Q: My son is going on a ski trip organized by a company that takes care of all the arrangements. The waiver states that the

A: Generally no. However maybe you want to use a company that doesn't think it should have a license to be careless.

A: The answer to this question would depending on a lot of specifics including (1) what state are you in, (2) how old is your son, and (3) hypothetically (thankfully) how did the death occur. Here is a link to an article entitled, "Validity and Enforceability of Liability Waivers on Ski Lift Tickets" http://law.campbell.edu/lawreview/articles/28-1-107.pdf

That's not quite the same thing since the contract you have described would be with a company organizing the trip but it does give you a sense of how complicated it can be figuring out if a waiver is valid. The article concludes, "Courts are generally reluctant to enforce exculpatory clauses, especially those that include the negligence of the party attempting to enforce the clause. However, these cases show that courts can take very nuanced approaches to deciding whether to enforce such clauses. In the particular area of ski resort liability, the differences between states are primarily based on how the courts view the regulation of seemingly private contracts with a recreational sport and the definition of 'inherent risks' of skiing."

Finally, if you want to delve into this further, here is a blog on "recreational law" that covers cases and statutes on such releases: https://recreation-law.com/category/how/release-pre-injury-contract-not-to-sue/