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Are Waivers the Best Basis for Choosing an Incident Management Program?

Steep Management

Are Waivers the Best Basis for Choosing an Incident Management Program?

Many of the ski areas currently using a digital incident management system made their decision to select the system because the incident management system could connect to a waiver database.  There is nothing wrong with connecting to a waiver database to attach a waiver to the incident. Unquestionably, having a waiver attached is of significant value for any incident that makes it to litigation against the ski area.

Based on National Ski Areas Association data collection, the 10-year average for catastrophic or death incidents over ten years ending in 2022 is 1.5/million skiers. Albeit any number is too much.  However; are ski areas doing the skiing public service by choosing a system that helps manage a department, ski patrol, that is in place to protect and service the skiing public by the decision to make defending litigation easier?  I am not convinced. Ultimately providing the best tools to manage the mountain from a safety perspective is the best way to mitigate incidents. I am sure defense lawyers and insurance companies might disagree.

Waivers should be part of the POS system that sells season passes, ski lift tickets, ski school lessons, rental of skis or snowboards, childcare, bike rentals, bike instruction, camp enrollment, or any adventure activities. Waivers should be formatted by a lawyer, made easy to access and complete, and accessible post the waiver signer’s use of the ski area, and vetted by another lawyer to ensure that the waiver meets the jurisdiction of the state the ski area is located in. There is no universal template when it comes to liability waivers. Not having ski patrol review an incident management system is a mistake. This isn’t made up. I have talked with Patrol Directors who are told what they are using by Risk Managers because the system links to a waiver database and not had any part in the decision.

Having made the case for ski patrol making the decision on what is to be used to assist ski patrol to manage their work.

I proposed in a post in December 2022, What Makes a Good Incident Management Program, the following elements are required of a good incident management system:

  • Ease of use
  • Full mountain coverage
  • Limited IT dependency
  • Use NSAA, CWSA, MountainGuard, Other Insurers, or ski area forms
  • Able to include statements, injured party or representative, and witnesses
  • Able to include pictures and drawings
  • Full incident investigation capability, including specific forms used by investigators
  • Missing person reporting and tracking per ski area protocol
  • Track workflow – meaning trail checks, sweeps, work assignments, and training
  • Roster management
  • Dispatch
  • Incident tracking by location and status
  • Map of current responses
  • Lift status
  • Roster availability – whom to dispatch
  • Forms creation

These are the elements that make a good incident management system, useable on any platform on any device.

All these features are incorporated into SmartMountain. The flexibility of SmartMountain in making all the forms ski area specific maximizes the acceptance by patrollers.  Change can be a challenge for all of us and that is recognized by SmartMountain.  Patrollers can operate totally with a mobile device, most likely a smartphone, picking up incidents in their SmartMountain inbox. Patrollers can complete any form, a trail check, sweep, chair evac, a work mission, missing child, a safety violation, you name it you can do it, on their smartphone.  Aid Rooms can use a tablet or Chromebook for more medical-related data entry, and for reviewing data for an accident investigation a desktop version of SmartMountain is included.  One price annually covers all this and more dependent on the size of the ski area.

 

Reach out to Steep Management, we are willing and happy to help you be better.

We can help you create a healthier ski resort by providing individualized solutions to your specific situation—no matter the size of your ski resort, or where you are in North America.
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Steep Management has experience in ski area operations, particularly with the challenges of strategic daily routines and workflow. Developed For Ski Industry Professionals, by Ski Industry Professionals. Through our software products we can assist you in maintaining focus on those things which you and your team need to meet your goals and objectives.

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Data and Information

Database of record: Centralized and organized data assists in recognizing and evaluating patterns, resulting in more thoughtful planning and informed predictions.

Rapid, intuitive retrieval of current and historical data (accessible on or offsite) improves decision making at all levels of management.

Simple report generation.

Reduces risk and potential lawsuits.

Supports visualization of current and future mountain infrastructure (e.g. Gazex explosives locations, forest thinning, designing new runs, parking, etc.).

 

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Ski Patrol

  • Ease of real-time data entry (no more logbooks or spreadsheets!).
  • Use of common language allows for consistent communication and information sharing.
  • Increases safety by minimizing accidents through pattern analysis of incidents.
  • Accident Investigation and Risk Management.
  • Snow Safety (Ski Patrol) Training.

The web and mobile application suite will provide editing and data collection tools for mapping incidents (wrecks, accidents) of any kind.

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Avalanche Module

 

Ability to document, track and analyze slope conditions with one tool.

Ease of real-time data entry (no more logbooks or spreadsheets!).

 Centralized and organized data assists in recognizing and evaluating patterns, resulting in more thoughtful planning and informed predictions.

Provides detailed current and historical weather patterns for visualizing/predicting.

Saves money through more precise use of explosives. 

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Dispatch

The dispatch and risk module leverage Esri’s Survey 123 for ArcGIS, providing an intuitive survey-form, data-driven workflow for point feature collection and reporting. Data collected with SmartMountain Survey apps, which are available for both web browsers and native desktop and mobile apps for standard operating systems, are integrated with one or more SmartMountain modules, providing real-time or disconnected and later synchronized workflows for data collection and integration.

Each ski resort decided what they wish to display on the Dispatch Dashboard including on-hill incidents, walk-in incidents, on-hill refusals,  missing persons, work details for different departments, ski patrol rosters for the day, clearances, and sweeps.

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OPERATIONS LOGBOOK

  • Logs for Lift Maintenance, Lift Operations, and Groomer inspections, as well as building inspections.
  • Logs can record data and signatures, can record stops, station assignments.
  • Logs are tracked by calendar.

INFORMATION

  • Management review made easy through the use of Excel – reviewing a major grouping of assets or a single component of an asset such as a drive or a gearbox.
  • All information related to a system(asset) is in one place whether it be a lift inspection report, a manual, oil analysis, a service bulletin, or a letter from a vendor.

DASHBOARD

  • Every user has a unique dashboard.
  • Dashboards can be customized to reflect a user’s specific needs.
  • Quick access to the status of work and cost .

SCHEDULE/ WORK ORDERS​

  • The schedule function in MountainOffice provides for detailed instructions by task, recording of data such as the temperature of a gearbox, and service bulletins.
  • All schedules can have a time or counter trigger.