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!!

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.