No More Jumps, Eh?

[JayB]

It was kind of a surprise to see the most immediate and dramatic impacts from the Salvini decision materialize north of the border.

 

"Calgary, Canada - Citing guest safety, Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, operators of six Canadian ski resorts from British Columbia to Quebec, announced on Thursday that they would eliminate all man-made snow jumps from terrain parks at the company's ski areas this season.

 

We are undertaking an industry-leading initiative,” says Matt Mosteller, Senior Director of Business Development for Resorts of the Canadian Rockies (RCR). “We have found that one of the main issues that increase the likelihood of serious injury on our mountains is big air. When we are making decisions about safety at our resorts, the big jumps in the terrain parks always come into the equation. We decided to make a change.”

 

At the same time, RCR will be making an increased investment in new rails and features for RCR’s terrain parks. For example, this year’s RCR TELUS Park at Lake Louise Mountain Resort features the highest-ever investment in new features. RCR will have rail parks this season at Lake Louise Mountain Resort, Fernie Alpine Resort and Nakiska. In addition, RCR also owns and operates Kimberley Resort in B.C. and Mont-Sainte-Anne and Stoneham, both in Quebec.

 

Mosteller acknowledges that the news will be disappointing to some. "We realize that this change may disappoint some guests who regularly use these man-made jump features," he acknowledged. "However, we believe we have a strong moral obligation to not compromise the safety of our guests.”

 

With the new rail park format, RCR will host a Rail Jam Series that will take place at Lake Louise, Fernie and Nakiska. Features used in the Rail Jam Series will be suitable for a high level of competition, while also adhering to safe practices, resort officials indicate.

 

For the past three seasons, RCR has also worked hard on developing its family-friendly terrain parks. These unique parks, separate from the larger parks, feature small rails, boxes and rollers, encouraging learning, safety and fun in a non-intimidating environment. The feedback on these parks has been positive and they will continue to develop at all of the company's resorts."

 

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3188

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hugh Conway]

It's totally a surprise for RCR to make up a bullshit excuse for pinching pennys.

 

Or maybe the little flippy spinny shits didn't end up making money for the hill and so they dump them, like they did the brobrahs before and the mogullers before that ad infinitum.

[hafilax]

That really pisses me off. I love the big table-tops and have never injured myself on them. This is money talking (as always). The insurance companies want to charge more and rails quickly destroy your equipment which manufacturers will love. The rails have to be hard so that the edges don't hook and the most important part of the edged gets so rounded until it's useless and beyond repair. I've seen just as many injuries on rails and way more in the half-pipe. I hope it kills their business when there's no fresh snow.

:mad:

[JayB]

It'll be interesting to see how this goes over, business wise.

 

 

 

 

[PaulB]

Vacationing Brits will still flock to LL, Fernie and Nakiska by the planeload, like they do every winter.

[swaterfall]

It's totally a surprise for RCR to make up a bullshit excuse for pinching pennys.

 

Or maybe the little flippy spinny shits didn't end up making money for the hill and so they dump them, like they did the brobrahs before and the mogullers before that ad infinitum.

 

You are an idiot. $14 million is a "bullshit excuse"?

 

Linky

[hafilax]

The $14M settlement is probably the real overlying reason but was bullshit to begin with. I inspect every jump before I hit it and skip the ones I think aren't made right. There's signs everywhere telling you to do just that. The American legal system is fucked.

 

What happens now when more kids start building kickers out of bounds and someone dies? Is that a better solution? At least the carnage was in a controlled environment.

 

The real disappointment is that they announced this after the early bird season's pass sale. I think the grommets should be granted a refund and a discount pass to a mountain with a real terrain park.

 

This will have a detrimental effect on our Olympic ski and snowboard teams as well. Lake Louise has developed some real talent over the years.

 

I seem to be full of rants today. Let's see, what's next...

[JayB]

One of the many rumors circulating is that resorts will no longer build jumps with "kick" (slope that progressively steepens over the length of the jump and will only build "wedge" type jumps with a constant slope over the course of the jump - in order to improve safety.

 

If true (which I doubt) this would be a strange approach to take, since wedge jumps make it way easier to overshoot the landing, which is the cause of most of the serious/fatal accidents in terrain parks that involve jumps.

 

Nevertheless, it'll be interesting to see how things pan out. Hopefully the response will include instituting park passes and other gaper-exclusion measures.

[swaterfall]

For sure I think it's total bullshit too, I'm just saying that it's what you can expect after a huge settlement against a ski area. No ski area is going to want to face that kind of legal exposure.

[hafilax]

It's a shame that an American settlement has effected Canadian ski hills but that always seems to be the way.

[Hugh Conway]

You are an idiot. $14 million is a "bullshit excuse"?

 

Speculating on reasons = idiocy.

 

Delving into idiocy comments from people who actually live in Banff/Lake Louise suggest my line of reasoning is more accurate than a lawsuit in another country with a different legal system.

[NuClimber07]

So that means people in the Banff area are pussies who are afraid of big air, so they are going to stop building the jumps?

[swaterfall]

Oh I see because you live Banff/Lake Louise you have your "finger on the pulse" of a corporation based in Calgary. That = idiocy. I gurantee you that their decision is based on limitting their liability and not based on lack of will to spend money building jumps. They said as much in their press release where they also said they're spending more than anyone ever on building other features.

 

If you move to Golden and ski at K-horse you won't need a park foo.