Teenage Skier Paralysed After Chairlift Fall Awarded $12.4m
8th September 2025
Last modified on September 11th, 2025
The 16-year old girl fell from a lift in Crested Butte in 2022. After a legal battle with Vail Resorts the state supreme court has ruled, with implications for resorts in Colorado and beyond.
Annie Miller, now 20 years old, was with her father getting on the Paradise chairlift in March 2022 when she was unable to get on it properly and was left dangling.
She and her father called for the lift to be stopped as she was in difficulty, but the lift continued and she fell 10m on to hard packed snow.
She shattered her C7 vertebrae and was left paralysed.
Her father, Michael Miller, took the lift to the top and skied down to his daughter.
Vail Resorts claimed that the resort’s liability waiver had absolved the mountain of duty of care and negligence.
A lower court upheld that position in 2023 concluding the purchase of her season pass included signing off on waivers of liability for the resort.
The Colorado Supreme Court has now found that the “district court erred in dismissing that claim” and that “Crested Butte may not absolve itself, by way of private release agreements of liability of statutory and regulatory duties.”
“It’s a good day,” Miller said after the judgment.
“I’m beyond grateful to the jury for holding Crested Butte responsible and I hope something good comes out of it.”
The jury assigned 25% of the fault for the incident to Miller and 75% of the fault to Vail Resorts, which owns Crested Butte Mountain Resort.
“We disagree with the decision and believe that it was inconsistent with Colorado law,” Vail Resorts told The Inertia in an email.
“Still, we recognize the personal toll this accident has taken on Ms. Miller and her family, and we wish her continued strength in her recovery.
“We remain committed to the highest safety standards in our operations.”
The judgement will be noted with special interest from ski resorts across Colorado where the court has jurisdiction and in other ski areas in North America.
The case may open up new avenues for skiers to sue ski operators, particularly over incidents involving lifts.
“For the longest time, ski areas have been so insulated from lawsuits,” said Annie Miller’s attorney, Brian Aleinikoff.
“At the end of the day the ‘inherent dangers’ and risks of skiing aren’t going to change.
If you are skiing and you hit a rock or a bare patch or some ice or you go over a cliff, that is on you.
“But I think how some of the ski lifts operate — that is really where this will have the biggest impact moving forward.”
PlanetSKI: Number 1 for digital ski news
Your digital platform for ski news, resort information, travel, equipment rental, sport, money saving deals and everything connected with snowsports – web site, social media & more.
