LESS than a week after a massive three-day search for a lost Cypress Mountain snowboarder concluded, another out-of-bounds boarder was rescued from the same terrain.
Volunteers found the latest victim Dec. 23 in the precipitous Montizambert Creek drainage west of the resort, a short distance from the spot where they located snowboarder Sebastien Boucher Dec. 18.
The 30-year-old Vancouver man had been riding with a friend on Cypress's Top Gun run in the early afternoon when the pair ducked under a boundary rope and ventured into the rugged terrain above Howe Sound.
When the descent became too steep, the victim's friend climbed back out. His companion didn't reappear, however, so the friend called for help.
After reaching the lost man by cell and getting a description of his surroundings, a North Shore Rescue team judged he had likely made his way to low elevation, and so launched their search from the bottom of the gully.
At about 8: 15 p.m. the rescuers made voice contact. They found him about two hours later in the north branch of the Montizambert drainage. The volunteers hiked the man down to safety at about 12: 30 a.m.
"He was very contrite," said NSR team leader Tim Jones. "He made no excuses; he knew he had made an error and was going to pay the price for it."
The incident arose just as Cypress Mountain announced it would be charging out-of-bounds boarder Boucher $10,000 to cover some of its expenses for the first operation.
While the rescuers most directly involved in that effort were volunteers, the ski resort incurred a heap associated costs - everything from running the snow groomers that helped with transport to paying for staff to prepare helicopter landing areas to closing a run to make up for the redeployment of ski patrollers, said Joffrey Koeman, Cypress' director of sales.
"Sometimes you got to make a stronger point," he said.
The resort initially said it would donate the funds to North Shore Rescue, but the organization has refused to accept them, saying it doesn't take money levied from victims for fear it will discourage others from calling for help.
Koeman reasoned the bill wouldn't have that effect, as the cost of Boucher's rescue only ballooned because he didn't call for help soon enough.
At any rate, it's possible the boarder may be able to work off the balance owing by helping the resort with education, he added.
Cypress incurred virtually no costs in the second rescue, as it had little involvement.
