Home away from home.

At Keystone Patrol every patroller is issued a locker. It's kinda their home away from home. It has a place for skis, boot dryer, a place to hang your uniform and most importantly, a place for your beer mug.

In the beginning of the year rookies had to share a locker. Was that a pain in the ..........!!

This is mine.

It doesn't stink, but the year isn't over .

Why so sad Loz?? Be happy it's your birthday!!

As I've wrote before at Keystone patrol there is a great tradition. On your birthday you get backboarded, put in a rig, and skied to the bottom of the mountain.

Well, poor Loz told some patrollers that she was going to sneak out early on her birthday. We all got wind of this plan so we got her at lunch time.

The pictures show the story. We backboarded her, skied her around the mountain and left her on one of the picnic table rail slide in our A51 terrain park. It just so happened that the table was under one of the most busy lifts.

You gotta love the tape on her saying "kiss me , it's my birthday". I also love the tape in an X over her privates..heehee.

All in all, she was a good sport.

We do love Loz.

Scooter Patrol.

This is a slope cycle. One of the patrollers is a sponsored rider for this thing. He actually rode it in X-Games.

I think it would be interesting if he was allowed to ride in uniform.

Oh well!!

Rookie Party!!! Rookie Party!!!

Ok, I figured out what it means when my camera has a blinking red light. It means the batteries are low.

So I only got 2 pics of the party before my camera stopped working.

The party was at a bowling alley and the rookie put it on for the whole patrol. It one of those traditions and it's a good one.

Some people dressed up, as you can see.

Late in the night the bowling alley called the cops on us. They promised us 5 kegs and only gave us 4 and so we got a little rowdy. Some even started to play strip bowling. Anyway, the cops showed up, talked to us and they told the bowling alley that they better give us what they promised our it might get ugly.

They finished that last keg in about 40 min. Then it was over.

By the way, I think there was also about 60 pizza's too.

Kenya the wonder Avi dog.

This is a picture of Kenya. She's one of our 3 avalanche dogs.

I have to say, i like having the dogs around but i really like it when they sit in our "out" chairs. I think they feel left out when they're not around us.

Desire.

I'm in the middle of planning my trip to India.

I think the problem I have is the country is so vast. I want to spend time in the northern mountains but I also want to visit all the temples and spiritual places.

The place where Buddha found enlightenment is called, Bodh Gaya. That's one place I can not miss.

I still think a lot of what Buddha said, " The cause of all suffering is desire".

I think he was right but how does one rid themselves of all desire?? How do you do this and not seem as though you don't care? I feel this is possible but maybe it's other people who perceive you as non-caring.

Hmmmmm????

Garrett, if you have any insight to this let me know.

Diggin' Pits....

Last week we had a day in the field learning avalanche skills. This was us digging a pit to gain data about the snow pack. We found an amazingly strong base with a bit of weakness on top. At least that's what it was at this site.

I got to use my new snow saw that my great friend Scott gave me for Christmas. Thanks tons Scott!!

Kelly Deeter was our instructor and she's one of the lead Avi Techs for Keystone Patrol.

Who's this????????

It's me!!!!

Now i just need to figure out how to put it on my profile.

What's C.D. trying to say to me?????

Or is he saying it to Megan who's bugging the heck out of him.

Hmmmmmm??????

DEF-CON 1!!!!!! DEF-CON 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow....Some days just seem nuts on Keystone Patrol and yesterday was one of them.

We have 10-50's (simple knee injuries) and 10-33's (call in the helicopter this person's hurt). Well, yesterday I was on a 10-33 on one of our big jumps in the terrain park. This guy flew off the biggest jump and landed straight on his head. He was unconscious, combative and blood everywhere.

What was cool was we all worked like a very well oiled machine. We had five patrollers working on him all at once and 2 getting the double rig together. A double rig is when we hook two normal sleds together , 1 for the patient and 1 for two patrollers to keep working on him as we slide him to the clinic. We got this guy to the clinic where he was flown to a Denver Hospital.

After this was over me and another patroller where heading up the lift and saw a guy hit a picnic table and slide under it. We went down to help a patroller that was 1st on scene. What was funny was when we were backboarding him and getting him from under the table a call came over the radio from a patroller, Mark, that there was a guest skiing another guest down river run in one of our rescue sleds.

At this point all we could do was start laughing. How could you not. Also we were doing Gang Groom (day time grooming of the slopes) which takes many patrollers. So we were slammed!!!

Def-Con 1!!!!!! Go to Def-Con 1!!!!!!

The picture above was taken of a light board that was made as a joke and hangs in PHQ. It even has a buzzer. It's a joke but yesterday we could have gone to Def-Con 1. You can't read it but under Level 1 it say's...." May god have mercy on our souls".

Uhhhhhhh....Is it jello??

So every morning on patrol we have to do trail openings. All it's about is skiing a run to make sure it safe for our guest to ski it.

Well, the other day while one patroller was opening a run he found a can of something. He brought it back to PHQ and started this guessing game. One guess, one dollar. Everyone had about an hour to place their guess. I think about 12 patrollers took a shot. When everybody's guess was in it was time to open the can.

Pop.........What the hell is that crap???

After much sniffing and poking and staring in awe someone had to eat it. Yikes, who would it be? Kelly Deeter to the rescue.

As you can see from the look on her face, the contents weren't all that tasty. But alas, it was decided the contents were some kind of tuna salad. Someone guessed tuna and he won.

Honestly, we actually do real work on patrol.

By the way, my guess was chocolate pudding.

E-Mail anyone????

I was going through all my photo's and found this one. I always thought it was funny.

This is a picture taken at Everest Base Camp. We were climbing Lhotse and this was a rest day. On rest day's the only thing to do is goof around, play hearts or play chess.

Most of the Everest teams had huge camps....Little cities. They all had satellite dishes, generators, espresso machines, computers and DVD players. Well, we had to make fun of them.

Our camp was set up right at the base of the Khumbu Ice Falls. So, all the other teams had to go through our camp to get on the mountain. We set up our own Sat dish that we made out of pork and bean cans and string. What's funny is we actually had some trekkers come up one day asking if they could send an e-mail.

Oh yeah, the guy in the picture is Gary, our expedition leader.

Ok, Ok, I admit, I did enjoy the movie nights at the camp of the blind climber.

Bucket O' Gout!!!!

What a great photo. In the patrol headquarters we have a line of chairs. When your in there and can go out for an injury or a project you sit in the chairs. The person in the first chair is called, first out.

Well, right by the chairs is where everyone puts their cup for water or coffee. This one patroller has this huge mug. We all thought it was funny that we put that label on it.....Bucket O' Gout. What I think is the best is that he drinks out of the mug with a heart shaped straw.

So funny.

The Outback ain't just in Australia....

At Keystone the mountain that's furthest from the front of the resort is called The Outback. It's height is 12, 408 feet. I love working back there. It's kinda remote and the views are incredible.

As you can see from the pics, the patrol shack is truly a shack. It's perfect for me.

The one patroller trying to pose is named Gizmo. We named her that because no one can pronounce her last name. It's Gamitrio....I can pronounce it but I still like calling her Gizmo.

The present.

"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future,
concentrate the mind on the present moment."

-Buddha-

Boy, is this not the best quote.

I think it's hard not to dream. Where would man be without hope and dreams. I think it is important to not dwell or live in the past or the future but to dwell or live in the present.

Never forget the past, think about the future but LIVE in the present.

This is so funny......

There's a patroller named Ty. Last week he lost the gas cap to one of the snowmobiles. How everyone explained to him the importance of not losing a gas cap was by making up cartoons about him. Some of these were pretty funny.

The great thing was that Ty was off after losing the cap and when he got back this shrine of cartoons was staring him in the face. He has a good sense of humor......Most on patrol have a good sense of humor.

Bring on the grub!!!!!

Keystone has night skiing and we close the slopes at 9 pm. Once a week all patrollers have to work a night shift. Mine is on Sunday nights and, I must say, I have the best group for my night ski.

We all try to do something fun or goofy during our shift. This past Sunday we had....Pot luck dinner. We all brought something to share. Man, the spread was huge. The food just kept coming out of everyone's packs.

Here's a photo of the start of the buffet.

A good week.....

Mostly because I finished my rookie training check off list. Man......Does it feel good to be rid of that.

It's been very slow on the hill this week. I don't think I had one wreck. I guess it gave me lots of time to finish "The List".

I did go along on a grooming ride-a-long. It was pretty cool being in the cab of a grooming cat. Those guys have heat, a big stereo and loads of time. Hmmmm, I wonder what they do all night?

I skied a lot of powder this week. The one thing nice about being on patrol is you ski all the great powder shots. Also you have access to snowmobiles (Doo's) so you get Doo pulls up to all the untracked fluff. SO NICE!!!

The one thing I have to say I don't like about patrol is driving Doo's on the hill around the guest. Man, it's just scary. For some reason, skiers love skiing right at you when your driving the Doo. It just freaks me out.

SO, I have some new photo's and I'll post those in the next few days.