Ski Sentinel wins Rep. Chris Stewart’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Utah’s Second District

When asked what inspired the creation of Ski Sentinel, the student said, “I was lucky to start skiing at a young age – 8, yet quite unlucky in my third experience on the slopes. Being utterly flabbergasted by the seemingly pattern-less expanse of blinding white and towering pines – not to mention a sudden snowstorm transpiring to erase my existence at the same time, I took a wrong turn and ended up on one of the most difficult trails in the entire ski resort. In the end, I had to be carried off the mountain like a teddy bear by ski patrol. Even after all these years, when I am exponentially better at skiing (and taking turns) my face turns a red akin to one of the stripes on our beautiful flag when I see a lost novice bumbling around on the mountain – taking me back to that dark, stormy night of my youth. 

This was not the last time uninformed skiing harmed my family. On another trip with my father on a foggy evening, I lost contact with him in the middle of a run. Only until minutes later did I realize that he had crashed into the stump of a tree, broke his leg and was unable to move. If I was not with him, he would have been unable to reach ski patrol and could have suffered far longer than the 4 months he spent in bed after this incident.

Unsafe and uninformed skiing not only is a danger to skiers – it also can damage the livelihoods of the community sustaining this sport. Skiers, uninformed on the location of amenities like restrooms end up ‘doing their business’ throughout the mountain, trickling down (for the lack of a better metaphor) this discharge into our drinking systems and into our homes. Pretty nasty – even for an unkempt teenage boy like me.

Uninformed skiing is unsafe and unhealthy for anyone unlucky enough to get caught in its tentacles. Besides, what is the point of skiing if you are so worried about getting lost or thumped with a tree trunk that it is not even fun anymore? Preserving this status quo is an affront to Utah’s spirit – a home of the greatest snow on earth. With this project, I proudly fulfill my citizen’s duty to protect Utah’s skiers, Utah’s mountainside community/economy and the sport of skiing – a salute to that lost 8-year-old stuck on the mountain.”