"The Martin Luther King holiday kicks off Skier Safety Week," Woods said.
The week comes soon after another holiday week where thousands of skiers and riders packed partially-opened ski areas around Colorado. That kept ski patrol and medical personnel busy.
At Copper's St. Anthony Medical Clinic, one day last week saw 45 patients, up from the typical 27. The hospital in Summit County had a day with 74 patients, compared to a holiday norm of 50.
However, many of those visits may have not happened on the hill or been ski related. Copper's ski patrol says during the New Year holiday week, on-mountain calls only climbed a small percentage.
"Our ski patrol says on-mountain calls only rose about 2.9 percent," Woods said.
Given the lack of snow, icy slopes and limited terrain at nearly all Colorado ski resorts, and with another busy holiday coming up, there is a focus on safety programs to manage the crowded slopes.
Joe Foreman with the U.S. Forest Service says they will be checking up on those programs.
"I have been heading out and I have seen extra patrollers on the hill, saw extra speed controllers on the hill," Foreman said.
Some might ask how safe it is to have big crowds on limited terrain, even wondering if ski areas should limit the number of skiers on the hill when only 30 percent to 40 percent of a mountain is open.
However, the very design of a ski area actually helps keep crowds from building on the slopes.
"There is actually a controlling factor there," Foreman said.
Crowd control really comes down to ski lifts. Even if you had 10,000 skiers at an area, that's only about 40 percent open. Only so many people will be skiing at one time because a ski lift will only carry so many people at one time.
"No matter how many folks are at a ski area at one day, there's only a certain number who can ride the lift at one time," Foreman said.
Add to that an increased safety presence, like at Breckenridge, where they have added more slow zones and more safety personnel, and the message is clear.
Copper has also added more mountain safety personnel and says its safety program has been named the best in the country.
(KUSA-TV © 2012 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)