Family of Boy Killed in Inbounds Las Vegas Avalanche Settle Lawsuit
By Rocky Thompson on July 7th, 2009
The family of a teenage boy who was killed by an inbounds avalanche while riding the lift at Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort settled with the resort last month. Whatever the family received in the settlement, it wasn’t enough. I understand that skiing is an inherently dangerous sport and just because we’re skiing inbounds doesn’t magically make those risks disappear. But this avalanche was in Las Vegas. At a tiny resort that hardly gets any snow, and the 20-30ft slide knocked the 13-year-old off a chairlift. If he was skiing out of bounds or even inbounds it’d make more sense. This represents a massive failure by an unprepared resort to do even a tiny bit of work getting their act together. The family sought $70k in the initial lawsuit and it took over four years to settle. That’s insane! They should have been given the deed to the resort’s land.
At the time of the avalanche at LVSS I was working at their parent company, Powdr Corp. This was a tragic accident that completely buried the entire lift. The resort had received massive amounts of snow, even by Utah or Colorado standards, the few days leading up to the avalanche. The snow safety and avalanche control teams had done their best to knock down any snow loads on the surrounding slopes, but for what ever reason they could not trigger a slide and declared the resort “safe.”
Knowing the management of LVSS personally and having worked with them for several years they are top notch ski resort industry veterans. They were and are not a mom and pop, podunk ski area with a busted up rope tow like you may suggest.
Once again, Rocky shoots his mouth off about something he knows nothing about.
Rocky,
I am a current season passholder at LVSSR as I was the season of the incident. Additionally, I was skiing at LVSSR the day of the accident. The resort is not located in Vegas, but rather is in the Spring Mountains to the east and has a base of 8200′ with lift service to 9200′. The avalanche started on a ridge above the ski area at approximately 11,000′ The fact that the ski area is less than an hours drive from the strip makes it convenient, but changes nothing about the risks and conditions of a high alpine environment. The season of the avalanche, the resort received well over 300 inches and the weeks before the avalanche were the snowiest I’ve seen in 15 years of skiing LVSSR.
As a member of the LVSSR community, I am still saddened by the loss of one of our members. I cannot imagine the pain of this boys family. However Rocky, ignorant posts such as yours do nothing to help this matter. If you would like a personal tour of why LVSSR is so much more than the link you attached, just look for the big bald guy hiking up from the lift…….
Rocky, do you have any comprehension of the garbage you wrote here? Your opinion shows a shockingly irresponsible and dangerously low level of responsible reporting. Please try to convey facts and not your misguided and downright stupid opinion when writing your “report”.