Originally Posted by
squirtdad
OP I did try to respond to your theory and it get lost in the helmet discussion.
So to repeat:
I do not think the behavior of ski areas represents any legal climate change...... if you look at ski area, especailly terrain parks, there are ton's of legal risk mitigation features including: signage, roping areas off, gates for entry into even the easiest of terrain features. Also, by buying a ticket and using the ski area you are entering a a legal contract with the ski area where you acknowledge and accept all risk (look at the back of the ticket)
These are superficial things and so they're not convincing to me. Those changes would've been done decades ago if they could've made any difference at the time. I still think has been a HUGE change. The slopes, the resort concept, and skiing/boarding are practically speaking identical between 1990 and 2000 -- the main difference is that hugely dangerous activities are now encouraged and before they were aggressively prevented. Something changed. And I'm pretty sure that it's more than signage and ticket verbiage.