Eric Baltz, 59, collapsed on a black diamond run at Keystone Resort on January 7. Other skiers found him unresponsive on The Grizz, began CPR, and called for help. Ski patrol provided advanced life-saving measures before a Flight for Life helicopter rushed him to CommonSpirit St. Anthony Summit Hospital, where he died.
Summit County Coroner Amber Flenniken will determine the cause of death through an autopsy that typically takes four to six weeks. Baltz’s family now waits for answers that dozens of Colorado ski accident families already know they won’t fully receive. The reason has nothing to do with medical complexity and everything to do with a decision made in an agriculture committee room on April 15, 2021.
That afternoon, Colorado state senators killed legislation that would have required ski resorts to publish safety plans and report accidents and deaths. The vote was 4-1.
Baltz’s death marks the third catastrophic accident at Keystone in three weeks. On December 17, an 18-year-old University of Georgia freshman skiing over winter break suffered a traumatic brain injury after being found unconscious in ungroomed terrain. Nobody witnessed the accident. Ayden Slipsager may have been unconscious for 40 minutes. His family still doesn’t know what he hit. On December 29, Sandra Prokofi, a 39-year-old mother of six and experienced snowboarder, caught an edge on the Upper Frenchman run and fell face-first. The impact severed her spine at the C2, C3, and C4 vertebrae. She remains on life support, paralyzed from the neck down. Her son witnessed the accident.
Three major incidents at one resort within 21 days. No official report documents this pattern because Colorado ski resorts face no legal requirement to report accidents, injuries, or deaths.
Senate Bill 21-184, introduced March 18, 2021, proposed three straightforward requirements. Ski areas would publish safety plans detailing governance, management, and operational practices to prevent accidents. Resorts with 500 feet or more of elevation drop and at least one elevated lift would collect and disseminate seasonal accident and death data. They would maintain databases showing where and when accidents occurred, the conditions at the time, injury types, and whether death occurred on-site or after medical transport. Failure to comply would constitute grounds for discipline by the Passenger Tramway Safety Board.
Senators Jessie Danielson of Wheat Ridge and Tammy Story of Conifer co-sponsored the legislation. It was scheduled for a hearing before the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee on April 15, 2021.
Danilda Polanco testified that afternoon about her 18-year-old nephew, Etthan Mañon, who died skiing at Echo Mountain in December 2020. A ski patroller told her family he had a broken arm. The family never learned his actual cause of death. The resort refused to provide information.
“If this happens all the time, why hasn’t something been done?” Polanco asked the committee. “It’s because of a lack of transparency.”
Lynda Weston Taylor lost her 27-year-old son Jason when he struck a tree at Keystone in January 2016. “I urge you, Colorado, to do better,” she told lawmakers. “And to lead with safety.”
Greg Arnis, a former All-American collegiate skier and local ski coach, described his daughter’s paralysis in a ski accident. “There is no transparency,” he said. “I asked for some information and I got a small piece of paper with tons of misinformation. I love this sport. My kids still ski. My ex-wife still skis. But… I’m done.”
Dr. Dan Gregorie, whose daughter died at a California ski area 14 years earlier in what he called a preventable accident, pointed out an obvious contrast. “It is incomprehensible that Colorado law requires amusement parks to report injuries and accidents while there is no statistics on injuries at ski areas statewide,” said Gregorie, founder of the national SnowSport Safety Foundation.
More than 40 witnesses testified over three hours. Then the ski industry presented its case.
Pat Campbell, president of Vail Resorts’ 37-resort mountain division and a 35-year veteran of the resort industry, testified that requiring safety reports “is not workable” and would create “unnecessary burden, confusion and distraction.” Rana Dershowitz, co-chief operating officer at Aspen Skiing Company, argued the bill would force ski patrols “to turn their focus away from the complex interplay of what is happening on our mountains to ensure that they are collecting dozens of specific and potentially irrelevant data points.”
The industry hired 22 lobbyists to oppose the bill, according to Danielson. Colorado Ski Country USA, representing 22 member resorts, and Vail Resorts coordinated the opposition. Chris Linsmayer, spokesman for Colorado Ski Country, claimed the bill would “scare prospective skiers and do nothing to improve skier safety.”
Before the hearing, Danielson and Story attempted to negotiate with the ski industry about the bill’s provisions. “When we approached the ski areas to work on any of the details in the bill, they refused,” Danielson testified. “They refused to tell us what about this bill was unacceptable prior to today. It makes me wonder what it is that they are hiding. It seems to me that an industry that claims to have safety as a top priority would be interested in sharing the information about injuries on their mountains.”
The committee consisted of five members: three Democrats and two Republicans. Chair Kerry Donovan, a Democrat from Vail, had received maximum donations from Colorado Ski Country USA’s political action committee and Vail Resorts’ employee PAC, plus contributions from individual Vail Resorts employees, dating back to her first run for office in 2014. Republican Don Coram of Montrose had accepted donations from Colorado Ski Country USA. Republican Jerry Sonnenberg of Sterling had accepted donations from Colorado Ski Country USA. Democrat Rhonda Fields of Aurora had accepted donations from Colorado Ski Country USA.
Jessie Danielson of Wheat Ridge, the bill’s co-sponsor, was the only committee member who had not accepted large ski industry campaign contributions in the previous decade.
The vote came at approximately 5:52 PM. The motion to advance the bill to the full Senate failed 1-4. Danielson voted yes. Donovan, Fields, Sonnenberg, and Coram voted no.
A KUNC investigation later analyzed campaign finance records using a “power mapping” tool. Colorado lawmakers had collectively received $5.7 million in campaign contributions from groups actively lobbying against the bill, including the ski industry and realtors. Groups supporting the bill, primarily medical organizations, had contributed $307,000. The tool correctly predicted how each committee member would vote based solely on contribution patterns.
When asked about her opposition, Donovan said she had “concerns about the bill” and wasn’t “confident this bill is the pathway toward those goals.” She declined to suggest alternatives and did not respond to requests for follow-up interviews.
The contrast with other industries is stark. Colorado law requires amusement parks to report injuries and accidents. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center, a state agency, closely tracks backcountry avalanche deaths. The public has full access to this data, which is used for forecasts, trend analysis, and safety education. An average of 13 people die annually at Colorado ski areas—more than in backcountry avalanches. Yet systematic data collection exists only for the backcountry.
Health care, oil and gas production, mining, chemical production, public utilities, and consumer products all systematically collect and report safety data. Dr. Don Fisher, a physician, testified to the committee that data collection, reporting, and analysis “become routine and simplified over short periods of time” when industries adopt safety standards. “Senate Bill 184 is a good start to help make the Colorado ski industry a world leader in attracting skiers and riders,” Fisher said.
The industry’s position relies on emphasizing personal responsibility over transparency. The Ski Safety Act of 1979 anchors Colorado’s approach to ski safety on skiers assuming inherent risks. Resorts point to safety campaigns like “Ride Another Day,” which has spent 15 years sharing the story of 5-year-old Elise Johnson, killed by an out-of-control snowboarder at a Wyoming ski area on Christmas Eve 2010.
What the industry doesn’t share are the numbers behind those inherent risks. Data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment analyzed by Safe Slopes Colorado shows that during the 2018-19 ski season, ski accidents resulted in more than 8,000 emergency room visits and nearly 1,600 ambulance transports. That breaks down to 66 ER trips and 13 ambulance rides every single day during an average 120-day season. None of this is reported by resorts.
Colorado ski areas reported 13 deaths during the 2024-25 season, down from 15 in 2023-24 and 17 in 2022-23. But Colorado’s death rate remains approximately one per million skier visits—nearly double the national average of 0.58 deaths per million skier visits, which reached a 10-year low in 2023-24. At least 10 of Colorado’s 13 deaths occurred on intermediate or beginner runs.
Jordan Lipp, an attorney with the Colorado Civil Justice League who represents ski areas in injury lawsuits, testified that national statistics show beginner skiers suffer injuries more often than advanced skiers. Therefore, he argued, smaller ski areas that attract beginners “could be harmed by reporting numbers.”
The transparency problem extends beyond deaths. Families of accident victims consistently describe being denied basic information about circumstances and conditions. The only way journalists can access comprehensive ski death data is by filing Colorado Open Records Act requests to county coroners—a process that is expensive and time-consuming. The Summit Daily News built its database this way. The National Ski Areas Association compiles annual U.S. death statistics but releases them without names, locations, or specific details.
California passed similar transparency legislation twice, in 2010 and 2011. Then-governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown vetoed both bills. Schwarzenegger stated the proposed law “may place an unnecessary burden on resorts.”
The legal landscape shifted slightly in May 2024 when the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that standard resort waivers cannot shield operators from all negligence claims, especially when they breach specific requirements in the Ski Safety Act or Tramway Safety Act. The decision allowed a lawsuit by an incapacitated girl to proceed despite a signed waiver. In December 2024, a wrongful death suit was filed against Vail Resorts after John Perucco allegedly fell 25 feet from Breckenridge’s Zendo chairlift. The suit claims the resort failed to notify proper authorities within two hours, as required by law.
Five years have passed since SB21-184 died in committee. No similar legislation has been introduced. The Colorado legislative session begins January 14, 2026. Eric Baltz’s family awaits autopsy results that will arrive in four to six weeks. Ayden Slipsager undergoes rehabilitation in Atlanta. Sandra Prokofi remains on life support. Three families join the ranks of those denied comprehensive answers about accidents that might have been prevented if systematic reporting had revealed dangerous patterns.
The industry’s $5 billion annual economic impact in Colorado makes it a powerful lobby. The question Danielson asked in 2021 remains unanswered: What is it that they are hiding?
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