A worker stands on the precipice of Snow King Mountain Resort’s 2,820-foot zip line, which opened in May. Since then, some riders have gotten stuck and a woman lacerated her arm after failing to brake and colliding with the metal plate at the end of the line.
Terra Nova’s ZipTour technology requires riders to control their own speed, which has led to problems at Snow King Mountain Resort.
A worker stands on the precipice of Snow King Mountain Resort’s 2,820-foot zip line, which opened in May. Since then, some riders have gotten stuck and a woman lacerated her arm after failing to brake and colliding with the metal plate at the end of the line.
After a July 16 accident on its 2,820-foot zip line, Snow King Mountain Resort closed the line for a week to reassess its safety.
According to resort manager Ryan Stanley, a woman was riding the zip line Saturday, July 16, and failed to engage the brake on her trolley. When she smashed into the brake plate at the base — likely after reaching speeds close to 60 mph — the force of the impact swung her up into the metal stopper, which sliced open her arm.
An employee who witnessed the incident said the woman was treated by Snow King’s on-site EMT and transferred to St. John’s Health, where she received stitches. Stanley was unable to identify the woman.
“It was definitely an unfortunate incident, and we’re going to try and prevent it from ever happening again,” he said.
On that same Saturday, another individual fell out of Snow King’s Cowboy Coaster and had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Stanley declined to comment further on that accident. Lt. Russ Ruschill with the Jackson Police Department said officers responded to three medical assists within a one-block radius that day.
The resort promptly shut down its zip line and spent a week working with the ZipTour manufacturer, Terra Nova, to make adjustments. Participants now zoom down the steepest zip line in the country on a slightly slower trolley, and the metal stopper, where the woman sliced her arm, now has some foam padding.
The primary mechanics of the ZipTour still remain though: “It is a user controlled experience,” Stanley said.
To travel down the line, riders must pull down on a bar, releasing the brake. To slow down and come to a stop, riders ease up on the bar.
Some of the first riders got stuck during the zip line’s soft launch in May. In response the resort changed out the brake pads on its trolleys for a faster model.
“They had the most grippiest, safest type on there,” Stanley told the News&Guide at the time. “So it seems like there’s a need to potentially dial it back a little bit.”
Asked in that interview if he was concerned putting faster brake pads on one of ZipTour’s steepest runs, Stanley said, “No, I don’t think so at all.”
This past week he clarified that most changes are “dictated and directed” directly by Terra Nova.
Now that they’re back to a slower model, people might get stuck “a little more frequently,” Stanley said, “but that’s a better outcome.”
Terra Nova, a Utah based company with 30 installations worldwide, could not be reached for comment.
Snow King has since reopened its zip line. Riders start by watching a new safety video that shows the mountain they are about to experience. The previous video was filmed at another ZipTour location.
The video is only the start of a series of safety briefings, which have expanded since the resort’s soft opening.
“The process takes a couple hours because they go through so much training, now, at every location,” Stanley said.
Tickets cost $125 for the two-pronged ZipTour.
Next summer Snow King hopes to build a practice station at the base where people can test out the harness and make sure they have the strength required to pull down on the bar.
Signs posted at the start of the ride warn clients that “the ZipTour requires a moderate to high degree of physical strength and stamina.” The rides are not recommended for people with a history of back, neck or bone injuries, recent surgery or “any other current physical or mental illness.”
The zip line operator who witnessed the July 16 incident said the woman admitted before the ride that she had a recent shoulder injury but said she still felt up to the task. That could have been the reason she didn’t brake before arriving at the platform.
Snow King operates on the Bridger-Teton National Forest and is required to report accidents over a certain threshold to the U.S. Forest Service. The Forest Service requires reporting for incidents “resulting in death, permanent disability, or personal injuries that are life-threatening or that are likely to cause permanent disability.”
Stanley said the resort has not reported either the zip line laceration or the coaster tumble.
Two days before those accidents, a family visiting from Louisville, Kentucky, had a close call on the same lines. Anthony Concepcion was zip-lining Snow King’s second stretch with his 18-year-old daughter on July 14 when, he said, an employee left the handle on her trolley twisted, preventing her from fully engaging the brake.
As a result, she slammed into the brake plate at the bottom, her legs swinging level with her head. She wasn’t tossed up into the line or the trolley, Concepcion said in an email to the News&Guide.
“This is something that the rider isn’t responsible for; it’s the responsibility of the worker to ensure the ropes are in the proper positions before sending the rider,” the Louisville man said.
During the same visit, Concepcion said, he witnessed a rider in her 60s get stuck on Snow King’s larger line. That rider had to be rescued by rope, a maneuver she hadn’t been trained for.
Terra Nova’s ZipTour technology requires riders to control their own speed, which has led to problems at Snow King Mountain Resort.
“There appeared [to be] no standard forms of communication to the stranded zipper as to what to do and what not to do as she attempted to attach the recovery rope to her harness,” Concepcion wrote in a TripAdvisor review the same day as the experience. “I watched as she misunderstood the instructions and the guides struggled to clearly communicate the required steps for her to take.”
Concepcion also wrote: “These types of simple errors shouldn’t be happening in an operation like this.”
Stanley responded to the TripAdvisor comment, writing, “We have shared your thoughts with the team in order to improve the operation and customer service. Our goal is to achieve great customer service and we will strive to improve.”
In a follow-up email to the News&Guide, Concepcion said the lack of up-front communication “can cause a stuck rider a lot more anxiety when they don’t know what to expect. The lack of clarity can also lead to a stuck rider doing something with their equipment that could put their safety at risk.
“I think they also need to consider some sort of screening process for riders that seeks to identify those who might struggle with the physical expectations of pulling down on the trolley.”
In January, a person riding a tube was injured at Snow King after sliding over the end of the ramp, through a thin sheet of protective netting, and onto the frozen ice chunks below. Stanley had a similar message at the time: “It’s a patron-controlled experience,” he said. “All you do is put your feet down and slow yourself down.”
In 2017 a visitor from Columbus, Ohio, wrote in a TripAdvisor review that her husband flipped his cart on the Alpine Slide, “crashing into the concrete slide and ripping off chunks of skin on his hand, elbow and knee.”
Snow King’s marketing department apologized in a follow-up comment, writing: “We do our best to warn people of the risks associated and that they are in control of their speed on the slide via signage, audio recordings at the top, and the attendant. We will use your comments to ensure that our staff does an even better job of informing guests of the risks associated with the activity and helping out in the event of a fall.”
In 2018, Snow King was sued for negligence after a teenager was allegedly “severely and permanently injured” in a pond skim accident. The lawsuit was filed shortly before Wyoming’s Skier Safety Act — a law designed to protect ski areas from lawsuits — went into effect.
Now, in Wyoming and other states with similar laws, skiers assume responsibility for their sport. Tubing falls under the same provision.
A 2017 article in Outside magazine found that commercial zip lines are mostly regulated by state agencies responsible for oversight of roller coasters or elevators.
“In most places, including Illinois and Georgia, the state labor department oversees zip lines. In Florida, the task falls to the Department of Agriculture. In Connecticut and Maine, it’s the state fire marshal. And in states like Arizona or Virginia that lack state oversight, zip lines may be subject only to city or county regulations.”
In Shenandoah County, Virginia, the article states, building inspectors are responsible for vetting zip-line platforms.
Wyoming does not have an agency responsible for regulating amusement park rides, according to SafePark USA.
It has one law on the books for carnivals and circuses, requiring vendors to carry a license and $500,000 insurance coverage. That law allows county and local government to inspect rides but does not require it.
Because Snow King Mountain Resort operates on Forest Service land, it is subject to greater oversight. The Forest Service considered safety when it conducted an environmental impact assessment for the resort’s expansion, concluding that zip lines were ultimately safer than Snow King’s primary use, skiing.
“Zip lines are increasingly common and popular features at permitted resorts and, while there have been injuries and even deaths, they have been extremely infrequent and far fewer than those resulting from skiing,” the Bridger-Teton’s study stated. “In-depth analysis is not necessary to determine that this issue does not constitute a significant safety risk.”
In its review, the Bridger-Teton also wrote that zip lines require post construction testing and approvals from the Forest Service.
Contact Evan Robinson-Johnson at 732-5901 or ERJ@jhnewsandguide.com.
Evan Robinson-Johnson covers issues residents face on a daily basis, from smoky skies to housing insecurity. Originally from New England, he has settled in east Jackson and avoids crowds by rollerblading through the alleyways.
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