Family of Jason Varnish Reaches Confidential Settlement With Vail Resorts After Chairlift Death

On the morning of February 13, 2020, Jason Varnish, 46, was boarding a chairlift at Blue Sky Basin in Vail, Colorado, when the chair came around with its seat raised against the backrest. A rubber bumper on the chair frame caught his jacket. As the lift moved out of the loading terminal, Varnish was lifted off his feet and left suspended roughly ten feet above the ground.

He hung there for more than eight minutes. Ski patrol and lift operators were present, but the resort's rescue response was not fast enough. By the time Varnish was brought down, he had suffered fatal positional asphyxiation, a condition in which the body's position prevents normal breathing. Eagle County Coroner Kara Bettis confirmed the manner and cause of death.

Varnish was a managing director and global head of prime services risk at Credit Suisse, and a father of three children. His children retained Burg Simpson, the Denver-based plaintiff trial firm, to bring a wrongful death action against Vail Resorts in Colorado state court.

Peter Burg led the litigation. The complaint alleged that Vail Resorts had failed to train lift operators and ski patrol in proper chairlift evacuation procedures, and that the resort had violated duties imposed by the Colorado Ski Safety Act and the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board regulations. Vail Resorts defended on the grounds that liability waivers embedded in Varnish's ski pass and equipment rental barred recovery, and that any risk of chairlift malfunction fell within the inherent dangers of skiing.

Burg pushed back on that framing publicly, arguing that a chairlift entanglement caused by inadequate staff training is not an inherent risk of the sport and that waivers should not shield a resort from accountability for procedural failures it controls. The case was set for trial in February 2023, three years after the incident.

Shortly before the trial date, the parties reached a confidential settlement resolving all claims brought by Varnish's three children. The Colorado Ski Safety Act caps wrongful death damages at $250,000 in most circumstances, a limit that framed the negotiations for both sides. No reduction or remittitur on appeal is reported.