These are pix from Skieric's Mont Tremblant 2025-26 Season thread showing old-school wooden power line poles, several without safety padding on the bottom:
Our Litigious Culture At U.S. Ski Areas
- Thread starter jamesdeluxe
- Start date
ChrisC
Well-known member
Good memory! It's interesting that industrial Tremblant has the wooden low-hanging power lines from our youth while old-school GP has modern-looking ones. Was this trail open with no padding on the bottom of the poles?!?
EMSC
Well-known member
US areas tend to either have buried power lines or they run power up the chair lift line right next to the comm lines in my experience.
Probably has to do with not wanting more poles on the hill to cover with pads, adjust pads, etc... for liability insurance. Seems crazy to me that LL didn't even try to put pads on those manmade structures. Going pad-less would never be allowed in the US, ever.
Probably has to do with not wanting more poles on the hill to cover with pads, adjust pads, etc... for liability insurance. Seems crazy to me that LL didn't even try to put pads on those manmade structures. Going pad-less would never be allowed in the US, ever.
This “trail” doesn’t appear on the map. Perhaps thats part of the reasoning. However how is the risk any different than the 10,000 trees all over the mountain, with the exception that these will not have a deep snow immersion risk. Overall in Canada, society is less litigious, and therefore less CYA.
EMSC
Well-known member
Oh I'm not saying the risk is any different at all in the real world.
However every single lawyer (and state law) in the US will fight you to the death that those electric poles are super dangerous manmade interferences vs the natural risks of the mountain. And no I am not kidding. Lawyers in the US are something else...
It so unfortunate that common sense can no longer prevail.
Here's one of the first times I saw something at a foreign ski area that would be unthinkable in the U.S. due to our liability laws and litigious culture: night sledding at Morzine in France's Portes du Soleil (scroll halfway down the report). You can see in this pic that participants weren't required to wear helmets nor sign a release of liability waiver.
They allowed you to go into trees alongside the trails with the path only lit by your head lamp. The route was mostly blue-level in pitch; however, adjacent single-black trails that weren't part of the itinerary (there was an ungroomed one out of frame to the right in this pic) had no ropes or closed signs. In the U.S., the ski area would be held responsible if injuries or death occurred to a bozo who didn't pay attention to directions and left the group.
As mentioned in the report, coming to a stop without flipping over was challenging enough on the low-angle trails but would be far more difficult on steeper runs with bumps and other features.
They allowed you to go into trees alongside the trails with the path only lit by your head lamp. The route was mostly blue-level in pitch; however, adjacent single-black trails that weren't part of the itinerary (there was an ungroomed one out of frame to the right in this pic) had no ropes or closed signs. In the U.S., the ski area would be held responsible if injuries or death occurred to a bozo who didn't pay attention to directions and left the group.
As mentioned in the report, coming to a stop without flipping over was challenging enough on the low-angle trails but would be far more difficult on steeper runs with bumps and other features.
ChrisC
Well-known member
How did they get to build these power lines in Banff National Park? And not buried. Must be quite old.
I almost did this in Murren. They have night sledging as well.
Sleding & Fondue evening Allmendhubel | Schilthorn - Piz Gloria
Enjoy a delicious fondue in good company followed by either a fast-paced sledge ride. Every Thursday and Friday evening! (08.01. – 06.03.2026)