A fall from a lift in Crested Butte, leads to a 21m loss for Vail even with the ski safety act (first ever). Is the lawsuit actually a win for Vail resorts (even though they lost money)? Why is this case so monumental? What does this case mean for Colorado ski real estate? Should you only buy Colorado ski real estate in a town associated with Vail or Alterra?
What was in the lawsuit against Vail Resorts in Crested Butte?
Miller was 16 when she fell 30 feet from a four-seat, high-speed chairlift at Crested Butte on March 16, 2022. Miller boarded the Paradise Express lift with her father, but couldn’t get properly seated, and grabbed the chairlift to keep from falling.
Her father and others began to yell for the lift to be stopped as she was dragged forward, but the lift continued with Miller hanging from the chair and her father trying to pull her back to safety.
Eventually, Miller fell and landed on her back. Even then, the lift did not stop, and her father, Michael Miller, was forced to ride to the top and ski down to his daughter, who suffered severe injuries and was paralyzed after the fall.
Michael Miller brought a negligence lawsuit against Crested Butte, arguing that the resort employees should have stopped the lift before his daughter fell.
Why was this lawsuit against Vail so earth shattering in Colorado?
The ski safety act has basically eliminated almost all lawsuits for ski resorts over the last 40 years or so. That all changed with this verdict. “For the longest time, ski areas have been so insulated from lawsuits,” he said. “…At the end of the day the ‘inherent dangers’ and risks of skiing aren’t going to change. If you are skiing and you hit a rock or a bare patch or some ice or you go over a cliff, that is on you. But I think how some of the ski lifts operate — that is really where this will have the biggest impact moving forward.”
Jurors on Friday awarded the family $5.3 million in non-economic damages, $10.5 million in economic damages and $5.3 million in damages for physical impairment and disfigurement, according to an order from 17th Judicial District Court Judge Jeffrey Smith.
What will Colorado resort operators do because of the lawsuit?
The Crested Butte lawsuit could open the floodgate to liability at resorts across Colorado. Due to the open door of lawsuits on chairlifts, you will see the bigger operators like Vail or Alterra shift more resources to Gondolas to try and eliminate the liability like we see in the Crested Butte case.
Alterra and Vail will be huge beneficiaries from the lawsuit
It is ironic that a lawsuit where Vail clearly lost could turn into a big win for both Vail and Alterra, the two largest ski operators in the world. In essence the lawsuit is going to cause a shift in the dynamics of skiing due to the new liability of lifts. This will ultimately lead to more implementation of gondolas which cost more to buy, install, and maintain. A small resort will not have the money or the resources, which means the larger players like Vail or Alterra will thrive due to the capital they have. The smaller resorts will face increased pressure on profit margins from lawsuits due to chairlifts which ultimately could bankrupt many smaller resorts.
Colorado Ski towns associated with Vail or Alterra will outperform
I’ve said this many times that the elite ski areas like Aspen, Telluride, and Jackson Hole along with resorts owned by Vail Resorts or Alterra will outperform other areas. The ski business is getting more expensive by the day whether that is increased snowmaking, salaries, and now increased liability from operating standard chair lifts. Onley the biggest and most well capitalized operators will be able to survive this paradigm shift.
This is why investing in real estate at a Vail or Alterra resort or one of the 3 elite resorts will outperform many other ski investments over a long horizon.
Vail resorts lawsuit loss is actually a win for Vail and Alterra
This ruling in Crested Butte will open the floodgates to lawsuits against ski resorts throughout Colorado. The crazy irony is that the loss of the chair lift lawsuit will ultimately benefit large ski operators like Vail or Alterra as smaller resorts do not have the capital to avoid future liability by upgrading to gondolas. This will ultimately lead to the failure/consolidation of many smaller resorts. A good example is Eldora that is being purchased by the city of Nederland, there is no way they will have the capital to remove/replace all of their chairlifts with gondolas which means they will have increased liability and ultimately huge losses from lawsuits. This lawsuit will further consolidate the ski industry with the winners being the most well capitalized like Vail and Alterra.
Additional Reading/Resources:
https://www.denverpost.com/2025/09/03/crested-butte-chairlift-lawsuit/
https://coloradohardmoney.com/does-breckenridge-need-more-tourists/
https://coloradohardmoney.com/nederland-buying-eldora-ski-resort-impact-on-real-estate/
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Glen Weinberg personally writes these weekly real estate blogs based on his real estate experience as a lender and property owner. He is the owner of Fairview Commercial Lending. Glen has been published as an expert in hard money lending, real estate valuation, financing, and various other real estate topics in Bloomberg, Businessweek ,the Colorado Real Estate Journal, National Association of Realtors Magazine, The Real Deal real estate news, the CO Biz Magazine, The Denver Post, The Scotsman mortgage broker guide, Mortgage Professional America and various other national publications.
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