Court rules that snowboarders have no right to PUBLIC land.

[jberryhill]

5. I don't know much about Alta...

What people do off piste (the designated and groomed trail areas) is up to them. Skiing, snowboarding, and snowmobiling can all set off avalanches. Anything that disturbs top layers over a slippery bottom layer will.

When snowboarding started becoming popular, they were banned at a lot of ski areas. They can't turn as sharply or stop as fast, and affect the surface differently. One of the "rules of the road" is that you are responsible for avoiding collisions for whomever is downhill from you. It took some time for skiers to get used to anticipating the movements of snowboarders they were overtaking.

Another aspect of it is that snowboarding is more popular with younger folks than older folks, so some of it is generational friction. I'm a cranky old man myself, and remember being irritated when snowboarders showed up, but its really just a matter of getting used to how they move. But the perception it is "dangerous" to mix the two is more a matter of getting used to the different traffic patterns and the fact that, yes, kids are, um, enthusiastic.

But there's no shortage of people doing stupid stuff on either skis or snowboards.