This office receives numerous calls each year from skiers who were injured by another's reckless skiing and that injured skier is unable to identify or name the reckless skier involved. Do not rely on ski patrol or ski area operators to obtain this information because, as a principle of law, they are under no duty to obtain the information. Although this absence of duty is under challenge, the courts are reluctant to impose an enforceable duty upon ski area operators to obtain identification information from reckless skiers. Colorado law presumes that the uphill skier is at fault in an accident, because the overtaking skier has the primary duty to avoid the skier below him or her. The nature of the injury often gives substantial clues as to how the accident occurred, the speed at which the skiers were skiing, and the relative angles to each other.
All skiers are under a general duty to ski cautiously, within their ability and to maintain control.
The Colorado Ski Safety Statute provides that skiers are obliged to maintain a lookout. If one fails to ski in control or to maintain a lookout, the skier is negligent and responsible for the injuries and damages caused. Relatively few injuries are a consequence of faulty or poorly maintained ski lifts. Ski lifts, in the main, are relatively simple devices with established technology and a high degree of safety. However, given the large number of skiers annually using these lifts it is not surprising that after significant and repetitive cycles, design defects may catch up with the technology.