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Safety

VAIL MOUNTAIN’S 8 ESSENTIALS

OF DEFENSIVE SKIING & SNOWBOARDING

BY CHRIS ROGERS

FOR THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS, Vail Resorts’ Ski & Snowboard the option to take an online defensive driving course and
School Training best practice group has been developing expunge the ticket—and that course helped me make the
instructor training around spatial awareness and situational connection between the spatial awareness concepts we’d
performance as a way to decrease injuries. After learning about been working on at Vail and the existing body of resources,
several life-altering collisions around the country during the training, and best practices around defensive driving train-
2014-15 season, we expanded our training to include other ing. I couldn’t help but note important parallels between safe
on-mountain personnel, and started researching training driving and safe skiing/riding.
materials from other fields to see where we might improve. After completing the course I went on to review more
The following summer I received a minor speeding than a dozen defensive driving courses over the next few
ticket while driving through Wyoming on my way back months. Drawing from these various resources, I assem-
from paddleboarding on the Snake River. Apart from the bled the rough framework for “The 8 Essentials of Defensive
annoyance of getting a ticket, the incident turned out to Skiing & Snowboarding.” Since then, the best practice group
be serendipitous. The Wyoming State Troopers offer me has spoken with hundreds of skiers and snowboarders to
identify differences between collisions and near collisions.
Through interviews, research, and review of other industry
best practices—and in collaboration with other key trainers—
New name, we have polished them as a compilation of tactics that skiers

and riders can use to help prevent injuries.
new look, Where Your Responsibility Code consists of the rec-

same trusted ommended rules of the mountain, governing what every-
one should do, The 8 Essentials of Defensive Skiing &
advisors. Snowboarding are learned skills and behaviors that help you
anticipate dangerous situations to reduce collisions and inju-
SRR is now STOUT. ries despite adverse conditions or others’ mistakes:

The 8 Essentials of Defensive Skiing &
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14 | NSAA JOURNAL | SPRING 2018