Headed out this morning to Black tusk-Rubble Ck parking for a day hike up to the lake. Arrived 9:45 or so and saw two young women back at their car somewhat distressed. Yup, hiking/backpacking season has surely started on the sea-to-sky because these poor girls were the victims of yet another window smash/grab/theft.

Checked the parking lot and saw four other vehicles, including one from saskatchewan and one from alberta, windows smashed, glass everywhere.

A great day up and down the mountain otherwise but be warned, the predators are out there, yet again.

were these overnighters vehicles you think?
busting windows is pretty loud and carries some distance, hard to imagine thieves busting multiple windows in daytime, but you never know

Sucks the predators are out to do their dirty work.

K

all o/nighters but for one day tripper. such a downer for everyone and a black eye on the area. All the vehicles were older ones. i suspect this is because they were less likely to carry burglar alarms, not that anyone would be there to hear them anyway.

would be nice if this year something was done, CT has documented this same story for years now, with no known actions taken.

Sure wonder why there is no such action, since this is a high profile area, and a great draw for tourism.

This is nasty soil on reputation of the area.

K

Did I see "This Area is Under Video Surveillance" signs the last time I was there? Or was it Diamond Head parking? And I know these are merely there as deterrents... but how can this issue be effectively addressed?

A sting operation? "Bait" cars with "Bait" gear... or just a minivan with blacked out windows and a group of vigilante thugs inside with lengths of lead pipe and baseball bats? (No, relax... not condoning violence as a solution here... just venting.)

I think I react poorly when I hear this sort of thing because I consider outdoor pursuits 'wholesome' and 'harmless' and the people that pursue them on average are just beautiful people that I would be happy to get to know better, and then someone comes along (frequently) and blows that all to hell... smashing windows and taking as they please...

So I wonder aloud here... what do you guys propose, and maybe as a community with collective voice we can coordinate a letter with signatures and direct it at someone that can make a change here. Has this or something similar been attempted before by CT?

Thoughts? Insights? Musings... ?

Trail Cameras might work, they're about $100, probably need 2 or 3 of them, if everyone chipped in $10 or something.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...G&Q=&A=details

not sure how well the picture would be at a distance, the text claims, shoots to 60 feet at night, not far really, especially if detail gets grainy. The flash also gives away its location, so a vandal may want to take down the cam.
Is this a one way road in? no loop? then a vehicle would be used further down to block the road once someone reports activity in the lot up higher. Its something authorities need to set up, as a nasty confrontation is likely.

This just keeps happening, over and over again. We have the same discussion (as AT says), nothing gets done, couple of months pass, rewind, rinse, repeat. Since authorities seem to have no success solving the problem, at the end hiker community will have to either address this on their own or bow and accept the tax (ditto for Elfin and couple of others)

Cheap cameras likely won't work, it is also a lot of work to keep the batteries charged and downloading recorded content.

Article from a mountain bike site on the cameras that were used on Fromme recently:
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/to-catc...teur-2015.html

Too bad this highway cam was not more useful...
http://images.drivebc.ca/bchighwayca...tml/www/4.html

If it provided clean, higher resolution photos at a higher frequently someone with some web skills could scrape the page and create a running archive of the images along with time stamps. And it needs to actually cover the entrance properly.

If they were upgraded or the number of cams increased to cover the main entrances to the hot spots? Does anyone here have any contacts in Ministry of Transportation that could provide some ideas/guidance in helping to influence change?

OR

The province can re-introduce parking fees and provide a renta-cop over the high season? I would be happy to pay a couple bucks per visit as insurance against a much larger deductible fee. Why did the province lift the fees in the first place? 1 million dollars annually would do a lot towards maintenance and security and hire more rangers, maybe get a few roads plowed in the winter... etc...


Aside: sorry to rehash this conversation for the veteran CT'ers... I am hoping someone with opportunity or means reads this and may be able to weight in and provide some direction.

I wrote to Squamish Council a year or two ago. I shared my opinion that tourism is important to the local economy and that the area is at risk of getting a very bad reputation and then people will go elsewhere. Once it becomes common knowledge on forums like Trip Advisor that you are at an extremely high risk of getting your car broken into in this area, people will simply plan their Canadian vacations in other areas like the Rockies. It might cost a small amount of money to stop this crime today but it will cost a lot more money to try to repair our reputation if they let it continue.

We should be doing whatever we can to build a tourism industry in this province. It's a sustainable way to use our forests and mountains for economic growth.

As far as I can tell, no level of government (municipal or provincial,) gives a damn and the local residents aren't doing enough to raise the issue. If you are mad (and we should be,) then write to the Squamish Council, the Whistler Council, the RCMP and the provincial government and tell them to get their sh#@ together.

We have the technology (cameras, bait cars, bait property, etc.) and resources (I see many many cops every time I drive the sea to sky,) so there is no excuse for this to continue.

I just wrote to Squamish mayor and council. You can find their email addresses here. Now onto Whistler and RCMP. I would add BC Parks to the list of people we should be writing, perhaps even the Squamish newspaper.

This situation is so maddening. It feels like just a matter of time until I come back to a smashed car.
So, let's write. And does the RCMP do sit-downs with concerned members of the public?

And looky here, a response 2 mins later from Council.... so keep writing!

Response:

Thanks for writing and informing us of this. Once again. It's very distressing to myself as well. We are having ongoing conversations with RCMP

Peter H Kent | Councillor
District of Squamish | Hardwired for Adventure
604.389.8756 | pkent@squamish.ca<mailto:xxxxxxxx@squamish.ca> | www.squamish.ca<http://www.squamish.ca/>