What Counts as Ski Resort Negligence Under Colorado Law
Colorado’s Ski Safety Act (C.R.S. § 33-44-101) gives resorts a lot of protection. That’s the first thing you need to know. The law says skiers accept “inherent dangers” like changing snow conditions, weather, collisions with other skiers, and variations in terrain. Resorts lean on this hard. But “inherent danger” doesn’t cover everything. That’s where ski resort negligence cases live.
A resort still owes you a duty of care for things that aren’t natural parts of skiing. We see this come up with Greenwood Village families who drive up to the mountains every weekend during season.
Here’s what actually crosses the line from inherent risk into negligence. Lift malfunctions are a big one. Chairlifts and gondolas are mechanical equipment. When a resort fails to inspect, maintain, or repair a lift and someone gets hurt, that’s not an inherent danger of skiing. That’s a maintenance failure. Unmarked hazards matter too. A resort has to mark or pad man-made obstacles like lift towers, snowmaking equipment, and exposed rocks in high-traffic areas. If they know about a hazard and don’t warn you, the Ski Safety Act won’t save them. Trail design and grooming failures can also create liability. A run that funnels skiers into a blind merge with no signage. A terrain park feature built without proper spacing. These are choices the resort made.
Then there’s the conduct of resort employees. A ski patrol member who clears someone to ride after a head injury. A ski school instructor who takes a beginner down an advanced run. A snowcat operator who grooms an open trail without warning. We’ve seen all of these.
Under premises liability law (C.R.S. § 13-21-115), you’re an invitee when you buy a lift ticket. That means the resort owes you the highest duty of care. They have to fix known dangers or warn you about them. C.R.S. § 13-21-111 still applies on fault. If you’re less than 50% at fault, you can recover. The resort’s insurance team will argue you assumed the risk. Nine times out of ten, that argument has holes in it. The question is whether anyone looks closely enough to find them.
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Why Signing a Waiver Does Not Always End Your Case
Every ski resort in Colorado hands you a waiver. You sign it at the ticket window, sometimes on a screen you barely glance at. And then you get hurt, and the first thing the resort says is “you signed the waiver.” We hear this from people in Greenwood Village every week. They assume the case is over before it starts.
It’s not.
Colorado courts don’t treat waivers as blank checks for reckless behavior. A waiver can release a resort from the inherent dangers of skiing. Icy patches, moguls, variable snow. Those are risks you accept when you clip into your bindings. But a waiver can’t protect a resort from its own negligence. There’s a big legal difference between an inherent risk and a hazard the resort created or ignored.
Here’s what we mean. Say a resort knows a lift tower pad is exposed and unmarked on a narrow run. Or they’ve failed to install adequate padding on a fixed object right next to a groomed trail. That’s not an inherent risk of skiing. That’s the resort failing to do its job. The Colorado Ski Safety Act, C.R.S. § 33-44-101 et seq., spells out specific duties ski areas owe to guests. They have to mark obstacles. They have to pad lift towers. They have to maintain equipment. When they don’t, a signed waiver won’t shield them.
Courts in Colorado have also thrown out waivers that are vague, buried in fine print, or try to cover gross negligence. A waiver that says “we’re not responsible for anything, ever, no matter what” won’t hold up. Jason Jordan, who has spent over 20 years handling injury cases and served as president of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association, has seen resorts lean hard on waivers as a scare tactic. Insurance companies count on you not knowing this.
So if you got hurt at a resort and someone told you the waiver means you can’t do anything about it, that’s worth a closer look. The waiver is the starting point of the legal analysis. Not the end of it.
The 48-Hour Evidence Window After a Resort Injury
Here’s what most people don’t realize. The clock starts running the second you get hurt on that mountain. Not when you hire a lawyer. Not when you get home to Greenwood Village and finally see a doctor. Right there on the slope.
We’ve seen this play out hundreds of times. A resort guest takes a bad fall because a lift ramp was iced over or a terrain park feature had no padding. They get checked out at the base lodge, maybe go to urgent care, then head home thinking they’ll “figure it out later.” Two days pass. The resort has already groomed over the hazard, reset the equipment, and overwritten its surveillance footage. That evidence is gone.
Colorado ski resorts aren’t required to preserve evidence unless they receive a formal preservation letter. So if nobody sends one within 48 hours, the resort can legally destroy or alter the scene. We send those letters immediately. Same day when possible.
Surveillance footage is the biggest loss we see. Most resort cameras record on a loop. Some overwrite every 24 hours. Others every 72. But none of them hold footage indefinitely waiting for you to make a claim. If a lift malfunction or a collision on a poorly marked run was caught on camera, that footage needs to be locked down fast.
Witness statements matter just as much. Other skiers saw what happened. Ski patrol wrote a report. The lift operator noticed something. But people scatter. They go back to Denver, fly home to Texas, and within a week you can’t find them. Getting names and contact info at the scene is critical.
And then there’s the ski patrol incident report itself. Resorts control those documents. They don’t hand them over willingly. Nine times out of ten, the report downplays what happened or frames the skier as the cause. Having your own photos, your own notes, and your own medical records from that same day gives us something to push back with.
If you’re reading this from the Orchard Hills area or anywhere in Greenwood Village after a recent resort trip, don’t wait to see how you feel next week. The evidence won’t.
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How a Ski Resort Negligence Case Actually Works in Colorado
Most people think the ski area liability waiver they signed kills their case. It doesn’t. Not always. Colorado’s Ski Safety Act (C.R.S. § 33-44-101) protects resorts from inherent dangers like powder, moguls, and changing snow. But it doesn’t protect them from their own reckless or negligent conduct. That’s the gap we walk through.
Here’s what a ski resort negligence case looks like from our office near the DTC Parkway corridor in Greenwood Village. It’s not fast. It’s not simple. But it follows a clear path when you’ve got the right team running it.
Building the foundation. We pull every piece of evidence the resort doesn’t want you to have. Lift maintenance logs. Ski patrol incident reports. Employee training records. Trail grooming schedules. Snowmaking operation notes. Resorts in Colorado are required to mark certain hazards under the Ski Safety Act. If they didn’t mark a known ice sheet on a groomed run or failed to pad a lift tower in a high-traffic merge zone, that’s not an inherent risk. That’s negligence.
Proving what the resort knew. We see this pattern over and over. A resort knows about a dangerous condition, maybe a poorly designed terrain park feature or a blind merge where two runs converge, and they leave it. Sometimes for weeks. We subpoena internal communications and prior incident reports for that same spot. Nine times out of ten, someone inside the resort flagged the problem before your injury happened.
Colorado’s fault rules under C.R.S. § 13-21-111 matter here. The resort’s lawyers will argue you were skiing too fast or beyond your ability. If they pin 50% or more fault on you, your recovery drops to zero. So we build the timeline to show exactly what the resort failed to do, and we counter every attempt to shift blame onto you.
The statute of limitations for ski resort negligence is two years under C.R.S. § 13-80-102. Miss that window and your claim is gone. Period. Evidence disappears even faster. Surveillance footage gets overwritten, seasonal employees scatter, snow melts. We’ve handled these cases for over 20 years and the biggest mistake people make is waiting.
Types of Injuries and Damages That Support a Resort Negligence Claim
Not every ski injury leads to a case. But when a resort’s carelessness causes the harm, the type of injury matters a lot for what you can recover.
We see the same patterns from clients across Greenwood Village who spend their weekends on Colorado slopes. The injuries that carry the strongest claims tend to be serious, well-documented, and tied to something the resort did wrong or failed to do — and our law firm in Greenwood Village knows exactly how to build that case.
Broken bones and torn ligaments are the most common. A knee blown out on an icy run the resort never groomed. A wrist shattered in a lift malfunction. These injuries need surgery, months of rehab, and time off work. Under C.R.S. § 13-21-111, you can recover damages as long as you’re less than 50% at fault. The resort’s insurer will fight hard on that number. We’ve seen this play out hundreds of times.
Traumatic brain injuries are the ones that scare us the most. A skier hits an unmarked obstacle or collides with exposed equipment. They walk away feeling “off” but don’t get scanned for days. By then the resort claims the injury happened somewhere else. Jason Jordan has secured a $38.6 million verdict for a traumatic brain injury from a fall. These cases demand fast medical documentation and the right specialists.
Spinal cord injuries and paralysis change everything in an instant. So do severe burns from malfunctioning heating equipment in lodges or base areas. Colorado places no cap on economic damages like medical bills, lost wages, and future care costs. That’s critical for catastrophic injuries where lifetime care can run into the millions.
For noneconomic damages like pain and suffering, HB 24-1472 sets a cap of roughly $1.5 million, though a court can exceed that on clear and convincing evidence. Wrongful death claims carry an approximate $2.125 million cap with an exception for felonious killing (C.R.S. § 13-21-204).
The general personal injury statute of limitations in Colorado is two years (C.R.S. § 13-80-102). Two years sounds like plenty of time until it isn’t.
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Our Greenwood Village, Colorado Office Location
Our main office is located in Greenwood Village, also known as the Denver Tech Center, just south of Downtown Denver.
Jordan Law Accident and Injury Lawyers
5445 DTC Parkway Suite 1000 Greenwood Village CO 80111
Frequently Asked Questions
Does signing a waiver mean I can’t file a claim after a ski resort injury?
Signing a waiver does not automatically end your case. Waivers can protect resorts from inherent risks like icy patches or moguls. But they cannot protect a resort from its own negligence. If a lift tower was unpadded, a hazard was unmarked, or equipment failed due to poor maintenance, the waiver likely won’t hold up. Colorado courts have thrown out waivers that are vague or try to cover gross negligence. If someone told you the waiver kills your case, that’s worth a second look.
What counts as ski resort negligence versus an inherent risk of skiing?
Ski resort negligence happens when a resort fails to do something it was required to do. Colorado’s Ski Safety Act protects resorts from claims tied to inherent dangers like weather, terrain changes, or collisions. But it does not protect them from lift malfunctions, unmarked man-made hazards, or poor trail design. If a resort knew about a problem and did nothing, that’s negligence. Greenwood Village families who ski every weekend often assume injuries are just part of the sport. Sometimes they’re not.
How quickly do I need to act after getting hurt at a ski resort?
You need to act within 48 hours. Resort surveillance footage can be overwritten in as little as 24 hours. Colorado resorts are not required to preserve evidence unless they receive a formal preservation letter. Without one, they can legally alter or destroy the scene. Witness names, ski patrol reports, and equipment records all disappear fast. Greenwood Village residents often wait until they’re home and feeling better to make calls. That delay can cost you the strongest evidence in your case.
What should I do at the scene of a ski resort injury before I leave the mountain?
Get names and contact information from anyone who saw what happened. Take photos of the hazard, your injuries, and any signage nearby. Ask ski patrol for a copy of the incident report before you leave. Do not sign anything the resort hands you at the base lodge. If you can, note the time, the run name, and the lift or equipment involved. The resort’s team starts protecting itself immediately. You should too.
Can a ski resort employee’s actions create a negligence claim?
Yes, resort employees can absolutely create liability. A ski patrol member who clears an injured person to keep riding after a head injury is one example. A ski school instructor who takes a beginner down an advanced run is another. A snowcat operator grooming an open trail without warning skiers is a third. These are not inherent risks of skiing. These are choices made by people the resort hired and trained. The resort is responsible for what its employees do on the job.
Does Colorado’s fault system affect my ski resort injury claim?
Yes, Colorado uses a modified comparative fault rule under C.R.S. § 13-21-111. If you are less than 50% at fault for your injury, you can still recover damages. The resort’s insurance team will argue you assumed the risk or acted carelessly. That argument often has holes in it. Greenwood Village residents who get hurt on the mountain sometimes assume they’re automatically at fault because they fell. Fault is a legal question, not a gut feeling. It’s worth having someone actually look at the facts.
