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By: Kelly Bastone

Issue: December 2010

Section: Department

Tags: snowboard, ski, resorts, police, patrol

Long Arm of the Law

Police are increasingly patrolling Colorado ski areas. But are they actually making us safer or just destroying the free-wheeling culture of the slopes?

Colorado’s famous slopes have never been entirely free from law enforcement. Local cops have always responded to individual incidents involving theft, drunken disorderliness, and poaching (skiing closed trails is an infraction of state law). In 1994, Aspen tried to station police patrols on the slopes, but the effort was jettisoned that same year after skiers complained about seeing Johnny Law as they schussed. But over the past few years, police have become a more common sight not only at Steamboat, but also at several other Colorado ski hills: Monarch Mountain, Breckenridge Ski Resort, and Vail Mountain increasingly invite police on-mountain.

Resorts say they want to crack down ondrunken, reckless skiing, so they’re recruiting local law enforcement to help maintain a “family environment” on the slopes. Breckenridge’s police department bought special ski uniforms for its officers to wear while patrolling the runs. Monarch now parks a police cruiser at the entrance staircase for maximum visibility. And, in addition to conducting searches, Steamboat asks county cops and federal US Forest Service officers to ride the lifts and monitor skier behavior. “It shows that we mean business,” says Doug Allen, Steamboat’s VP of mountain operations.

In contrast to the negative response in Aspen years ago, resorts insist the skiing public is greeting the authorities with open arms. (Steamboat’s cantankerous boomer was an exception, they say.) “Response has been amazingly positive,” says Greg Morrison, Breckenridge’s assistant police chief. At Steamboat, Allen boasts, “We’ve had a tremendous amount of positive feedback from destination guests.” If this is true—that skiers feel happier knowing that cops have their backs—then skiing’s cultural pendulum has pulled a jaw-dropping 180.

The slopes—wide open, pristine, and wild—have always offered an escape from inhibition. You always feel far away from your cubicle when savoring mountain vistas from an empty ridge, watching snowflakes collect silently on your mittens, or sluicing through stands of aspens.

Consider: Ever since lifts began hauling skiers uphill for no reason other than the joy of skidding down again, skiing has represented a way to cut loose. Ski towns were bastions of counterculture, attracting bums who rejected the cities’ daily grind in favor of a free-wheelin’ mountain lifestyle. Women flirted with ski instructors, drinking and drug use were de rigueur, and bar patrons danced on the tables at local drinking holes. In the ’80s, Steamboat’s legendary Tugboat Grill and Pub saw as many revelers swinging from the ceiling as dancing on the floor. “It was a wide-open, free-spirit town, and you didn’t get in trouble for being that way,” recalls co-owner Larry Lamb. In short, skiing—and its attendant culture—has been a way to evade the everyday routine.

These days, though, skiers glimpse badges at the bottom of the run—or gazing down on them from the chair lift overhead—which has a way of squelching the fun factor. “My opinion is, I don’t like it,” says Lamb, who has nevertheless resigned himself to the change. “In yesteryear’s climate, if people did something that wasn’t totally legal or law-abiding, there was no real need to address it. Today, there is.” So what’s different now? Good question.

Comments

Really?

Submitted by mTnsmith on Fri, 2010-12-10 11:00.

Passholder since 1995, never seen any of this. Heard it happened on 2 -3 days of the year, St. Pats, April 1st and closing day, and if you rode here, you would see why it needed to be done on those days.

I wonder if Kelley was so appauled by these invasions of privacy, that she has stopped skiing @ Steamboat?

Keep up the strong writing and deceitfulness Kelley, I am sure you will sore to the top while stepping on and over whomever you need to succeed.

Is Kelly Crazy... or just trying to get published?

Submitted by Arock on Thu, 2010-12-09 12:14.

I have lived and skied in Steamboat for more than 10 years and have NEVER been "searched" or even looked at sideways boarding a lift of any kind.  I also own a bar, and spend night after night trying to figure out how to cut down on brought in liquor, which is not only against the law, but can get the bar owner in trouble for not catching it at the door.  No, we don't search people at the door of the bar, and neither does Steamboat Ski area.  But they do at a Bronco game... and no one seems to complain.   The real problem here is that someone who has lived in Steamboat for some time experienced one "search" on gaper day and decided it was an opportunity to further her career by slandering the ski area and screwing the very town that provides a home for her.  Kelly, this is just wrong.  You know this only happens 1 or 2 days a season.  For anyone who knows Steamboat, it doesn't even make a very good story... BECAUSE IT'S NOT TRUE.   It is disappointing that the article was picked up by 5280 and the Denver Post who obviously didn't do any fact checking.  I have not only lost respect for Kelly, but these 2 rags as well.  How about a little research before printing damaging articles about Colorado Businesses?  Do we really need the negative press?  How about this for a headline: STEAMBOAT SKI RESORT AT THE TOP OF THE SNOWFALL CHAIN THIS WINTER WITH OVER 120" SO FAR, AND COUNTING!  That's the Truth.

We stand by our story

Submitted by Daniel Brogan on Sun, 2010-12-05 12:48.

I've posted a response to the comments surrounding this article here: 

http://www.5280.com/blogs/2010/12/05/steamboat-springs-and-long-arm-law

Ski area lies

Submitted by clarinet on Sat, 2010-12-04 18:04.

Well I came to this site to refute all the lies the Steamboat Ski area has been saying about this story. They are searching packs and pockets and patting down people. The big lie is it is only this one day,"gaper day", wrong, it's basically all of the spring season now. If I am traveling to ski and paying top dollar Steamboat is not the place I will go. If They are serious about on the hill antics, hire more Patrolers, which have had to endure huge cutbacks in the last years, not because of the economy, but because realtor corporations keep using operating revenue to finance all their speculation. Lets get the ski industry back to skiing and bring the fourth amendment back to The United States of America!

Off-base

Submitted by bschmelt on Sat, 2010-12-04 09:03.

While I can't vouch for the other parts of this article, I can 100% say that Kelly's portrayal of Steamboat is very inaccurate. While it's true that on closing day there were police searching packs and bulky jackets, that is the only time anyone's seen police at/on the slopes of Steamboat. By painting the picture that officers are on and around the mountain on a daily basis is misleading  and sheds an incorrect light on how it is to ski/ride in Steamboat. I hope that this article doesn't deter people from coming to visit a great place to ride because of its false reporting.

total BS

Submitted by skierB on Fri, 2010-12-03 18:23.

Shame on you Kelly. Have you ever skied Steamboat except on gapper day? I have skied there 5 times this year already and have yet to see any police and have never been frisked or had my pockets turned out. Last season they did check backpacks on April 1st due to some very bad bvehaviour from a few unruly youths. That was the ONLY day they checked to my knowledge and I ski in Steamboat 30 to 50 day a season.

Seems like you were going for sensationalism rather than truth.  The only good thing to come out of this nonsense article is that I will have much smaller lift lines this season!

I'll be at A-Basin this year!

Submitted by kajamy2 on Wed, 2010-12-01 21:08.

Wow.  First DIA, now the SKI SLOPES??  I know I'll be spending my money at A-Basin this year instead of Steamboat.  No groping while skiing for me!  (What am I going to do - try to steal someone's skis by hiding them in my jacket??)  What a dumb new policy on Steamboat's part.

I welcome the rules!

Submitted by Colt on Mon, 2010-11-29 20:40.

The article "Long Arm of the Law" would probably have been better served in the Westword than 5280.  Kelly Bastone complains about the presence of security at some ski resorts and complains about how people should be able to "evade the everyday routine".  This article is so one-sided, I picture Kelly wearing horse blinds as she typed it out, with 5 empty cans of PBR on her desk.  Skiing is indeed a sport "born out of a need for speed" which makes it the perfect reason to have some rules.  Kelly has obviously not been railroaded by an inebriated skiier that told her to watch where she is going.  This article would have been more appropriate in a different setting.  Picture a movie theater where people are trying to cut loose, and they are not allowed to bring in alcohol!  Forget that it is against the policies of the theater, it is really about the man stealing your rights!  Well personally, I say let people get drunk at the movie theater.  Let them get stoned at the concerts!  But when you have thousands of people firing downhill with ski poles, a like the majority of them to be sober.  Using her logic, I better get hammered at the next Sunrise Century at Boulder (the 75 mile bike ride) so I can "experience something just a bit out of bounds". 

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