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Volunteers Are a Huge Liability
by Peter Pitcher, President, Discovery Ski Corporation

I am writing to bring to light a lawsuit that was filed against me and my ski operation, Discovery Ski Area in Montana, which was settled for $900,000 by my insurance company. This was barely within our limits and would have exceeded our limits a few years ago.

Without going into too many details, my wife and I operate a small mom and pop ski area. In a good year we will do 50,000 visits. As such, we have often relied on volunteers to help run ski races, and we rely on a mix of paid patrollers and volunteer members of the National Ski Patrol.

The lawsuit was filed by a 25-year veteran of the NSP. On the last day of the year, we were putting away equipment such as snow fences and lift tower pads. As one patroller was pulling a pile of pads behind a snowmobile, a volunteer patroller decided to ride on one. The pile drifted sideways and hit a tree. The patroller was lying on his back and didn’t see what was happening and sustained severe injuries.

The turning point in the lawsuit occurred when the plaintiff alleged that he was in fact not a volunteer but a regular employee who was compensated with lift tickets for himself and his family and with gear such as jackets, skis and bindings. Our attorney argued otherwise, but the judge sided with the plaintiff; apparently, we should not have been so generous with our volunteers. We were considered in violation of the law for not paying workers’ compensation insurance and other taxes. As such, the law in Montana (and perhaps other states as well) says that the plaintiff cannot be held negligent, comparative liability does not apply, and regardless of the circumstances the employer is negligent. This is part of the penalty for not paying payroll taxes.

I have been in the industry for 40 years, and nothing like this ever came up before now. I believe that the NSP should have informed us about the potential for this. My advice to other operators is that any “volunteers” working anywhere on the mountain should be covered by workers’ compensation or some other insurance. This includes anybody and everybody. Otherwise, they should not be on the hill.

Linda Tikalsky, our friend and longtime HR consultant, likes to say that treating employees and guests well pays off, because “friends do not sue friends.” I would say that the moral character of your friends determines whether they will take responsibility for their actions or will blame them on someone else. Therefore, take the necessary steps to protect yourself. Don’t let what happened to us happen to you.


Time to Revisit Cooperative Marketing
by Billy Kidd, Director of Skiing, Steamboat Ski Resort

My greatest wish for the ski industry in this Olympic year is that we use the positive energy and awareness of our sports to bring in new participants and encourage new visitors to the mountains. Like our medalists on the ski and snowboard teams, we can succeed if we work together and maintain a positive attitude. From my own experiences in the Olympics, I know that it is attitude that determines who wins or not, who can make the fantastic recovery or overcome bad weather and keep their focus and confidence. And it’s very much the same with making our industry grow. It’s our attitude about our sport that will make us grow, not just how fast our lifts run or how sophisticated our gear is.

When I retired from racing after winning the 1970 World Championships, I was lucky enough to get involved in everything from TV commentary and writing for Skiing Magazine to designing equipment for Hart skis, plus gloves, goggles, and Stetson hats among others. And, of course, becoming part of the Steamboat ski area as director of skiing. I was interested in getting more people to the slopes and selling more gear and lift tickets and ski school lessons. I wanted everyone to experience the beauty of the mountains and the excitement of skiing like I did.

At the time, I was curious as to why suppliers and resorts don’t work together more often. I understood the idea of competition, because I had just retired. So I get the competition among areas, among manufacturers, among magazines. But there was, and is, no competition between areas and manufacturers. After 35 years in the ski industry, I am still surprised that we don’t work together more. We are all trying to attract more people on the slopes.

I still believe that the idea behind the merger of NSAA and SIA was right, even though it didn’t succeed. We realized that our industry was not growing and we tried to do something about it. We realized that we don’t just compete against other ski areas, but also against cruise ships and theme parks. Cooperative marketing failed in the early ’90s, but that doesn’t mean that the idea was wrong. Perhaps the problem was just the execution. Bode and I have found that you don’t give up in ski racing just because you’ve made a mistake.

Cooperative marketing still makes sense. If we’re trying to get more people to participate, we can work together to tell people in urban America to go skiing near where they live, knowing that if they learn there they will eventually find their way to the destination areas. We have so many fascinating and valuable stories to tell about family and health and personal growth, and we can do it together.

What’s great about our sports is that there’s so much in them for everybody. I see this every day on my 1 o’clock run, a free clinic in Steamboat, which I have been doing almost daily for the past 35 years. People are passionate about our sport for many reasons. Some love their equipment or clothes. Some care more about the resorts and the mountains, the spas and the real estate. Others care mostly about technique. If we all work together to involve as many people as we can, all of us will benefit. It was true when I first entered the industry, and it’s still true today.

The Olympic coverage has shown Americans once again how truly magnificent the mountains and our sports are. Our audience is primed to hear our message. We can spread that message far and wide if we let the Olympic spirit unite the many parts of the ski industry. If the Olympic Games can bring North and South Korea together, they should be able to bring the diverse parts of the snowsports industry together.


Corrections

Lift Construction Survey
When we compiled the data for our annual lift construction survey, we realized that what we had before us was a record-breaking low year. And, if you read the article in the January issue, called “Lifts 2005—Nothing to Brag About,” you would see that we based the entire article on that depressing fact. While normally we don’t like to be proven wrong, we are thrilled in this instance.

In our data, we omitted a Partek double that was put in at Willard Mountain, N.Y., making it the last Partek lift to be installed. The lift is 1,428 feet long and climbs a vertical of 447 feet. Its design and installed capacity is 1,200 pph and it runs at 450 fpm. And, here’s where it gets good: the new lift boasts a VTFH of 536, bringing last year’s total VTFH to 56,999, higher than the all-time low in 2003, which was 56,646. It also brings the total number of lifts to 34, not 33.

So, let’s celebrate the fact that it wasn’t the worst lift construction season on the books—that dishonor can safely stay in 2003. And our apologies to the good folks at Willard and Partek. Congratulations on your new lift.


Valuation
In our article on valuing a ski area, “What’s Your Area Worth?” we made that determination more difficult than it needs to be. The chart showing the relationship between operating margin and utilization was mislabeled; the correct chart is shown here. In addition, in the “Ski Resort Valuation Estimate” chart, the calculation for line 14 should read, “line 12 minus line 13.” We apologize for the errors.