14016402:theabortionator said:
Also in a lot of these cases, people dig themselves a hole by being assholes when confronted. Sometimes cases where people were legit just going to give them a warning but the person was such an asshole they decided not to be so nice.
The "Ski patrol is out to get everyone" idea that you might take away from these threads is bullshit though. Don't believe it.
This is exactly it.
I don’t know anything about OP’s mountain or what ropes he ducked, so can’t comment. However, the only time I would pull a pass (I’ve pulled I think 2-3 in almost 8 years....I’m pretty sure both times when the director or mountain manager directly insisted/saw the person) is when people enter closed avalanche terrain; particularly when we intend to or are about to mitigate it.
Like, early season, if you want to duck ropes to ski rocks, I don’t really care. They’re your skis and your femurs. I’ll grab my rock skis and take my sweet time to come help you.
It’s a real problem— people entering avalanche terrain that’s closed. Until you’ve been in the position of digging up dead people, telling family members the worst news they’ll ever here, you just won’t get it.
I’ve literally been above a path with explosives on my back preparing to shoot the everloving hell out of a path where visibility is limited and had two skinners ascend that very path. What if I would’ve killed them either with a bomb or the resultant slide?
There’s been two avy deaths this season in CO alone where the person who died was killed by someone above them triggering a slide on top of them. The same thing can happen in bounds; someone minding their business on a catwalk or something, and some dummy ducks a rope and buries the other person on the road.
Not to mention if you’re injured or buried, you’re exposing a lot of patrollers and others to real danger/injury when they have to come and try help.
I don’t know if people really consider this stuff. And yes, sometimes a patroller will be frustrated or simply stunned when they encounter someone doing something so dumb. That patroller is probably intimately familiar with the snowpack or the specific issue with a piece of terrain that prevents its opening, so they don’t want to hear a bunch of bullshit excuses. Sometimes terrain is closed because the conditions or exposure make a toboggan rescue impossible or especially dangerous.
As to OP, if you’re removing entire rope lines, and ducking ropes, and then when confronted and asked for your pass you basically play “tell me what I did first!” game followed by shaking your head with derision and trying to go over patrol’s head to the GM.....sorry man, you’re not going to be treated well most likely. Maybe that came at you totally sideways for something minor which in that case, it’s not cool, but they’re not your peers and unfortunately sometimes you have to treat people in positions of “authority” with more kindness and respect than they you if you’re hoping for a good outcome.
I always appreciate when someone I approach for breaking some rule (jibbing and breaking a pvc slow sign for example) treats me with respect and kindness and I try and do the same. When someone just apologizes, is honest, and treats me like a human, we are all good. No issues whatsoever. Hell I turn a blind eye to all kinds of harmless stuff when people are just cutting loose and having fun. Most patrollers do the same.
