Whistler RCMP Staff Sergeant Steve LeClair knows a thing or two about searching the backcountry for missing people.
He's been backcountry skiing for 25 years, and volunteering with the police ski patrol for almost two decades now. When skiers, or snowmobilers or snowshoers go missing in places like the Cakehole, or the Pemberton Ice Cap or the Callaghan Valley, LeClair innately knows what challenges they're facing.
He's been there.
That's why when he took over as the head RCMP officer for Whistler LeClair developed a unique protocol for the police on how to deal with people missing in the backcountry — an all too frequent occurrence in Whistler.
While the police play a critical role in these files, they also rely heavily on the expertise of ski patrol and the volunteer members of the local search and rescue team.
"Every location is different depending on what the backcountry reality is, what the nature of the ski resort is and if there's terrain that's accessible," said LeClair from his office.
"We've tailored our protocol to the reality that we face."
It is designed to prevent tragedies in the backcountry like the one in Golden three years ago where a Quebec couple got lost for nine days and only the husband, Gilles Blackburn, made it out alive. Wife Marie Fortin died of chronic hypothermia two days before rescue came.
They ducked the ski area boundary and got lost. Then wandered more than 30 kilometres in the snow, mostly in the first two days and nights, maddeningly within reach of help, their odd tracks and SOS signs spotted and reported. And yet no one ever looked for them.
Fortin ate two granola bars; Blackburn tried to eat some spruce tree resin. They slept outside, sticking close to the creek for drinking water and with the thought that it would put them under the helicopter flight path.
In his coroner's report into the death of Fortin, Tom Pawlowski wrote:
"The fatal outcome of this incident was the culmination of a series of critical miscalculations, incorrect assumptions and miscommunications."
He went on to write:
"The actions and omissions of those who were responding to the signs in the snow, resulted in a situation where the different parties held different pieces of information, but a complete, accurate picture was not allowed to emerge. Following the initial reporting of ski tracks on February 17th (2009), the various key players made assumptions that someone else would notify the police to initiate a search, and when no search was taking place, assumed that the need for a search had been properly ruled out."
LeClair is familiar with the Blackburn case but cannot speak to the details. There is an ongoing lawsuit between Blackburn and the RCMP. Blackburn has settled his case with Golden and District Search and Rescue and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort (KHMR). The details of these agreements are not public. KHMR released a statement saying that Blackburn's action against the resort was discontinued without costs and that the case presents a cautionary tale of the importance of responsible backcountry travel.
The question remains: could what happen in Golden happen in Whistler?
The Whistler protocol is designed to create a series of checks and balances to ensure missing people are found.
It was developed after a particularly bad run of events when LeClair first started in Whistler five years ago.
Three fatalities in a short period of time — one snowboarder fell off a cliff, one snowboarder went missing only to be found three weeks later, and one snowshoer got lost in Rubble Creek and died.
"I saw that there was a requirement to have protocol in place so we can effectively deal with these investigations," said LeClair, adding that sometimes there is more than one missing person's file on the go at any given time.
Because there is a high turnover of staff at the RMCP — Whistler is a limited duration posting so typically the member is on staff here for four years — the protocol ensures that everyone follows the same steps, regardless of how familiar they are with the backcountry or missing person's files.
At the beginning of every ski season, LeClair has a meeting with Whistler SAR, Whistler Blackcomb and members of Whistler Heli-Ski so his staff can get to know who the key players are during any search.
RCMP then goes through a "table top exercise" — a missing persons scenario that they must treat as real, following LeClair's protocol.
The Whistler Detachment Backcountry and Ski Area Missing Person Protocol sets out how the police respond and how it coordinates its search efforts with Whistler Blackcomb, Search and Rescue (SAR) volunteers and the RCMP in the hopes that no stone is left unturned and every effort is made to find the missing people and bring them back to safety.
"The file is never dormant when this is going on," explained LeClair. "As shifts change, the oncoming Watch Commander will be briefed so they know what's going on so the file won't just sit on the side of the desk — it's always going to be active."
The Blackburn case highlights how critical the role of the RCMP is in backcountry cases. The RCMP, and the RCMP alone, is the authority that activates SAR and controls the investigation, even though the SAR volunteers are the backcountry experts.
Pawlowski wrote: "Lacking the knowledge of the backcountry and not having extensive SAR experience, the RCMP in this case recognized the need to rely on the advice of experts, but in the process, the police may have essentially relinquished its authority to make the final decision regarding initiating a search."
In his recommendations Coroner Pawlowski wrote:
"The particulars of this case and subsequent interviews involving RCMP officers have revealed that relatively little training is dedicated by the police force to the subject of backcountry SAR tasks and interaction with Volunteer Search and Rescue Organizations. This is perhaps not surprising given the vast amount of other, more mainstream responsibilities shouldered daily by police officers, and given the relative infrequency of backcountry SAR tasks, as compared to other policing functions. Nonetheless, this case has highlighted what may be an opportunity for additional training in this specific area."
In Whistler, on the edge of the backcountry, it's different.
"Here it's a very frequent affair," said LeClair.
It's not clear if RCMP generally has provided more backcountry training for its officers in the wake of the coroner's recommendations in the Blackburn case. Phone calls to RCMP "E" division were not returned by press time.
