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.