New edition to the Patrol, Ullr Fest, Zach's Birthday and Fun with the Rookies

The newest edition to the ski patrol is Thunder a 3 month old black lab. He's adorable and is going to save your life one day. He's currently learning the mountain and being a general goodwill ambassador for us. As Tahoe's Place for Kids, we needed a puppy on site. His radio number is 5K9, although 501 usually answers for him. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this but all of DP's patrollers' radio numbers are in the 500 range. 501 is the boss 520 starts the volunteers and 500 means you're training to be a volunteer and you say your name after you say 500, such as currently 500 Ian.

Ullr Fest, a celebration of the Norse God of Snow was the other weekend. It's a fundraising weekend for the Ski Team (DP Ski Education Foundation or DPSEF) starting with a torchlight parade down Lower Showoff (also want to mention, it didn't bring any snow). There were all sorts of events to have fun with and make money plus the popular excuse to dress up! I don't know if I'm a little biased or what but I know that Dennis would've won best dressed if that was a contest! Second and Third places to Sabrina and Gordon which means Ski Patrol sweeps the medal stand! I guess that's why I don't judge many events at DP.

Monday was Zach's birthday, he has the honorary radio number of 501.5 (501 being his father and our fearless leader). We all pooled some money together for presents and also went climbing at High Altitude Fitness. They have a pretty good climbing wall and a bouldering area, it's perfect for me as a beginner and they have some tougher routes for those that can (508). I hope that Z had fun and also enjoys his toys (no shooting the dog with air soft pellets!). Also, I know that he would enjoy having more presents and is currently registered at REI!

It's not all fun and games around here, we're still doing medical and toboggan training (the scratch on my chin proves toboggan training). Thomas C and Drew planned a surprise scenario with Robby and Erik where Drew had chest pains after skiing down the Flume. Thomas said he was running down to the base area to grab lunch. We all knew it was fake when Drew, sounding distressed, called for help on the radio. The only two people left in the shack were Robby and Erik so they responded. 'Knowing' that the shack would be left on 'auto-piloit' we sent a person over to cover Eagle's Nest in case a second accident was reported. Too bad on the way, she found an injured person and was unable to cover EN. This was fake also but caused myself to 'respond' with a toboggan. All available help was tied up although Thomas was heading up from the lodge along with Devin from about the same location. The two boys had to handle it on their own. In all reality, Devin and Thomas were waiting to load the chair but were waiting until both Rookies were on scene so they wouldn't ruin the scenario by getting back to the top too soon. Ethan, as always, randomly showed up on scene. He does that and has been on more accidents out of colors than he has while in them. But back to 'reality', Drew was such a good actor that they thought that this was real until they got to the bottom and didn't see the ambulance. They did a great job saving Drew's life and I commend them on acting coolly when running on one of our own.



The other fun we had with rookies is with our not so rookie. Corben left his skis outside, the problem with a crew that's like family is that we feel comfortable playing pranks on each other. I hope he learns his lesson about leaving his skis outside when he's done for the day! No harm to the skis in question Corben if you're reading this before you see them. But I would definitely get to work on Saturday a little early because we have races. 

what happens when you leave your skis outside



See you on the mountain

505!

PS. BTW, we posted two posters at the lodge and have gotten two responses on them, a medic/ER trauma RN and another interested individual named Tony (i forgot the RN's name, sorry James?). The first guy from December never responded to my e-mail. I hope I wrote it correctly, but I figure if he's really interested he could always call the mountain.

Wow, how the time flies!

So, I know I was going to update this often but... I've been slacking. The following post is about 15 days late! Sorry about that. I'll try to make at least one post a week.

So where to start? Well, we had a record breaking Christmas day. One thing that's nice about Diamond Peak is that it's never really busy. Even though the line looks long it only takes about 5-10 minutes to get on the chair.

One crazy thing about the holidays is dealing with people who don't think through their actions. 13 people in a short 1 hour period all made bad decicions (and I'm only guessing it was one hour, who knows when some of these people went to the top!). Person number one, decided to ski out of bounds and got lost out of Solitude Canyon, this happened near closing and we still had a mountain to close. Luckily for everybody involved we had cell phone contact with him and we let him know how to get out to the road. As we were closing upper mountain we came upon 11 people struggling down, most were walking, others were struggling and a few others were laughing at their friends. I'm not sure exactly how long it took for them to get down but as I was waiting for them at the bottom of Lakeview Run, where we shooed them all to, they were walking from the top of the run. Some were more 'advanced' then others and when they made it to Freeway they were able to ski down. As this group was making their way down, the guy in Solitude made his way to the road and was picked up by the mountain manager (I'm sure they had a plesant conversation). At this time I'm a little frustrated that my headlamp is in my rescue pack in the car and not in my day bag with me. By the time the large group made it to the top of Freeway (at which point they continue walking), we get another report that there's a missing person, this time someone skiied under the rope from Eagle Bowl and was heading down to the Ponderosa Ranch (yeah, the one from the Bonanza). So FINALLY these walkers get down off the hill and Dennis and Corben go back up on the mountain to find the kid. Luck was with us again because he too had a cell phone and we were able to talk to him.

Also something about cell phones is knowing a few numbers by heart. A couple days ago we picked up a guy in the terrain park who hurt his back. He hurt it pretty badly and refused transport by ambulance, wanting his wife to drive him instead. The ambulance insisted, but they can't kidnap the guy. Unfortunatly for him he didn't know her cell phone number because it was in his cell phone. Guess where his phone was? Yep, in the wife's car, where were the keys? On her person. I'm sure you can see the dilema. Our mountain is small but it's amazing how big it can get when you're looking for one generic person. Four hours later, he's still sitting in the patrol room in incredible pain and we finally find his wife getting on the tram. Geez!

As far as the rookies go, they're in red now! They passed the sled test and medical tests then hiked Luggi's to get their jackets. They're excited to be full fledged patrollers and not be teased by everybody for being in a different uniform. I'll post a picture of them together soon (pictures are hard right now because I only have a camera phone). We're still training and we gave one of them a tree well/knee with spinal precaution scene. The 'patient' was altered and combative - real fun scene to work.

I'm sure each patroller has one story of something that's happened where they have that moment 'yeah, this is why i'm patrolling'. Sure, you like skiing and helping people out but where's that 'ah ha' moment? I might have mentioned that for me is was a four hour search my rookie year. For my buddy Ethan he said that it was a 'midnight' powder run after we weren't utilized in a search. (BTW, I was there and I'm pretty sure it wasn't midnight when we skied down.) And for Corben it might have been him hanging out of a chair and cutting down an unruly tree (pics to come). If you're out there reading this, let me know what your moment was.

Wear some sunscreen and pray for snow!