Friends don't let friends wear NEON.

Holy smoke....we couldn't miss this guy when he skied by.

I was on North Peak yesterday and when I saw this guy i had to get a picture. I think he loved his gear because he posed proudly.

All i said to him was, "Hey i thought friends don't let friends wear neon".

Ahhhhhhh........it fells good. Today is my friday and today is my Birthday.

Look who got hurt....and on his Birthday!!!!

Ok, Ok....this isn't Jesus.

All the nurses and staff at the clinic were all screaming " no, no, Jesus you can't get hurt on your Birthday". Check it out, the Nurse has a hat on that reads "Angel".

This guy is CD Shrack. He's one of the coolest and nicest guys on patrol. He hurt his rotator cuff on Christmas day.

Heal thy Self!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!

This is my tree.

It has all that i need. It has my favorite VW Van ornament and my other favorite ornament, it's one with a little black baby giving a thumbs up saying Christmas 2000 (hmmm...i wonder who gave that to me). If you look closely you can see the Praying Mantis Angel at the top. He really makes the tree.

It also has a picture of the two most beautiful children in the world, Anders and Elsie.

Annnnnnn, it has the required bowl of Hershey Kisses sent to me by Carol.

So, anyone and everyone reading this blog.....Merry Christmas and have a great holiday.

Funny white crosses all over it????

Shoot, the other night i broke the binding on my ski.

I was doing night ski and was sent to help with a skier verses tree. Man, you never know what you're going to roll up on when you get that call.

Anyway, i helped to backboard this guy who broke the upper part of his clavical, a place that i can't even come close to spelling. He lost the use of his right arm but, i think, with rehab he'll get use back.

I go to put on my ski and "POP" there goes my binding. So i walk down to bottom of the closest lift and call up to PHQ. We have taxi's all the time for guest. When we call for them we have to describe the skier, "female skier, purple over black, needs a taxi".

So i call up asking for a taxi and said "it's a male skier red over black with funny white crosses all over it".

The snow was tasty today....

What a day.

Great snow and even greater skiing. Skiing today was like skiing on a staircase filled with pillows.

The first picture was this morning when i got to North Peak PHQ and the next was 1 hr later and the next was 3 hrs later. I think we were getting over an inch per hour.

The total for the day was 8 or 9 inches.

What the heck!!!!!!

I don't know what the heck is up with this picture. The 2 'trollers are Mark and Coop. Coop's head was doing something funny.

I wish i could have taken a picture of the 15 year old boys arm i splinted today. Let's just say it looked like a mini roller coaster. The cool thing was that the kid was so tough.

Wow......check it out!!!!!

That's what the students of an avalanche i was helping to teach this weekend said when they saw this slide happen right in front of them.

This winter i'm helping to teach several avalanche classes through Aspen Alpine Guides ( www.aspenalpine.com ) and 10th Mountain Huts ( www.huts.org ).

On friday night Scott Messina, owner of Aspen Alpine Guides, said....let's take the class to an avalanche path near the hut because i bet we'll see a slide or can get one going. Well, as soon as we got to the slide path, on saturday morning, one was set off. The class was amazed, they thought Scott had thrown some swith.

Stuff like that happening make these classe great for the students.

In the picture you can see the crown of the slide and it ran about 200ft. The other picture is of the class on our way out of the hut on sunday.

Reflections of a ski patrol.

I love this picture. Me, Mark Cafiero ( www.markcafierophoto.com ), and Chavez were standing in front of a pair of goggles and Mark snapped this shot. Mark's an amazing photographer and has a impressive way of looking at the world. He also makes photography his business in case anyone reading this blog is getting married.

Skinning up in the morning.

I love to skin, hike, up to the top of the mountain for morning meeting. It's great excercise and the peacefulness is a blessing.

This is a picture of me this morning with an amazing sunrise as i make my way up the mountain.

I like the frost on my shirt and hat. It was dang cold.

A life extraordinary.

Death on the mountain.

On Sunday we had a skier die on Keystone. I wasn't working so i wasn't part of it.

I heard early monday morning on the radio. When i got to work soon after it was the main topic at the morning meeting. The kid was 20 years old and from Denver.

My buddy josh, who you can see so happy in the photo of him in the Tucker, was first on scene. That's a hard place to be and he took it very hard. Josh is top notch and he did everything he could to help the kid. He told me the story and i could tell it was hard for him.

Another patroller, who was off that day, said she saw it happen whle she was skiing. The kid was skiing at a high rate of speed and just lost control. She said she saw a cloud of snow and soon saw Josh get on scene. The kid hit a tree head first and didn't have a chance.

I just wish people would slow down a bit and enjoy the pleasure of turning their skis.

Gluttony at it's best.

Sooooo...everyday when the mountain closes the resturant above PHQ sends down all that was not consumed by the wonderful guest. Well, as you can see it doesn't look all that appetizing. The thing is, it does get eaten.

Last year i left Patrol with a few extra pounds. Not this year.....I refuse to eat any of this CRAP this year.

I'm doing good.

The other picture i'm not sure what's going on.

Imperial Bowl......GOOD, GOOD!!!!

Me and my bro Steven on the top of Imperial Bowl gettin' ready to HUCK THE CORNICE!!!

Yeeeeehaaaaaaaaa!!!

It was beautiful up there but i must say it has nothing on Highland Bowl at Aspen Highlands.

Imperial Bowl...BAD, BAD!!!!

Look what that dang bowl did to my ski. Can you say, CORE SHOT!!! She's getting fixed by the best ski tech in Breck......Pups Glide Shop.

What to do on my day off??? Hmmmm?????

I have a very good friend visiting me and staying with me. We played in the backcountry today. The skin up Dry Gulch to the saddle next to Mt. Bethel was fantastic. It was about 12, 200ft.

Now the ski down was another story. Let just say it was survival skiing.....but it was ton's of fun

The picture is of me and Steven somewhere on the mountain.

Fill'er up with Ethel and check under the hood......

The Tucker makes the blog again this year.

Today was a great day. The sky was blue, the temps were warm and i was on a great wreck.

I was skiing down Mozart Flats when i came upon a snowboarder laying on his back against one of our snowmaking hydrants. It didn't look good. I start to question him and he said a skier hit him and he hit the hydrant. He was complaining of neck and lower back pain.

When a person complains of neck and back pain you call for the backboard and O2. When they hit one of our hydrants you call an Accident Investorgator. When they say they want to talk to their Lawyer you call everyone and anyone in charge.

Well this guy, once i got him down to the clinic, said he wasn't going to sign anything until he spoke to his Lawyer.

The great part of this wreck was that we got to use the Tucker. Look at the pictures. Just that morning Josh Thompson, the guy in the photos, and I were talking about using the Tucker. He loves it and loves to drive it. I knew when i radioed for a backboard and O2 that Josh would be there fast which meant that he would be the driver. After it was over we had to take her to get filled up with fuel. I said, fill'er up with ethel and check under the hood.

Josh is awesome. He's young and he loves life. Everyother word is "SWEET" or "SICK". He's great to work with.

How many first outs does it take to........

At Keystone Ski Patrol we have a system called first out. What this is is a way to always have at least 3 patrollers ready to respond to any emergency. In front of the dispatch window are chairs where you sit if you're not on a work project. The patroller in the first chair will be called on first, hence the first out chair.

Today the dispatch wasn't keeping an eye on the chairs and let the patrollers stack up a bit. We actually didn't have enough chairs for all the patrollers in PHQ. Everyone was laughing so hard that when the dispatcher saw us he just said, "first 12 go out and ski and make nice with the public".

It's Monday, it was kind of a weird day.

I thought patrollers took the chair lift to go to work????

The race training on North Peak ( Keystone has 3 peaks) ended today. Which means that it's the last day that we who are stationed there has to be up top by 7am. The lifts on the front side don't run that early.

So how do we and the racers get there??? By car silly!!!!

The Keystone gulch road stays packed by us driving on it. We use chains but the racers don't. You should see how they drive the free Chevy Suburbans given to them. Man, it's like watching a commercial.

Anyway, it's fun.

The photos are of Matt driving and Mark driving shotgun. I'm in the back seat where it's safe. Marks an awesome photographer. If you need wedding photos are any other photos Mark's your man. Check out his web sites..... http://www.sixpeeps.com/ and http://www.cafierophoto.com/

COLD, COLD DAY!!!!

I woke up this morning to the thermometer in my car reading -18 degrees.

Yikes............funny things happen on mornings like that. Things like, my car makes funny noises, dash board lights flash weirdly, it hurts when you breath through your nose and many more things.

I was working on North Peak today and had to be on the mountain at 7am. The reason is yesterday and today Bode Millers wax techs were testing waxes on an area called Mozart Flats. It's interesting to watch. We pull his techs up the flats, they put on one pair of about 15 pairs of skis and make runs through timing gates.

Everything works fine till one goofball patroller skis through the gates and in their tracks. Hehe, by the way, that patroller was me. Oh man, i was laughing hard. Hey, when Bode starts winning medals I'll stop skiing in their test track. anyway, i thought my skis ran fast for not being tuned since the middle of last year.

So i would have gotten pix of all this but my camera froze. So the only pix i have are up by North Peak PHQ. The day was cold but amazingly beautiful and it did warm up to +7 degrees.

Ok, tomorrow i head up to the Estin Hut to help out teaching an avalanche course over the weekend. If the camera doesn't freeze I'll snap some pix.

Slip sliding away....

The NORAM ski races are at Kestone this week.

After the morning meeting we had to slip the race course. Hey, what can i say.......patrol does everything.

A 'trollers day off.

This is Craig Simson. He's our Asst. Patrol Director. A super cool guy and a great manager. Here he is on his day off with his little girls.

They do say that patrollers get the chicks!!!

The Blueberries are back...

Today was the first day for the new crop of rookies to work. You can tell them apart by the blue jackets they have to wear and the frightened look on their faces.

All i can say is, I'm sure glad I don't have to go through that again.

Cotton kills!!!!

During the winter I'm going to help teach several avalanche classes. Our first one starts next weekend. These classes are being done through 10th Mtn. Huts but with the help of Aspen Alpine Guides who i also work for. Check out their web site........ http://www.aspenalpine.com/

Today, i went up to the Sangree Hut outside Leadville to pick up some Avalanche teaching tools. It was a nice morning but it began to snow, which we need badly. I like the self photo of me wearing all the cotton.

Do as i say, not as i do!!!!

A slow start......

I've been on patrol for 2 day now and I'm just getting around to posting my Chronicles.

Sorry 'bouts that.

Let's see, not much has happen. I started work on Wednesday the 22nd and it was like any other patrol day. I was part of an M.I., 2 head injuries and many many taxi's.

The M.I. began with a guy walking up to us saying......"hey, I'm sure it's nothing but, I'm having trouble breathing and my arms are numb". Yeeeeah, they always start that way. We got him down to the clinic and flown to Denver where he crashed in flight but was brought around and ultimately lived and i hear is doing well.

Thursday, Thanksgiving, i was on North Peak. The middle mountains can be very slow. This was one of those day's. The picture i posted is what i thought was going to be my Thanksgiving dinner. Well, to my surprise, the restaurant at the Outpost was giving all Patrollers a free turkey dinner. Let me tell you, it was good and very plentiful.

Monday i begin a new week. Let's see if i can get it more exciting.

The Beginning of a winter.

It's now mid November and the snow is falling. Looking out my window I see strong winds blowing snow in circles.

What does all this mean?

The new patrol year is upon us.

On November 4-6 we had our medical refresher. The picture above shows Keystone's new C.O.O, Pat somebody and Mountain Manager, Chuck Tolton. It was nice to catch up and see how the summer was for everyone. We also got to hear what was new for Keystone for this winter. We have approval to open 300 more acres of north facing terrain. This gives Keystone over 3000 acres. The new terrain is Independence Bowl. We'll have Cat skiing as well as hike to and hike out skiing. There's also many other improvements that I'll report as I see them.

All in all this is shaping up to be a great year of skiing.

The end of a winter.....

Outside the temperatures are 50 degrees and puddles of water mixed with mud are everywhere.

Yesterday was my last day on Keystone Ski Patrol.

It was a great year. I met and played with some truly wonderful people. I learned a lot and laughed a lot.

Today I get on a plane for India. To me that's what living in a ski town is all about. You work hard in season and travel out of season.

I will be back on Patrol next year and this blog will continue. Till then, I hope everyone has wonderful spring, summer and fall.

"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page". ~St. Augustine

See you next winter,

James

"Kelly the Krusher" and "Meagan the Masher".

You can't really make out the photo but if you could you'd see the two reigning Ski Patrol Jello Wrestling World Champs. They're holding the championship belt, with pride, high over their heads.

Tomorrow is the start of the Pro Patrol Party in Crested Butte. Every year one patrol is the host for this crazy drunk fest. The year Keystone hosted the party we had jello wrestling. I believe Kelly destroyed the competition.

I think she'll do the same this year.

Check out this Bad Boy!!!!

We call it the "Tucker".

As you can see it's a go anywhere med-evac. Next year we at Keystone Ski Patrol will use this alot. Mainly we'll use it for getting hurt guest out of the back mountains. We'll be able to pick them up, transport them down the Gulch Rd, which is snow covered, and then drive it on the road to the clinics front door.

I got to take'er for a spin yesterday and man was it fun.

My sweetie came to visit me....

This is Lucy. She lives in Boulder. She stayed with me all last week and was with me everywhere i went.

I think she had an exciting week. She met all the avi dogs and all the shop dogs. I think her favorite thing to do was play with the 20 or so dogs at Carter park and watch the sledders screaming down the hill.

What i do when i'm not on patrol.....

Well, it's the rare patroller that can only work patrol and not have another job.

This is my other job. When i leave patrol i go to Wilderness Sports and install bindings and wax skis. This is my work bench there.

Not a bad job and the people i work with are nice.

Denver Extreme....Ski Championships!!!

Just when you think there isn't much left to write about with patrol....... in walks these guys.

I guess every year for patrol and only patrol, the Denver Extreme was create. It's an extremo ski comp to see which patroller is the baddest. These guys just huck themselves off what ever they can find. One actually used a sled and went down "Little Taos". I think it's 50 degrees.

In my opinion, all the Keystone Patrollers are bad ass. They all ski to the max, on the fringe. But these guys get the prize.

The one in the pink tou tou is Brad. He came into PHQ after the comp and there were ski school kids there......let's just say they didn't know what to say. The kids ultimately started hitting him. The problem was they're short and his protection was all high. Brad is how speaking with a high pitch.

Dispatch anyone???? Anyone????

This is our dispatch center at PHQ.

It's, kind of, the nerve center for the mountain. I did it the other day and it was fine...But very crazy busy!!

It's like a chess game where the injuries and mountain operations are the pieces.

The latest from my Jones Gulch adventure.....

These are some of the 19 cartoons that were drawn up over me getting lost on my Bergman Bowl sweep.

Oh man, some of these get me laughing my butt off.

My favorite one is the one with me standing there holding my butt and saying " where am I?" and "Why does my butt hurt?" In the same cartoon is a UFO and the ET's are saying "We love rookies".

The other good one is me in Jones Gulch next to the cabin I found and in it is the guy that was lost early in the season who had the gun. I come up to the cabin and the guy pulls his gun on me saying "get lost, I was here first". If you look close you can see Elmo hanging in the tree. Remember on closing sweeps Elmo is hidden and the patroller who finds him gets a free breakfast.

Gawd, these were funny.

They call what I did a "Cartoonable offence". On patrol if you make a mistake this is the kind of mistake you want to make.

How do you know when spring break done spring broke??

When you get a dad and his son walk in to PHQ looking for help, the twist is they walked in with their skis on.

Seriously, look at the photo and look at their feet!!!

So, it was Monday and many of us are eating lunch. It was a very snowy day and the winds were hard. Someone opened the door to PHQ and kept it opened. We all turned to tell whoever it was to shut the door and keep the snow outside. As we turn our heads we see it's this father and son annnnnnnd....THEY HAVE THEIR SKIS ON!!!!!!!

We couldn't believe it. All we could do was start laughing and grab our cameras. The dad and son must have thought we were all crazy.

Anyway, the kid lost a pole. We fixed him up and had them SKI out of PHQ.

Oh man, do you see some funny things on Patrol.

Avalanche class or a Seance????

I spent the weekend taking an Avalanche II class from my great buddy Scott. His lady, Debby, was an instructor too. What a great time just to be in the backcountry with friends. I miss that.

The class was great and I learned a lot. Scott I know you'll read this so I gotta tell you......Your truly are a great teacher.

Check out the fun pix. I love the one of Scott using the Ouija board to forecast avalanches. That needs to go on his web site. The other pix are of me digging a test pit and of the group doing the same.

The Humble Man......

" It is the wise man walks with his head bowed".

I love this quote. It's from the 60's TV show " Kung Fu".

I never missed an episode of this show when I was growing up. I found seasons 1 and 2 on DVD and bought them. They're packed with amazing wisdom.

We should all strive to be humble.

Wax race anyone?

Might be wondering why we are all lined up here?

Well, at the end of sweeps (the end of the day) we all meet up at this point on the mountain. This way we all know we're all down with no problems. This is the last pitch to the locker room so we race to it.

This is the Wax Race. We line up, someone yells "GO", we each get one hip thrust and off we go. I think the winner just get's bragging rights.