Maybe I'm being a bit misunderstood because this is coming out in text and things get left out.
First off, I'm not talking about our land being taken away, that is total bs.
So you guys think it's perfectly ok for someone to have a sled delivered to them on the hill with no training or equipment? What happens when they kill someone or themselves? I don't see that doing much positive for sleds in Colorado.... You can't stop the dummys who own, etc, from mucking things up but there can be control over who gets to freely rent extreme equipment without any experience or equipment.
And you can't just say no to some people and yes to others, that's why my thought is ban all unguided rentals like this. On that note, I think sleds are horribly mistreated and misunderstood and we are not given the same luxury as other sports and having an across the board acceptance or denial of use.
You have to have rules somewhere and from a safety stand point, the only way I see it being fair for all is unguided extreme sports to be banned.
I would love it if we were allowed to ride wherever we wanted, but you will have renters or dummys who will mess it up for the rest of it.
So where I'm going with this is trying to regulate things to in a fashion that will benefit the people who are into this sport for more then a quick orgasm.
Hopefully that's a little bit clearer on my stand point, flame away if you guys want. But I'm not the one to be getting mad at.
Your perception that it is "n00bs", "tourists", or "renters" who are "messing it up for us" is utterly utterly utterly utterly wrong.
The simple fact is, the ones who are "messing it up for us" are the anti-OHV crowd. They're using ANYTHING and EVERYTHING as an excuse to take to the government about why OHVs should be banned, limited, whatever.
This is a PRIME example of that.
The percentage of 'renters' who are killing people, hurting themselves, hurting others, etc is absolutely positively a false perception. Do you have any
factual data to back up the claim that inexperienced riders are causing accidents, harm, etc? I'm not claiming I've never read a headline that claimed an inexperienced rider was at fault, stranded, etc .... but I'll be damned if I haven't read just as many that stated 'experienced' riders had as well.
What the anti-OHV crowd is doing is using the "We'z iz localz we gitz all this!" mentality that unfortunately a lot of sledders have to their advantage. They are portraying this as tourists screwing up the forests, and its an easy target for them because people will buy it hook line and sinker. This thread is unfortunately a painful reminder of that.
Bottom line is, VP is a prime tourist spot. It gets a lot of skiier traffic. Skiiers hate the OHV group, so they're going to spin this any way they possibly can.
What you guys are proposing with 'regulation' and limiting renters/sledders/whatever is EXACTLY what they want because the end result is it will be a clone of the policy they've enacted in Yellowstone that the super-rich elite liberal left wing landowners around there essentially bought for themselves.
Don't be tricked.
