Guy fined at Flachey..??

[Beck]

that sounds like a big money maker for the ski area and quite profiteering...when does a search by ski patrol become billable?

and when does it stop? when county SAR arrives?

[chris]

As I understand it, the billing is for as long as the ski patrol is working the incident.

And in defense of it, it isn't profiteering. The billing is for time and expenses having ski patrol work out of the area instead of in bounds where ticket-paying public have paid for them. It starts as soon as patrollers leave the the ski area, and ends when they come back.

Of course, if its too busy inbounds (multiple accidents, etc.), or if its deemed to hazardous (high avalanche danger), then ski patrol wont go.

This is as I understand it from talking to ski patrollers at Crystal and Stevens over the past few years. If I've got it wrong, please step up and correct me.

[murraysovereign]

You've got it about right, mtnfreak. From past patrolling experience, I can tell you the vast majority of these searches happen after the hill closes for the day, because that's invariably when it's discovered that someone is missing. That means the patrollers who are sent out to search have already worked a full day and thus are being paid over-time; the dispatcher has to stay later, also on overtime; snowmobiles are kept running for additional hours; various other staff have to stay on - all for the sake of bailing out someone who may not have even bought a lift-ticket. If it was profitable, as Beck suggests, they'd be actively encouraging people to duck the ropes so they could make piles of money looking for them.

 

And in my experience, the bill isn't always delivered - it depends a lot on the attitude of the person rescued. One group was found at about 4 AM, after several patrollers and who-knows-how-many SAR volunteers had searched through the night, at considerable expense to the ski hill and local SAR. The father was so relieved he was weeping. He honestly believed he and his two young sons were not going to survive the night, and their deaths would be entirely his fault. His fears were justified, too - conditions were perfect for hypothermia, and they were wet, and hungry, and very cold when they were found, and the weather was rapidly getting worse. He was so grateful, and so apologetic for causing the search, and as they were being bundled into the ambulance he actually asked "how much do I owe you guys?" A few weeks after they returned home (California, I think?) both ski patrol and local SAR received packages in the mail containing very appreciative, very emotional Christmas cards, and new GPS units. In that instance, no bill was sent.

 

But in another case, a couple of snowboarders went o/b at a neighbouring resort, got lost, and prompted a two or three day search involving SAR, ski area patrollers, the RCMP and at least 2 helicopters. When they were finally found, they immediately started giving back "attitude" to the guys who found them, refusing to answer simple questions like "how did you get into this canyon?" and "what are your names?", telling people to fuck off, basically just being complete assholes. They spent the next season or two under a court order working for the ski area, for free, until they'd paid back all the hill's patrol costs. As well, their parents were sent a sizeable bill from all the other agencies involved in the search. Hopefully Mom and Dad are still getting their money back out of the little buggers to this day.

[gapertimmy]

A few more details/facts-

 

About 9 of 10 searches like this are snowboarders who instead of wallowing/hiking out on a "catch line" decided to ride further down hill.

 

This particular individual was a snowboarder, who had been rescued before at bachelor for doing the same thing.

 

The Patrol didn't follow "naked" tracks, they had confirmed that this individual was snowboarding alone at the mountain on the given day, that he had gotten lost like this in the past, and with the sun going down there was a real time issue with possible hypothermia.

 

And indeed, folks can and do skin up bachelor to access backcountry locations, and if someone leaves tracks going over the catch line by doing so, patrol rarely will follow naked tracks.. meaning that no report of a missing person, or vehichle in the lot is attached to said tracks.

 

The boys/and girls are just out there doing their jobs.

[marylou]

 

This particular individual was a snowboarder, who had been rescued before at bachelor for doing the same thing.

 

 

In this case, 4K doesn't seem like a high enough fine.

 

Wonder why 90% of cases of people going out of bounds rather than wallowing back to the ski area base are snowboarders...?

[gapertimmy]

i think this is pretty obvious why. if you were snowboarding would you want to take off your board and post hole?

 

the catchlines go up and down, if one keeps their speed up on a board or planks they can get by just fine.

 

i'm not trying to turn this into a snowboard vs ski debate, we all know which is more righteous just thought it was an interesting fact.

[marylou]

Of course we do, and I don't either.

[iain]

Wonder why 90% of cases of people going out of bounds rather than wallowing back to the ski area base are snowboarders...?

because if it is a snowboarder 90% of the time it is an adolescent male.

[Fejas]

A lot of the time I leave my poles in the snow for my boarder buddies to use, then I set up camp and take a nap wile I wait for them at the lift...

[murraysovereign]

Wonder why 90% of cases of people going out of bounds rather than wallowing back to the ski area base are snowboarders...?

because if it is a snowboarder 90% of the time it is an adolescent male.

 

Exactly. The vast majority of the "idiotic snowboarder" behaviour I've witnessed over the years has in fact been "idiotic 15-year-old boy" behaviour. The fact they're all on snowboards now instead of skis is just a red herring. When I was a 15-year-old I was a complete idiot, too, and had all kinds of people cursing my behaviour. But I was being an idiot on skis so they quite rightly muttered "damned kids" instead of "damned snowboarders."

[gapertimmy]

i'm still an idiot and i'm 27? when does one grow out of the idiotic phase?

[Fejas]

i'm still an idiot and i'm 27? when does one grow out of the idiotic phase?

 

Shit Dawg... Never!