Authoritative frameworks, published standards, and institutional guidance for resort executives, risk officers, and legal counsel managing ski patrol liability exposure.
The ski industry's largest liability exposure is not slope design, not equipment failure, and not weather. It is the quality — and the documented quality — of patrol operations on the day a guest is injured.
Insurance markets can transfer known, quantifiable risk. They cannot transfer the jury's assessment of whether your patrol acted with reasonable care. That determination is made against whatever standard of care your industry has established.
The Patrol Framework exists to build, publish, and disseminate that standard — giving resort counsel and risk officers the documentary foundation to mount a defensible position.
The Liability Gap
Guest injury litigation represents the risk category least amenable to insurance transfer and most directly influenced by operational patrol decisions made in the field.
The Standard of Care Problem
Without published, authoritative industry standards, opposing counsel defines the standard of care at trial. Resorts that cannot point to an established framework are left defending the void.
The Framework Solution
Published standards, investigation protocols, and documented training requirements establish an objective benchmark that courts, adjusters, and plaintiffs' counsel must reckon with.
The resort that can demonstrate its patrol operated in accordance with published professional standards occupies a fundamentally different litigation position than the resort that cannot.
— David Moore, ARM · The Patrol Framework
Structured review of patrol operations against published standards of care. Gap analysis, remediation recommendations, and documentation strategies for resort risk officers and general counsel.
Authoritative reference document on ski patrol liability, standard of care precedent, and incident investigation requirements — produced in partnership with the Association of Professional Patrollers.
Published investigation protocols and litigation-ready output templates for patrol supervisors. Methodology designed to withstand discovery and produce defensible evidentiary documentation.
Strategic advisory for resort leadership preparing for regulatory engagement, insurance negotiations, or industry forum presentations where patrol competency standards are at issue.
Document review, operational audit, and analysis services for resort counsel engaged in active litigation or anticipating patrol-related claims. Provided under appropriate privilege arrangements.
Curriculum development aligned to published APP credentialing standards. Implementation guides for patrol managers transitioning to High Reliability Organization frameworks.
Published documents are distributed without charge to qualifying resort personnel, risk officers, and legal counsel. Contact us to request access.
David Moore brings an uncommon perspective to ski patrol risk management: a career as an active professional patroller running parallel to a senior executive career in insurance risk. As Senior Vice President of Risk at a major insurance carrier and a credentialed Associate in Risk Management, he understands ski resort liability not just as an operational reality on the slope, but as an exposure that insurance markets must ultimately price, reserve for, and defend.
That combination — two decades of field patrol experience in California's most actively litigated resort market, alongside executive-level fluency in how carriers assess and transfer risk — is the foundation of The Patrol Framework. The standards and frameworks published here are written by someone who has stood on both sides of the exposure.
As the longest-serving board member of the Association of Professional Patrollers, David has served as President and currently holds the position of Vice President. He has been the primary architect of APP's strategic direction through its most consequential period of institutional development.
ARM — Associate in Risk Management (The Institutes)
Inquiries from resort executives, risk officers, legal counsel, and institutional partners are welcome. We respond to all substantive requests within one business day.
To request access to published documents, arrange a consulting engagement, or discuss institutional partnership with the Association of Professional Patrollers, use the form or contact us directly.