It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a police officer on skis?
That’s the reaction most people have when they realize the man behind the reflective goggles is actually RCMP Const. Devon Slade patrolling at Marmot Basin.
Donning a police-issued bright yellow jacket, and black helmet, it’s hard to recognize Slade amongst the other brightly coloured jackets on the mountain, if not for his 30 lb. tool belt and the gun attached to his hip.
As part of the RCMP’s duties, Slade and his colleagues regularly patrol the mountain, keeping an eye out for anyone who may have enjoyed one too many drinks or somehow forgotten it’s illegal to smoke marijuana.
On Saturday, Slade was kept unusually busy as hordes of party-goers descended on Marmot Basin to partake in the annual Kokanee Freeride party held at the mid-mountain Paradise Chalet.
“For a lot of people this is totally out of the realm of what they think police do, but the law still applies up here,” says Slade, who has worked as a police officer in Jasper for the past four years.
Eager to get to the mountain and enjoy eight centimetres of fresh powder, Slade arrives at the mountain around 7:45 a.m., an hour and 15 minutes before it opens.
After strapping on his boots in the parking lot and getting his ski pass, he adjusts his radio frequency to pick up ski patrol’s channel. Within minutes, the crackling sound of voices drifts through the air.
Before stepping into his twin tips and heading up the lift for a morning meeting with ski patrol, he quickly pokes his head into its infirmary and introduces himself to head office.
By 8:15 a.m. Slade catches a ride up the lift to make his way to the “complex,” a mid-mountain building that houses the ski patrol department.
During the meeting, about two-dozen ski patrollers listen attentively to Marshall Dempster, assistant director of public safety at Marmot Basin, as he goes over the morning snow report.
As part of his spiel, he introduces Slade and reminds everyone that anyone who is intoxicated will be offered a ride down the mountain in a toboggan and if there are any other issues concerning public safety to radio Slade.
“It’s great to have the RCMP up here giving us a helping hand,” said Dempster.
“We’re definitely from too different domains, but we seem to work really well together and understand each other’s role.”
By 8:30 a.m. the meeting wraps up and Dempster and Slade head out to get in a few turns and check out the snow conditions at Caribou Knoll and Eagles East.
After a few runs, the two men head down to the parking lot to look for anyone who may be partaking in unauthorized activities.
From above parking lot four, Slade almost immediately spots a group of friends drinking beer beside their car and quickly skis down to have a quick chat.
By 10:15 a.m. he hands out his first four tickets of the day for having open alcohol in a public space. He also confiscates a small quantity of marijuana from two of them and gives them each a warning under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
Less than 20 minutes later, Slade comes across a group of men tailgating in parking lot three. This time he gives them each a verbal warning while taking down their information. Before he leaves he watches them empty an entire 24-pack of beer and the rest of their hard liquor.
The men seem annoyed, but relieved they didn’t get a ticket.
With the sun high in sky and stomachs grumbling, both Slade and Dempster turn their attention to lunch, but before they can stop for a bite to eat they get a call for an intoxicated person in the mid-chalet.
Upon arrival, the assistant ski patrol director is already on scene and fills Slade and Dempster in on what’s going on. It’s clear from the way the young man is resting his head on a table that he has had too much to drink.
With Dempster taking the lead, the young man agrees to step outside to have a smoke and discuss his options.
Dempster explains to the young man that he will have to take a toboggan ride to the bottom of the mountain where he can enjoy the rest of his day.
It’s clear from his body language that the man is displeased.
After trying to persuade him for another 10 minutes to take the ride down, Slade steps in to make it clear that if he doesn’t take the toboggan down, he will be arrested. After listening to the man plead his case, Slade reminds him several more times that he has one of two options: take the ride or face arrest.
Refusing to take the ride, Slade asks the man to put his hands behind his back and arrests him.
With the handcuffs secure, Slade gently picks the man up and lowers him into a nearby toboggan, where he is restrained and brought down to the bottom.
Once there, the man is met by two other officers and is escorted into the back of a waiting police cruiser before being taken to the Jasper police detachment.
“With the amount of people up there you always have those 10 per cent of people who are going to cause problems. They think the rules don’t apply to them, but they are the same rules as everywhere else,” says Slade.
With the police cruiser gone, Slade turns his attention to the parking lot where he sees two girls drinking beer and one of them also smoking a joint beside their car. He issues two more tickets for open alcohol and issues another warning under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
With the day more than half over, Slade finally makes his way back to the mid-chalet, taking a stroll through the boisterous crowd and posing for a few pictures along the way.
For most people, his presence seems to be a welcome addition to the hill.
Just as the party begins to wind down and people return to their skis and boards, a call comes crackling across the radio that a snowboarder is lost in the backcountry.
Dempster immediately takes the lead and calls the snowboarder on his cellphone. With contact made, Slade reaches out to Rogers to zero in on the phone’s GPS coordinates. About 15 minutes later, the cellphone is located and the snowboarder is narrowed down to within 27 metres.
By 5 p.m., more than an hour after he was first reported missing, the snowboarder manages to find the mountain’s access road thanks to Dempster’s calm directions and reassurances over the phone.
For both Dempster and Slade, the day’s antics are just part of their daily routine, although if you asked either one of them, they’d probably tell you they would have preferred a few more turns.
Paul Clarke
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