who are you? like you, i've had a pass to blue since before they even had a park. who are you to call any of us assholes without knowing us? some of us assholes dedicate our weekends to teaching the little kids the right way to ride through the park, whether they want to learn how to slide a box, do a 3 on a jump, or just ski through to watch their friends. some of us also help maintain the features in the park. and yes, since our parents were rational human beings, they taught us to always look uphill before you merge back onto a trail after taking a rest on the SIDE of the trail. therefore, it was common sense to us to see look uphill for someone who might be coming our way after using a park feature.
Also, we do try to teach people what proper etiquette is. Today, i spoke with an instructor who took his lesson through the park. I explained to him why it was unsafe for his students to be in the park unless he taught them some basic park rules, which he did upon my request. I've also spoken to several ski patrollers about the situation. One, for instance, skied down the stairs of the handrail feature and fell. My friends and i waited about 2 or 3 minutes for him to get out of the way so we could use the feature. my friend slid the box rail, only to find the patroller still standing below the stairs. the patroller started yelling at my friend for not waiting for him to get out of the way, but quickly calmed down when we explained to him that we had waited for him to move, gave him sufficient time, and that he should not be standing below such a feature. He didn't realize the intended use of said feature, and was glad that we had taken time to explain to him how to use it, and how not to use it, instead of just cursing him out and skiing away.
I've had plenty of close encounters this year with people skiing across lips as i am about to hit a jump, skiing across landings while i am in the air, or otherwise sitting in blind spots where they should not be. while the case you witnessed at bear very well might be an extreme, it happens far more often than it should. if you can't see the need for park passes for the higher level parks, you are blind. a different set of rules is in place in the terrian park. the downhill skier does not necesarily always have the right of way. for those who know park etiquette, it is the person who has called out their drop in that has the right of way, and unfortunately, calling out your drop is like a foreign language around here on a crowded schoolgroup night or weekend. You shouldn't have to worry about people sitting on the landing of a jump, or coming into a rail from all angles just to use the lip of it as a jump off to the side. essentially, what it comes down to, is that people need to practice common sense. until we have a way to detect whether people are capable of such a feat, park passes are the quick and easy solution. that way, you have to have some sort of competency in park etiquette as well as overall skiing etiquette to be allowed in the advanced park, so those of us who know what's going on wouldn't have to worry about whether someone knows who has the right of way or not, we could focus on our skiing and pushing our skiing ability, not the kid who just got stuck on top of the battleship box.
