Four men have been banned for life from Grouse Mountain and will be billed for the costs of their rescue after allegedly ignoring ski patrollers and ducking under boundary ropes.
It’s not the first time people have been asked to pay for being rescued from out-of-bounds areas, William Mbaho, a spokesperson for the mountain, said yesterday.
“(The cost is) determined on a case-by-case basis,” Mbaho said. “We’re factoring in things like labour, time and resources used.”
It hasn’t yet been determined how much the three skiers and one snowboarder — all British Columbia men in their mid-20s — will have to pay for their Jan. 2 rescue from the avalanche-prone area.
Mbaho said their names, which haven’t been released, will also be circulated to all mountains in Western Canada.
“Closed areas are closed for a reason,” he said, adding that as long as people respect boundary signs, they’re not at risk.
Nearly a year ago, Janusz Gryko and his son Jeremy were stripped of their season passes and asked to pay $2,500 for instigating a dangerous rescue effort after snowboarding out-of-bounds at Grouse.
