Busted at the Border TR

[carolyn]

We planned on leaving Thursday morning and hit some climbs along the N.shore in Minnesota on the way up to Canada for the ice fest. Initially it was my climbing partner and myself, but eventually added another rider. Some how we didnt get out of the cities until nearly 4:00pm. So much for climbing on the way up. The three of us are still pretty psyched that we will get an extra day of climbing in before the crowds come on Friday. We figured we should be checked into the hotel and drinking by midnight. We did expect somewhat of a delay at the border and a possible search because we were bringing up a good deal of demo gear and raffle prizes, along with our own stuff. No biggie, though. We had nothing to hide....or so we thought.

 

The wave of the hand tells us to pull up. Passports and Id's ready, we look into the stern face of the border officer. Get the typical questions and asked to pull up and come inside as he keeps our id's. Due to the weather we were even more behind schedule. Optimistic we would make it by last call, though.

 

Nearly an hour later, the officer calls out my climbing partners name and asks to speak with him. A bit of concern washed over me. They could just be questioning all of us to make sure we have our stories straight of where we are going, what we are doing , etc.

 

A bit later, climbing partner comes out...hands us our passports and says he cant cross. However, we were welcome to cross if we wanted to. Since he is well known for his practical jokes AND good at keeping them going, I didnt believe him. The officer asked us to leave and he would notify the US side to let them know we were returning. Still...this was a joke, right?!

 

Apperantly Canada didnt want him there because of problems he had as a kid over 15 yrs ago! Doesnt matter that he hasnt even had a speeding ticket since the age of 14.

 

Not only is this a huge disappointment for all of us, but we have one more problem. I have a truckload of demo gear and other stuff that people were expecting to arrive by saturday....and the vehicle we were driving was owned by the person denied to cross the border!

 

Well, we drive back to the US side and get the full search again. Rack our brains trying to figure out what to do.

 

He insists we take his truck. We drive him to the nearby casino where he gets a room and leave him with a 6 pack. We were not going to ask him to stay there for 4 nights.

So we have to figure out a plan.

 

The other rider and I make it to the hotel in Canada ten min before bar close. Fortunately there is a bar in the hotel and the owner is patiently waiting for us with beers in hand . A few hours of drinking canadian beer, followed by even less sleep set us up for a great day ahead.

 

The next morning was spent trying to formulate a plan. We decided to drive the truck back to the casino, hitch a ride back into to canada from someone and continue on with our weekend. The plan actually worked! My poor climbing partner was incredibly shitfaced when we arrived. And saying goodbye was like sending a child to preschool for the first time. I cant find the words to explain how much it sucked to leave him behind.

 

sooooo...

 

Friday...no climbing...just a butt load of driving. We did get to check out a bunch of climbs from the car though

 

Friday night...drink

 

Saturday...obligations doing gear demos, but get a couple climbs in. Temp was somewhere around 0 F. Fortunately I was in the sun most of the day and kept pleasantly warm.

 

Saturday night...slideshows...and drinking fine canadian beer.

 

Sunday....the day to finish the climb I got hurt on last year. THIS is what I was looking forward to all weekend! Weather...sunny...light flurries...-10F, -40F windchill. 8am...load up the car...quick breakfast...and off we go.

 

Get to the climb. Looks fat. Optimistic. Leader starts. I follow. Ten feet up the climb my tool gets stuck. Never have I had a tool get stuck this bad. End up kicking in a small ledge for my feet and chiseling the ice around the pick. nearly 20 min. later, frustrated, pissed, exhausted, and determined NOT to let this climb beat me, I continue. Ice is brittle, placements are sketchy, and feet for some reason would not stay underneath me. I felt like I had never climbed before. Good thing I wasnt leading! I topped out and tried to figure out what in the world happened to me. Granted there was a bit of a mental game going on in my head, and the weather sucked. Still, I KNOW I can climb better than I did. Perplexed, we rapp down. Happy I finally got the climb done, I take off my crampons for the short glissade down. What do I notice? They were on the wrong fuckin feet!!!!!!! What an idiot! (need a smack myself over the head icon)

 

On the positive side the commoradarie at the fest was great. Saw some excellent slide shows. Enjoyed spending time with Rapheal S. (he is a way kewl person!) and, scott backes, along with climbing friends from around the midwest.

 

I learned if you have any type of criminal background, dont expect to get into canada.

 

and

 

Always put your crampons on the right feet!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

[To_The_Top]

I learned if you have any type of criminal background, dont expect to get into canada.

Yah, try going across the border with someone with a DWI conviction on the way to Squamish. Nice TR, more of a story, long but fun read.

TTT

[meganerd]

What's this thing lately about people having problems with long story TRs? Has the world really sped up so much that we can't sit down and read a good story interspersed with the information we need?

[Dru]

good TR and it works the same going into USA too.

 

I like TRs like this more than those 1 line: "we climed Death Root X in 17.643456 hours car to car with only 1 case of frostbite and ate 3.765 Gu each per hour" ones

 

if you get really assymmetric crampons then it gets harder to put them on the wrong feet. and if you have symmetric ones it doesnt matter much except the strap buckle is on wrong side of your ankle.

[Montana_Climber]

"No shit! There I was .... "

[Off_White]

Yeah, I've had a couple friends have similar experiences. One was denied entry to Canada a couple years ago because he had shoplifted some cheese at the store in Yosemite in 1977. It seems any crime committed on federal property (like national parks) qualifies as a felony. The standard is if you have ever committed a crime that at any time is considered a felony in the country of origin or Canada, you don't get in.

 

I had a crossing aborted once because my climbing partner had been busted in 1979 in Edmonton for receiving pot in the mail from the US. At the time, the arresting officer had lectured him for being so stupid, and why didn't he just go down to the Rolls Royce Bar to buy pot instead of having it mailed through customs? He was released on his own recognizance ("You don't want to be in the jail for the Long Weekend now, eh?") and later fined $100. Although the crime was not at the time considered a felony (ohhh, the good old days), by the time we tried to cross the border at Osooyos (sp?) for a first trip to Skaha it was, so we were turned back, and wound up driving down to Smith instead. I think we drove about a thousand miles before we even left Washington state (unless you count that little loop into Canada and back to US customs, where they feel obliged to search you with drug sniffing dog and all, because you've been turned back).

 

At the time, I thought it was payback for the US Customs "zero tolerance" policy that was in full swing. The worst thing is that I can't get my main climbing partner to return to Canada, and he doesn't want to do the work to change his status, which seems to involve giving the Canadian consulate a lot of (non-refundable) money and a grovelling letter about how you have rehabilitated yourself, for the mere consideration of your non-gratis status, with no guarantee of a favorable outcome.

[rbw1966]

Off_White said:

[snip]. . . It seems any crime committed on federal property (like national parks) qualifies as a felony. The standard is if you have ever committed a crime that at any time is considered a felony in the country of origin or Canada, you don't get in. . .

 

Not necessarily true. I've been to Canada about a dozen times no problems and have yet to be hassled at the border either coming or going. And I am hardly an angel. Maybe after this trespassing charge I will though.

[iain]

hmm maybe they don't do background checks on every person every time. I've crossed w/ someone who's been arrested, no problems. Who takes those border patrol jobs anyway, seems like there's less annoying lines of work.

[JoshK]

It's luck of the draw. I've served time on federal racketeering charges, have a DUI on my record, was charged with another DUI (got off), served probation for possesion w/ intent charges and got off a grand theft auto (as a minor) and have yet got any trouble going into Canada. I think a lot of it just has to do with if feel like searching you or not.

 

 

And, yes, I am kidding about the above offenses.

[specialed]

Sorry about the hassle Carolyn, that sucks!! Border crossings are such a fuckin hassle. I've heard of people getting minor shit expunged from their records, to atleast allow them to cross into Canada, after alot of time, money, and frusteration dealing with Canada's consolate beauracracy. They defeninitly fuck with you more at borders since 9-11.

 

Fuckin Bin-Laden fuckin up our climbing trips!!! What a cocksucker!!!

[rbw1966]

I've presented my passport and ID card every time I have crossed the border. On at least one occasion (last thanksgiving) I personally watched as the guard ran a check on me on the NCIC database. For some reason I didn't raise any red flags in spite of my checkered past.

[specialed]

rbw1966 said:

I've presented my passport and ID card every time I have crossed the border. On at least one occasion (last thanksgiving) I personally watched as the guard ran a check on me on the NCIC database. For some reason I didn't raise any red flags in spite of my checkered past.

 

Apparantly they don't care much about liberties you may have taken with various farm animals. That sort of thing must be pretty standard in Canada

[rbw1966]

I love ewe.

[specialed]

[Dave_Schuldt]

Great TR. I'll bet while they were fucking with your harmless friend the real criminals and terorist got through. What is it with old records anyway, I can see the point if the bad shit is recent, but 15 or 20 years ago??? Stupid fuckers. Someone once told me that customs agents must have been picked on as kids. Now they get to have thier revenge.

[forrest_m]

We have a family friend who worked at the border in upstate new york in the early to mid sixties. He confirmed all of my worst suspicions that border guards pick on you just because they can, but according to him the reason is not that they were picked on as kids, but because the guards are all bored out of their skulls. Example:

 

Background: the sexual revolution is gathering steam. Birth control pills are easily available in Canada but require a difficult-for-a-minor-to-obtain prescription in the states. You find a teenage girl coming back from Canada with her mom. Ask them the usual questions, slip in one about drugs. They say no. Search their purses. As our friend put it, “often enough to make this worthwhile” you would find a vial of birth control pills in the daughter’s purse. Turn to the girl and say “no drugs, huh? What are these?”

 

Now the fun really begins. Mother turns to daughter and says “Yeah, what are these!”

 

All in a day’s work…

 

[fern]

easiest way to keep the terrorists out is to keep

everyone out

 

american border guards are bonafide authority

figures...they have guns and all. Lots of Canadian

border guards are just bored college kids. They do

stuff like pick a letter-of-the-day and search all

cars with that letter in the license plate. Whatever.

 

This reminds me of a movie "Highway 61" with Jello Biafra

as a border guard questioning why these people have a coffin

on their roofrack. "Who's in the box?","My brother", "Is he

dead?","Yes","HE BETTER BE!" ...

[Dru]

i went down to leavenworth once with 3 guys a) a professional dope grower, b) an unemployed tree planter, c) a ski patroller... in the patroller's brother's Toyota van with a locked box on the top that we didnt have a key to. but they must have thought We werre so sketchy they never got around to asking us what was in the box...

 

they let us go, when they found out i was a civil servant!!!

[Bronco]

one fine day I took the family to the MEC and upon attempting to enter Canada had the following exchange with a "guard"

 

Guard: purpose of visit?

Me: going to MEC to buy some climbing gear.

Guard: (sarcasticly) no stores with climbing gear in Washington?

Me: not as inexpensive.

Guard: (comences rapid fire questioning) how long are you staying?

Me: just the...

Guard: what's your address?

Me: 246...

Guard: how do you get there?

Me: uh, head down I-5 to hwy 2 and turn.....

Guard: Do you have a gun?

Me: What?

Guard: Are you carrying a gun?

Me: Nope.

Guard: Why not?

Me: I don't think Canada...

Guard: Do you own a gun?

Me: yes.

Guard: How many?

Me: Uh, 4 or 5.

Guard: If you have so many, why didn't you bring one?

Me: I didn't really have a use......

Guard: If you didn't bring them, where are they now?

Me: home in a gun safe.

Guard: and how do you get to your house again?

Me: Go down I-5...

Guard: (hands me my ID in disgust) move along

 

We drive off as he suspiciously watches us. I figure he saw I had a Concealed Carry Lisence and wanted to harass me. what a meanie.

[cracked]

[Thinker]

not too long ago I was coming back from Vancouver after a long weekend of bachelor partying with about 15 friends and coworkers. The partying involved all the semi-legal activities that are so frowned upon here in the States.

 

On Sunday we checked out of the hotel...a number of the folks had a little wake and bake session before heading out and the whole hallway at the hotel just reeked.....and headed for home. The driver finished up the last bit of Muirhut about a mile from the border and tossed the last bit of darkened damp paper out the window. We stopped at duty free for the obligatory bottles of scotch and continued on to the border.

 

The US Customs agent asked what we were doing up there and the driver flat out said we'd been partying in Vancouver. I thought for sure they were going to pull us in and tear the vehicle apart, but they just waved us on thru. The driver said he finds it best to just tell the truth, esp in his then current state of mind....says it's too difficult to lie.

 

go figure.

[Dru]

"To make a border guard they first take a failed cop; drill a hole through the skull, suck out the brains, then pack the cavity with horse shit" - Geordie Smaill, "Squamish Hardcore on Cassin Ridge", CAJ 1976.

[skyclimb]

coming back into U.S. via Vancouver, got stopped at the boarder to get checked. They always check me for some reason. I had a chalk bag in the front seat. After dogs go through, tear everything to shit, they finally realize it is just chalk, and not enough coke to get America high.

[Off_White]

You should have seen Canadian Custom's eyes light up when they found a baggie full of lemonade powder in the dash shelf of my old multi-colored VW bus.

[cracked]

I read a story about a guy in Australia who bought a bunch of chalk. When he was driving home, he was pulled over by a cop who wanted to do a breathalizer test on him. Of course, the cop thought the chalk was coke. So he tasted it to make sure!