Mountain Spotlight: Ski Patrol on a Rainy Day

Sometimes it rains in the mountains. This is the reality, and when things turn from white to wet, you may choose to visit the city or do something closer to home for the day, but not everyone is afforded this sort of choice. Day or night, rain or shine, hundreds of employees are present and accounted for up here at Stevens Pass. On these unfortunate occasions when freezing levels do spike and winter recedes, albeit temporarily, into our imaginations, that does not mean that duties can be shirked, or that work can be put off until a drier, more pleasant day. The show must go on.

Stevens Pass has long held a reputation as a tight-knit community of denizen artists and our Professional Ski Patrol well exemplifies this notion. Patrollers here are an interesting breed; A motley hodgepodge of the business-minded neo-professional and the seasonally nomadic, powder-seeking hippy. The department, as a whole, embodies a certain work first but play harder attitude; in short, these guys are rockstars.

Working in this industry and living what many might consider a veracious lifestyle can drag on you, particularly when the snow is good. Meaning to explain rather than complain, we’ll just say that when conditions on the hill can aptly be described as “epic,” sleep tends to become an increasingly regular casualty. After all, pow days are war; and every war has its casualties.

Pictured right: Patrollers Steve O'Farrell and John Schaefer holding down the fort in the Patrol Aid Room. Also pictured is the Gopher from Caddyshack.

When conditions outside are (to be put mildly) less than stellar, especially if for an extended period of time, sleep becomes ever more-so consistent, ultimately bordering on what some might call hibernation. Occasionally, we get caught in these dismal weather cycles, and for those employees who are on the hill day in and day out, rain, shine, snow or sleet, this can become a bit of a drag.  One such employee is Stevens Pass Ski Patrol’s Jason Luker. When asked for his take on working in the wet stuff as of late, Luker replied, “You know, it’s tough. We’re pow junkies; all of us. It’s difficult to work in the rain, you get wet. Sometimes really wet. Morale can get a bit low.” When asked to extrapolate on morale being low, Luker continued by saying, “We’ve all been through this before, and we all know our best days of 2011 are still ahead of us. Were maintaining a solid base and temperatures seem to be trending cooler in February. Sometimes you’ve just got to keep your chin up for a day or two and keep in mind that it is going to get really good out again."

Even when the weather takes a negative turn, our Patrol is still out on the hill, running crews out of Dudley’s (the large building at the top of Double Diamond and Southern Cross chairs) and out of the bump shack at the top of Seventh Heaven Chair. On weekends and busier days, Ski Patrol also runs smaller crews off of Hogsback and Tye Mill chairs. These smaller crews are purposed to maintain a visible presence on the hill and to interact with guests in a positive manner. Patrollers routinely ride the chair with visitors and try to help ensure that all guests have a pleasant experience while up here at Stevens Pass.

But aside from public relations, and their day-to-day on-hill maintenance, what in particular are these folks up to when it rains? A surprisingly common answer is: skiing! Catching up with Patroller Jarrod Ball between wet laps Thursday morning, he stated, “It’s a bit variable out there, but the skiing is actually pretty good! Groomers were awesome this morning and its beginning to soften up off-piste; it’s getting better and better. Skiing off of C3 (Seventh Heaven) was decent and good fun as well.” If you ask around up here within professional and local circles, the consensus is strikingly similar; skiing in the rain, although obviously wet, is also a lot of fun!

 Pictured right: Ski Patrol's Corey Rubinfeld tending some fence and making the world a safer place.

Slower, rainy days are also the perfect time for our Patrollers to catch up on mandatory training in the many different aspects of their profession, including but not limited to: Avalanche forecasting and rescue, medical proficiency, knots, protocol and dog-work. For those patrollers with avalanche dogs, and those with aspiring avalanche pups, these sorts of days are perfect for training. For the pups, this often amounts to basic obedience training and shorter drills. With our older, more experienced dogs, this is the perfect time for article work; dogs find articles of clothing in a burial scenario and work through a three phase progression of burial rescue.

Pictured above: Patroller Corey Rubinfeld and his patrol hound, Neva.

Our Ski Patrollers, not unlike the general population, probably spend a bit more time indoors when the weather turns wet and sour, but they’re not in a big hurry to admit that. Each day, they do their absolute best to insure that our guests have a safe and pleasant day skiing as well as a uniquely personalized experience. These guys are out there with an important job to do, and they do it well day in and day out; even in the rain.