This blog post is to help clarify some rumors about if you are backcountry skiing at Mt. Seymour, can you ski down the resort run. My inspiration to investigate is from listening to several people given varying information about whether it is permissible to ski down the controlled ski area when in the Provincial Park and also by my own experience being chastised by ski patrol.
Disclaimer: This is my interpretation of the research I’ve done. Do you own research. I assume no liability for information I'm providing.
TL;DR at the bottom of page.
I’ll provide some guidance I received from the BCMC president on how best to navigate information.
1. Define the jurisdiction you are working in
2. Define what type of commercial activity you want more information on
3. What type of documents do you need
4. Where to find the documents
5. Who to reach out to if the document is not available.
6. Submit a request for information
This is how I will guide my research and activism moving forward. Let’s use Mt. Seymour as an example. So I want to know if I am allowed to ski down the ski resort even though I didn’t pay.
1. First is defining the jurisdiction Mt. Seymour is operating in. A quick look at google maps shows that the resort operates in Mt Seymour Provincial Park. This means I will need to look at Provincial Legislation. Specifically, the Park Act.
The Park Act can be found here: Park Act (gov.bc.ca)
2. The next thing is determine the type of commercial development. Since Mt. Seymour is a ski resort, that’s pretty easy to define.
3. Now we need to determine what specific document outlines the condition of operating for the ski resort. For ski resorts, they need to have a Master Development Agreement (MDA). This document is updated on a regular basis and requires subjects like environmental certificate, planned expansions, goals for the park, etc. The other document is the Park Use Permit (PUP). This document is like a contract for how the commercial operation uses the park. Here you will need to know who is the commercial operator. In this case, it Mt. Seymour Resorts Ltd. These documents are usually private documents and are typically made available via Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
4. Now the fun part. Finding these documents before submitting a FOI. If you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s a mess. These are the places you should go to find these documents:
a. Backcountry BC File Repository - Backcountry BC → this website is maintained by the president of the BCMC. He has put all the MDAs and PUPs he’s accumulated over the years into this repository.
b. Open Information - Province of British Columbia (gov.bc.ca) → this website is where people have made FOIs and allows you to search for them. The best way to use this website is keyword search (Browse Information Releases (FOI Requests))
For Mt Seymour, I found it through the Open Information search query. It’s linked here:
I could not find the MDA in the search query. For this example, I don’t actually need the MDA to answer my question. So I'll skip the last two steps. In the PUP, the information I’m looking for starts on page 126.
The takeaway:
Ski patrol has the right to kick you out of the controlled recreation area (CRA) and can regulate who goes through the CRA; however, section 3.05 of their PUP states "...the Permittee shall not unreasonably impede any person from passing freely and without charge over or through the Unimproved Controlled Recreation Area during any Ski Season provided that the Permittee may make reasonable restrictions on the activities of any such person that are consistent with the use and management of a downhill ski area."
Basically, they have the right to kick you out, but they shall not unreasonably stop you from passing freely and without charge through the resort as long as it’s consistent with the use and management of a downhill ski area.
So since I am skiing downhill in a downhill ski area, their covenant states that they cannot impede me passing freely and without charge through the resort. That’s my take on this. If you have read this far, please don't go being an asshole to ski patrol with this bit of information, please still be respectful. They are doing their job at the end of the day.
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