To be honest, don’t think we’ve ever covered the Supreme Court. Not enough snow. After some crazy legal action in Oregon though, lawmakers may be seriously threatening the future of our favorite summer retreat…and the neighboring resorts as we know them. Figured that alone warranted some pseudo-journalism from us.
As it stands, every time you enter the park—or any hill for that matter—a waiver is baked into the ticket (or season pass) that prevents riders from suing in case of “ordinary negligence.” Think catching an edge, hitting another rider, or any similar accident where the operator is not clearly at fault. These “terms and conditions” aren’t unique to snowboarding and allow many similar high-risk environments to operate without the threat of business-ending lawsuits. As crazy as lift ticket prices already are, without this legal buffer, resorts would have no choice but to charge way more, pricing almost everyone out entirely.
However, after a landmark court ruling in Oregon, the current liability structure might be facing some serious reform. It all traces back to one incident in particular: Bagley vs. Mount Bachelor.
In 2006, 18-year-old Myles Bagley hit a jump at Bachelor’s terrain park, misjudged the landing and suffered a severe spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down. He then argued that the jump was designed improperly and sued.
Here is where it gets tricky. In purchasing his ticket, Bagley had signed a waiver that presumably keeps the liability on him, however the years-long legal battle that ensued argued differently. Eventually, the case went all the way up to the Oregon Supreme Court, who sided with Bagley and deemed Mount Bachelor’s liability waiver unenforceable—adding “waivers are unconscionable.”
Without getting too lost in the legal jargon, the court argued that the waiver disincentivized safety and violated the public interest. Though well intentioned, this decision had far-reaching effects that continue to threaten resorts across the country.
With waivers now deemed unenforceable, riders across the state of Oregon began suing more frequently, and winning. Damages climbed into the tens of millions, and insurance companies began to view Oregon as a problem state for their business. In 2018, two $15 million wrongful death suits followed, and a nearly $50 million claim arose after a child’s 2021 death from sliding into rocks on an icy run. By early 2025, fewer insurance firms were willing to even consider underwriting ski resorts in Oregon, and the state's entire outdoor recreation industry was at risk of folding.
So, despite the original watershed case taking place over a decade ago, many of the repercussions seem to be coming to a head now. In June 2025, Safehold Special Risk (a major ski industry insurer that covers Mount Hood Meadows, Timberline, and Cooper Spur) announced it was pulling out of the state of Oregon entirely. They claimed Oregon had become unworkable—accruing half their payouts despite accounting for a mere fraction of their clients.
This left only one insurer willing to provide coverage: MountainGuard. A legacy provider with national reach, MountainGuard continued to serve the state, but nervously, making it clear that a single verdict could force their hand to pull out…which would effectively shut down every Oregon resort.
This single verdict was Senate Bill 1196, a bill which proposed a familiar framework, allowing riders to sue in the case of gross or reckless misconduct while maintaining liability for ordinary negligence. Lawmakers in favor argued that this is already in place across most other Western states, and would essentially prevent the collapse of many outdoor recreation businesses.
Despite what seemed like support for the bill from Oregon lawmakers, the bill succumbed to pressure from trial lawyers who lobbied against it, and was never even brought to the floor. This essentially killed the bill, leaving the original ruling from Bagley vs. Mount Bachelor intact and the future of Oregon resorts precarious.
In the words of John Burton of Timberline Lodge, “To be candid the outlook for Timberline has become very challenging. It’s difficult to forecast exact impacts without knowing what, if any, insurance options might be available-- but we are preparing for the possibility of hard choices.”
For some more boots-on-the-ground investigative journalism, we took to Reddit to see what people have to say on the matter over in r/Oregon. While some blame the resorts for creating unsafe environments or for lackluster responses to tragedy, most seem to agree that the sport we love so dearly comes with obvious risks. User RaveDamsey69 even called many of the lawsuits in question “frivolous.”
We’ll leave the moral judgement up to you, but in the meantime, if any of you happen to be passing by a courthouse in Oregon any time soon, maybe have a word with some lawmen. And as always, don’t take any turns for granted.
