The Need for a Wyoming Skier Safety Statute
1. A specific skier safety statute would reinforce, as a matter of state policy, personal accountability
for one’s own actions—a powerful statement that has long been a pillar of Wyoming public policy
in so many other settings.
2. Skiing and snowboarding are unique activities, and unlike other business models or recreational
activities. There are risks that are specifically and uniquely inherent to the sport of skiing. Nearly
every injury that arises from skiing or snowboarding is largely the result of an individual’s own
actions, such as not staying in control, not skiing or riding within one’s own ability, misjudgments,
inexperience, poor reaction times, failing to pay attention, or simple physical inability. Ski areas
should not be subject to suit for injuries resulting from one’s own actions.
3. By holding skiers responsible for their own actions, and communicating those risks to guests, ski
safety statutes actually make skiing more safe for all. When guests understand they cannot bring
suit against ski areas for the inherent risks within the sport—they self-regulate their conduct, thus
making the sport safer in general for all.
4. Providing protections to ski areas does not create disincentives to maintain safe and secure onmountain operations. Ski areas have ample incentives to maintain their excellent safety records,
including keeping their insurance premiums low, keeping employees safe, protecting the integrity of
their image and brand, and, most importantly, keeping their guests safe and healthy so they’ll be
interested and physically able to return to ski. Insurance companies that insure ski areas often
encourage or require that their clients adhere to broader industry practices, such as annual chairlift
inspections, signage, and other safe operational practices.
5. Similarly, even with liability protections under a ski safety statute, ski areas are held to
established standards within the broader industry. Such standards or practices may also extend
from provisions outlined in provisions from US Forest Service regulations, the American National
Standards Institute (ANSI) and the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) standards or
practices, including those regulating ski rental shops found in ASTM F-27 or ASTM F-08, as well
as chairlift maintenance and operation procedures found in ASNI B-77 provisions.
6. The legal concept of providing protections for ski areas from injuries resulting from inherent risks
of the sport is well-established. Since the late 1970s, ski safety statutes are now considered a
bedrock principle in the field of recreational law (see attached map of US states with similar
statutes). In many ways, ski safety statutes have codified underlying principles recognized under
the concept of assumption of the risk law. Wyoming is one of only eight ski states with multiple
ski areas that does not have a specific skier safety statute. 27 states have skier safety statutes,
including states with far fewer ski areas and smaller outdoor recreation economies than Wyoming,
including New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia, Connecticut, and North Dakota.
7. Wyoming’s existing Recreation Act broadly applies to practically any recreational activity, and as a
result, is understandably general in an effort to be all-encompassing of a large variety of
recreational activities. But skiing is unique in the broader world of outdoor recreation. A specific
ski safety will provide a specific, delineated list of duties and responsibilities for skiers and
operators, creating more clarity for guests, area owners, judges, and juries. The vagueness of the
existing Recreation Act has resulted in more costly litigation for Wyoming ski areas.
8. Ski areas are the economic engines of small, rural areas—both in Wyoming and across the United
States. Ski areas provide jobs during the winter when other seasonal jobs are hand to find, and
provide a critical tax base important to small communities in Wyoming. Such protections to ski
areas promote the economic growth and investment in ski areas, large and small.
9. Skier safety statutes are especially important to smaller, “mom-and-pop” ski areas both in Wyoming
and across the United States. The statute will provide critical protections for small businesses,
including Snowy Range, White Pine, Antelope Butte, Pine Creek, Meadowlark, and Hogadon. A
ski safety statute would provide more protections that would reduce the impact on a ski area’s
insurance deductibles and premiums.
10. There are very strong economic incentives for a specific ski safety statute. A ski safety statute will
protect ski areas from eating into their insurance deductibles and help keep insurance premiums in
check. Frivolous claims are not only expensive for insurance purposes, but these claims also
consume a significant amount of employee and management time, and can deeply disrupt business
practices when a ski area is engulfed in frivolous litigation.
11. Limiting the liability of a ski area under a ski safety statute would not leave injured skiers or
snowboarders without a remedy for their injuries. Under the Affordable Care Act, or ObamaCare,
individuals are already required to carry their own health insurance, whether provided through
their employer, a spouse, a parent, or purchased through generous subsidies on state and federal
exchanges or Medicare.
12. Similarly, a specific ski safety statute would not eliminate the ability of guests to bring negligence
actions for injuries that are not caused by the inherent risks within the sport of skiing. This is also
true for the existing Recreation Act, which allows for negligence actions that do not stem from
inherent risks in various recreational activities.
13. A specific skier safety statute would enable Wyoming to become more competitive with other
western ski states in terms of their outdoor recreation economy, by keeping insurance premiums
in check. Wyoming is the only Western state1 that does not provide liability protections to ski areas
with a skier safety statute; every other Western state enjoys specific statutory protections against ski
injuries.
1
While California does not have a specific skier safety statute, it nevertheless has a large body of civil case
law and precedence that provides some of the strongest protections for recreational and amusement
industries through the state’s strong assumption of the risk case law.