A Ski Patroller's Life: Day 1, After 25 Years

Today was very special.

After last Patrolling 25 years ago, I officially started the journey back to official Patrollerdom today with what's known as the "on-hill orientation".

During college, Penn State's nearest hill was 450 feet of vertical bliss. College was tough in so many ways. Financially, emotionally, academically, it was a real struggle . . . and then I began skiing. Somehow, all of the troubles just went away and so, when I had the chance to actually ski-for-free well, I leaped at it. I don't recall what it was called back then, but the medical component was a snap, the on-hill training was a blast and the 4 years that I spent patrolling was the best time of my life.

Once I left Happy Valley, while I continued to actively ski, I didn't make the opportunity to get back involved with the National Ski Patrol; instead, choosing to build my career, get married to an amazing woman, help raise two fabulous daughter's and in general, live my life . . . but it was always back there; I wanted to Patrol again.

This past fall, the Hidden Valley Ski Patrol near St. Louis conducted another of its Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC) courses and I got up the guts to participate. My business partner, while silent about my "distraction" had to be wondering what the heck I was doing.

Only 2 weeks prior to the start of OEC, he and I left the Technology and Communications Consulting company we had been running for a Venture Capital Investment company and decided to make money for ourselves. So, right in the midst of that upheavel, I started OEC.

But, the timing was right and I needed Patrolling back in my life. My daughter's are now both old enough to have their own lives and in an amazingly cool twist of fait, they're both amazing snowboarders. My oldest daughter Kimmy really started us all back to the hills, Katie and I followed and this past spring we took a 10 day vacation together to Vail, Breck, Keystone, etc...

That's when I really caught the bug, skiing in the big west on real mountains with real deep snow, real long trails and big vertical...and red coats everywhere.

So, throughout the spring and summer, in parallel with the changes in my professional life, I got prepared for the Patrol.

So, after 18 weeks, about 200 hours of class and independent studying and an all-day written and practical test, I somehow passed the OEC with a 97%. Yeah, I know . . . I'm a freak that way.

So this morning, the day I've waited 25 years for, I began my journey back to becoming a Basic Patroller. Right now, I'm an auxilliary patroller with all of the rights and priviledges of a Basic Patroller except I can't handle the toboggan/sled with patients onboard, or in reality, I just can't handle the sled, at all. And, that's what this course of the training is all about; improving ski skills, learning new skills and learning the sled.

Three days ago, it snowed about 6 inches in St. Louis and as I got to the hill this morning, I was met with that wonderful "foggy, snowy, slightly stingy and moist" feeling in the air that I absolutely love so much. It was perfect and silent and still and amazing.

As

my ears got attuned to the silence, I could hear the low droaning of the snow blowers in the distance. I was so darn psyched.

Hung out, met people as they arrived and eventually settled-in for the orientation being led by two of the Senior Patrollers,

Dave and Jim. These two are SERIOUS dudes. Jim (on the right, in the picture on the right) has "been there and done that" from the big hills in the West, to the East Coast and now in St. Louis. You can tell he knows his craft. Dave is a "lifer" having been involved with the St. Louis ski-scene since it's inception and having been a Patroller for 2 decades. Interesting how quickly 'trust' can be built between a teacher and their students . . . I trust these guys, they're going to get us all there.

This is,

I think, Gene (I'll correct this if that's wrong), and he's a real patroller's patroller. I forget the name of his designation, but there are only 4 of them on the St. Louis Patrol (out of about 200 Patrollers) and he's been involved with our hill and the Patrol for 25 years. I'm going to need to get to know him alot better in the coming months and years. He seems super knowledgeable, more than willing to teach and help and in general a really good guy.

During the OEC refresher for current patrollers, I got to be at his station and really enjoyed listening to and working with him. Man, I hope his name is Gene.

Speaking of "all of us", a bunch of the OECer's from the Fall, 2006 class (mine) are now taking on-hill:

Brent is a real bud...he's a real good shit and has one of those fun-serious attitudes that is just a joy to be around. In real life he's a detective (cop) and a shredder on the hill. He claims to be able to ski, but I can tell he's got snowboard written all over him. Really looking forward to being in class with him again, and patrolling with him in the future...he's going to be one of those life-long buds, I fear!

Julie is one of those super nice friendly types with a long pedigree of Patrollers around her. Her father is the Fire Chief of one of the really big cities that surround St. Louis, her brothers and most of her friends are EMT/Patrollers and she's got one of those super infectious personalities that's just really fun to be around. Plus, she attends high school with one of the best softball players to ever have come out of St. Louis. In, a really neat human being.