Arapahoe Basin will no longer use volunteer patrol after 4 decades

[gwasson]

I have never heard of transporting a patient with a suspected leg fracture in a sitting position...just sayin.

Good point. And we would load them head downhill for a lower extremity injury.

 

[mdf]

Many years ago my friend and I came across an injured skier. He said someone had gone for help so we stayed with him. Not too long later, patrol arrives with a toboggan and a "mountain host". The host takes his skis off, walks around the sled, loses his footing and slides to the bottom. The patoller mutters "I knew he wasn't going to be any help."

 

[Jeff N]

Good point. And we would load them head downhill for a lower extremity injury.

I was not strapped in in any way. Sitting in the bottom of the plastic sled. Using my uninjured leg to push off the front of the sled. The jarring hurt like absolute hell. I was trying not to imagine the pain that would have been involved with ejecting out of that sled.

 

[Jeff N]

Heh. The chain brake is tied in the up position, where it is utterly useless.

I know this makes me a bad person, but I found that story pretty funny,

My wife finds the entire story hilarious, especially the part about the yellow pad taking out a skier. I wasn't really angry about the experience because I feel I was well aware of the less than sterling rep Hesperus Ski Patrol had before the injury. I felt I had already accounted for that fact in my decision of the risk of skiing that night.

In retrospect, when it turns out I was not seriously injured, this is a funny story.

 

[Tricia]

I had no idea A-Basin still had a volunteer patrol.

Locally, only Hesperus has volunteer patrol to my knowledge, and the days of that appear to be limited with the ski are selling to James Coleman last year. Word from patrollers is that they were given 1 season to prove they could operate at a level consistent with Purgatory. Word from the same patrollers is that they don't feel they met that mark and are waiting to hear what happens.

I had my worst on-mountain injury at Hesperus night skiing a few years back and needed a toboggan ride. I hit something under the snow and fell with all my weight onto my left leg/ski boot. We thought it was a boot top fib fracture (turned out to just be a nasty bone bruise).

Getting me off the mountain was a comedy of errors that reflected some serious deficiencies in Hesperus' volunteer patrol.

1. Patroller (a friend) makes contact with me while I am down and we agree I need a sled ride. He's the one that brings up that my pain sounds like a possible fib fracture.
2. He calls on radio for a toboggan. Radio acknowledges.
3. 20 minutes go by, no toboggan. We are on a run under the lift line.
4. He calls again for a sled, gets an answer like "oh yeah."
5. A few minutes later, a snowmobile starts heading up, toboggan in tow. My friend states "Oh no, not like that. That snowmobile sucks and no way it won't get stuck (about 4" of powder on the run).
6. Crummy Snowmobile gets stuck. Patroller spends 10 minutes trying to get the snowmobile up 100' to us. They could have walked it up in that time.
7. Snowmobile goes back down. Patroller loads lift with toboggan. I ask "Wouldn't there be a toboggan up top?" Patroller friend says "there should be." Patroller friend gives opinion that the reason the toboggan was not skied down from the top from the get-go is that the patroller may not feel comfortable piloting an EMPTY sled. He also states that the patroller is likely nervous about dropping a toboggan off the lift as well.
8. Finally, a sled gets there. I have been lying in the snow unable to stand for about 30 minutes at this point, at night, freezing my ass off.
9. They start opening up the toboggan to get me in it. I watch a patroller take out the foam pad and set it in the snow. I start to lunge for it, but too late, it instantly starts sliding down the mountain at warp speed.
10. A skier unloads from the mid-load and begins traversing across the run, looking downhill. Sure enough, the foam pad hits him/her dead on and takes their feet out from underneath.
11. Patroller tries to tell me the person knocked over "was their friend" and meant to catch the pad. Um, no, the person wasn't looking uphill and showed zero awareness they were getting blindsided by a runaway toboggan pad.
12. Patroller then skis down, retrieves the pad, and takes the lift back up with the pad.
13. Finally, the pad and the toboggan are reunited. I get bundled in. It has been about 50 minutes since initial contact and I am finally off the snow.
14. We make a semi-controlled descent down. Speed moderation is clearly a concern- this is going WAY faster than seems typical, and the "whoah, whoah" exclamations from the two patrollers are really unsettling.
15. My suspicions about a lack of control are confirmed when we go barreling through the bunny hill area. Clearly they can't stop to avoid the very young beginner skiers that populate the bunny hill. A tiny 4-6 year old kid makes a slow sweep into the path of the toboggan. I fear the worst. Patroller start yelling for the child to clear out.
16. My friend the patroller scoops the child up and deposits him back to the side. The child avoid getting bowled over by 600 lbs of patrollers and myself on a toboggan.
17. I begin worrying that they will be unable to stop in front of patrol HQ and that this toboggan train is going to go straight into the side of the building. It seems a near miss.

So... yes, I can see a new owner not wanting to take on the liability of a patrol that can't reliably give somebody a toboggan ride. I've heard from people involved at Hesperus on both the patrol and operations side expressing a dire fear of the possibility of a chairlift evacuation. I heard both that there are not enough people trained to perform it (one isn't around most nights) and doubts that the people "trained" would be successful.

Holy Shit!

A few photos of the night in question. Camera was taking photos every minute. I thought I had shut it off but had actually turned it on after the crash.

Stuck Snowmobile.
View attachment 24708

Snowmobile gone, waiting on a sled to run up the chair.
View attachment 24709
Sled arrived. Note the yellow pad.
View attachment 24710
No more yellow pad. Note 1 patroller looking down and another one that moved downhill chasing the pad.

View attachment 24711
Still looking.
View attachment 24712
I guess I got transported down without the pad. I must be wrong about remembering waiting for it.
View attachment 24713
View attachment 24714

Full speed ahead on the bunny hill.
View attachment 24715
In the sled out front of patrol. You can see the ice all over my legs from lying in the snow on a snowy night.
View attachment 24716
Patrol HQ.
View attachment 24717

While obviously my experience is not representative of the level of training of volunteer patrol outfits, I can say after this experience that I feel more secure as a skier at places that have a paid patrol.

A picture is worth 1000 words - Holy Shit again!!

Heh. The chain brake is tied in the up position, where it is utterly useless.

I know this makes me a bad person, but I found that story pretty funny,

I was thinking this sounded like a bad scene from a ski resort comedy.
Not sure if its laugh worthy or groan worthy.

 

[Tricia]

A more serious side of this question is this...
Do paid patrol get paid enough to make a living?

This argument comes from a conversation with a friend who is a NSP Volunteer Patrol, who said that resorts don't pay enough for a paid patroller to make a living, which is why they NEED volunteers to cover the staffing needs.

 

[pais alto]

A more serious side of this question is this...
Do paid patrol get paid enough to make a living?

Depending on what you mean by a living, with a few exceptions (unionized), not really. In some places with a low CoL they can get by with a good summer job. Of course I expect a few people to chime in with their contrary anecdotes, but if you can live decently on $10,000 to $15,000 for 4 or 5 months work then you are doing something right. A significant part of the problem is the cost of housing nearby many ski areas. Buying a house and raising a family would be a stretch on the average patroller's pay.

I had a previous career that gave me a good early retirement and the opportunity to buy and pay off my house, and that's how I get by. The people I work with are pretty much either gypsies or retired.

This argument comes from a conversation with a friend who is a NSP Volunteer Patrol, who said that resorts don't pay enough for a paid patroller to make a living, which is why they NEED volunteers to cover the staffing needs.

The reasoning there is kind of mind-blowing. It sounds almost reasonable if you say it fast enough.

 

[Monique]

if you can live decently on $10,000 to $15,000 for 4 or 5 months work then you haven't yet had a serious medical issue.

FTFY.

 

[Monique]

^^ Unless you mean that you're making bank the rest of the year. Which you may well have meant. I never think of these things till after I post!

 

[pais alto]

FTFY.

Right? Not many 'trollers get employee benefits.