It's a good question.
My examination of the waivers issue led me to understand that it is true that with a waiver system in place fewer legal actions are brought against insurance companies for any kind of injuries sustained. But a waiver can be set aside, as I said earlier, by a judge. It still gives the participant the right to pursue an action if he feels that some kind of conduct, or malice, or neglect, or omission by the operator resulted in his injury, or his death in the case of the next of kin.
When you ski, on the back of your lift pass is an implicit waiver. Also, there are other activities where you sign a waiver. I think this is the trade-off, where people are cognizant when they embark on these activities that there is an element of risk and that they are absolving the owner or the operator from some of that. But as you point out, it still does give the participant some recourse through tort law to bring an action if he feels he sustained an injury that's attributable to some kind of negligence.