touring within ski resort boundaries
In many ski hills in BC if you get caught skinning up inbounds in order to access the backcountry, you quite often get kicked out by the ski patrol. Let say if I want to access the Sun Peaks slack country without having to pay 85$ to ride the chairlift only once. I just wander about the legal background. Many ski hills are actually on crown land and therefore the public should still be able to enter the area without having to buy a lift ticket. From what I understand they only have a licence to operate on that land without being the actual owners of the land. Do the patrol really have legal rights to restrict the access to the ski hill only to lift tickets holders ?
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touring within ski resort boundaries
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2011-01-21 19:19:31
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2011-01-21 21:40:26I'm not an expert but I believe as they have a recreational tenure they have a responsibility to mitigate risk and manage liability for activities inbounds. I assume the reason you can't tour up is due to perceived risk of someone going up a slope while people are skiing down. Some areas are a lot more lax about this than others. You could try contacting management to see if there is a compromise...ie designate an up-track that maybe would appeal to resort visitors for snowshoeing too? That said I'm sure they like you buying lift tickets...
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2011-01-22 00:28:57Ryan, you are on the money - our local hill was totally lax a few years back but they have tightened up and with good reason as it became a ritual for locals to ski tour the hill before operational hours and this understandably annoyed customers and put the hill at risk of people getting hurt.
Now you can only tour at the hill before and after the season - other than that you have to stay out of bounds as they specify in their new ascent route info. Of course you can buy a one ride ticket for $20 to get you up high, much more economical than the $57 lift ticket - not a bad compromise but I still prefer the skin up .
Maybe something to ask your ski hill management about?