By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Claire Donovan Rusk has seen a lot in her over 50 years on the slopes. She said she has been coming to Timberline Mountain for decades and has experienced the good and bad the resort has had to offer. Lately, she has been seen a dangerous trend in inexperienced skiers and dangerous behavior on the slopes.
“The real issue is people ignoring rules,” Rusk said. “Skiing beyond their abilities and not not enough policing of behavior.”
Rusk said she loves Timberline and the slopes there, but for the first time in 50 years of skiing, her and her husband have upgraded their safety gear because of the danger posed by others.
“But I have been skiing for over 50 years and I can tell you my husband and I have just purchased helmets for the first time,” Rusk said.
Rusk has nothing but positive things to say about how the new management has turned the resort around from what it once was. As a long-time guest of the facilities, she remembers how a lot of the equipment maintenance had been let go.
“The new management at Timberline has vastly improved all the facilities there,” Rusk said. “Before they came, the last operator actually dealt with a defective weight imbalance on one lift by just loading every other chair. It was crazy.”
However, for all the positive feelings she has towards how the resort has turned itself around, she said she has serious concerns about safety on the slopes. Rusk said that she has seen a lot of dangerous behavior that stemmed from people ignoring the rules and not enough enforcement.
Rusk said she was on the slopes at Timberline the weekend before the chairlift accident that recently took the life of a guest on January 4th. She said that while on the chairlift, she was seated behind a father and son who were wearing backpacks. They had not placed the safety bar down. As a result, they fell as they got off the lift. The lift was not stopped, but instead a staff member ran in front of Rusk’s chair to help the two downed guests.
“Right next to a sign they have posted saying to not do it,” Rusk said. “We knew they were going to be a problem, so we were prepared, but when the guy came running out to pick them up instead of stopping the lift, we were immediately thinking we were going down, too.”
Rusk said the lift attendant could not have seen the backpacks, but had someone been policing the lines prior to boarding, they could have been warned and it may have prevented the incident from happening. Rusk also said that there are several areas at the resort that are especially dangerous when combined with inexperienced skiers.
“No slope maps and that spot on the right hand hallway lift is very dangerous,” Rusk said. “People ski through the crossed slopes where the lines are full speed and on one slope no signage or fencing to slow anyone down.”
Rusk said she wished that there was testing before people were allowed on the slopes. She said she is seeing an increase in inexperienced skiers taking more and more risks on the slopes with no warnings given. She has left the slopes on more than one occasion due to dangerous skiers on the slopes.
“It used to be there was more ski patrol, but like everything, its hard to get enough help,” Rusk said. “Its going to get worse. I was an ice skater growing up. Every Olympics people would flood the rink suddenly thinking they were Dorothy Hamil. I foresee young people bombing straight downhill soon. No one announces they are passing you. You can tell the people who are ‘self taught.’”
Rusk said she had her son in ski school when he was five and now that he is 26, he will also exit the slopes if too many dangerous skiers are out. She said he visits every week and witnesses the same behavior they do on a regular basis.
“But if it gets wild, he leaves the slope, just like us,” Rusk said.
