Ski Area Boundary Policy Listings

[pukinpowder]

I thought it would be a useful tool to have as comprehensive a list as possible of the boundary policies and backcountry access offered by different ski areas. Please list your home ski areas or any other areas whose policies you have knowledge of. Also, feel free to discuss the type of backcountry terrain easily accessable by the lists and any other relevant info. I have spent some winters in Jackson and Utah so I will start this list by writing about what I know.

Jackson Hole
Open boundary policy through a variety of backcountry gates that are always open. As most people on this forum probably know, offers easy access to a huge amount of rowdy chutes, open faces, cliff bands, sublime glades, and countoured, rock studded lower faces of mellow pow cruising.

Alta
Open boundary policy via a gate past Catherine's Area. This gate is open whenever Catherine's is open, but Catherine's is often closed on the day of the storm (or the day after if it was a big one). So this means limited access to the backcountry when the weather is doing its thing. Gate accesses several chutes and cliff hucks, and open powder faces (Patsy Marley) but most notably Wolverine Cirque which offers a panoramic of short steep lines and hucks.

Snowbird
Limited access through the White Pine gate. Offers immediate access to great powder skiing and serves as a great starting point for longer tours downcanyon -- when it is open. It is closed whenever the snowbird patrol percieves there to be any backcountry avalance danger or when the weather is too low vis to allow a helicopter to rescue somebody. Snowbird's lawyers can eat a bowl of dick. I see no reason why alta's lawyers tell them that skiers outside their boundary are not their responsibility yet snowbird's lawyers tell them otherwise. Some of you will contend that access through this gate is limited because some of the terrain drains back to the ski area and could pose a slide hazard to inbounds skiers. This is a valid point, but certainly not the real issue, because if they wanted to they could have this face that could slide the resort roped off if there was slide danger.

[gramps]

Uhh, I think I need to make a little correction on Alta policy. It's completely open, you can leave the resort anywhere and anytime not just through Catherine's pass. It's just that rocky point and wolvy are accessed through Catherine's, and they're real popular. Closed areas are the only exception, like someone else said.

[bbirtle]

Here's some foreign beta for ya:

Las Lenas --- Sign a waiver and get a yellow wristband (gay), then enter off piste areas through marked gates whenever the muchachos in charge think "the conditions are safe enough". Centidor, Mercurio, and other front-side zones almost always "open". Marte couliers generally strictly closed except in excellent conditions, although other Marte face lines (San Salida, Frankys) open about 50% of the time. Ski tours (Cerro Torrecillas, Cerro Martin, etc.) generally open until a couple hours prior to Marte closing.

Chamonix --- Everything always open except particular pistes that have analanche potential on top of other pistes (Col Cornu skiers' right is one). Even then you can generally just ski right around the "Piste Ferme" sign.

Zermatt --- I've never ever seen a "piste geschossen" sign that you couldn't blatently ignore.

Most of Switzerland and France seem to be about the same as Zermatt and Cham'. Italy seems hit or miss - at Cervinia I've heard they even sometimes call the police to arrest you but in Courmeyer the top lift is nothing *but* off piste... although the cablecar driver will try very hard to persuade you against riding it with your skis!

Japan Honshu Resorts --- (Happo, Niseko, Zao, etc.) Strictly forbidden at all times to go off piste. Elaborate systems to ensure compliance, for example high fences, cameras linked with loudspeakers that blare to life with "get back on the piste!" and ski patrollers that chase you. However, you can generally get away with it if you are careful and sneaky, and willing to accept a ripped pass in the worst case.

Niseko (Japan) --- No problem to go off piste when we were there. We were shocked, but heard this was normal.

[Tippster]

Alta = Public Land.
Snowbird = Private Land.

[Beaver]

Red Mountain - b/c access via any point anywhere, anytime.

[ptavv]

When I ducked through gates at the Dolomite superski no one cared. A day later I had a conversation with a ski patrol about it on a lift and he said they don't really care, they assume if you're going outside the boundries you have the knowledge to not get hurt.

St Anton and Kitzbuehel were pretty much the same policy. We did get lectured at St Anton for it one time, but they didn't pull our passes or anything.

I miss skiing the Alps

[Redskea]

Lake Louise - open
Sunshine Village - open
So long as you don't have to cross through an inbounds closed area to access the boundary.

[PlayHarder]

Fernie - Open
Castle - Open
KHMR - Open
Fortress - Open

Lake Louise - open
Sunshine Village - open

Red Mountain - b/c access via any point anywhere, anytime.

Hmm, seeing a trend here, welcome to Canada.

[Redskea]

Fernie - Open
Castle - Open
KHMR - Open
Fortress - Open

Patrol at Fortress tried to pull my pass after leaving through a ski area boundary rope 2 years ago. (could have been awkward)

[PlayHarder]

Patrol at Fortress tried to pull my pass after leaving through a ski area boundary rope 2 years ago. (could have been awkward)

Wasn't that more of a closed area, though?

[robokill1981]

Vail/Beaver Creek- Several gates on both mountains access the BC. None of those gates close, but the access to them does depending on conditions.

[Redskea]

Wasn't that more of a closed area, though?

Not according to their signs, which is why I didn't lose my pass.
Nice snow out there though

[skier666]

Kirkwood

Anytime when the yellow signs on top of Chair 6, 10, 4, above Sentinel, and outer Palisades say "ACCESS TODAY"

[H-wood]

Mammoth: all boundaries open all the time.
June Mountain: all boundaries open all the time.

Thank God for Dave McCoy

[schindlerpiste]

The Canyons should have a more defined bountry policy regarding the backcountry terrain on and around Dutch's Draw

[ski_faster]

Pebble Creek=Open OB policy
Brundage=Open OB policy
Bogus Basin=Access through the Gates

[Incompetent Boob]

Here's some foreign beta for ya:


Japan Honshu Resorts --- (Happo, Niseko, Zao, etc.) Strictly forbidden at all times to go off piste. Elaborate systems to ensure compliance, for example high fences, cameras linked with loudspeakers that blare to life with "get back on the piste!" and ski patrollers that chase you. However, you can generally get away with it if you are careful and sneaky, and willing to accept a ripped pass in the worst case.

Niseko (Japan) --- No problem to go off piste when we were there. We were shocked, but heard this was normal.

Not sure when you were last in Hakuba, but Happo is pretty relaxed about everywhere except known slide zones that funnel onto the runs. Goryu/47 are pretty good about BC access but fairly strict on closed areas.

I've heard the rules may be changing in Niseko this year as the patrol tries to improve their avvie control work.

[Gebster]

Mammoth: all boundaries open all the time.
June Mountain: all boundaries open all the time.

Thank God for Dave McCoy

We all hope that the new owners will not touch this policy.

[bbirtle]

Not sure when you were last in Hakuba, but Happo is pretty relaxed about everywhere

Could be this was a few years back... actually come to think of it, they never yelled at me there although I had a funny experience on a cablecar - was riding up and a guy was doing a nice little pow line right under the Adam or Eve gondola or whatever -- like three days after the storm, an untracked slope, pretty typically Japanese -- and these three little 12 year old Japanese kids start yelling "baka! baka da ya!" like "stupid idiot!" and pointing at him like he's the biggest moron to ever walk the earth and going on and on about how he's so dumb to ski so clearly outside the lines. My friend Marc and I shared a knowing smile, I was like "I love this country", ducked under the ropes and followed the guy's tracks.

[mrryde]

The Canyons should have a more defined bountry policy regarding the backcountry terrain on and around Dutch's Draw

[Bunion 2020]

Excellent thread. I am currently working out an access policy for Moonlight Basin. Last season we had a BC access portal off of our western most boundary. It was pretty low (9000'). We still had a fair amount of use from folks willing to hike/skin. This season with the Lone Peak pass and access to USFS lands from the top of the Big Sky tram, we are looking real hard at a BC access portal from the top of Lone Mtn, (11,000'). After discussing the situations at JH and in LCC it will probably be a gate that must be physically opened with the days avi forecast from the local forecast center. The gate will remain open unless hazard conditions are extreme. The terrain it will access is pretty amazing.

[Cirquerider]

Sierra at Tahoe 5 gates to BC (mainly Huckelberry Canyon). Seems to take at least a day after storm cycles to open.

Edit: removed old Heavenly information in error.

[schindlerpiste]

I agree, completely. The only problem that I have is that everyone who skis the BC in and around PC knows that this place is going to roll atleast 1X/season. This is true especially after heavy (high water content) snow. The signs are good, and we don't want to curtail access (except on a very limited basis), but maybe a few carefully timed salvos with the 50mm would be wise.
P.S.: Skiing Dutch's ohne helmet is not wise.

[gramps]

Come on Schindler, it's backcountry. The resort has no business putting rounds out there for the purpose of making it safe for skiers. If they started "informally" controlling it, can you imagine how many more idiots would stream through those gates? They probably can't bomb it legally, and I'm sure it would put them in a liability position if they did control it and someone still died. I think they have done as good of a job as they can. I mean, I think those signs command attention even in our society where warning signs are stuck on everything.

[powslut]

St Anton and Kitzbuehel were pretty much the same policy. We did get lectured at St Anton for it one time, but they didn't pull our passes or anything.

I miss skiing the Alps

A bit of clarification on the policy in St Anton. They generally don't care where you ski as long as you are not exposing a main piste, houses or other structures from above. Tree skiing can be a bit of a sticky area due to forest conservation practices. You are expected to make decisions that affect your own life but not to risk the lives of others who are not involved. IMO Very common sense approach.