Close call… Photo: Screenshot
Opening weekend is a whole bag of chaos on any mountain. First and foremost, there’s the excitement of a new season. You have months of powder days ahead (hopefully), and plenty of good times to look forward to.
Then again, you often have pretty crappy early season conditions. And monstrous lift lines, not to mention, crowds. Oh, the crowds. Because, well, everybody is just as excited as you that it’s opening day.And if you were keeping up with the internet this past week, you may have noticed that the crowd factor led to that timeless struggle over right-of-way rules on the slopes. In Colorado, that turned into two separate incident reports from the Summit County Sheriffs office at different resorts. One, in particular, was the direct result of a right-of-way argument, and two men involved in a scuffle were handed a summons for disorderly conduct.
One (or three) near collisions at Deer Valley had no room for right-of-way discussions, mainly because the culprits wouldn’t stick around to hash things out…or speak, for that matter. Footage from opening weekend at Deer Valley showed a young Utah skier narrowly dodging three deer darting across a groomer.
“Everyone walked away unharmed, animals included,” Townlift News wrote on Sunday.
Wildlife finding its way onto ski runs is nothing new. Who knows if the young skier walked away yelling, “Whoa! Did you see that?” or if he’s going to spend the rest of the season looking over his shoulder for deer trying to take him out. One thing’s for sure, the scare he got seeing them fly across that groomer is nothing like that of the handful of skiers or snowboarders who’ve dodged bears. Yes, that has really happened before. Multiple times. So, hooray for opening day!
Have a look at the chaos, below.
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