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The tragedy that befell Gilles Blackburn and his wife during a disastrous backcountry ski venture in the B.C. Interior was their own fault, according to those implicated in a lawsuit launched by Mr. Blackburn and his two children.

In statements of defence filed in B.C. Supreme Court, the Golden search-and-rescue team, the RCMP and the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, where the couple had stayed, deny any responsibility for the loss of Mr. Blackburn's wife, Marie-Josée Fortin, who froze to death during the 10-day ordeal.

The main thrust of Mr. Blackburn's lawsuit is that officials were negligent in failing to launch a search-and-rescue mission despite the spotting of several large SOS signs stamped in the snow in the first week after the skiers became lost last February, and when Ms. Fortin was still alive.

Two days after Mr. Blackburn was found, with his wife dead, the local RCMP detachment admitted it had been wrong not to set a search in motion after the last of the SOS pleas had been seen.

In its statement of defence submitted to the court this month, however, the RCMP offered a different view.

The controversial decision to do nothing at the time was appropriate, according to the Mounties, given that the head of Golden search and rescue recommended no search, the couple had not been reported missing, no abandoned vehicles had been found and the SOS signs were said to be old.

Further, the RCMP says that the couple's own negligence "caused or contributed to [Ms. Fortin's]death."

The statement refers to: the couple's "deliberate choice" to ski outside marked ski runs, their failure to notify anyone of their plans, their lack of proper clothing, equipment and means of contacting others, and their decision to stray from the SOS signs "so that they could be rescued in a timely manner."

Similar observations are made in the defence statement filed by the Golden and District Search and Rescue Association.

Any injury or damages suffered by Mr. Blackburn and his children were caused "whole or in part by the negligence of Gilles Blackburn and/or the deceased," the search and rescue team says.

In addition to the incidents of alleged fault listed by the RCMP, the search-and-rescue statement mentions the couple's failure to walk back to the designated ski area "by following or closely following the tracks that they made when leaving," adding that Mr. Blackburn and Ms. Fortin "knew or ought to have known" that it was unsafe to ski outside the marked zone in the first place.

The Kicking Horse Mountain Resort also denied responsibility for the death of Ms. Fortin, 44, who succumbed two days before Mr. Blackburn, 51, was rescued, frostbitten but alive.

The story of the two Quebec skiers' desperate struggle to survive in the harsh, snowy, steep wilderness of the B.C. mountains captured national attention. Debate has raged ever since over the decision to ignore the large SOS signs.

In interviews not long after he returned to Quebec, Mr. Blackburn admitted some responsibility for the terrible outcome, agreeing the couple should not have skied out of bounds and should have been better prepared.

But he bitterly criticized search and rescue officials for not responding to the SOS pleas for help.

His lawsuit has caused consternation in B.C.'s search-and-rescue community, as volunteer teams learned they were not covered by provincial liability insurance. Many, including the Golden unit, stopped responding to rescue calls, for weeks.

The province's Emergency Program has now alleviated some of the concerns, but in Golden, the team is still boycotting road accident missions.

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