Colorado averages 10 million skier visits a year, and of those visits, about 20,000 accidents occur.

And from those 20,000 accidents, "only about 1 percent have a claim," explained James Chalat, a Denver trial attorney.

Chalat was the lead counsel who helped strike a $200,000 settlement in the case against a skier who collided with a 5-year-old girl at Snowmass Ski Area on New Year's Day in 1995.

The skier at fault, Norm Thoms, was charged with negligence and reckless skiing, but he claimed that his knee gave out before he lost control and collided into the girl. The girl suffered a fractured femur, which resulted in about $23,500 in medical expenses.

Under the Colorado Ski Act, "skiers assume the risks of the inherent dangers of skiing. Inherent dangers are defined to include weather, snow, surface and subsurface conditions, collisions with natural and manmade objects, skiers and the failure of skiers to ski within their own ability."

In other words, ski at your own risk.

In the case of Thoms, the plaintiff won her case on the grounds of a 1990 amendment to the act, which abolished the law that said the risk of being hit by an observant skier is a risk inherent to the sport.

But cases like the Thoms lawsuit aren't very common. Personal injury ski cases don't come close to the abundant number of personal injury auto accidents. In that field of law, many of the attorneys are commonly referred to as "ambulance chasers." That sterotype isn't held in the same regard among plaintiffs attorneys in ski accident cases. But there is money to be made in this competitive industry, lawyers said.

Chalat said he gets about one call a week from wannabe plaintiffs who believe they have a claim against a skier or ski company. He usually takes about ten cases a year.