A chilling very important letter came through the Pique from Anton Horvath for Whistler Blackcomb Ski Patrol on December 1st. The entire copy is below. In short, Whistler Mountain Ski Patrol is closing access to Garibaldi Park through the Encore Ridge / Lower Symphony traverse during Avalanche Control (AC). Whistler Blackcomb will also no longer be selling Backcountry Lift Tickets until AC is complete.
From this point forward, there will no longer be access to Garibaldi Park along the Encore Ridge Access any time that the avalanche sign-line on Whistler at the bottom of the Harmony Chair is reading “Closed”. In addition to this, backcountry passes will not be sold on any day until all blast zones impacted by the Encore Ridge Access route have been cleared. These Park Access Closures will occur periodically during early season, during intense storm cycles, or during any periods of unusually unstable snowpack conditions. Whistler Blackcomb will do its best to open park access through its tenure as soon as it is safe to do so. [...] These avalanche control closures will remain in effect until we have gained confidence in the public’s respect of our closures. Anton Hovarth, WMSP
If you don’t know where the Lower Symphony traverse is, this is the lower road that runs from the base of Harmony Chair (once up the short hill) down to Symphony base, and then turns into a trail out and around the back of Flute to Garibaldi Park.
In the past, WMSP has kept open the lower traverse during AC. Unfortunately, an increasing number of idiots poachers have been skinning into Lesser Flute, Burnt Stew and Harmony during AC (while the Closure signs are, well, Closed). Hovarth calls upon the backcountry community to do some self-policing. So get the word out: obey all Avalanche Closure signs. Do not hike uphill at the bottom of a closure. And do not poach the newly restricted backcountry. And if you see someone doing it, call them out.
Skinning out through Lower Symphony on a storm day this November. Don't lose this!
From here, the situation could get a lot worse. There has been talk of closing Goat Trail during storm days as well as lower Highway 86 access to lower tree stashes. Why? Because quite a few postholin’ poachers cannot get it into their minds that while glide traversing under a closure is OK, hiking uphill into the AC zone is not.
Here’s how it works, for example in a zone like Harmony: once Pika’s Traverse is open, one can skin/hike up to the highest closure, then ski down the open terrain, obeying all bowl closures (which usually run skier’s left of the Harmony Waterfall terrain). At the point of the last closure sign, one can traverse across – for example into the lower liftline. But one should not be skinning up from that point onto the ridge, nor traversing out into Gun Barrels.
Likewise, while Lower VD from Goat Trail is OK, hiking uphill is not, nor is crossing Grand Finale to get to upper Frog Hollow. Grand Finale is an AC run-out zone!
Check out a post from WMSP’s Clownshoes here detailing the rationale. And start getting loud on the ignorant or the arrogant — whether they be so-called “locals” or imports. ‘Cause anyone screwing it up from this point on is NOT acting for the benefits of the backcountry community.
Read the letter in what follows.
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the Pique, December 01st 2010
Respect the blast zones
For a number of years, Whistler Mountain has allowed all-weather access through its tenure into Garibaldi Park. As the ski area has expanded throughout the years this access has followed various routes.
For a number of years these access routes were utilized by only a handful of die-hard backcountry enthusiasts, as well as various providers of avalanche awareness courses. During the past few years more and more people have been utilizing these routes. Unfortunately, during the past few years and in particular this season, these routes have been used to poach turns back within the boundary. We have also had people skinning up from the west side of Whistler during active avalanche control.
During avalanche control, Whistler Blackcomb’s avalanche control zones become blast zones, and as such it is Whistler Blackcomb’s responsibility to keep these zones clear and safe for both public and staff. We take safety very seriously at Whistler Blackcomb and have only decided to close this access after a lot of thought and discussion. These avalanche control closures will remain in effect until we have gained confidence in the public’s respect of our closures.
Given the disregard some of the public are currently showing for Whistler Blackcomb’s “Avalanche Closures” and the explosives work going on within them, we now have no choice other than to close the all-weather backcountry access routes through our tenure until all of the explosives testing that is, or could be, impacted by proximity to these access routes, is complete.
From this point forward, there will no longer be access to Garibaldi Park along the Encore Ridge Access any time that the avalanche sign-line on Whistler at the bottom of the Harmony Chair is reading “Closed”. In addition to this, backcountry passes will not be sold on any day until all blast zones impacted by the Encore Ridge Access route have been cleared. These Park Access Closures will occur periodically during early season, during intense storm cycles, or during any periods of unusually unstable snowpack conditions. Whistler Blackcomb will do its best to open park access through its tenure as soon as it is safe to do so.
The alternate all-weather access into Garibaldi Provincial Park will continue to be up the Singing Pass trail from the base of the Whistler summer road. This route will remain open at all times.
We regret that it has come to this, but it is the only way for us to safely manage a situation that has otherwise become unmanageable. Please help us keep access through our tenure open by doing some self-policing in the community. Inform those who are less knowledgeable and or cavalier in their approach to our Avalanche Closures how their behavior affects us all.
Anton Horvath for
Whistler Blackcomb Snow Safety
