Yeah Loz, it's all rubbed in.....

This is Loz. She's an exchange patroller from Australia. Keystone has a great exchange program with New Zealand and Australia.

On this morning Loz was putting on sun screen and asked me if it was all rubbed in. I said, "yeah Loz, it's all rubbed and I'll take a photo to show you".

What I love about Loz is her wonderful spirit for adventure. She patrols year round. During our summer she patrols in Australia and then exchanges during her summer. She said Chamonix was her favorite.

Also her hair looks like a rug because it's dreaded out with fabric.

What a sweetheart!!

Birthday on Patrol...

Well, yesterday was my birthday. I was dreading this day because, as I said in an earlier post, on your birthday the other patrollers tackle you at the end of the day and put you on a backboard and ski you to the locker room in a toboggan.

But before that happened, in the morning I was skiing down opening one of our trails. Over the radio came a call of a man sliding down River Run on his butt while a woman pink over gray was carrying his skis. So, I called back that I was near and I could check it out. Now at Keystone, there are so many bad skiers that this isn't out of the norm to find. Usually all it is is a taxi to the bottom.

So I skied up asking, "What's up, can I help you?"

The woman is freaking out and the man answers me with slurred words and says, " I can't feel my right side".

Wow....This is when I know something bad is happening. I quickly start asking him questions to find out the extent of his medical. He's 29, healthy, and has never had anything like this happen to him. He's scared, very scared. I get his history, allergies, meds, events. He says he had breakfast at McD's. So I use this to make him laugh. I just keep telling him it has to be the Egg McMuffin he had. He laughs and it calms him down.

At this point I call in the troops. I get on the radio giving my location, patient info, pulse, res, LOC, history and ask for a long board rig and an ER pack and any ALS person on the mountain. I also call for trauma activation (this gets the docs at the clinic ready for my arrival) and I put flights on stand by (this gets the helicopter guy's ready).

At this point other patrollers show up. I get one to put the patient on O's, another to get the rig ready and another to get the back board in place. I knew we need to get him to the clinic quick so he could get clot blocking drugs fast.

I was so proud of my crew, we got him boarded with O's and in the rig (the tobaggan) fast. I skied to the bottom with him and waiting was a Doo to pull me back up the hill to get to the point where I could then ski to the clinic. I skied into the clinic and waiting was the whole staff where they took him and began their work.

I haven't heard how he was but when I last saw him his friends were there and his wife was called and he seemed in good spirits. The clinic was sending him out in a trauma one ambi.

The whole day was crazy busy. For the day I had 1 stroke, 2 knees, 1 wrist, 1 shoulder and 3 taxi's.

All and all it was a good day and what was best is that no one found out it was my birthday and I escaped my back board and rig ride.

Merry Christmas.

Ok, so working on Christmas really sucks but working on Patrol on Christmas ain't bad at all. This is a picture of the Christmas tree we had in PHQ. Everyone had secret santa's. Mine made me cookies. Of course, I shared them with everyone.

The best radio call for the year came that night. A lift guy got on our radio channel about 6pm and screamed into the mic...." Patrol, patrol, someone in the terrain park is shooting rockets at people on the lift!!!!!!"

We head over there and what do we find?? A drunk kid skiing rails while holding a lit roman candle. Gawd, was that funny.

Only on Christmas and only during night ski.

Red Coat Party.....

Well, another great tradition is....The red coat ceremony.

This is when the entire 3 week rookie training is over and we all take the map test. The map test is a 400 question test that each rookie has to take to prove they know the mountain. If a rookie passes it then he or she gets their red coat.

It was a great party with lot's of insane things going on that I couldn't take pictures of....Just kidding.

It was funny, when the Patrol Director gave us all our red coats he said....all right, this is the only time you can wear your red coats in a bar so go out there pick up a girl. The girl in the top photo screamed," YES!!!!". She's gay and she told us all. It was funny, i guess you had to be there.

Full of traditions....

The wonderful thing about Patrol is all the wonderful traditions. One of the best is on your birthday you get tackled and put on a backboard. Then you're skied down in a tobagan and to the locker room where you're stood up with one arm released to drink your beer. And yes, it even happens to women.

These photo's are of Meghan. We all waited for her at the top of the Ruby lift, jumped her and back boarded her. The last I saw of her she was on her 4th beer in the locker room.

Gulp, my birthday is in 5 days!!!!

Chopper training.....

This is all of us getting helicopter evac training. At keystone there are so many bad wrecks (guest getting hurt) that we use helicopters all the time. That's what you get when you have a mountain full of Texans and Denver front rangers hitting trees.

Hero Shots.....

This is an early morning gathering for the Annual Team Photo.

Inside PHQ.

These are just random shots inside PHQ. We have to be dressed and ready in the locker room in order to get on first chair to get to the top PHQ for morning meeting.

K.A.T. Ski.....

This was a real treat. At Keystone we have a program called KAT....Keystone Adventure Tour. What it is is a program where we, the Patrollers, take guest into closed bowl powder skiing using snow cats. We run the program and we are the guides. On this day the Asst. Patrol Director took all us rookies out to Bergman Bowl to do ski cuts and just ski the powder.

As you see, we rookies have on our blue jackets over our red coats. We stay this way till we pass our 3 week rookie training.

My Buds....

These are my buds I was taking my medical course with. We're all rookies but we have fun. I'm on the right, Betsy in the middle and Mark on the left.

PHQ

This is the outside of Patrol Head Quarters. This is at the top of Dercum mountain. Keystone has 3 mountains (Dercum, North Peak and The Outback).

Well.......

It's been almost a month since my last post. I've been very busy with training class and even picking up a second job.

In the beginning I thought the 3 week training class was good but soon changed my mind. It seemed that much we, new patrollers, were learning was just redundant. Many of us went through the pre-season refresher which taught us all the same things we learned with the training class. Oh well, I don't make the rules, I just follow them.

This has been a fun time though. Working on skis is a nice way to make a living.

The following few post will be a series of photos I've taken this past month and this should catch me up.

The night before....

This is the night before I begin my first day as a ski patroller. It's funny, I've been on patrol before for another ski resort. I know what to expect but alas I'm still nervous.

I guess I just want to do a good job. I want to see what can come from this patrol this time.

I'll spend the next 5 months, the winter of 2005/2006, documenting "The Life and Times of a Rookie Ski Patroller".