Skiing is a dangerous practice. Certain rules are therefore put in place to organize the cohabitation of slope users. Do you risk a fine if you don’t respect them?
It’s high season in the mountains. Despite the lack of snow, skiers are delighted to find the slopes and the winter atmosphere. That said, going on vacation to the mountains, especially if you want to ski, represents a significant budget. Between renting accommodation, ski equipment or even packages, your wallet takes a hit. You would no longer be missing a fine on the slopes during your stay.
This, in fact, happened to Belgian skiers last January. Skiing at high speed in the Livigno area in Italy, four Belgian friends were fined for speeding according to Huffpost. They would have been flashed at 85km/h on a black track. Once they arrived at the bottom of the track, they were arrested. The skiers received a ticket in their mailbox when they returned home. It included a fine of 50 euros. The station then explained that “there were speed limits, but no official rules.” If you want to ski in Italy, you have to be careful about speed.
Is this valid in France? Obviously, you must always pay attention to your speed for safety reasons. But what does the law say? Since 1972, the resorts have issued a charter of 10 commandments for skiers. It includes respect for others: users of the slopes must act in such a way as not to put others in danger and skiers upstream must pay particular attention to those who are downstream. Control of speed, behavior and direction is also very important: each skier must adjust their speed and behavior according to their skills, the weather, the snow condition and the level of traffic on the ski slopes. tracks.
For overtaking, the charter specifies that this can be done from the right as well as from the left but above all must be done with enough margin to take no risk. Stops must be made with caution, rather on the edges of the tracks, and especially not in narrow passages or with reduced visibility. There is therefore no maximum speed limit in France. These are more about principles for organizing cohabitation on the slopes and for making skiers responsible rather than penalizing them.
However, a few other fines specific to ski resorts exist. They concern ski pass fraud or violations of infrastructure such as ski lifts. Speed ??can be called into question when there is an accident or collision. You must therefore always be very vigilant. According to the National Mountain Safety Observatory System, the French ski area records 50,000 injuries and 15 deaths per year on average.
