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Out of bounds emergencies straining rescuers

Many unprepared for backcountry

By Andrew Mitchell

Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Patrol and Whistler Search and Rescue are concerned by the growing number of calls they are receiving regarding people lost or injured in the backcountry, many of them completely unprepared for their circumstances.

Although the number of calls fluctuates with the snow, in the last few weeks the night ski patrol managers have been dealing with emergencies every other night.

“Just yesterday (Monday) we had two calls outside of the boundary,” said Dave Reid, who manages the Whistler Blackcomb Ski Patrol’s night call service. “One was on Million Dollar Ridge, which was a femur fracture — they built a feature to jump over a tree — and another was an individual in the Khyber area that hit his head and had a head injury.”

Whistler Blackcomb Ski Patrol does respond to calls outside the ski area, but it’s not in their mandate — they go for humanitarian reasons, Reid says. However, that does put a strain on mountain resources, as well as Search and Rescue and the RCMP who are often involved when people are lost, missing, or injured in the backcountry.

But while injuries in the backcountry can happen, the biggest worry is the number of people that follow tracks in the assumption that they eventually lead back in bounds. Most of those people have little knowledge of the terrain, and the majority are unprepared.

The people that are either found in the backcountry, or find their own way out after a search has been initiated, come from a wide range of backgrounds. In the past few weeks that list includes people from Sweden, the U.K., Canada, the U.S., and Australia. But the most common missing person is usually an employee in the resort who has been here for a year or two, with an average age of 22.

According to Reid, most after-hours calls could be avoided or resolved more easily if people followed the basics — take an avalanche course, read the backcountry advisory, make themselves familiar with the terrain, travel with a partner, and bring a kit that includes food, water, cell phone, headlamps, first aid, and other gear to be able to spend the night. Common sense also goes a long way, Reid says, and following tracks when you don’t know where they lead is never a good choice.

Cell phones and radios have changed the situation slightly. While they do make people safer, Reid says they also make people more complacent — not realizing that there are dead zones in the backcountry areas of both Whistler and Blackcomb. They also don’t help when the person has no knowledge of the terrain — some skiers and boarders don’t even know if they’re lost on Whistler or Blackcomb.

Many people aren’t aware that Singing Pass Trail exists, or the trail to Cheakamus Lake, and they can use them to rescue themselves in a worst-case scenario. As a result they either stop heading down mountain or pass over the trail because they’re not looking for it.

According to Reid, being the night patrol manager often means making tough decisions. They are typically in contact with the RCMP and Whistler Search and Rescue as soon as they get a call that someone is missing or injured in the backcountry, and give each situation a different score based on criteria, such as the person’s age, their level of preparedness, their level of skill, whether the person is alone or in a group, the temperature and weather, and whether or not there is an injury. If the score is high enough, the rescuers will embark on a rescue immediately. Otherwise, given the danger and ineffectiveness of night searches, they may make the decision to leave rescue efforts until morning. That’s why people have to be prepared.

Joe Lammers, a veteran patroller and the night search manager for Mondays, estimates that he gets a call every second week on average.

He confirmed that the majority of the cases are first and second year locals.

“I think it’s common for people to get comfortable with the terrain inbounds, and start to get curious about what’s going on outside the ski area boundary,” he said. “I’d like to be able to tell you that more often than not people just made simple mistakes and were prepared, but I’d be lying. It’s people with no gear, no awareness of backcountry dangers, like avalanches, crevasses, tree wells, navigation. They have their skis and snowboard and that’s it.”

Going in groups can be helpful, but only if those groups stay together. In many cases one person will become separated from the group and their absence will be reported by the others. Some people are going by themselves, which goes against every basic rule of backcountry safety.

“I think what’s most important is that, in Canada, we enjoy a lot of freedoms, and one of those freedoms is to go outside of the ski area boundary and enjoy the backcountry. But with rights there are also responsibilities, and there is a right and wrong way to go about enjoying the backcountry. Sometimes the ability of skiers and riders is overwhelming their mountain sense.

“We want people to avail themselves to avalanche awareness courses, invest in gear, ride with people who know what’s up — people out there just don’t seem to have a game plan, and more often than not they’re just following tracks.

“The mountain’s a super fun place to be on a powder day, and I know it doesn’t seem like anything can go wrong. But if you don’t respect the mountains, sometimes the worst can happen. We’ve seen it. If it seems we’re being overly passionate about this, it’s because we’ve seen the worst.”

 

Searches are not just a waste of resources, they’re also a waste of money. According to Lammers, a search on Monday night required the use of a search helicopter from Vancouver, which cost thousands of dollars.

Brad Sill, head of the Whistler Search and Rescue, says the cost of rescues is usually borne by taxpayers and places burdens on volunteers with the program.

“It’s hard to know what’s driving it, but we have seen a sudden jump of calls this past week. I think we’ve been out on two (rescues), and received calls for a lot more than that that resolved themselves,” he said.

“It’s okay at the moment because we’ve been relatively quiet the past two years, but we’re afraid it’s going to start climbing.

“We’ve past our annual average already, with a couple months of winter left. We’ve responded to more than 20 calls already this winter.”

Most of the people heading out of bounds are found in areas like Khybers, Cheakamus Lake and Singing Pass, with about 90 per cent of calls from Whistler Mountain and 10 per cent from Blackcomb. A growing number of calls are coming from the Wedge Creek area, well north of the Blackcomb boundaries.

Searches are funded by the Provincial Emergency Program when it’s an emergency. When a person calls for help because they’re tired or have broken their gear they can end up with a bill.

“That’s happening more and more. It’s gotten to the point where we just give them the number of an air carrier they can phone and make their own arrangements if they don’t meet the criteria for lost or injured.”

So far there haven’t been any serious calls — lost individuals and groups are found the next day, and patrollers have been able to bring injured skiers and snowboarders down the mountain. Sills is concerned that it is only a matter of time before something more serious happens.

“Living in Whistler we encourage people to partake in the beauty of the backcountry but they need to know where they’re going and be prepared,” he said. “In other words they need to have a Plan B, which should include having someone who knows where you’re going and what to do if you don’t come out. We’re worried with the numbers going outside the ski area that one of these times somebody is not going to get reported missing in time to help them.”