South Lake Tahoe, California — In a winter full of lawsuits for Vail Resorts, the Colorado company is facing another one. However, this one comes from a situation that occurred during the 2022-23 season.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the widow of a deceased snowboarder has sued Vail Resorts in El Dorado County Superior Court, claiming that her husband’s death was caused “as a result of (Heavenly Resort’s) negligence.”
During the 2022-23 season, Heavenly Resort was in the midst of a deep winter with huge snowfall totals. During a stretch in March 2023, the ski resort saw around seven feet of snowfall. During that March stretch, a group associated with the U.S. Deaf Ski and Snowboard Association made a trip to the California/Nevada ski resort. This included 46-year-old deaf snowboarder Wesley Whalen.
The New Yorker was snowboarding at Heavenly on a black diamond trail. He took a break to catch his breath, which was when he fell and got trapped in a snow pit. The lawsuit alleges that the snow was “significantly deeper and, more significantly, looser than is typical.” His GoPro captured the terrifying scenes as snow filled the hole that Whalen had created by falling into it. By the time that rescuers found him, he was dead.
The law firm is accusing the mountain operations team and ski patrollers that do avalanche mitigation at Heavenly Resort, which is part of the Vail Resorts portfolio, of being negligent in its attempt to reduce and inform people of hazards that day. They accuse Heavenly of being insufficiently staffed for ski patrollers, not posting signs regarding the risks, and conducting avalanche mitigation that made the risks of cave-ins greater on the day of Wesley’s death. The lawsuit also states that “rescue efforts were nonexistent, insufficient, inadequate, and poor.”
It should be noted that this isn’t being classified as a tree well death. While Wesley was close to a tree well at the time of his death, he was on the trail, so it’s considered a cave-in fatality.
Vail Resorts has yet to comment publically on this case, as they tend not to release statements regarding pending litigation.
It’ll be interesting to see how ski resort liability waivers will come into play here, as it protects companies in most instances. Still, it’s unclear how these unusual circumstances will factor in. I predict that the liability waiver may protect the ski resort here, but we’ll have to see.
Image Credits: Heavenly Resort
