The dangers skiers and snowboarders are warned about when exiting Brighton Resort onto National Forest Service property through an egress include, among other things, avalanches, tree wells and ungroomed terrain.
A man brandishing a shotgun isn’t among them.
Yet that’s what at least one snowboarder, 41-year-old Loren Richardson of Fresno, encountered Saturday when he took an out-of-bounds route back to his vacation rental.
In a TikTok video, the snowboarder can be seen riding down a plowed pathway through a forested area. When he rounds a corner, another man, dressed in a red-and-black plaid flannel jacket with a black beanie is standing in the middle of the pathway. His shotgun is pointed directly at the snowboarder.
“Private property, you [expletive],” the man with the gun says while approaching the snowboarder and shoving him with one hand. “What are you, an Ikon user?”
The snowboarder unstraps and quickly walks away from the man toward a nearby road.
“I have every right to defend my private property,” the man with the gun called after him.
“I didn’t know,” the snowboarder replied. “There was no signs. I didn’t see a sign.”
The snowboarder briskly walked several more yards between head-high snow banks before coming out onto a road where two skiers were gathered. A sign above them reads Old Prospect Avenue.
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
“Shotgun! Shotgun pointed right at me,” he yells to them.
“I know, right?” one of the skiers replies.
A spokesperson for the Unified Police Department confirmed that police had received a call Saturday about a man brandishing a weapon on Old Prospect Avenue in Brighton. Officers had been sent out to investigate.
Brighton spokesperson Jared Winkler said he initially doubted the veracity of the video.
“Honestly,” he said, “when somebody told me, I was like, ‘No way, that’s got to be fake. That could never happen.’ Then I watched and was like, ‘You’re right. That’s wild.’”
Much of the resort’s land is leased from the National Forest Service and Winkler said the resort has several egress points where skiers and snowboarders can leave the resort boundaries and enter National Forest Service property. He said the resort is not allowed to prevent people from going through the egress gates onto public property. However, when skiers and snowboarders leave the ski area boundaries, they have to accept all risks.
That includes tangling with a private property owner whose tolerance may have worn thin.
“This is the first incident where I’ve ever heard of anyone having a problem with a skier or snowboarder” riding through their property, said Winkler, who has worked at the resort for 30 years. “Most of the time, people are willing in these communities, in these houses, to work with at least the resort knowing that people are going to ski through their property.”
Brighton Resort takes measures to help mitigate any potential tensions between property owners and resort visitors, Winkler said. That includes helping residents clear their driveways and plowing roads so they have clear paths from the ski area back to their homes.
It appeared the snowboarder was riding just such a road when he was confronted by the man with the shotgun. Winkler pointed out that Old Prospect Avenue is a public road. It is possible, however, that the snowboarder veered onto the man’s driveway or another section of his property.
Though he appeared shocked after the confrontation, the snowboarder also seemed to recognize he would have a good story to tell when he got home.
“Whoa, that’s a good ender,” he said to the camera after he’d gotten a reasonable distance from the other man. “Shotgun pointed right at me. My helmet ain’t going to save me from no shotgun.”
The case remains under investigation, the UPD spokesperson said.
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