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.

Did Elmo find Mitch or did Mitch find Elmo????

One thing on Patrol we do is hide an Elmo stuffed doll. Elmo is hidden on a trail that we sweep and the patroller who finds him gets a free breakfast, I think.

This is a pretty good idea. We sweep trails well but this makes us sweep or look even harder. What are we looking for??? One of our guest laying hurt in the trees or something strange.

On this night Mitch found Elmo and his date for the end of season party.

I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.

Just a super cool fellow rookie patroller......

Her name is Lara Baxter.

Can you sweep Bergman Bowl and still ride Summit Express lift to PHQ????

The answer is .....HELL NO!!!!!

Ok, the funniest thing happen yesterday. I was sent out to sweep Bergman Bowl.

When you do this you get ride with a doo to the top of Erickson Bowl and get dropped off. The doo then sweeps the road to North Peak and picks up the Erickson Bowl sweeper. They meet you back at the top of Erickson. The Doo and Bergman sweep watch Erickson sweep the bowl and make sure they get down safely. At this point the Bergman sweeper then goes to the edge of his bowl and waits for the Doo driver to watch him sweep. Pretty easy right??

Well, yesterday I watch the Erickson guy ski the bowl and get down safely. I then do a low angle ski traverse to Bergman Bowl or what I thought was Bergman. Now I must say that yesterday was near white out conditions. I can't see the Doo so I radio to say I'm dropping in. The Doo says, OK. I ski the bowl and get to tree line and radio the Doo saying I'm down and OK. The Doo takes off back to PHQ and I begin my ski out.

This is where it gets weird. The snow was fantastic. The turns was sweet. So, I'm having a great time. But........It seemed it was taking a long time to get to the ski run I pop out on. Hmmmmm, oh well the skiing is so good so what of it.

I keep skiing out and out and out enjoying the 4-5 turns I can get off the sides of the valley. But then at one point I see a small cabin. I go to check it out and what do I see? I see a sign on it that says...." Are you lost?". I started laughing because now I'm really not sure where I am. Not a worried because I have my pack with skins and water and this drainage I feel pops out onto the main road getting to Keystone.

I read the sign more and it says to go to the right where there is a summer road to Santa Fe trail in 1800ft. I think this is weird because I think I'm on the other side near the Keystone Gulch Rd.

This is where ethe funny stuff happens. I call Craig Simpson's cell because he knows this mountain very well and I figure he'll know this cabin. He's doesn't answer. So I had to call PHQ dispatch. I didn't use the radio for obvious reasons. So I call Tony the dispatcher and he says, holy crap you're in Jones Gulch. No way, I say. But yes, I was in Jones Gulch.

Up top when I skied over to Bergman I must have traversed too high and too far to the right and went in to what is called Mudd Slide. And that Bowl comes out to Jones Gulch.

So, when I popped out onto Santa Fe trail and then skied down to River Run Tony called for me and I replied, River Run. Then he made an announcement over the radio that we do when we find lost people, attention channel 1 listeners James Fulton has been found. So, I called myself up the Summit Express lift, "Bergman sweep up Summit Express".

Well, that got everyone started. I get to PHQ and the ribbing began. You gotta love it. Everyone began making cartoons of me being lost. I'll get fined $1 for each cartoon.

I gotta say, I love making mistakes. If you can't laugh at yourself who can you laugh at. So, I can't wait till Sunday and see all the cartoons.

The pics above are me with a tag saying, Lost if found return to PHQ. And the other pic is of the beginning cartoon.

Must say, I do love this patrol.

Kenya's mini test....

Yesterday we had a mini avi test for one of our avi dogs, Kenya.

The pic is of one of the holes that we buried a patroller. We buried two patrollers and Kenya was suppose to find them and some one was suposse dig them out in a certain time.

Keyna found both patrollers in about 1 min 6 sec. They were both dug out in 2-3 min.

Tour de PAIN!!!!!

This weekend I went to Snow Mountain Ranch to do an annual Nordic race called The Stampede.

Luckily at the last moment I decided to only do the 21k and not the very brutal 42k. Two years ago I did the 42k and thought it was one of the hardest things I've done. I was worked with just my 21k but my friend who did the 42k was worked over.

The picture above is him at the finish line. He said his legs froze up on him 5 times.

Ok, next year I train.

Too many deaths.

Wednesday a man hit a tree on Breckenridge and died. I believe that's the 3rd skier vs tree on Breck this year. All people died.

What a shame.

Avi dog training......

On Wednesday the Breckenridge Patrol and Keystone Patrol had a duel avi dog training.

How this works is each patrol sets up a fake avi site with 1 or 2 buried people. A helicopter picks up Brecks patrol and fly's them to Keystone and drops them off while picking up Keystone's team and takes them to Breck.

At this point the team on the ground searches for the buried people.

Both teams passed with flying colors.

I took some people to the site on the Doo and was fortunate enough to see the helicopter land and see the test.

The picture is of two breck patrollers and their dog and one of our patrollers, Lloyd, timing them.

We do have an awesome patrol and the dogs are even more awesome.

7 time winners!!!!!

Last tuesday was the Fat Tuesday celebration at Keystone. They have a parade and for the last 6 years Keystone Patrol has won for best float.

Well, this year was no different. We are now the 7 times fat Tuesday float winners.

The theme was "Brokeback Mountain".

All I can say is, you had to be there to see it.

At one point everyone on the float was dancing in full patrol uniform and next thing you know everyone ripped off their vests and and pants to reveal chaps and bare chest (the ladies had bra's on).

It was so fun to watch.

My camera is broken, so I have no photo's of the party.

Stick a fork in us.....We're done!!!

Last Saturday was my great buddy's birthday. We spent the day at Aspen Highlands hiking and skiing the bowl. We got 3 laps in and man, we were tired. But....We had a great day skiing and the day couldn't be more perfect. Not a cloud in the sky and full of sun.

The ridge you hike up to get to the top is fantastic. In one of the photo's you can see both Pyramid Peak and The Maroon Bells.

We measured the hike up and it came in at almost 900 ft of elevation gain and the ski down to the lift is 2500 ft.

Happy Birthday Scotty!!!

What a great day!!