Snowy Mishaps: How Western Slope Law Can Help After a Ski Accident

Every winter, thousands of people hit the slopes in Colorado and unfortunately accidents are not uncommon. In fact, as many as 55 injured skiers and snowboarders per day are treated in Colorado’s high-country emergency rooms during ski season. Ski injuries range from minor sprains to life-threatening trauma. While most ski outings are safe, these statistics show that serious accidents do happen in Colorado’s mountains. If you’ve been hurt in a skiing accident, you may be facing painful injuries, medical bills, and uncertainty about what to do next. This article breaks down everything you need to know.

Types of Ski Accidents

Ski accidents can happen in a variety of ways. Some are simply bad luck, while others result from someone’s negligence or equipment problems. Below we outline some of the most common types of ski accidents in Colorado, with a brief explanation of each.

Collisions

Collisions are one of the leading causes of serious ski injuries. These incidents include skier-vs-skier collisions as well as crashes into objects like trees or poles. Sadly, collisions with trees are often fatal – nearly half of Colorado’s ski slope deaths in one recent season were due to tree collisions on trails. Collisions with other skiers or snowboarders can also cause broken bones, head injuries, and more. High speeds or crowded runs increase the risk of a crash.

Lift Accidents

Though rare, accidents involving ski lifts can be very serious. Falls from chairlifts or gondolas, or injuries during loading and unloading, are examples. For instance, in 2022 a 16-year-old girl at Crested Butte fell about 30 feet from a chairlift that hadn’t been stopped in time, leaving her paralyzed. Lift malfunctions are uncommon – Colorado’s ski lifts are governed by strict safety regulations – but they do happen. Ski lift accidents can result in severe injuries like spinal cord damage, broken bones, or death.

Equipment Failure

Ski and snowboard equipment plays a big role in safety. Equipment failure – while less common than other accident causes – can also lead to crashes. This could include a ski binding that fails to release during a fall, causing a knee injury, or a broken ski or snowboard that causes the rider to lose control. In some cases, improper maintenance or setup of rental gear can contribute to an accident. Modern gear has improved safety significantly over the years (the overall rate of ski injuries has declined over past decades thanks in part to better equipment), but no equipment is 100% fail-safe.

Poor Slope Maintenance

Ski resorts are responsible for maintaining safe conditions on marked trails. Poor slope maintenance or negligence by the resort can lead to accidents. Examples include unmarked hazards, improperly groomed runs, or failing to close a trail that has become unsafe. Colorado’s Ski Safety Act requires resorts to post warning signs and mark or close dangerous areas – the law explicitly says that a ski area’s negligence is not considered an “inherent risk” of skiing. This means if the resort fails to do something like mark a closed trail or fix a known hazard, they can be held liable for resulting injuries. 

Determining Liability in Ski Accidents

After a ski accident, one of the most important questions is: Who is legally responsible? Determining liability means figuring out whose negligence caused the accident. This can be complicated on the slopes because skiing involves inherent risks as well as shared responsibilities among skiers and the resorts. In Colorado, several parties could potentially be held liable in a ski accident, including other individuals involved, the ski area operator, or even an equipment manufacturer. Colorado law also has unique rules – like the Ski Safety Act and liability waivers – that affect ski accident claims.

Other Skiers or Snowboarders

If your injury was caused by another skier or snowboarder, that person can be held liable for negligence – just as a driver can be liable in a car accident. Colorado follows the universal Skier’s Responsibility Code, which says everyone on the mountain must ski in control and avoid endangering others. In fact, state law specifies that skiers must not ski in a manner that causes injury to others. Typically, the downhill skier (the person below) has the right of way, and the uphill skier must avoid them. So if someone barreled into you from above or was skiing recklessly, they likely breached their duty to ski safely.

It’s worth noting that leaving the scene of a ski collision is actually a crime in Colorado – ski “hit-and-run” is against the law . The right thing to do is exchange information and ensure everyone is okay. If another skier is at fault, their homeowner’s or renter’s insurance may cover the damages. In any case, you would need to prove that the other person was skiing negligently. Evidence like witness statements, ski patrol reports, or GoPro footage can be very helpful in establishing what happened. 

Ski Resorts

Suing a ski resort in Colorado is challenging but not impossible. Resorts are protected by Colorado’s Ski Safety Act and by the liability waivers on every lift ticket or season pass, which together shield ski areas from many types of claims. The Ski Safety Act recognizes that skiing has “inherent dangers” (like weather, snow conditions, trees, etc.) that skiers assume the risk for, and resorts generally can’t be sued for those inherent risks. However, resorts can be held liable if they were negligent in ways that go beyond those normal risks. For example, a ski area might be liable if they failed to properly maintain or operate a chairlift, if they didn’t mark a known hazard, or if they violated specific safety regulations.

Importantly, a recent Colorado Supreme Court ruling (2024) set a new precedent: ski resorts cannot use waivers to avoid negligence lawsuits in certain cases, especially involving chairlift accidents or breaches of specific safety laws (coloradosun.com). In that case, a teenager fell from a lift when no operator stopped it, and the court allowed her family’s lawsuit to proceed despite the liability waiver (denver7.com). What this means is that if your injury was caused by the resort’s failure to follow safety rules or other clear negligence, you may have grounds to pursue a claim against the resort. 

Equipment Manufacturers or Rental Companies

Sometimes a ski accident isn’t due to any skier’s mistake or the resort’s conditions, but rather a defective piece of equipment. If a ski, snowboard, binding, or other gear fails and causes injury, the manufacturer or the rental shop that supplied it could be liable under product liability or negligence laws. For example, if your binding was designed or manufactured improperly and it locked up at the wrong time, causing you to crash, that could be a product defect case. These cases are less common, but they do happen. The good news for an injured skier is that manufacturers and businesses generally carry insurance for these kinds of claims. 

Waivers and Shared Fault in Colorado

Two important legal factors in Colorado ski injury cases are liability waivers and comparative negligence (shared fault). We touched on waivers already: when you buy a lift ticket or season pass, you agree not to sue the resort for ordinary negligence. These waivers are enforceable in many situations, but as noted, they cannot waive a ski area’s specific legal duties such as proper lift operations or obeying the Ski Safety Act.

Comparative negligence is the idea that more than one party can share blame. Colorado is a modified comparative negligence state, which means you can still recover damages even if you were partly at fault for your own accident – as long as you were less than 50% responsible. However, any compensation you receive would be reduced by your percentage of fault. If a court or jury finds you 50% or more to blame, you would be barred from recovery under Colorado law. An attorney can help protect you from unfair blame – for instance, a resort or opposing skier might try to say you caused the accident, and your lawyer can argue on your behalf to keep any fault percentage as low as possible.

What Can a Ski Accident Case Be Worth?

The value of a ski accident case in Colorado can vary widely. It depends on factors like the severity of your injuries, the cost of your medical treatment, whether you missed work, and the long-term impact on your life. In legal terms, you may be entitled to compensatory damages which include both economic losses, like bills and lost income, and non-economic losses like pain, suffering, and reduced quality of life..

Medical Bills and Future Medical Care

Medical expenses are often the largest component of a ski accident claim. This includes the cost of emergency care, hospital bills, surgeries, medications, rehabilitation, physical therapy, and any ongoing or future medical needs related to your injury. Serious ski injuries can result in enormous medical costs. For example, if you needed to be airlifted off the mountain by helicopter – something that happens at least once a day during ski season in Colorado – that alone can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

When calculating damages, you should tally all your medical-related expenses: not just the initial treatment, but follow-up doctor visits, medical equipment, and any anticipated future care. These can be proven with medical bills and expert testimony about future care. Colorado allows recovery of both past and future medical costs that are caused by the accident.

Lost Wages and Income

If your injury causes you to miss work or affects your ability to earn a living, you can claim lost wages and loss of earning capacity. Many injured skiers are in their prime working years – in Colorado, most ski injury patients are between 20 and 39 years old – so missing weeks or months of work can be financially devastating. You should document any work days missed while recovering, as well as any future impact.

Lost income isn’t just salary; it can include lost bonuses, usage of sick/vacation days, and lost business opportunities for self-employed folks. In the case of a very severe injury resulting in permanent disability, an expert might calculate the projected loss of earning capacity over your lifetime. Colorado law allows you to recover the earnings you would have made if the accident hadn’t happened.

Pain and Suffering

Not all losses are purely financial. Pain and suffering damages compensate you for the physical pain, emotional distress, and overall loss of enjoyment of life caused by the accident. Ski injuries can be extremely painful – think of the agony of a torn ACL or a fractured spine. Beyond the physical pain, there’s the emotional trauma: maybe you now have anxiety about skiing, or you can’t enjoy your hobbies and family activities as before. These human losses are very real, and the legal system does assign them value. 

One thing to be aware of: Colorado has damage caps for certain types of claims. Under Colorado’s Ski Safety Act, there is a cap of about $1 million on total damages for a skiing accident injury claim. Additionally, Colorado law separately caps non-economic damages (pain and suffering) in personal injury cases in the few-hundred-thousand dollar range, although this cap can be lifted in cases of permanent injury.

How Hiring a Lawyer Can Help

Recovering from a ski accident is hard enough – trying to navigate insurance claims and legal rules on your own can make it even harder. This is where a ski accident lawyer like Western Slope Law can make a huge difference. A lawyer who specializes in ski injury cases and understands the unique laws that come into play. Hiring an attorney is not about being “sue-happy”; it’s about protecting your rights and making sure you aren’t stuck with unfair costs from an accident that wasn’t your fault. A warm, knowledgeable attorney will handle the complex stuff so you can focus on healing.