Skiing Troubles or Troubles with Skiing?

Figure 1: Kicking Horse Ski Resort (Advanced Skiers)

"The death of a Montreal woman, lost in the out-of-bounds area of a B.C. ski hiss, is a tragic but cautionary tale." - Calgary Herald, Ski Tragedy Holds Lessons, February 28, 2009.

Tragic in the loss but cautionary in the lesson? There is no lesson to be learned here in my opinion, I (as I'm sure many other people) have been skiing before - you know what you can do, and you know what you can not. Here is the fact, it is ILLEGAL so don't do it! Being an advanced ski hill, people there should know the rules.

Figure 2: Amazing Photo of an Avalanche.

Two skiers, Gilles Blackburn (51) and his wife Marie-Josee Fortin (44) were skiing in the Kicking Horse ski resort in British Columbia (Canada) and apparently thought it would be a good idea to go off terrain into the uncontrolled areas. This is not only illegal but it's also extremely dangerous, with blast sites and avalanche areas. The two skiers got stranded and had nothing but: two granola bars, the clothing on their back, and their ski equipment. 

Temperatures dropped to -14 at times and after 10 days Marie-Johee Fortin died from hypothermia. The couple did everything they could to try and get help - this included walking around to stomp the symbol S.O.S. (meaning help) into the snow. One helicopter that flew overhead saw the sign but when the operator called the police they took it as a joke - mostly because no reports of missing people were filed. After three more people spotted the S.O.S. sign and seven days, Blackburn was finally found; this was only due to a private helicopter company doing its own search because the RCMP failed to launch a search and rescue.

This teaches a lesson to other skiers, snowboarders, snowbladers, etc. that if you feel it necessary to break the law then don't expect to be saved! This story is tragic, I feel for the souls who have lost loved ones, but at the same time I hope that other people take up a career in thinking;

if you go out of bounds, don't expect a rescue team.