Court Upholds Snowboarding Ban At Utah Ski Resort"

"In Utah, the Alta Ski Area gets to keep its slogan "Alta is for Skiers."

A federal appeals court has upheld the resort's long-standing snowboarding ban in a legal challenge brought by a group of local snowboarders.

The case touched on a sensitive topic in the ski industry and especially in the West, where most resorts depend on leasing land from the U.S. Forest Service for their operations. Does a ski area have the right to prohibit or single out a certain type of user's access to federal public land that's supposed to be open to everyone?

A nonprofit organization calling itself Wasatch Equality argued it didn't. The group, which includes professional snowboarder Bjorn Leines, filed suit in 2014 alleging the ban violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

But the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, in upholding a lower court ruling, concluded that Alta had a right to enforce its policy because the U.S. Forest Service didn't influence the decision and therefore it wasn't a blanket "state action" that could have amounted to discrimination.

There's long been friction between skiers and snowboarders. And Alta, east of Salt Lake City, has prided — and marketed — itself as a snowboarder-free destination. Slogans boast this all over the mountain, including at lift ticket windows and near an entrance gate that connects Alta with the adjacent Snowbird Resort, where snowboarding is allowed.

The case was closely watched because a ruling in favor of the snowboarders could have called into question the legality of the few remaining snowboarding bans at ski resorts in the U.S.

Only Alta, Deer Valley in Utah, and Vermont's Mad River Glen still ban snowboarders. Taos Ski Valley Resort in New Mexico lifted its ban several years ago."

www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/...n-at-utah-ski-resort

But the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, in upholding a lower court ruling, concluded that Alta had a right to enforce its policy because the U.S. Forest Service didn't influence the decision and therefore it wasn't a blanket "state action" that could have amounted to discrimination.

I'm not a lawyer, but...

This ruling seems troubling to me. Since when is discrimination only discrimination when the state does it? Does this mean that private businesses are free to discriminate however they like?

If the ruling had said that discrimination based on the "usage mode" of a paying customer was okay to enforce, I would be bothered less. But if the ruling really rests on the fact that the entity doing the discriminating is a business rather than a government agency, that seems like a bad precedent.

I'm so old that I remember some resorts would not allow telemarkers--Park City and Alta, I think.

Similarly resorts also ban snow machine riding and sledding within their special use permit boundaries. Since any snowboard rider may ride at Alta if they wear skiis it is not a case of discrimination against a class of people.

I wonder if mono-skiis are allowed and if so what about teleboards? The latter is very close to a hard boot carving snowboard, though even more nerdy.

I also disagree with banning any particular class of snowrider from federal lands (and I've got my own s-word for what Alta is for). But I believe the lower court ruling cited all the classes of snow equipment currently and typically banned from ski areas, including innertubes, snow disks, etc, and ruled that there is no constitutional right to snowboard.

As for the wisdom of banning a potentially major source of customers, well that's what Alta is for!

Ha, I think Alta should stay the same as long as it can and I say that as a snowboarder. I credit them for making me jump into the back country. I was there in 96 or 97 with an intergenerational mixed bag of nuts on skis, boards, and telemark gear. We rented a great cabin and first spent a day at snowbird trying to find good snow. It was hard packed and icy and the skiers blamed it on all the snowboarders. The next day I rented skis and went to Alta. It was hard packed and icy and had a weird uptight country club feel. The third day we walked across the street climbed a ridge that was turning into nice corn and then dropped into heavenly nipple deep powder that I can still taste. I had walked a board up a hill before for some turns and before that I had tried to turn skinny track skis down hills and off trail but this was so much better. Alta can keep the country clubbers and snowbird can give the rest their outlet. Across the street from both of them is probably still home to better snow with more possibilities for those who like fewer restrictions on their free time.