Photo: James Shalman, Apex Mountain Resort Apex Mountain Ski Resort general manager James Shalman is reminding the public that the hills are closed for a reason during the off-season, with gates to the top of the mountain and all access points around the controlled recreation area shut. Shalman said during the weekend of Aug. 3, one of the padlocks was cut and a couple was later spotted on their security cameras at the top of the mountain.
"We don't fully know what happened," Shalman said. "I did actually talk to the couple that were at the top of the mountain, and they said they did not cut the padlock. All we know is that one of our padlocks was cut.
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Just replacing a padlock is not a big deal. It's more about people cutting a padlock to get somewhere that they shouldn't, is more the principle of it." He said for the public's safety, in summer and in preparation for winter, Apex wants to make sure there is no tampering with the lifts, controls or infrastructure.
Two years ago, a group of people were caught on camera tampering with ski lift equipment. "We have a lot of machinery out there, and quite honestly, it's just not a safe place to be within our controlled recreation area when we're closed, just because our staff are not expecting anyone to be around a blind corner or over a knoll or whatever," Shalman said. "As an example, we'll have an excavator that'll be digging up a roadway, and you come around the corner in a vehicle and you're not expecting a massive 12-foot ditch to be there and you could actually get harmed yourself.
So it's for your own safety as well as the safety of our staff." As there are numerous no trespassing signs and gates with padlocks, people are asked to respect all closure area for everyone's safety. The couple that trespassed did apologize to Shalman and said they will respect the mountain limitations heading forward.
"There's a lot of beautiful forest service roads all around the Okanagan, and just go and enjoy one of the other beautiful viewpoints you can find and leave the viewpoint to top of Apex Mountain Resort for winter.".
