The long standing question of whether skiers and snowboarders should share the same slopes has been brought back to the fore with the launch legal action against one of the three US resorts that still bans boarders by a not-for-profit group called Wasatch Equality.
The case, brought by four boarders, is against Alta ski area in Utah, one of three in the US (and it's believed worldwide) that still ban snowboarders from the slopes. The other two are Deer Valley, also in Utah, and Mad River Glen in Vermont.
Wasatch Equality have filed their lawsuit in the District Court for the District of Utah against Alta Ski Area and also the United States Forest Service which owns the land where the ski slopes are located. This is crucial in the case as it's the only resort of the three, reportedly, based on public land.
The action seeks to, "…permanently enjoin Alta from enforcing its anti-snowboarder policy and snowboarding ban…and also seek a declaration from the Court that Alta's snowboarding prohibition, as enforced by the Forest Service, violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and is therefore unlawful."
Banning snowboarders from ski slopes and restricting them to sections of the mountain was common when boarding first gained popularity from the mid 1980s but by the mid 1990s only a handful of ski areas still banned boarders and some of the last to end their bans included Park City Mountain Resort (which went on to host the 2002 Winter Olympic Snowboarding events), Aspen and Taos.
Subsequently some purist skiers have argued that snowboarders different way of carving down the slope moves powder off the piste and in Italy there was a move to segregate skiers from snowboarders to avoid danger of collision, with the same thinking that the different ways skiers and boarders moved on the slope made collisions more likely, but nothing came of that.
"Alta is one of only three ski resorts in the United States that does not allow snowboarding, and Alta is the only one of these resorts that is operated on public land controlled by the Forest Service. Because of Alta's relationship with the government, Alta's actions must comply with the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause," said Jonathan Schofield, attorney with Parr Brown Gee & Loveless, who represents Wasatch Equality.
According to Schofield Alta's prohibition against snowboarders excludes a particular class of individuals from use and enjoyment of public land based on irrational discrimination against snowboarders, which denies them equal protection under the law as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment."
"Alta operates under a Forest Service Permit, which specifically states that the public lands "shall remain open to the public for all lawful purposes," yet Alta refuses to allow certain members of the public from using its land. The Complaint alleges that when Alta set forth its snowboarder ban in the mid-1980s, its policy was initiated as a result of animus held by Alta's ownership, management, and customers towards snowboarders, and that Alta continues to enforce its ban based on this animus," he added.
The Complaint further alleges that the reasons offered by Alta in support of its policy are a pretext and that there is no legitimate reason for Alta and the Forest Service's continued denial of access to one group of people (snowboarders) while granting access to a similar group of people (skiers). Thus, according to the Complaint, Alta's anti-snowboarder policy and snowboarding ban cannot be enforced.
"Snowboarding and skiing are wholesome, family-friendly activities, and there is no reason why they cannot coexist," said Drew Hicken of Wasatch Equality. "We feel that it is time for Alta to let go of outdated prejudices that perpetuate a skier-versus-snowboarder mentality and allow everyone, regardless of whether they are skiers or snowboarders, to share the mountain together."
http://wasatchequality.org/lawsuit.