"I've gone through many pages of documents and heard the opinions of the skiers involved as well as Grouse Mountain Resort (GMR)'s story and the perspective of two North Shore Search and Rescue (NSR) team members, one of which was directly involved in the incident.
From there, I've tried to fit together the pieces and I think I have a pretty good account of what happened but for the sake of length I'm gonna stick to the bare minimum.
But first, the facts:
+ The men involved had all the necessary backcountry equipment, ie. shovels, probes, beacons, transeivers etc.
+ The skiers were on terrain considered "expert", but had the skill and knowledge to safely ski the area.
+ The general North Shore area was evaluated to be at "Considerable" avalanche risk by Peter Marshall, a local CAC forecaster and the former head of Grouse Mountain Ski Patrol. However, the skiers allege that the terrain they were skiing on, after numerous tests conducted on site testing snow stability they judged the avalanche risk at "moderate".
+ The skiers were NOT rescued. In fact, the RCMP chopper Air 1 was dispatched ONLY TO CONFIRM THE POSITION OF THE SKIERS. A statement by Tim Jones, Operational Manager of SAR, states:
* The goal was for Air 1 see if they had turned south through the saddle exit to Mtn Hwy
* AIR 1 quickly ID'd the group which by this time was spilt into 2 groups of two
* AIR 1 confirmed they had turned south and were heading for a Grouse Patroller stationed on a snowmobile on Mountain Hwy. Air 1 gave me Lat/Long which I confirmed on my map.
* Very quickly the first two were intercepted by the Grouse patroller with the other two later on intercepted by Grouse Patrol
* At this point our operational involvement ceased as well as AIR 1's
Never during the incident was anyone "rescued" by the chopper, as evident in the rest of the post available here:
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=34822214&postID=8415375020977796384&pli=1
Now that we've got some hold on what really happened, I turn my attention to the real problem at hand.
Grouse Mountain, I believe, acted accordingly and appropriately by calling RCMP and subsequently NSR, given the circumstances. However, the actions that they took afterwards was truly uncalled for and unfair, if not morally wrong. By publicly stating that "the skiers will be charged with the full cost of the rescue operation", Grouse; whether or not it was meant in this way, implies that:
"IF YOU ARE LOST IN THE BACKCOUNTRY AND YOU REQUIRE HELP, WE'RE NOT WILLING TO BEAR THE COSTS AND YOU WILL BE FULLY RESPONSIBLE FINANCIALLY FOR THE COST OF YOUR RESCUE OPERATION."
Furthermore, by associating itself with NSR and RCMP the public gets the idea that if you ever need a rescue regardless of location, you better fucking be ready to pay for it yourself.
This sets an extremely dangerous precedent, as rescues often depend on the individual requiring help or their families to contact them for assistance. However, people will remember this incident and if a family or individual decides that they are not able to handle the financial consequence it is possible that they will not call for rescue, in a situation where they might have before. This could cost lives, and possibly initiate amature or family rescue operations which would endanger more lives than if a proper search was called.
I believe that Grouse Mountain is directly responsible for this public misinformation and massive overreaction that they have stirred for their own PR and monetary benefit. Grouse Mountain has made many mistakes in dealing with this incident, and I hold them at fault for the situation we now have, where BC's Solicitor General is considering putting a bill in place where Backcountry skiers could be charged if found violating ski area boundaries.
The skiers made a bad decision to go out in the worst possible time especially with the recent deaths in Fernie. However, although Grouse initially seemed like they were heading in the right direction, their final response was irresponsible and could have some very serious consequences in the future."
