‘What should the consequences be?’: Injured Whistler skier questions Canada’s ski-safety laws

Ski-safety laws questioned

Photo: AscentXmedia / E+.

Broadhurst suffered a tibial plateau fracture and meniscus tear in her knee and a broken collarbone after another skier collided with her in 2024

Two years after a high-speed collision at Whistler Blackcomb left her with a shattered knee and broken collarbone, skier Lesley Broadhurst says she isn’t looking for another story about her accident. She’d rather talk about what happens next time—especially when the person who causes a crash just skis off.

“It's bizarre to kind of go back on it all, because it all just seems, quite frankly, almost like a dream—well, like a nightmare. It's hard to believe two years has gone by,” she said. After 12 to 18 months of rehab, plenty of time in the gym and physiotherapy, she’s back to hiking, pickleball, golf and just now getting back on skis, on quieter hills.

But she admits being back on snow feels very different.

“I am back on skis, which feels great, but obviously not quite the same—not yet anyway," she said. "The more days I can get in, the more confidence and love for this sport returns, and the post trauma will fade I’m sure. [The] No. 1 rule as skiers is that you trust the people behind you, that they're going to avoid you at all costs and safely pass you.”

That trust is at the heart of Canada’s Alpine Responsibility Code, the industry standard commonly posted at resorts across the country.

The first points touch on control and right-of-way: always stay in control, be able to stop or avoid people or objects, and remember that people downhill of you have the right-of-way. National campaign material on skisafety.ca notes “the majority of skiing and snowboarding collisions are avoidable” and urges riders to “be ready, plan ahead, and stay alert” every run—slowing down at blind spots, giving others plenty of room, and matching speed to conditions, terrain and traffic.

Slow Zones near bases and green runs, where kids, beginners and seniors are mixed together, are singled out for extra caution, with resorts warning fast skiing in these areas can lead to serious accidents and loss of lift privileges.

Legally, however, Broadhurst’s experience underscores that the code and those safety campaigns are guidance, not statutes.

Skiers owe each other a duty of care, and victims can sue another skier if they can prove negligence—often using the code to show the uphill skier failed to stay in control or avoid a downhill rider. But negligence can be hard to distinguish from the sort of loss of control that any skier can identify with having experienced.

The effort becomes more difficult when the other skier fails to provide their name and contact information and remain on-scene until ski patrol arrives, per the Alpine Code. That’s what happened in Broadhurst’s situation.

She suggests looking to the U.S. for a stark contrast. States like Colorado have written ski-collision rules directly into law.

Under Colorado’s Ski Safety Act, skiers must stay in control and maintain a proper lookout, and “the primary duty” to avoid a collision rests with the person skiing downhill to avoid collision with anyone or anything below; violating those duties can constitute negligence in civil court. A separate section makes it illegal to leave the scene of a ski collision that causes injury without giving your name and address to patrol or resort staff, effectively treating it like a mountain hit-and-run, with fines and potential criminal penalties.

Broadhurst wonders why Canadian skiers don’t have similar protections. “These accidents are horrendous, causing serious injury and should be looked at as acts of criminal negligence,” she said.

“What should the consequences be for reckless skiing? How do we, as a skiing community, stop this behaviour? It’s only if reckless skiers face consequences that anything changes.”

For now, the practical advice from Canadian legal and safety guides is simple: know the code, manage your speed and if you are involved in a collision, stay at the scene, call patrol and exchange information—because without a name or a witness, even a serious injury can leave victims with almost no recourse beyond a long rehab and unanswered questions.

To that end, Broadhurst reiterated that if anyone had information about her accident on Mar. 24, 2024, they should reach out via Pique.