Ropes mean different things here than they might where you are. Here, ropes are put up in front of inbounds terrain that is inadvisable for inexperienced skiers for a variety of reasons (the terrain, unmarked rocks and hazards, potential cliff hazards, sketchy traverses, and the like). On my last trip to Whistler, for example, I had to duck 2 ropes to ski my first run. The first was in place because the run had a lot of exposed rocks. The 2nd was in place because of a few 5-10 foot drops that exist largely because of how little coverage there is right now. For those reasons, it would be a bad idea for some gomer who takes a weekend trip twice a year to ski hardpack to take a wrong turn in there: he could get hurt, and would ask, why was I not warned not to go in there? However, that doesn't mean a lot of people who are decent skiers and know what the area looks like can't ski that area, which is neither dangerous nor particularly difficult. That's how it works here: if you know the area and are capable of making an informed judgment, go more or less where you please (except permanently closed terrain, which is off limits for various reasons). If you don't have the requisite experience, don't go into potentially sketchy areas without someone to show you around, and certainly don't do it when the conditions are poor. What it comes down to is that people who don't know what they're doing shouldn't put themselves at risk without experienced guidance, and those who do know what they're doing know where they should be and where they shouldn't given the current conditions.
In this case Grouse's staff decided that they knew better than the skiers whether they should access the terrain they did, and Grouse was wrong. Instead of apologizing for overreacting and needlessly calling in a rescue team, they've made the whole thing into a publicity stunt demonizing people who were skiing in a perfectly responsible manner (they had all the equipment and experience necessary, had made gps maps of the area, had been there before, and knew the snowpack conditions, which were relatively low-risk). On top of that, now there is this two bit hack politician trying to make a name for himself by making it illegal for me to ski the kind of stuff I like to ski, which I would only ever do and have in the past done responsibly. That makes me pretty goddamned angry.
