to her right and had already slowed down. Even then, it doesn’t matter if she was cutting across the entire slope, it’s the snowboard instructor’s responsibility to avoid her.
I don’t know about you, but my head does not rotate 180 degrees behind me. The snowboard instructor was behind her on the left and cut right. Even if she had looked, he wouldn’t have been there.
BULLSHIT! The skier or boarder below you has the right of way! NO MATTER WHAT! #1 Rule: Always ski in control! Before starting again after stopping yes, you need to look up hill like yielding. Not while you are moving down hill. You are also responsible for those in front of you!
“There’s just a ton of pain at this point and she’s probably going to be out of commission for a couple weeks.”
“Sarah’s season is almost certainly over at this point after a whopping 3 days on the snow.”
Which one is it? Is she going to be alright? Is it something more than just a strain?
Nothing was broken but Sarah still can’t raise one of her arms above a certain point. Hopefully physical therapy works out and there’s nothing truly long term, but we’ll see.
Get well soon Sarah!
Here’s a News Flash for everyone on the page, skiing/snowboarding is a dangerous sport. you are taking a risk when you slide down a frozen mountain at any speed.
People need to stop pointing the fingers of blame at the ski resorts. This is why lift tickets cost an arm and a leg. We don’t expect car companies to give a big payout when there’s a car crash and someone is injured, we expect the driver who caused the crash to pay for the damages. this story is no different.
Yes, the snowboarder in this story appears to be at fault, however, an employee off the clock is not an employee. He/she is a guest and is held accountable to the same standards as everyone else. This is not someone who was in the middle of teaching a class. This is someone who was free-riding on his own time. This article is misleading.
Also, there’s two other skier responsibility codes that need to be recognized to keep the story unbiased.
3.You must not stop where you obstruct a trail, or are not visible from above.
4.Whenever starting downhill or merging into a trail, look uphill and yield to others.
Bottom line, accidents happen. you assume full risk and liability when you go skiing/snowboarding.
The Summit is not at fault here, the snowboarder is.
In the world of anticipatory thought (we move through the world anticipating what others are going to do, which dictates our own actions and movements) combined with a lawsuit heavy responsibility system (no one wants to take responsibility for their own actions and decisions) I can justify why the Snowboarder did not want to say anything that could be held against him. If he said “I am so sorry!!” then he would be admitting fault in a situation that SHOULD be seen as an accident. It may have been negligent, on the part of both parties, but in no way does it seem like it was malicious. Well, the malicious part is where it seems that you, Branden, are heading with this. Instead of trying to attack Snoqualmie and this “snowboarder” all of that energy could be used to share your experience in the care of a fallen or injured skier/snowboarder. Look at the positives, don’t focus on the negatives. Life happens! Deal with it and grow from it!!
I have been a snowboarder for 16+ years. There are many times (while snowboarding) that I come up behind someone who is making unpredictable turns. I don’t know which way they are going. I feel it is my responsibility to use my voice and say to the person “I am behind you, going to pass on your right or left). I feel that this is/was the responsibility of the snowboarder who ran into this women and that he is at fault for running into Sarah. That being said, it never hurts to look uphill.