By Jim Stanford on November 25, 2009
Jackson Hole Mountain Resort will require some of its employees to wear helmets, under a settlement with a state workforce agency.
Staff who work in the terrain parks, halfpipe and the backcountry — including ski patrol — must don helmets, and top executives and managers will follow suit when skiing or riding at the resort at all times.
The settlement, announced today, follows the death of ski patroller Kathryn Miller Hess, who was on duty and not wearing a helmet when she fell in a backcountry chute last spring. The resort received a citation for the incident from the Wyoming Occupational Safety Hazard Administration.
The new policy goes into effect when the resort opens for the season Saturday. Scott Horn, the resort’s chief administrative officer, said in a release:
“We had productive meetings with OSHA, and as a result we will take the first step to providing and requiring helmets for our employees. We will continue on a course toward encouraging greater use of helmets amongst our employees over the coming years. Education on the use of helmets will become an integral part of our staff training, and we will offer resort-subsidized pricing on helmets for all our employees.”
Kathryn Miller Hess, center, with friends Jen Cashen and Kevin Pusey.
Resort President Jerry Blann said Jackson Hole will go beyond the agreement by requiring his company’s “Leadership Team,” comprised of 50 top managers and department heads, to wear helmets at all times.
Jackson Hole initially cited a National Ski Areas Association fact sheet that said helmets are effective in preventing only minor head injuries, not death. But a series of informal conferences with state regulators led to the new policy.
Vail Resorts shook up the industry in April by requiring all 6,400 of its employees at five ski areas to wear helmets. (The NSAA has since revised its fact sheet to promote the use of helmets.)
Blann said in the release, “Our employees are by far our most valuable asset, and therefore we are committed to creating and maintaining a safe work environment for them. We recognize that helmets can play a part in keeping our employees safer, and as such we are taking this initial step.”
——————————————————————–
• Ski patroller injured in fall (March 14, 2009)
• In memoriam: Kathryn Miller Hess (March 18, 2009)
• Vail institutes helmet policy for employees (April 14, 2009)
Posted under Business, Ski Resorts, Sports
Well…the can of worms has been opened…and we can all thank Vail for setting the standard, really. Kathryn’s accident had very little to do with it all. Have to say JHMR went to bat for the right to have the choice to wear or not, however, it’s inevitable that the policy will become mandatory helmets all the time…not just in certain situations. It’ll probably turn into a marketing/PR tool, too, for JHMR. “The future’s so bright I gotta wear”…a helmet.
Jim, your post inadvertently reveals another vexing problem: the fact that there is no single word for sliding downhill on snow whilst standing erect upon man-made boards.
You were forced to write “. . . when skiing or riding . . . ” when a single word akin to “riding” should be sufficient to encompass both styles of conveyance.
But not “riding.” “Riding” suggests snowboards, bikes, figls, ‘biles, sleds, and those bike-ski dealies. But somehow “riding” does not suggest the use of skis.
There are times for cutting back, minimizing, saving ink, saving time, saving grace. Therefore I propose the formation of a Snow Semantics Panel (maybe we should call it the Snow Semantics Death Panel to get the kids on board) to decide on a short, sweet single verb that means “skiing, snowboarding, whatever.”
I propose “sni.” As in, “Sniing any good in T-bowl today?”
By the way, is it?
dswift, I used to struggle with that during my days at the News; hence stories with “schussers” and “alpinists” in the lede.
“riders” should suffice, but, as you point out, doesn’t quite cover it.
political correctness on snow. I should go with “skiers,” with snowboarders implied, but I might risk snubbing my knuckle-dragging friends.
snowcialists
We’re all boarders in the end, either single our double.
This is a sad story all the way around. When do you take a step back and let people have the freedoms that this country was developed on. I for one don’t wear a helmet and struggle with the choice to wear one or not I know full consequences’ of choosing not to, and I will only have my self to blame if something happens. Seatbelts, helmets, etc all the same we are all old enough to decide for ourselves and then pay the consequence or reap the rewards from the choice.
So that means the cooks, ticket persons,hotel clerks, all employees, should wear helmets to fair is fair right
Maybe we should not play on the mountain at all, just sit and watch tv, that would be much safer and conformist.