Attractions
Ski California Safety Day
Lake Tahoe South Shore
South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150January 24
All Day Event
March 11 @ 4:28 am
Ski California’s eighth annual safety day returns on Saturday, January 24, 2026, with resorts in California and Nevada gearing up to offer a variety of safety-themed activities to educate guests about the importance of skiing and riding safely.
The theme of Ski California Safety Day will be centered around the first four points of NSAA’s Your Responsibility Code to educate guests about the importance of skiing and riding in control, how to avoid collisions with other people or objects, and their role in being resorts’ partner in safety.
Ski California will also make a new video produced by the nonprofit High Fives Foundation as part of their B.A.S.I.C.S. series central to its Safety Day education efforts. The video, sponsored by Ski California and the National Ski Areas Association in collaboration with the Snow Angel Foundation, features Travis Ganong and Amie Engerbretson and introduces the triangle of safety – speed, space, and self – in support of the “Ride Another Day” campaign. It will be available in the award-winning Ski California Mountain Safety Guide and on Ski California’s YouTube Channel.
“Your Responsibility Code was developed to give skiers and riders consistent information about how to recreate safely on the slopes and what their role in safety is,” said Mike Reitzell, Ski California president. “Our member resorts have planned a host of creative ways ahead of and on Safety Day to engage guests on these and other responsibilities.”
In addition to using their social media channels and hosting on-site activations throughout the month, resorts will continue to leverage the Mountain Safety Guide throughout the season to offer education to guests. Created as a tool to educate skiers and riders about staying safe and making good decisions on the slopes, the Mountain Safety Guide offers information relevant to winter sports enthusiasts of all experience and ability levels, including:
– What to know before you ski & ride
– Being safe on the slopes: staying in control, avoiding collisions, riding lifts, and more
– Snow safety, including deep snow and avalanche awareness
Readers of the guide will also learn all 10 of the responsibilities featured in the newly updated Your Responsibility Code and the Ski California member resorts’ commitment to safety.
Here’s what some Ski California member resorts are doing to support Safety Day this year:
Check back for updated 2026 activities
Heavenly Mountain Resort: Heavenly will host a voluntary challenge course for interested participants that focuses on codes 1-4 of Your Responsibility Code. The challenge course will be fenced off and present tasks such as avoiding obstacles and staying in control, proper spacing, stopping in appropriate locations, and restarting with alertness uphill. Participants will be playing for some Heavenly logo gear and may even get to skip a lift line!
Kirkwood Mountain Resort: From avalanche awareness training including avalanche dog demos, patrol meet and greet, warm-up stretches with Doc the Dog, on-mountain Responsibility Codes quizzes, and more, Kirkwood will provide guests with ample opportunities to learn and celebrate Ski California’s sixth annual Safety Day. The avalanche dog demos will take place by the ice rink at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., while the patrol meet and greet will be set up at the top of Chair 2 until 2 p.m. Guests can win awesome swag for participation and even a chance to help patrol conduct an end-of-day sweep and close down the mountain this season.
Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort: Watch the resort’s ski patrol team in a live demonstration as they show off the hard-working skills of their Avy dogs and their handlers. Sign-up to tour the mountain with one of Sierra’s Mountain Hosts to learn facts about Sierra-at-Tahoe and the NSAA Responsibility Code, or stop by the National Ski Patrol booth in the Plaza to learn more about hand-only CPR, “Stayin’ Alive” and Stop the Bleed. The resort will also share Mountain Safety Guide related trivia, Avy dog videos and other safety information on its social media channels leading up to Safety Day.
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