Rescued snowboarder faces hefty fine from search

[Locutus]

WEST VANCOUVER, B.C. — An official says a 33-year-old snowboarder from Ottawa who was rescued from a wilderness area north of Vancouver can expect a hefty bill for searchers’ efforts.

Sebastien Boucher got lost on Sunday after straying out of bounds near the Cypress Mountain ski area.

Initial attempts to find him were hampered by poor weather and the risk of avalanches, but searchers managed to locate his tracks late Tuesday in a gully near the Sea-to-Sky Highway.

A Cormorant helicopter was brought in late Tuesday to lift him out of the area and take him to safety, and he was found to be in stable condition despite his ordeal.

Joffrey Koeman of Cypress Mountain said Wednesday that Boucher could be fined up to $10,000 but even that fee won’t cover all the costs.


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Rescued B.C. snowboarder faces hefty fine from search | The Chronicle Herald

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

If you stray off the marked trails, you should expect to be billed for the rescue.

 

[taxslave]

Ten G won't even begin to cover all the costs. That is just to cover Cypress ski hill direct costs. If he had to pay wages for all the S&R people and helicopter time his bill would be closer to 50G. Lucky for him taxpayers are soft hearted saps and will let him off cheap.

 

[talloola]

I guess the key word is 'could be fined', maybe not I guess, but I consider the ten thousand a good
lesson, as not many could ever come up with the total cost, but ten thousand would be considered
a lot of money to most, so they won't do that again, and it will stop others from being that
stupid as well, till that sort of thing stops, and all that will be left is the selfish rich
skiers, who don't care, so then the cost could go up with each offense, till they learn as well.

 

[EagleSmack]

Enough... ban snow boarding. We don't need to snow board or ski.

 

[damngrumpy]

The bill is in order and at some point someone has to be billed for the entire amount.
This should be done and perhaps cancel part of it through discussions but it would
set a pattern that others would understand that they might be the first to pay the full
shot.

 

[talloola]

The bill is in order and at some point someone has to be billed for the entire amount.
This should be done and perhaps cancel part of it through discussions but it would
set a pattern that others would understand that they might be the first to pay the full
shot.

sounds good, but hardly anyone would ever pay that full amount, and once anyone had to pay 10,000.00
that would end their poor decisions on the slopes. At least $10,000.00 would be payed in full,
a very difficult amount to pay up, from most people.

Yeah, the full amount sounds good when read in the papers by public, sounds satisfying, but a followup
would find that it didn't happen, probably not even ten thousand of it.

 

[JLM]

Ten G won't even begin to cover all the costs. That is just to cover Cypress ski hill direct costs. If he had to pay wages for all the S&R people and helicopter time his bill would be closer to 50G. Lucky for him taxpayers are soft hearted saps and will let him off cheap.

I'm a great believer in user pays, so I think the guy should start forking over. There has to be a price for irresponsibility!

If you stray off the marked trails, you should expect to be billed for the rescue.

A thought just crossed my mind. Establish a few crude shelters with some essentials through out the area and in each shelter nail a map to the wall showing the recommended route out. The cost of one or two rescues would probably pay for several shelters.

Enough... ban snow boarding. We don't need to snow board or ski.

That could be a slippery slope! Where does it end?

 

[SLM]

That could be a slippery slope! Where does it end?

That's why he was being facetious.

 

[taxslave]

I'm a great believer in user pays, so I think the guy should start forking over. There has to be a price for irresponsibility!



A thought just crossed my mind. Establish a few crude shelters with some essentials through out the area and in each shelter nail a map to the wall showing the recommended route out. The cost of one or two rescues would probably pay for several shelters.



That could be a slippery slope! Where does it end?

Ideally in the lodge with a warming drink.

 

[bobnoorduyn]

I am a firm believer in rebuking stupitity, but I don't know enough of the case to cast judgment. I have been involved in many SAR missions and have never, ever thought of ever blaming the people we were searching for for getting into situations beyond their capabilities. In most cases they were folks lost while trapping, hunting, even on adventures, the cost never occured to us. To charge them for rescue is simply obscene. I considered my service a funciton of what we pay taxes for.

However, I do believe that there should be fines for doing things that are stupid, but $10K is way off the mark, $250 may be more in line.

There are those who are professionals who take extreme sports to the max, and do it for money. They should have to pay a bond, and pay those who may have to rescue them. They make money doing what they do. But making some poor schmuck pay an exorbitant fee for a mistake... I could have been that poor schmuck in a past life, either having fun or just making a mistake while doing my job.

 

[shadowshiv]

That could be a slippery slope! Where does it end?

He forgot to post in purple.