Cat401
Active VIP Member
careful...don't make that info too well know....pretty soon we will be having all kinds of doo owners driving into closed areas........
Alberta Snowmobilers rescued
- Thread starter sc800
- Start date
careful...don't make that info too well know....pretty soon we will be having all kinds of doo owners driving into closed areas........
Everyone makes mistakes in life for sure and if those mistakes break laws they are accountable for the mistakes. I know i have accidentally ended up in the park before and turned back as soon as we saw the sign, if i got caught i would have had to pay the price but i learned where that boundary was for the next time. I have also witnessed people that, after talking to me and finding out an area was closed until a certain date, decided to go into the area and ride since there would be fresh snow there. For that type of person i believe a strong punishment should happen. Nothing looks worse for our sport than the people that can't seem to follow a few rules as the press loves to make sledding look bad with every chance they get. If this was skiers getting rescued it would be a sob story not trying to hang someone.
No idea on which group these guys were in (accidental or don't care) so i am not passing any judgement on them but hopefully they learn from the mistake or if they are in group #2 they pay for it.
No idea on which group these guys were in (accidental or don't care) so i am not passing any judgement on them but hopefully they learn from the mistake or if they are in group #2 they pay for it.
This might help them! Obviously they need another brand of sled, because they couldn't get the ones they got in there back out.
it does not matter, as a backcountry user you must know where you are and where out of bounds is at all times. GPS
by the way, the last time i heard the cost for the park trail pass was 700 bucks, first time offenders. after that it is triple.
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Risky Pumpkin
Member
I have riden Quartz Creek in Golden a lot and the out of bounds area are marked well. There is no excuses.
007sevens
Active VIP Member
I did and I understand where your coming from, but what about the newbies with those big sleds that go just about anywhere....
What I'm saying is before we charge the sh!t out of them and everybody else who makes these mistakes shouldn't we address the lack of signage and maybe get more info out on the closers. Same thing happened in Blue River. On a low light day with Low lying clouds one could easily get into the wrong area. The only thing marking those area's are tiny little signs covered in snow.
Maybe we should be handing out maps of the area with our trail passes or making a better way to access the information we need.
I been riding for years now and have compiled the information I need from that experience but any new area you are just as new as anybody else and trying to learn the lay of the land and usually following tracks from somebody else. These tracks can lead you down into a park and for that you should be fined BIG time? Two sides to each story I think.
Somebody who has broke the law and knows it should be fined. Somebody who didn't know any better should be warned. Just IMO.
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007sevens
Active VIP Member
I haven't and if its mark well.....then yes no excuses.
The places I talked about in Blue are not marked well.
007sevens
Active VIP Member
I stand Corrected on Golden they do have maps on their website and they are easy enough to read. No reason why any newbie should be in the park. More than enough information there to figure it out.
Mike270412
Golden Boy
Even for an old guy like you?
007sevens
Active VIP Member
Said the pot calling the kettle black
Mike270412
Golden Boy
It will be interesting if we get the whole story.
If it's bad visibility, why would you drop down there? GPS might have helped. A map may have helped but they're only good if you know where you are at the time. I used to ride Quartz and Silent and thought about setting up a perimeter alarm on my GPS to let me know when I'm close to a park boundary. Parks people sent me the file for the boundaries.
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If it's bad visibility, why would you drop down there? GPS might have helped. A map may have helped but they're only good if you know where you are at the time. I used to ride Quartz and Silent and thought about setting up a perimeter alarm on my GPS to let me know when I'm close to a park boundary. Parks people sent me the file for the boundaries.
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oler1234
Active VIP Member
So you ride in a park, can't find your way out, go to a cabin to call for help, you weren't really in distress, and expect nothing to come from it... Right.
you call search and rescue and you not injured, I don't care you should be charged for the Waste of resources! Don't be riding into zones that are past your skill or you heard some person bragging it up. Ride WITHIN your means and knowledge of the area. You wonder why search and rescue is under distress these days.
i don't care if it's lack of signage or not. Know where you are when you ride. If your in the park, charged! Ain't no one shown me forgiveness on my mistakes. The cops never gave me a break when I missed the speed limit sign.
you call search and rescue and you not injured, I don't care you should be charged for the Waste of resources! Don't be riding into zones that are past your skill or you heard some person bragging it up. Ride WITHIN your means and knowledge of the area. You wonder why search and rescue is under distress these days.
i don't care if it's lack of signage or not. Know where you are when you ride. If your in the park, charged! Ain't no one shown me forgiveness on my mistakes. The cops never gave me a break when I missed the speed limit sign.
The one time our group did this (years ago)... we were completely mesmerized by the snow. It was so deep and so much fun to ride. Visibility was amazing. Seriously, I don't think anyone in our group of 6 raised a concern about dropping down in an area none of us were familiar with.
This is why I can't condemn this group because my glass house is already drafty. We were lucky and we were smart. Once we realized that the only way out was back up, we did the same thing as this group and followed tracks except we didn't follow them down. We couldn't go back the way we came down. Too steep and way too deep. I looked at my GPS tracks when I got home on Google Earth and found out that continuing down would have put us in a very steep drainage.
Learned a lot that day. Riding back in the dark was not enjoyable. Never again unless someone in the group has personal knowledge of the area.
This is why I can't condemn this group because my glass house is already drafty. We were lucky and we were smart. Once we realized that the only way out was back up, we did the same thing as this group and followed tracks except we didn't follow them down. We couldn't go back the way we came down. Too steep and way too deep. I looked at my GPS tracks when I got home on Google Earth and found out that continuing down would have put us in a very steep drainage.
Learned a lot that day. Riding back in the dark was not enjoyable. Never again unless someone in the group has personal knowledge of the area.
I like your honesty thank you! but if you were in a closure and got caught you should have to pay the fine. If we don't In force this and make it steep, so it makes you want to pay attention to where you are at. We are constantly fighting to keep are areas open. Tell you the truth this chit pisses me off. And it's not about having to call S&R out because you can't get out! It's riding in these closures it's just more and more ammunition for them all to shut down are areas. There is no excuse
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snopro
Active VIP Member
Its very easy to do trust me. Went to West Yellowstone years back and ended up in the park by mistake. We had kids with us and were caught. The rangers knew as soon as they got to us it was an honest mistake and told us they would recommend the small fine of $550 per. Charges were dropped on the kids under 18. They showed us where they thought we had gone in which was the wrong spot but none the less they took a while to find a sign to show us. 4"x12" white sign with small black letters saying park boundary 8-10 ft above ground level nailed to a tree. We got caught Feb 10th and they said they had 287 infractions since the first of the year! I told them maybe better marking would help stop this but I think they like the revenue. Lol. Anyway they led us out, wrote us tickets and then retraced our tracks to check for flora and fauna damage as they said in case they needed to charge us more for hitting a tree or hurting plant life under the snow. Pretty scary time. Lol. We were led in by a guide who supposedly knew the area. We don't use him anymore. Lol.
LennyR
Active VIP Member
Not sure about this group , but I sure can't stop thinking about the number of times I've mentioned to a group , or saw someone mention that an area was closed or out of bounds or restricted to skiers or caribou, and more often than not , especially lately, I've heard phukk off or got the finger. My opinion, , you got the resources and the time and the gear to access these areas, you have the obligation to know where you are and make damn sure you don't do something or go somewhere that could be used to restrict access to everyone. If you don't know, don't go, ignorance is no excuse. If they made a mistake, no problem, man up, take the medicine and get smarter. And 4 guys, no injuries, 4 operable sleds , sat phone or some type of communication, not sure of the situation, but sounds a bit iffy as to whether that's a viable S & R emergency or something they maybe could have worked out themselves.
Maybe sounds a bit harsh but there sure seems to be a lot of instances where stupidity or lack of preparation was the root cause of an emergency, and all of a sudden it's everyone else's obligation to step up and bail their a$$es out, at no cost of course.
Maybe sounds a bit harsh but there sure seems to be a lot of instances where stupidity or lack of preparation was the root cause of an emergency, and all of a sudden it's everyone else's obligation to step up and bail their a$$es out, at no cost of course.
We were not in a closure or park. Just responding to how people get in these situations in rideable areas. The fact that they were not hurt or lost makes it concerning to call SAR. The problem becomes: if you could call for help from friends or other sledders then they would be in the park too.
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