Case Analysis A
It’s all Downhill from Here
History of Grundler Mountain Ski Resort
Grundler Mountain Ski Resort operates a popular skill hill in the Rocky Mountains. It was founded
in 1965 by Thomas Grundler and has grown to be the largest ski resort in Western Canada. Mr.
Grundler had a reputation for treating his employees well and his guests even better. The safety
of his guests was of the upmost importance to Mr. Grundler, and he spared no expense in
maintaining his Resort. Now well into his 80’s, Thomas Grundler had reluctantly handed the reins
of his prized resort to his daughter, Gretchin Grundler.
Although Gretchin was a brilliant businesswoman, she had little interest in running her family’s
Ski Resort. In her opinion, the Resort was a money pit. Her father had been overpaying the
employees for years, the price of lift tickets hadn’t been raised since the 1980’s and the small
yearly profits were always reinvested into the Resort. Gretchin decided she would focus on
making the Resort more profitable and began making extensive changes. She cut staff, slashed
wages, switched food suppliers, increased lift ticket prices by 110%, and hired Detweiler Industries
to take over lift maintenance, a company with a known history of poor work quality and multiple
lawsuits against it for negligence.
The impact of Gretchin’s changes was most apparent with the quality of the staff. The majority of
the senior, experienced staff were either fired or quit, due to the wage cuts. The new hourly wage
for mountain staff was 30% lower than surrounding ski hills. The result was a new cohort of
inexperienced employees, many of which were international and had never worked at a ski resort,
or even been on skis.
Ashley Spinelli
Although an accountant by trade, Ashley Spinelli had recently quit her job at a top tier firm to
pursue her dream of being a concert pianist. Although she had shown great promise in her youth,
even being called the next Arthur Rubinstein, Ashely chose to pursue a more stable career path
and enrolled in the accounting program at her local university. Ashley made a good living as an
accountant but if she could make it to the big stage, her earning capacity as a pianist would well
exceed her accountant’s salary. It had only been a few months, but Ashley was beginning to have
second thoughts about her career change. Retraining her fingers to play proved harder than she
imagined, and she no longer had contacts in the industry to pursue job opportunities. Feeling a
bit depressed, Ashley was thrilled to get the invitation to go skiing at Grundler Mountain with her
good friend, TJ.
The Incident
Ashley did not have high expectations for the day. She was a novice skier at best and had heard
Grundler Mountain really went down hill after Thomas Grundler passed the family business on to
his daughter.
After a few runs, Ashley was feeling great. She even made the decision that she would accompany
TJ into the “trick park” after lunch, a run with various jumps, slides and bars for those experienced
skiers and boarders seeking a thrill. TJ and Ashley stopped for lunch at the Alpine and each
ordered a beer. Beers soon turned into several shots, as Ashley thought she could use some
liquid courage for the trick park. Mikey, the bartender did one last shot with Ashley and TJ before
wishing them luck in the trick park. On the way up the chairlift, TJ and Ashley saw that several
Grundler Mountain employees were hard at work grooming the trick park and building a few new
jumps for the afternoon.
The trick park was well marked with an orange snow fence. A bright yellow sign guarded the
entrance, stating that all guests enter at their own risk, the Resort was not liable for any injury or
damages that guests may incur. Ashley recalled that there was a similar warning on the back of
her lift ticket and on the form, she signed to get her rented ski gear. TJ saw Ashley swaying
unsteadily on her skis before they entered the trick park and suggested that maybe they did too
many shots and should just go down the easy run. Ashley pushed passed TJ and proceeded to
go down into the park, successfully landing her first two jumps. When Ashley was approaching
the third, newly formed jump, she immediately noticed there was something off, but it was too late
to abandon the jump. Ashley’s right ski got caught on the upper lip of the jump causing her to be
thrown nearly 3 meters in the air, eventually landing entirely on her left hand.
The aftermath
Upon investigation, it was discovered that the Grundler Mountain staff responsible for the trick
park were not properly trained in making jumps and did not follow the proper protocol, including
testing the jumps before opening the park. In fact, the newly hired staff didn’t even know there
was a protocol. They had made the jump too steep and angled, it was likely any experienced skier
would have suffered the same fate as Ashley. Witnesses, including TJ did make statements that
an experienced skier would have known not to take the jump as it was clear by visual inspection
that the jump was not safe – a fact that Ashley did not know as it was her first time in the trick
park.
The damage to Ashley’s left hand was significant. Surgeons tried to reconstruct her hand, with
the end result being the amputation of her left pinky. Ashley was devastated. Her dreams of being
a concern pianist were over and she would have to return to work as an accountant.
Ashley would like to know if she has any recourse against Grundler Mountain Ski Resort for the
injuries she suffered.
