Being on the Lookout

Sure, you ski or board free as a member of the National Ski Patrol, but there’s an easier way to get access to the snow at your favorite resort: Buy a lift ticket.

That’s the advice from three seasoned ski patrol members and one “newbie” who work the mountain at the Lookout Pass Ski and Recreation Area on the Idaho-Montana border.

Phil Edholm, the area manager, explains that those who aspire for ski patrol membership must be at least 16, but there’s no maximum age limit.

They must demonstrate skiing or boarding proficiency, then take a 72-hour course in outdoor emergency care, similar in many ways to emergency medical technician training. Written and practical exams follow. After that, ski patrol aspirants spend a season on the slopes as “candidates” before they are allowed to wear those coveted red parkas with the white crosses.

During subsequent years, ski patrol members take an eight-hour refresher course each fall on first aid, practice on-the-hill work including maneuvering a toboggan and evacuating stranded skiers and boarders from stalled chairlifts, plus filling out the forms that are required to document accidents.

Although Lookout Pass provides rescue equipment, its ski patrol members must buy their own equipment, including the parkas plus skis, poles, boots or snowboards and any other personal gear needed on the mountain.

None of the 90 Lookout Pass ski patrol members receives pay, and each is required to spend at least 13 days working the hill at the resort. Lookout requires a minimum of six patrollers on the hill every day it’s in operation; two or three are on standby in the patrollers’ cabin at the top of the resort’s three lifts, and the rest are on the snow.

Their principal job, of course, is to render aid to injured skiers or boarders, but they also have a few other duties. They arrive at the ski area at least a half-hour before the lifts open to the public to check their rescue gear. Then they move or plant signs and ribbons that warn the “civilian” skiers and boarders of hazards.

Lookout Pass isn’t subject to avalanches, but at those ski areas that are at risk, patrollers are responsible for “shooting” dangerous cornices with explosives or howitzers.

If someone is injured, they stabilize and convey the person down the mountain and, depending on the severity of the injury, render first aid at the base or carry the wounded person to an ambulance destined for a hospital. In the case of Lookout Pass, that hospital may be in Kellogg or Superior, Mont.

Then, at the end of the day, they move those signs and ribbons again if necessary and finally “sweep” the hill to ensure no one remains on the mountain after the lifts close.

So why do they do it when it would be a whole lot easier – and cheaper – to simply buy a lift ticket?

“To help people,” said Ron Lichti, 67, a builder and retired police officer who drives to his Lookout Pass job from Deary in central Idaho, a one-way commute of 130 miles.

His answer is echoed by fellow ski patrolmen Dave Suhr, 76, of Osburn, a retired mining engineer, Ed Gately, 66, a machinist who lives in Spokane, and Dallas Ward, 19, from Haugan, Mont., a patrol candidate in her first season.

Lichti has been patrolling for 39 years, starting at Lake Tahoe, Calif. He joined the Lookout Pass patrol 15 years ago.

“One of the reasons I joined is I wanted to avoid lift lines. But I’ve stayed with it for the camaraderie – spending time with friends – and it’s a great way to keep improving your skiing skills.”

Suhr, a 35-year veteran, spent his first two years on patrol at Cooper Hill, Colo., the last 33 years at Lookout Pass. In addition to helping people, which he said is his principal motivator, he’s on the mountain for exercise.

“And I’m not here just to help injured folks. I like to help people improve their skiing. If they ask, I’m more than happy to give some tips.”

Gately has spent a half century as a member of ski patrols on Mt. Spokane, Silver Mountain and now at Lookout. He, too, said his principal motivation is to help people, but also that his fellow ski patrol members are like family.

And ski patrolling is a family hobby for most of these folks. Two of Suhr’s children have followed him, as has one of Lichti’s sons. And Ward is following the tracks of her mother who’s been on the Lookout ski patrol for five years.

Ward, who’s been skiing since she was 6, is already a ski and snowboard instructor, and during the summer she works as a marshal on the Hiawatha Trail, a bicycle and hiking trail managed by Lookout.

Beside satisfying her desire to help people, she’s considering a career in the medical field and thinks the outdoor emergency training she’s received might give her a leg up.

As a candidate in her first year on ski patrol, she shadows the experienced members and admits that she has yet to pass the toboggan test. But she has mastered the skiing test, which includes demonstrating proficiency in making wedge turns, side slips and ski edge control.

The toboggan is the ski patrol’s most valuable piece of equipment for helping the injured, the patrol personnel say. It can be maneuvered among trees in areas inaccessible by snowmobile, and it stabilizes the victim as he or she is lowered down the mountain by hand or pulled by the machine.

The most prevalent injuries among skiers is to their legs, and for boarders it’s their arms and upper bodies, the patrollers say, as the shredders try to break their falls. But they’ve all had to deal with broken necks as boarders and skiers try tricks beyond their abilities.

And, they say, there’s been only one fatality – a heart attack – in the 72-year history of Lookout Pass.

The Lookout Pass ski patrol is one of the oldest in the nation, formed in 1938, and it bears the registration number 009.

As testament to its proficiency, it was recently named the “Outstanding Patrol” for the Inland Empire Region by the National Ski Patrol’s Pacific Northwest Region, the fourth consecutive year it has won the award.

In addition, ski patrol director Dick Zollars was named Outstanding Patrol Director, Kirk Crum is the recipient of the Outstanding Patroller award, and Kim Johnston was named Outstanding Patrol Instructor.

So be careful out there, but also be assured that if you do pile up, some well-trained and very dedicated folks will be there to help.