Legal & liability review

Our ethos of shared responsibility, teamwork and participative leadership is an essential part of our club. Being involved in decisions and learning through shared responsibility is an essential part of becoming safe, confident and independent ski tourers and ski mountaineers. Having a club programme that includes trips led by voluntary leaders, as well as trips by professional guides and instructors, is an essential part of achieving this.

The legal review

Whilst we are a UK-based club, most of our ski touring activity takes place outside of the UK in the Alps, Scandinavia and further afield. As a club, we need to be aware of and follow the legal framework in the countries we visit and ensure that “how we do things” is up-to-date and appropriate.

To help do this, we asked a French legal firm to provide a factual account of the law and how it operates in the event of a mountain accident in France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Norway. The lead lawyer who carried out the review is also a practicing mountain guide, so this is not an abstract legal opinion. It is grounded in an understanding of how decisions are made “on the mountain”.

A copy of the report is attached (see below). The report provides a summary of how the law works, including from recent case law, in the main countries that we go ski touring in. 

Case law continues to evolve, and recent convictions across Europe have involved factors such as poor avalanche route choices, inadequate participant assessment, ignoring warning signs and cumulative minor oversights. However, the core legal principle remains the same: liability turns on negligence, and the best defence is always to act as a safe, competent and sensible ski tourer and in a way that is consistent with common mountain practice. 

Managing the risk

We should think about legal risk the same way as any other risk we encounter in the mountains. Risk is always present and by acting sensibly we can do a lot to protect ourselves and keep the risk to an acceptable level. But we are are never going to be able to remove the risk completely.

A perspective which might be helpful is a comparison with driving a car. That is an everyday activity but it is one which has potentially lethal consequences (hurtling around in a big bit of metal). As a result, there are lots of laws which potentially apply: you can be prosecuted for drink driving, careless driving, dangerous driving, using your phone, speeding, etc. But that doesn't stop people from driving, and it doesn't mean we have to worry about the law every time we get behind the wheel. If we drive abroad, we must follow the laws that apply in the country that we're driving in. The best way of avoiding getting prosecuted is to be a good driver and act sensibly.

The same approach is true when we go ski touring and ski mountaineering.

What is the club doing?

We need to ensure that club practice and the legal requirements in the countries we visit do not fall out of step. This means that how we do things in the club must continue to evolve and keep pace. We don't need to reinvent how we do things, but we do need to make sure that what we do is properly evidenced and consistently applied. 

More information will be provided in the future.