Vail Resorts beefing up safety at its 6 ski areas

Vail Resorts is introducing an enhanced slope safety campaign across its six resorts called “Play It Safe, Play All Season”.

The announcement came the same week it was announced Heavenly Mountain Resort was being sued by skier who alleges having been severely hit by an employee on a snowboard.

“Our guests have been telling us that safety is a key component of their mountain experience, and their comfort level on the mountain relative to safety is one of the most important things we can affect,” Blaise Carrig, co-president of Vail Resorts’ mountain division, said in a statement. “Because of this, we’re launching the Play It Safe campaign across our resorts to encourage locals, destination guests and employees alike to ski and snowboard responsibly so that everyone can have fun on the mountain all season long. While everyone is ultimately responsible for their own behavior on the slopes, we can absolutely do our part in encouraging and enforcing responsible behavior and are committed to doing that.”

The Play It Safe campaign is a multi-faceted, comprehensive campaign aimed at addressing slope safety by communicating how guests can ski and snowboard more responsibly and still have a great time. All six of the company’s resorts, including Heavenly and Northstar, are implementing enhanced on-mountain Play It Safe messaging across a variety of channels and in critical locations, such as terrain park exits and areas where trails merge, to reach skiers and snowboarders of all ages.

Vail Resorts is also working on video communications with sponsored Olympic and world champion ski and snowboard athletes Lindsey Vonn and Shaun White.

Guests can also expect to see a greater presence of mountain safety and operations personnel at all six resorts.

In addition to the Yellow Jacket program, management teams across all six mountain resorts are also being provided with additional training to support the slope safety efforts and will have a larger on-mountain presence particularly on busy days.