DENVER — A teenager who was hit by another skier at Beaver Creek on Sunday is speaking out in an attempt to find the person who hurt him.
Moses Marquez suffered a broken clavicle and spent Sunday night in the hospital after the crash. He says he was blindsided.
"I was just skiing, like your regular day, and the guy just came out of nowhere," said Moses Marquez. "I didn't have time to move because he was going so fast, so then I kind of just braced myself for what was gonna happen."
After the incident, the skier fled the incident.
"The ski patrol was great ... their first motive was to take care of Moses and make sure he was okay," said Rachel Hanna, Moses's mother. "They did say that a lot of times when these sort of things happen, unfortunately, it's very hard to find the person. So that's why we've reached out to the sheriff's department hoping that they can help us too."
The Eagle County Sheriff's Office has put out an alert for the skier who injured Moses. They describe the suspect as a white man in his 60s. At the time of the incident, he was wearing black pants, a black or gray jacket and an aged black helmet. They say he also had on goggles with a red strap and purple lenses.
Hanna says Beaver Creek was not a safe environment Sunday. She says the slopes were crowded with people.
"It doesn't feel safe right now. There's way too many people on the runs compared to previous years," Hanna said. "I have lived here all my life, and it seems like it's definitely to a max capacity, and it doesn't seem like there's enough patrol for as many people are skiing out there."
Vail Resorts, which owns Beaver Creek, sold 2.1 million passes for the 2021-2022 season, a 76% increase from the previous year.
"More people coming up to more people coming down at the same time, and it is congested and overcrowded," said Joseph Bloch, a founding partner at Bloch & Chapleau Law Firm, which deals with ski injuries. "We know data. Skiing is a dangerous sport. You know, let's face it, but it could be a lot safer if they implemented certain policies."
Some of the policies that Bloch believes would be helpful in reducing injuries on the slopes include implementing cameras across the slopes, hiring more safety personnel and requiring the publicity of injuries on the slopes.
"There's an astounding amount of people that are really badly injured that no one's where it occurs. Vail knows exactly where it's occurring. They know what time of the day it's occurring," said Bloch. "People should be aware of the risks of skiing."
Denver7 reached out to Vail Resorts for comment but did not hear back.
