Five skiers had to climb their way out of danger after skiing out of bounds on Whistler Mountain by mistake.
Some of the group members—a 19-year-old man and 20-year-old woman—spoke to Glacier Media anonymously and wanted to share their story about what happened on Sunday, March 3. The man’s younger brother, 17, and sister, 15, were skiing with them.
The skiers had crossed a well-demarcated Ski Area Boundary rope line and headed into a backcountry area known as the Cakehole in Garibaldi Provincial Park, but they said it was a mistake and they didn't understand the sign.
“We saw tracks, we saw people going down,” the woman said. “We’re not people that want to go there, especially a mountain that we don’t know. We would have never, never, never went if it was clear to us that we would get lost."
The group of four travelled from Montreal and were excited to hit the mountain Sunday to experience the B.C. resort.
“It was our first time in Whistler so we decided to go to the biggest chairlift we saw, which led us to this run,” said the man. “When we got up there, we saw a sign.”
He describes the sign as being "kind of small," with the words "expert only, not patrolled" printed.
“We thought that it was maybe just an expert run, but that there was a chairlift at the end,” he said. “We saw a lot of people go there... we saw a bunch of snowboarders ... like maybe six or seven, they went in at the same time as us.”
Thinking the run had fresh snow and looked "untouched," they decided to follow the group of snowboarders.
“There were a lot of tracks already, so we assumed it was fine to go. We are pretty good skiers,” said the woman. “We saw a bunch of people going and there’s not like a rope saying danger, or at your own risk.”
Unbeknownst to them, they were not only entering an out-of-bounds run, but also a high-danger avalanche area.
Alex Mortlock, a ski-patrol supervisor with Whistler Blackcomb, described how the area starts mellow but quickly turns into steep gullies and tight-graded sections.
"It's marked off just because of how hard it is to get people out of there,” Mortlock said.
As the group headed down the first section, it was open and smooth sailing. But then they lost the snowboarders’ tracks.
“At one point, we're not too sure where to go because we lost the snowboarders,” the woman said.
At about 1:30 p.m., the group opened their resort map hoping to find the nearest chairlift.
“We thought by going left we’d reach the ski run, but what we didn’t realize is that there was some height difference,” the man said. “That was the moment when we realized we were really, really far away.”
'You're on your own'
At this point, the group was separated from the younger brother and decided to call their parents for help. A short time later, another skier who was also lost emerged.
This individual was in his late 30s, and had local knowledge, but got lost following their tracks. He was hoping the group knew the way, but they quickly realized they were all lost.
The group contacted patrol for help, and started considering hiking back up the mountain. The younger brother who was separated started hiking up alone.
Whistler Search and Rescue made contact with the group and told them to download an app called SAR Topo to guide them in the right direction. SAR helicopters could not get to the area as bad weather hampered the aircraft from taking off in Vancouver.
After an "incredible" amount of snow on Sunday, the hazard rating kept rising in the area, making it unsafe for patrol to enter. Whistler Search and Rescue also decided due to safety that no rescue members would enter the search zone.
The group understood patrol and search members couldn’t get into their area due to the risk.
“Of course, the patrol couldn't because no one was wanting to risk their lives to come in,” the woman said. “No one could come... you're on your own."
With poor visibility and -14 C temperatures, the group started the difficult hike up the mountain in three-feet-deep snow.
“So we just hiked up, hiked up, and then the sun started to go down. That's when it got a bit more stressful,” the woman told Glacier Media.
The group claims they were told to prepare to spend the night on the mountain. But when they stopped moving to start building a shelter, it was too cold.
They were hungry, thirsty, tired, and scared.
“We’re three younger people. We started to panic. We’re like, ’No, no, we can’t sleep here. We’re not going to spend the night here,'” she said. “It was quite hard.”
The solo skier reached out to Glacier Media after the article was published to say a member in the group wanted to spend the night but he was determined to hike out.
"[SAR] said we had to hike out and they would try and get someone close to us with snowshoes to aid us in our hike," he said. "Once they got our exact location they confirmed that we had to hike out back to the resort or stay the night."
The group hiked for nine hours, one behind another, while the younger boy was hiking alone trying to also get up the mountain.
The last time they ate was at 10 a.m. Sunday. To stay hydrated, they tried to melt snow for water.
The group had no avalanche or safety gear, and were just in their ski attire.
“We had nothing. We had no matches, nothing at all,” the woman said, explaining how the group was not planning on going out of bounds.
Getting weaker with each step, the group stuck together and pushed themselves to make it back in bounds. Once at the top, they collapsed on the ground, they said. The solo skier who met up with them knew the way back down the mountain, and was able to get them on a trail to the groomers using the flashlight on their phone.
By 11:30 p.m., they got to safety and were taken the rest of the way on a snowcat. The brother made it down in a cat ski that was waiting for him.
When asked if they intended to go into the backcountry, they adamantly said no.
“We don’t want to blame Whistler Blackcomb, maybe it is a misunderstanding from us,” the man said.
The experience has changed them, they said. They'll be more cautious about the areas they go into.
"Even places with a sign that says like 'not patrol,' I won't go there,” he said. “Even if it says expert, not patrolled, I am not going back.”
Ski patrol hopes people will learn from incident
Whistler Blackcomb said the area has clear signs demarcating the resort’s boundary line.
“We are grateful for this positive outcome,” said spokesperson Dane Gergovich.
The resort's Alpine Responsibility Code asks people to respect all signage and ski-area boundary markers. Failure to do so can result in consequences ranging from mandatory online safety awareness seminars to a lifetime access/pass suspension from Whistler Blackcomb.
Ski patrol hopes people will take away a few things from the Sunday incident.
"The first one is that just because there are other people's tracks heading that way, doesn't always make it a good idea,” said Mortlock. “There are countless stories on Whistler and Blackcomb about, 'Oh, I was just following tracks because I thought it would be good.’”
He also hopes people will call for help right when they get into trouble.
“Especially for us on Sunday, the calls came in quite late, and then the light starts to fade and it makes things much more difficult to organize a rescue plan,” he said.
Lastly, he’s asking people to always be prepared when entering the backcountry, leaving the boundary or not. He suggests always having water, food, extra layers—and not eating snow, as it will burn more calories than it does quench thirst.
High avalanche danger continues in B.C.
A special avalanche warning continues for most of B.C. as human-triggered avalanches are expected.
Avalanche Canada, Parks Canada and the Province of B.C. issued a joint statement on Feb. 29 after a recent storm brought a significant amount of snow to Western Canada. The warning was extended to March 7.
Avalanche Canada forecaster Wendy Lewis said dangerous conditions are expected to persist this week.
"These layers aren't showing much sign of improvement,” said Lewis.
Forecasters are expecting strong sunshine on the coast Tuesday and later this week throughout the Interior.
“This will likely produce further natural avalanche activity and stress these weak layers even more,” she said.
