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Catch up on breaking news and quick updates from around the state.

Jackson Hole cuts vertical feet leaderboard

A pair of screen captures from a cell phone shows, on the left, JH Insider leaderboard, and on the right, directions for how to participate in a group challenge.
Screenshots of the JH Insider leaderboard portals on Jan. 5.

This story is part of our Quick Hits series. This series will bring you breaking news and short updates from throughout the state.

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (JHMR) has announced it will no longer feature leaderboards of who has skied the most vertical feet on its slopes.

As of Jan. 5, leaderboards with day, week, month and season vertical ski metrics were still accessible on the JH Insider app. JHMR President Mary Kate Buckley wrote in a Jan. 2 blog post that the mountain would be removing the leaderboard.

Buckley wrote the vertical feet leaderboard was “deemed to potentially promote fast skiing.”

That move was welcomed by Laurie Thal, a Wilson glassblower who first asked the resort to remove the feature last summer.

Thal was motivated by the death of a friend, Peter Wuerslin, a ski instructor who was struck and killed by a skier at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort last year.

“It's horrible that it took the death of Peter to create these changes,” Thal said. “But if making some of these changes will save one other child or one other person, I am grateful to make any contribution to that.”

The resort has seen an increase in “enforcement actions” this year compared to the last, Buckley’s letter stated.

Though the resort does not share the number or identities of passholders whose passes are pulled “due to privacy concerns,” Buckley’s letter did have some data. Ski patrol issued 24 pass suspensions in one day this season for violating closure signs.

The ratio of reported collisions to skier visits aligns with the industry average, according to Buckley’s letter.

“But we are not striving for the average,” Buckley wrote. “Our goal is to have the most robust culture of safety in the industry.”

Dante Filpula Ankney comes to KHOL as a lifelong resident of the Mountain West. He made his home on the plains of Eastern Montana before moving to the Western Montana peaks to study journalism and wilderness studies. Dante has found success producing award-winning print, audio and video stories for a variety of publications, including a stint as a host at Montana Public Radio. Most recently, he spent a year teaching English in Bulgaria through a Fulbright Fellowship. When he isn’t reporting, you can find Dante outside scaling rocks, sliding across snow or winning a game of cribbage.

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