Gone Ronin

Ski Days 28 & 29: Sunny Nuts & Bolts

2011-06-10T17:41:00.000-07:00

The annual Pacific Northwest Division Nuts & Bolts clinic for the patrol was this past weekend, and while I didn't ski all 3 days, I had a great time. The weather was, for the most part, perfect. I say "for the most part" because it was a tad breezy on Saturday.

Okay, understatement.

It was windy as hell on Saturday, to the point where the upper lifts were on standby almost all morning. This wasn't a catastrophe, because the lower mountain still has a crap-ton of snow. We skied the Pucci lift while we waited. Pucci. In June.

It was, however, still a big problem. All of the toboggans we left on the hill for the clinic from Friday's session were at the top of Palmer. I don't recall if I ever heard why we didn't ferry a bunch of the patrollers or instructors up top via snow-cat to ski the toboggans down, but it didn't happen. We did manage to get enough toboggans to start in on some of the clinic stuff.

Rewind to Friday, though. It was EPIC. Gorgeous day, got to see a bunch of familiar faces from last year's Nuts & Bolts (including the Michigan contingent), as well as some of the evaluators and advocates from when I took the NSP Senior S&T test last season. Very cool. The instructor shop talk session was excellent once again, and the whole clinic was an eye-opener for me in terms of how we need to approach toboggan-handling techniques and training. I had a lot of really good conversations with folks from different areas, tried a handful of slightly different things, and came away from the two days with an even more inspired perspective on teaching and evaluating. I'm really excited about next season.

Friday also was probably the best ski day, since it was a little cooler. We got to venture out west of Palmer a good ways and really crank and bank out in the untracked windpack. Gorgeous day, great snow, epic fun.

Back to Saturday. I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to get out of Saturday. I thought I'd just attend one of the toboggan enhancement sessions, and maybe just see what else I could pick up that might help. Instead, I got asked to help instruct one of the toboggan enhancement sessions. I was a little flattered, but mostly super excited to get out there and do it. I had a great time working with a really solid instructor named Dave, whose home area I can't recall. We took turns working with our group on various ski-skill drills in the morning, then working on toboggan-handling in the afternoon. Great day. Snow got a little sticky late, but the wax job from Fuxi Racing the afternoon before held up well.

I got off the mountain and caught the tail end of one of the other off-hill instructor clinics, then headed off to the patrol building in Govy to help set things up for the 'luau'. Burgers, taquitos and beer followed, as well as some more really good conversations about toboggan-handling training with a handful of MHSPers and one of the instructors from Bogus Basin.

I can't say enough good things about Nuts & Bolts. I hope we can get more folks from outside the west/northwest to come out next year.

Ski Days 26 & 27: Last Chance Saloon, Closing Time @ Bowl

2011-05-05T21:06:00.000-07:00

A view of Tom Dick Peak, from Outback 1

Another bout of blogslackery has me a couple ski days behind, so I'd best get back to it. Inching closer and closer to 30 days skied now, and this marks Day 55 on the repaired knee. That's one shy of equaling last season's with-brace total, now without the brace. I'm still skiing smart and focused, but it feels great.

Day 26 was Saturday, April 23rd. We still had a handful of ski patrol apprentices who needed to complete their toboggan-handling tests, so once again, we saddled up some evaluators and an advocate to do some testing.

It was a pretty freakin' awesome day at Ski Bowl that day. Some new snow had fallen during the week, but we had a bit of a melt-freeze situation the night before, so the snow was firm and fast in the morning. It softened up pretty quickly, though, so we had some pretty challenging conditions to test in. Things got awful mushy and sticky awful fast, but we managed to safely conduct our evaluations. Unfortunately, not everyone passed, so we'll have to give them another shot next season.

Day 27 was the last day of 'normal' winter operations at Ski Bowl. The announcement about that came via e-mail about a week beforehand, and I managed to snipe the Hill Captain slot for the day (May 1st). The dispatch was looking pretty woeful the first time I looked, so I sent out a plea to my fellow patrollers to come help me out.

The response was better than I'd expected, and we had a GREAT crew. We even had FIVE (!) of this year's hill apprentices come out to get a shadow day in, which was pretty special. I knew I would need to provide some refreshment at the end of the day, so I brought up a box each of Deschutes Brewing's Red Chair NWPA and Black Butte Porter. I figured a pale and a porter would cover the range of tastes pretty well, and the names were evocative of patrol colors, so it fit the theme of the day. Also, one of the chairlifts at Ski Bowl has red chairs on them, even the same style as the chair on the Red Chair label.

I know, I'm a dork.

The day was getting off to a decent start, and I was kind of moseying out the door of the Palace, just preparing myself mentally for what we'd have to do. Most of the mountain 'tear-down' was going to be done by the paid patrol, so we really only had to worry about getting our own equipment off the mountain. I was on my way to RC when a call came in from operations about someone with an injury near the Warming Hut.

I was closest (for a change!), so I jumped on the radio to respond, and sped up to get to the case. After a brief focused assessment, it was clear what we were dealing with, and pretty fortunate that we were standing not 10 feet away from a pair of toboggans. It's nice not to have to wait around for someone to bring one to you. With the help of another patroller and an apprentice, we got the patient's injury immobilized and I took the toboggan down the hill to the first aid room.

Mt. St. Helens. Gorgeous day.

That would end up being the only real busy part of my day, other than coordinating getting the toboggans and other equipment off the hill. Sweep was kind of weird, since we had to close and sweep the Outback a little early, then round back up to the top to close/sweep upper bowl, then Multorpor and lower bowl. We got it all done and it was off to the Palace for beer and de-brief. Mountain Ops was nice enough to tow us and our toboggans over to the Palace from the bottom of Multorpor. Definitely appreciated that, as it was getting pretty warm.

Mt. Hood, from Skyline Trail, as some apprentices towed toboggans down to Multorpor

Great way to end the season at Ski Bowl. They're still running a rope tow and a terrain park in the lower bowl, and they have so much snow there that I have to wonder how far past Memorial Day they will go...

Ski Day 25: Still Winter @ Ski Bowl, Kinda

2011-04-22T08:52:00.001-07:00

Crap, I forgot to blog about last weekend. Sunday the 17th was another day of toboggan training for some folks who needed a catch-up day to be ready for testing. Glorious partly sunny day, that started out in the high 20s.

Not much else to say except that the off-piste stuff was terrible in the upper bowl, having gone through a melt-freeze since the last snowfall. The groomed stuff was firm and fast, and in great shape all day.

Saw a small avalanche in the upper bowl on the West Wall about mid-afternoon (2-ish, I think). Nobody was skiing over there, thankfully. My apprentice group and I observed it from the chairlift. Looked like the point of origin was one of the exposed rocks a little ways down from the top of the ridge, probably having heated up from sun exposure and released. Origin looked like maybe a 4-5' wide (if that) spot broke loose, and the toe ended up being probably about 30' wide or so. If I ever remember to upload the photos, I'll post 'em.

Good day of training though. Had to be towed over to the Palace from the bottom of Multy via snow-mo since the handle tow wasn't running. Still plenty of snow all around the area, and it sounds like they had some accumulation up there this week. Going back up Saturday to do the last round of toboggan-handling tests for this year's apprentice group.

Ski Day 24: Toboggan Testing at Ski Bowl

2011-04-11T08:44:00.000-07:00

After taking a weekend away from patrolling, I was kind of excited to get back into it. I'd been sick the couple days prior, which meant missing out on dragging pal Barkernews up for night skiing on Thursday night. Pretty frustrated about that. But Saturday was looking to be a decent weather day, and I was pretty stoked at the prospect of getting to see some of the folks I've helped train this season take their toboggan tests for the patrol.

I was also kind of stoked to get back to Ski Bowl. I hadn't been there since all the recent snow, and since it was a day after the second anniversary of my ACL repair, I hoped I'd get the chance to visit the scene of the crime.

I carpooled up with one of the other coaches (last year's Alpine Coach of the Year, in fact), and he was going to be spending the morning training the folks that hadn't yet been recommended to test, then sending folks from that group over to myself and an instructor-trainer for evaluation in the afternoon.

We started the day just getting warmed up, and seeing how the snow was in various places in the upper bowl. Just about anywhere that'd had a lot of direct sun was hard and choppy, the typical result of the melt-freeze that happens, but the stuff that didn't get the direct sun was pretty sweet. Around the middle of the day, I found a line in the trees that was so much fun I was chuckling aloud.

The toboggan testing started out a little shaky for a couple of the apprentices, and I attributed that to some pre-test nerves. They settled, mostly, and once we really got into the meat of the test program, things got better for the most part. We had one apprentice who had been out of town for a couple weeks, so she missed some key training days, and I think we rushed her into testing. We should have just had her train instead of test - in hindsight, I don't feel it was fair to her to throw her to into a test scenario without having seen her run toboggans recently. I was kinda bummed for her, because she's worked pretty hard and has had a great attitude all season. She's not far off from passing, however.

I'm not going to go into the other person who didn't pass, other than to say I was more than a little disappointed in how things went down on Saturday with regard to his performance and some of the things he said.

The four apprentices who passed looked pretty solid, and I'm pleased to see more of them finish up. I'll get to see them finish OEC as well, since I've signed up as I usually do to help out at OEC finals night next month.

Ski Day 23: Another Tune-Up

2011-03-27T21:36:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday the 26th was a big day. Not only were a handful of the patrol trainees that I worked with last weekend going to take their toboggan tests, but I was putting on another tune-up clinic for the folks we hope to have ready for the next weekend of testing. In the morning, coaches John, Jeff, and I gave a pep talk to the folks going over to Ski Bowl to test, then I went with Jeff and a group of 6 trainees to Meadows to train.

It was a freakin' great day to ski. Almost a shame that we weren't there to free-ski. But we had work to do - the gang we had with us needed more work to be ready for their toboggan-handling tests coming up. So Jeff and I set about getting them ready. Most of what we worked on was stance and balance stuff. We did manage to get in a free run, though. The gang needed it, and it was epic.

No real exciting or memorable moments came from the day's session, however. Pretty routine day of toboggan training. We started off with some drills, then dragged sleds around, pretty much like last time.

When we got done, however, we called one of the coaches that was up with us last week. He was with the group that was being tested, so we wanted to find out how things went. We were very pleased to find out they all passed. After we got back to Govy, it was congrats all around, and we did some shots from the shot-ski at Charlie's. Congrats to the apprentices who passed, and best wishes to the ones testing this weekend.

I'll be away from the hill this weekend, but back coaching next week for whoever is still preparing. Hopefully there will be more good news on Sunday.

Ski Days 21 & 22: Tryouts and Tune-up

2011-03-21T07:53:00.000-07:00

Sunday the 13th was Day 21, and the first day in a long time that I wasn't training patrol apprentices. Instead, I was helping evaluate candidates for next year's group, same as back on Ski Day 4. One thing was different this time, however - I got put in charge of the ski test portion of the tryouts program.

Since this one was kind of my baby, and we were expecting maybe half of the number of applicants we had in December, I thought we'd try a station-based approach instead of having it group-based. So, we had pairs of evaluators looking at all the candidates doing different ski/ride skills instead of groups of evaluators only looking at 8 or so candidates doing all the ski/ride skills for the test.

The weather wasn't as bad as we had expected, but it did rain on and off at Ski Bowl. Our scorecards held up better, thanks to some better paper and better use of zip-loc bags. The tryouts went pretty well. I paired up with "Tool Time" again, and we were evaluating the candidates' ability to handle bumps and off-piste skiing. We ran laps on Calamity, and the snow and bumps over there proved pretty much perfect for seeing what the candidates were made of.

After the last group came through, we packed up our stuff and headed back over to the patrol building in Govy to wrap things up. Mother Nature had other ideas, however, and it wasn't too long after we settled into the discussion that we lost power thanks to what turned out to be downed trees. We had a nice little thunderstorm going on as well. After a flurry of phone calls and everyone at the patrol building waiting anxiously for word on whether or not we'd have to run off to one of the areas to help with lift evacuations, we got word that we weren't needed.

We'd heard a lot of different reports about road conditions and blockages due to fallen trees and so on, so tried to check and see what the trip home would be like. We didn't get any good indications one way or the other, so we headed home on US26 per usual. We encountered stop-and-go traffic maybe halfway to Sandy, and it was pretty slow going even after we passed where the major power-line problem was. There was no power to anything in Sandy - it wasn't until we got to the A&W just west of Sandy did we see any lights or evidence of power.

Day 22 was Saturday the 19th, and it found me back coaching again, this time at Meadows. As part of my bid to become an Instructor-Trainer (IT) for the patrol, I was asked to put together a training plan for a more focused clinic than our usual training days call for.

I put together what I felt would be a good tune-up for the skiers, focusing on getting back to some of the fundamentals and really exaggerating some of the movements and stance stuff that they all were still having issues with, to varying degrees. I split the group up into two groups: one group that would work on more ski-skills stuff to try and get some of the more basic things addressed, and the other group would work more on fine-tuning their technique running the toboggans. I probably could have done a better job in the initial briefing to make sure no egos were bruised, but at the end of the day, everyone seemed to have gotten what they needed out of the training.

It was a gorgeous day, too. Sun, fresh snow, light and smooth. We made sure we didn't go off and track out all the good stuff early, so we stuck to the groomers - which had probably about 3-5" of fresh on them anyway. Glorious warm-up runs on the smooth stuff.

I was with the second group, and we started off with some rope-handling drills to make sure everyone was getting on the same page as far as hand position, and focusing more closely on what they were doing with the hands at transition. So we had them out of their skis, walking the ropes in and out, with tension. I think it worked pretty well, and we moved from that into rope-a-goat, and then started working on some more stance stuff. I wanted to get the apprentices to really square up their shoulders, and we did a drill where the 'driver' takes the inside hand off the handle and puts it on the downhill thigh. To keep the toboggan under control, we had tail-ropers, empty toboggan, and we ran on a gentle slope. Pretty neat little drill, as it works the driver and the tail-roper on different things. The tail-roper kind of gets some rope-a-goat practice, while the driver works on body position. Seemed effective.

We did sneak in some turns in the trees over on Star just before breaking for lunch, and it was glorious. Managed to find a few untracked lines over there, which was a bit of a surprise after 11am.

We moved on to the steeper stuff after lunch, loading 'em up and working on transitions in the steeps in chunky snow and getting some traversing in as well. We moved on to the really steep and challenging stuff later on, and while some fatigue set in, we saw some really good things from the apprentices on the last couple runs. They were really clicking, for the most part, and apart from a couple tactical bobbles that caused some falls and frustration, they looked good. Some of them looked to me and the other coaches to be ready for testing next week.

Ski Day 20: Training in the Glop @ Ski Bowl

2011-03-06T16:15:00.000-08:00

Saturday was another training day, and I found myself back with B Team once again. One of their regular coaches couldn't make it, so I joined them for some more toboggan training over at Ski Bowl.

It was snowing, and with the temps where they were, in my mind it was threatening to rain. Thankfully, the precipitation on the hill remained snow, but it was pretty wet stuff. The fresh/overnight snow was fairly heavy, kind of like mashed potatoes. Good snowball snow - the kind of stuff that ends up causing a lot of slow, twisting falls that end up needing patrol help.

Skiing this kind of glop concerns me more than most, having had/repaired/rehabbed a torn ACL, but some recent little tweaks to my technique had me actually fairly unconcerned with the snow after a few tentative turns. Some of the glop-skiing was actually fun.

The apprentices all still need to work on the same things, which is a little frustrating at this stage in their training. I think they are understanding what we are telling them they need to do, and why it's important for them to make the technical adjustments we're giving them, but it seems like they're having trouble applying it. I think they need to spend more time making the adjustments out of the handles, on gentler terrain, then get back in the handles.

That said, some of them made some really good progress this week. Test weekend looms ever closer, so hopefully they all make strides this coming weekend.

Since I didn't want to get up at 3am to do it, I had to do my P90X workout when I got home. Legs & Back / Ab Ripper X is not the workout you want to have to do after a day on the hill.

Ski Days 18 & 19: Flippin' Cold and Flippin' Awesome

2011-03-02T17:20:00.000-08:00

Day 18 was another training day with the patrol. I was covering for one of the A Team coaches at Ski Bowl, and it was VERY cold. Probably the coldest day I've skied since coming out here to Oregon. Temps were in the single digits as the day started. Not as cold as that GS at Burke that one year, but pretty darn chilly.

The cold, plus the recent fresh snow, made it a pretty damn good day to be on the hill. Too bad we had to spend the bulk of the morning on the gentler groomed slopes. All the apprentice groups seemed to have jumped right into the steeps a little before the trainees were really ready for it, and some of them were really showing that they needed a little more time working the fundamentals.

So, we spent the morning over on Multorpor, tweaking things and working on reinforcing stance/balance and their importance to good, smooth transitions in the handles an on the tail rope. I think it helped - they all looked like they had made improvement by the afternoon. Good day of training, and some of the stuff in the upper bowl was still pretty good skiing, even in the afternoon.

Day 19 was today. I'd gotten permission to take the day off because it'd been just DUMPING snow on the mountain the last few days. Fellow patroller NoPoGirl and her friend were already planning to ski, and invited me to tag along.

It was awesome. Snowed all day, a little breezy, but some freshies and wind-blown stuff were to be found all over the hill. Place was practically empty, and we just cranked out run after run. I saw Grant Myrdal (the photog from Day 14) over on Star, so we skied by to hopefully get a few shots taken. He managed to get a handful of each of us, which we got to check out on the big screen in the lodge at lunch. We called it a day a little early, but I wasn't complaining - Bex and I recently started P90X and today was Plyo X, so my legs were pretty beat anyhow.

Ski Days 14-17: Some Me Patrol, Some Ski Patrol

2011-02-20T17:08:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been too long, so much of the detail will be absent from the recap of the last 4 ski days.

Feb 11th: Took the day off from work to go skiing. This was a brilliant plan, really. The roads were in good shape, there was plenty of snow, it was sunny and relatively warm. Not much goodness in the off-groom, but the groomers at Meadows were in fantastic shape. The mountain was pretty much empty, so I started off making gigantic high-speed turns off the Vista chair for a good chunk of the morning. Later in the morning, I decided to head off over to Shooting Star, but I saw that the area photog was shooting on the face at Mt. Hood Express, so I decided to find out what the deal was there. I made some decent turns there and stopped to chat with the guy.

His name is Grant Myrdal (on the web: grantmyrdal.com), and he's one of those really cool guys who has a neat job and enjoys it a great deal. We talked a little about what he does and what drives his decisions to shoot where, etc. He told me he just shoots and shoots and shoots, and people can either check the photos out online and order, or drop by the lodge in the afternoon and do the same on the big screen. Then he recommended I make a few more runs and make some larger-radius turns next time.

So I did. And it was FUN. I made about 4 runs through there, talked to Grant a little more, then set off for Shooting Star.

My best shot. Photo by Grant Myrdal

I made a bunch more runs, then dropped in to the lodge to check out my photos. Grant was still uploading when I arrived, so we shot the breeze for a bit. Once the upload completed, we reviewed my photos, and I picked a few to buy. I skied a little more after that, and called it a day kind of early. I had skied pretty much non-stop, so I felt good about packing it in around 2:30.

Feb 13: Training with C Team. Um...it was windy. That's about all I can remember. One of our snowboarders had kind of an unsettling first run with a loaded toboggan, where she felt like she was on the edge of losing control, but she regained her composure and really just kicked butt the rest of the day. The skiers continued to make good progress, but they all still need to square up their shoulders. I think they've figured out why, now they just need to do it.

Feb 18: More 'Me Patrol' at Meadows. I took another Friday off work, and had hoped to ski with Barkernews, but he couldn't get the day off work to join me. I had a late start, and was just generally bumming the whole day. I was having a great time while I was skiing, but I just didn't feel well all day. Kinda like having a mild cold, or maybe really faint flu-like symptoms. Every chair ride seemed like a chore that I didn't want to do, but once I got off the chair and making turns, that all kind of went away. My right foot was hurting a lot, though, and after a while the skiing just wasn't enough to cancel out how I was feeling. I should have gone up on Wednesday or something. I did manage to find some stuff out in the canyon, though, and had a great time shredding it. But at the end of the day - which for me was about 1pm - there just wasn't enough fresh epicness to cancel out my illness and the fact that I was flying solo again.

Our view of Mt. Hood, from the top of Ski Bowl

Feb 19: Training with B Team. Holy crap, was it windy. We were training at Ski Bowl yesterday, and it was CRAZY windy. Upper Bowl was on standby, with the telemetry reporting 60+mph winds. Since it was that windy at the bowl, it was worse at Meadows and Timberline. I took a look at their Twitter feeds, and it sounded like all of T-line was on wind standby for a large chunk of the day, and the same for Meadows. Ski Bowl was super busy, and there were two races going on. But we managed to get some really good training in. Not only that, one of the regular B Team coaches was shooting some video, so we got to review and critique some of the training afterward. B Team are definitely a fun bunch, and they work hard as well. I'll skip some of the details to protect the guilty, but there were some...interesting moments unloading toboggans from the chairlift. Nobody was hurt, and no equipment was damaged, so all's well that ends well. And they definitely learned from it.

B Team!

Slacker

2011-02-19T19:38:00.001-08:00

I haven't posted about my ski days in a while. I'll get to it.

Ski Day 13: Big Windy @ Meadows

2011-02-05T19:11:00.000-08:00

I know they've had days of higher winds at Meadows, but I'm calling today's post "Big Windy" because I got to witness the destructive power of the wind firsthand. But I'll get to that in a bit. Don't worry, nobody was hurt, and we didn't have to evacuate a chairlift.

Today was my first time back with A Team since the opening weekend of training. I hadn't seen them ski/ride in about a month, so I was excited to see their progress. I'd been told they were really doing well. The rain changed to snow just about the time I pulled into the patrol building in Govy, so I was hopeful that the "chance of snow" that was forecast would hold up.

It kinda did. But it wouldn't be all snow all the time. We got a little sleet, a little rain, and a whole lot of wind.

The A-Teamers were almost as good as advertised. They were handling things pretty well, but it's my personal opinion that they need to take a day and go back over some fundamentals. Especially now that they've run loaded toboggans, since they now have the experience of trying to control all that extra weight. I gave them my usual feedback (get the upper body square to the fall line, get the feet apart, etc.), since the skiers on the team were all pretty much having the same problem. It was working, until they got into some steeper stuff and probably panicked a bit. Once they trust the stance/technique, they'll be money. They'll get there.

After a bunch of runs over on 3-D and O-Ring, I was skiing down behind the group, watching them run the toboggans on the flats, when I heard and felt a pretty mighty gust of wind. I was approaching the trail merge where Voyager/Nettie's meet, so looked uphill to my right to ensure nobody was coming down the hill. I just happened to see what I estimated to be about a 70-foot-tall tree snap off about 10 feet above the base and fall to the ground. The snap from the breakage was LOUD, as was the mighty WHUMP of the tree impacting the trail. I skated, then hiked uphill to make sure no one had been hit, but I already knew nobody had, since I saw nobody to my right when I checked at the trail merge.

I radioed it in, and had a couple apprentices grab some nearby signage while I directed traffic. Another patroller in the area came up with a drill so we could get the signage in the ground, and they later set more markers. They ended up having to shut down Shooting Star due to the wind hazard. I wasn't surprised by that - there were some trees near the lift that were swaying an awful lot after the one I saw went down.

After lunch, we worked on some even steeper terrain, since the team's coaches felt the gang could handle it. They did fine, but we had a couple of instances where things got a little dicey. Nobody was hurt, but a couple apprentices sure owe one of their compadres a pitcher of beer at least. With fatigue setting in, the team's coaches made the call to pack it in for the day, and I was glad they did. I'd developed a pretty nasty headache by then. The weird thing about it was it didn't hurt when I was skiing - only when I stopped or sat on the chairlift.

I'd brought a Terrible Towel up with me, ready to give it a twirl and chant "Here we go, Stee-lers, Here we go!" at any Steelers fans I saw on the hill wearing their gear, but I didn't see any. Oh well. Didn't see any Packers fans, either, so I'll chalk it up to game-day preparations or something.

Ski Days 11 & 12: Sunny Training and Foggy Captaining @ Timberline

2011-02-01T22:08:00.000-08:00

Got lazy again and haven't posted, sorry about that. But back on the 22nd, I actually had a patrol day where I didn't need my pack cover. Or rain gear of any sort. I even had time to take some pictures.

Ski Day 11 was a freakin' GREAT day. Clear skies, warm temperatures, and pretty fast snow awaited us, and I was guest-coaching with B Team. They're a pretty fun bunch, and they all seem to 'get it' - not just in terms of picking up the stuff we're trying to give them, but understanding the big picture. They have a good set of coaches, too, so I don't know how much more time I'll get to spend with them this season. I hope the 22nd wasn't the last time before they test out.

We worked on a lot of sideslipping fundamentals and some carving work throughout the day, and the morning was focused more on 'rope-a-goat' - drills without the toboggan where we get them used to handling the tail rope of the toboggan. Tail-roping is the toughest aspect to get totally wired, so we're giving extra emphasis on it and starting early.

They did get to drag empty toboggans around, too, and learn how to upload them on the chairlift. Later in the day, a couple of them got to feel what it was like to lock the handles and have a little weight behind them. It was a good exercise to help stress the importance of all the stance and balance stuff we'd given them earlier in the day.

Ski Day 12 was last Sunday, and while it started out beautifully, the weather didn't stay that way. I was Hill Captain for the first time at Timberline, and things there are a little different than at Ski Bowl. I think I did okay for my debut there, but there are a handful of things I'd like to do better next time. I had a good crew, though, which is always a good thing.

It was a pretty busy day, and the terrible visibility on the lower part of the mountain didn't help things. I don't know if any of the cases we had could be attributed to the visibility, but it certainly seemed like it could have been a factor if people weren't careful. I ended up spending a lot of my time covering for some bump shifts, since we had so many cases in the late morning to mid-day. But I managed not to botch anything up, sweep went okay, and everybody made it back for the debrief.

I did manage to visit with the training group very briefly, and it was nice to see the C Teamers again. Looked like they've continued to make progress.

Ski Day 10: Drenched at Ski Bowl

2011-01-19T14:48:00.000-08:00

I'm writing about this one only because it happened. The only thing spectacular about coaching this past weekend was the amount of water that fell from the sky as rain and didn't freeze.

We knew going in it was going to be a VERY wet training day. To their credit, C Team generally had a good attitude almost all day. We did a lot of work in the morning, since the decision had been made to close off portions of the area to preserve the snow coverage. Since there were almost no guests on the hill, it probably made little or no difference.

The skiing over off the Multorpor chair was excellent, however. Despite the rain and warm temperature, the snow was fast and held up well. We got a lot of good work in doing carving and sideslipping drills.

But the rain just kept coming, and much of the day it was a downpour. We could barely hear ourselves think over the sound of the rain hitting hoods/helmets. I don't think I've skied in that much rain in my life, and we've had some doozies back at Smugglers' in my youth. Not to mention the day we closed Ski Bowl after I completed my ski patrol training that year. Brutal.

The one positive was that it reminded me that I'd forgotten to wash my parka and pants with the NikWax stuff at the end of last season, so I did that as soon as I got home. Might be time for a new parka next season.

Ski Day 9: First Training Day @ Ski Bowl

2011-01-13T15:41:00.000-08:00

Saturday the 8th was our first on-hill training day with the current crop of ski patrol apprentices, and it started out pretty well. I joined A Team at Ski Bowl, since they were minus a coach, and we headed off into the fresh snow.

We helped out with the area opening, like the training teams usually do, and I got tapped to drag an empty toboggan over to the Warming Hut. This prompted a quick Toboggan Anatomy 101 session at the Palace before we took off.

Once we finished helping with opening, we rounded up to Rescue Center to give the apprentices their orientation there, then headed off to the Outback. The visibility wasn't what you'd want when doing the "Peak Hike", but the fresh snow looked to make the trip worth it.

For the most part, it did. We skied the West Boundary, and with some exceptions, the fresh stuff was nice. Underneath, there was some crusty stuff, but by and large it wasn't too shabby. After we finished some "area orientation" in the Outback, we headed off to get to work. The first few days of the on-hill training is focused on building the fundamental skiing/riding skills that will facilitate effective toboggan-handling, so most of what we worked on were carving and sideslipping drills, focusing on correct balance, stance, and movement for transitions.

One of the guest coaches we had up with us is a PSIA-certified ski instructor, so we were getting some really good instruction and feedback for our apprentices. The coaches even picked up some new drills to try out. The improvement in the apprentices' skiing was pretty remarkable for just the short time we worked with them.

The afternoon got a little interesting, as the "witching hour" took effect and pressed some of the coaches into service. We had three area guests get injured on the same run, within minutes of each other, so the apprentices got to watch several cases through the assessment and transport phases. I got to do the transport on one of the cases, providing the apprentices with a good example of what their end product will look like. Lower Reynolds isn't a challenging run, by any stretch, but it was a good place for an easy skill demo.

We got through the cases just in time for almost all of the skiing apprentices to join the sweep team for the Outback closure. The snow that fell throughout the day made most of the Outback run pretty enjoyable, and a nice way to finish the day. After sweep, it was off to the Palace and time to head back to Govy and Charlie's for paperwork and de-brief.

Ski Day 8: Dumping at the Bowl

2010-12-30T18:36:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, I was back on duty as the Hill Captain at Ski Bowl. Most of the crew from Monday's extended patrol day were back, as well as a couple extra folks including one of the guys from my OEC class. It had snowed quite a bit overnight, and the drive up was on packed snow all the way from Sandy. I thought about chaining up, but the Sorento was handling things just fine at 35mph, which was about as fast as anyone in front of me dared to go.

We had a bigger crew today than on Monday, but the previous day's rain combined with all the new snow overnight made progressing through the opening assignments a slow task. Everything seemed pretty well stuck in place, and there was rime ice on every inch of rope on the hill. Things were further slowed by the dud explosive from the early avalanche control (AC) work, which kept us off the upper bowl.

Since things were moving slow and I couldn't get up top anyway, I went down to help the lower bowl opening assignment get their work done. I checked, cleared, and re-set quite a good amount of rope line. It wouldn't have been much work, but the height of all the rope needed to be adjusted for all the fresh snow. Tedious, but important.

We were light on bodies up top when the upper bowl chair was finally cleared to load, so I headed up to help out. I relieved one of my patrollers who was on outback gate duty, explaining to the anxious public that the outback was still closed, and that it wouldn't open until all the AC work had finished. It was pretty cold up top, but I managed to stay warm whilst chatting away with the folks who kept asking when we'd open up the outback. I saw a couple off-duty volunteer patrollers, as well as a couple off-duty paid patrollers - one of whom was the guy who helped us out of the woods on Monday night. He definitely earned his turns today.

I finally got word over the radio that I could open up the outback, and I damn near got trampled to death by the crowd that had amassed. I had told them I would need to pull the rope gate, but as soon as I said, "we're opening 'er up!", everyone started rushing me. I finally got the rope out of the way, and got clear of the Running of the Bulls. Crazy. I can understand it, though - all that fresh snow, untracked except for the 4 patrollers who were doing the blasting to make it safe.

I stayed out of the outback, though. I was going to head out there, but kept hearing that the snow wasn't that great in some spots and that the Log Road out of the outback was still pretty dicey. I guess there was plenty of break-thru crust out there that could kind of mess you up, and it was kind of wind-scoured in a lot of areas. I ended up finding a lot of nice little stashes of sweet pow in the upper bowl area, either around the trees or on certain faces of the bowl. Pretty much anywhere you skied was nice, though. There was enough fresh on top of the groom on Reynolds that I was getting face shots even over there.

My day was largely uneventful, but my patrollers sure got busy. We kept getting radio calls for all sorts of things - dropped ski poles, missing persons, and of course, injuries. The handful of cases we had were fairly routine in terms of the type and severity of injuries, but some of the circumstances of the involved folks made things kind of peculiar. Everyone was handling all the craziness very well, and I'm proud of the crew I had up there.

The missing snowboarders that KGW reported on yesterday was kind of a crazy story. I don't know how much I can really go into detail, but there was a bit more to the story than was reported. One of my guys got the initial call from the tickets booth at the east side of the area I think sometime after 2pm, and after a lot of radio and telephone conversations with the paid patrol staff, we had started to prepare to coordinate a search operation. Turns out the missing boarders' friends had already called 911 and thus already gotten the county sheriff's office involved. Since the missing people were out of bounds, that's ultimately who would be doing the SAR work anyhow.

I coordinated our sweep of the outback and had one of my experienced guys lead it while I manned the radio at Rescue Center and waited to be relieved by the night crew. The radio chatter about the missing 'boarders kept on going after we were relieved, but before we packed up and left the Palace for the evening, it sounded like things were fairly well in hand.

Traffic, on the other hand, was fucking terrible. Going over the bridge over US-26 to get back to Govy, I looked uphill towards the east, and it was a colossal parade of headlights. Good thing I'd been invited to have a beer with some friends staying in Govy. I left there about 7:30pm and while pulling out of Govy was easy, I quickly caught up to the tail of the parade creeping down the mountain at 20mph. It's nights like that one that I wish I had a place up there to stay.

Ski Days 6 & 7: Routine at Timberline, Outback After Dark at Ski Bowl

2010-12-28T12:51:00.000-08:00

Holidays got me slackin', y'all. I patrolled at Timberline back on the 18th, and aside from some confusion during sweep, it was largely unremarkable. Just a regular patrol day for me, no hill-captaining. The only thing out of the ordinary was that I got to give another one-off tryout. This time, one of our associate patrollers who wants to learn the art of toboggan-handling and become a hill patroller needed a ski test. I spent a shift in the first aid room early in the day, then took the associate out for some ski drills to see if she had the skills to make it in the hill training program. She skied pretty well, so there's one more candidate for toboggan training this season.

After Christmas, I like to take the week off and patrol a couple of midweek days. The weather is usually better than on the weekends, so I figure the patrol days will be good ones. Yesterday was forecast to be snow showers all day, and that's pretty much what we got. I was hill captain, and my crew consisted of a good group of folks who I've patrolled with before, plus a couple newer faces - including one of my D-team guys from last season.

We were a little understaffed, but we made it work. We had one patroller pretty much camp out at the first aid room, but we made sure she wasn't stuck there all day. There was a lot of fresh snow, so opening assignments took a little longer than usual. I think it was close to 10:30 by the time we hit all the tower pads, rope lines, and other stuff.

One of the off-duty pro patrollers caught up to me in line at the bottom of the upper bowl lift and asked if I'd get someone to re-fill one of the 5-gallon water jugs up at Rescue Center. Seeing as everyone else was busy, I decided to do that myself. I strapped the empty jug to my pack, and set off down Skyline, since this was still early in the day and nobody had checked the rope lines down there. I should have had someone take a picture of me with that water jug on my back. I imagine it looked ridiculous.

I got it re-filled and headed back up. 5 gallons of water in one of those water-cooler type bottles is unwieldy at best, but I managed to get it back up to RC. Thankfully, I ran into another off-duty patroller - this time, one of our volunteers - at the bottom of the upper bowl chair, and he took my pack and poles to make it easier on me. We had a good chat about how things were going, and I pretty much ended up spending the bulk of the middle of the day manning the radio at RC. I snuck out for a couple runs in the fresh stuff once we had a couple more folks up there. The snow was really excellent in the upper bowl, and it felt good to finally make some turns for myself.

After getting in a little tree patrol in upper bowl, I went back in to RC to organize the Outback sweep. The original plan was that I'd stay in RC and man the radio until we were relieved by the night crew. That fell apart pretty rapidly, as we got a call literally in the same minute the sweep team started out the door. After a brief discussion, I decided that since we would need to take a Cascade 350 out there (one of the 4-handled toboggans), and I was the most experienced with the 350, that I would go. I took my D-teamer with me, and I took the tail of the sled, since running the 350 in the front isn't all that different from the regular 2-handled toboggans.

We got to the patient, who had a knee injury, just near the 5 Lakes Basin sign in the outback. I had my driver flatten out a spot for the toboggan, and decided I would keep it in place. One of the sweep team came by to help my driver splint the patient and load him into the toboggan. Once my driver was ready, we started off, with the goal of getting to the traverse we could see in front of us. I knew that if we could stay high enough, we could make the traverse, and it would empty us out onto Bob Strand's Downhill, which would likely be a much easier route than taking the toboggan all the way down to the Log Road. The Log Road sounded like it was a nasty trip down, so we wanted no part of that.

But we couldn't cut up high enough to make the traverse. I knew we could get down to Kelly's Cut, which empties out onto the bottom of Downhill, kind of on the low side of Powder Keg. We headed down Upper Cutoff, and onto Kelly's Cut.

Kelly's Cut isn't exactly a good trail to take a toboggan on. It's a really narrow traverse, and not really much of it is downhill. In fact, the parts that aren't flat are kind of uphill. We were making really slow progress, and I got to thinking we could use another patroller to help move things along. I had radioed for help, and the pro patroller I spoke with kept insisting that I was taking the wrong path, and that I would end up being stuck on the cliff band that separates the main part of upper bowl from the outback. I was pretty sure we were in fact on Kelly's Cut, but the seed of doubt had been planted.

Some poachers almost hit us as we were trying to figure out exactly where we were and how best to continue. Some of our sweep team managed to catch up to us, so we had them help out for a bit. One of them took the handles of the toboggan, and we sent the other one to scout ahead to make sure we were going to end up where I thought we would. I was really dreading having to figure out how to turn the toboggan around and get down the fall line and down to the Log Road. If we were where I thought we were, then doing so *would* have stranded us on that cliff band. I decided to press on, but progress was dreadfully slow.

It was starting to get a little dark, and after having my first driver dig out a little bit of the trail for us, I could see we weren't too far from the lights of the upper bowl, so my confidence grew a little bit. Once our scout radioed back that we were in fact on the right track, I was feeling a lot better about getting the patient out of the outback safely. In the meantime, one of the other pro patrollers was making his way to us to help out. We tried to signal him with whistles, but he couldn't hear us. I told him the path we had taken, and he finally saw the toboggan tracks and found us - on Kelly's Cut, exactly where I thought we were.

After more digging, pushing, and pulling, we reached the corner where we could see the lights and the chairlift in the upper bowl. Once we got around to Powder Keg, the pro patroller took the front handles, and I stayed on the back. We were literally and figuratively not out of the woods yet, but he and I quickly picked out a route through the trees on Powder Keg and then finally onto Dog Leg. We paused a bit to catch our breath, then headed on down. Some of the sweep team had waited at the bottom of Fire Hydrant, and I was very happy to finally be almost at the bottom.

We got down there, and the pro patrollers towed us in the rest of the way, up to the first aid room, via snowmobile. Thankfully, they took over the case from there, handling all the paperwork and stuff. The patient was a real trooper through it all, and was very appreciative of the effort to get him off the hill, even apologizing for getting hurt out there. We gave him the usual "no need to apologize, it's our job..." lines, and after a quick hand-off of the case to the pro patrol, we headed off to the Palace.

We started the case somewhere around 3:30, when sweep began, and I think it was about 6:15 by the time we arrived at the Palace. What a long day. Beers and cheers, then paperwork and getting all the radios and transceivers turned in and locked up.

And I'm going back up to patrol again tomorrow.

Ski Days 4 & 5: Waterlogged Tryouts, Damp Calibration

2010-12-13T11:21:00.000-08:00

The first of (hopefully only) two back-to-back day weekends on the patrol started out with a nice wintry morning at Ski Bowl for the patrol's annual tryouts. I was one of many evaluators for the ski-test portion of the day's activities, and it was looking like it'd be a nice snowy day on the hill. But we knew it would switch to rain at some point in the day, so we weren't getting too excited about the new snow.

I got paired up to evaluate with one of my first coaches on the patrol, a guy we call "Tool Time" who patrolled at Smugglers' when he was going to school at St. Mike's in VT. After meeting some of the new candidates, we sat around for a bit waiting for the interviews to finish so we could take our first group over to Ski Bowl to put them through their paces. The snow changed over to rain before we even finished our first run, and our evaluation cards were soaked pretty quickly. We ended up having to improvise with our "Rite in Rain" notepads.

Tool Time and I were "lucky" enough to also have the last group of candidates for the day's tryouts. So, after we finished our first group, we went inside to try and dry off a little bit. This didn't really work. We got our eval cards for the group, and got back out on the hill. We tried to move things along a little quicker the second time around, and I think we managed to do that. After going over all the scores and making sure we had accounted for everything we did, we finally got back over to the patrol building in town and finished things up.

I got home, peeled off all my wet clothes, pulled everything out of all my pockets and tossed it all in the dryer. I had other pairs of gloves and goggles ready in case they didn't dry out (didn't want to over-'cook' the gloves, so was cautious with the dryer), but I didn't need 'em.

Sunday was the coaches' calibration clinic, where we get all the toboggan coaches together to get on the same page regarding everything from the paperwork aspect to the points of emphasis for the season. This year, we spent a little less time talking, and headed out to Meadows for the on-hill part. We expected rain and wind, and we got it, though not as bad as I figured. It was good to be out there, and aside from having to wipe off my goggles constantly, it wasn't a half-bad day after all.

We have a couple of PSIA instructors on the patrol, so we got them involved in our calibration clinic. They were able to provide a little more perspective on the teaching process as it relates to skiing fundamentals, as well as show us old dogs a few new tricks. As good a skier as I am, I picked up something I could work on, too. I can't wait to get out there and start coaching.

Ski Day 3: Dog Day Afternoon

2010-12-05T22:05:00.000-08:00

Today ended up being one of the wackiest days I can recall in my relatively brief patrol career. But we'll get to that later. For anyone reading this who was there, the post title is probably enough.

I got an early start today, mostly because of a mild case of nerves, or more accurately a stronger than usual desire not to be even a tiny bit late. Today was my first day as a Hill Captain on the Mt. Hood Ski Patrol.

For the uninitiated, the Hill Captain's job is essentially to lead/coordinate the efforts of the usually dozen-plus volunteer ski patrollers for the day. It's a bit of paperwork, plus ensuring everyone has what they need to do their jobs (radios, working passes, transceivers if the avy danger warrants, etc.), plus making sure assignments and tasks are covered, and be the Shell Answer Man (or at least know where to find the answers). More or less. A great crew of patrollers makes the HC's job a walk in the park, and today we had a great crew. I needn't have worried about much.

My stellar crew included Barkernews and NoPoGirl, who were doing one of their split-shift days, where they each do a half-day patrolling and spend the other half with their adorable daughter, Hazel. They're both excellent patrollers, and I was also blessed to have a host of other very experienced patrollers, including 3 guys who I've worked for on countless occasions when they were Hill Captains, and even a former President of the patrol. I knew some of the rookies we had today from helping train some of them last season (and I had worked with some of them already this season), so I had confidence in them as well.

By and large, the day was pretty uneventful. Only 2 cases all day, which wasn't much of a surprise, given how few guests came to Ski Bowl today. The cold and the hard-pack probably kept people away, but with decently-tuned skis/boards, there were good turns to be had on the groom. We did some avalanche transceiver practice, which is always a good thing to do regularly.

But things got weird in the afternoon. The short version is that we added "Animal Control" to the list of tasks.

Apparently, today was a popular day for people to bring up their dogs and let them off their leash. We had one patroller basically chasing dogs for the bulk of the middle of the day. This one pooch must have been some kind of endurance champion, as it had covered a ridiculous amount of ground - almost the entire eastern half of the ski area. Once the first one had been corralled, it wasn't long after that a second loose dog was called in. The same patroller who had worked the first dog case got on the second one as well. On top of that, we had yet another off-leash pooch a little later on. This time it was a couple of cross-country skiers that had their dog with them, but at least this one didn't run all over half the area. Lots of 'guest education' happened this afternoon, with regards to dogs and leash policy.

Once the canine misadventures were behind us, things quieted down for the rest of the day. We had an unplanned early closure of one of the lifts (decision of the area, not mechanical), which we adapted to fairly quickly, and once relieved by the paid patrol night crew, we were done after sweeping the closed lift. Paperwork, check in radios, hand out vouchers, do a little de-brief, and call it a day. Great work from everyone.

Dusting Off The Blog, Ski Days 1 and 2

2010-12-04T20:04:00.000-08:00

Wow. Again, Twitter and Facebook (and a host of other things) have kept me from updating here. With the ski season well underway for me, it's past time to start posting again.

The summer and fall have been busy, with kitchen remodeling and preparing for another season on the Mt. Hood Ski Patrol. I got all my refresher stuff out of the way fairly early, and started my season back on November 21st at Timberline. I would have preferred to get a free-ski day in before starting patrolling, but I just didn't get around to it.

Sadly, I've let my physical conditioning slide. Big time. Close followers will probably recall that I had lost about 22 pounds during my apprentice year with the patrol. I'd say I've put almost all of that back on since. The easy excuses are the shoulder and knee injuries/surgeries/rehab, but the bottom line is that I got lazy. I paid the price for that on my first ski day (no, I didn't get hurt). I decided that since the doc said I could go without the brace this season, I'd give it a shot.

Day 1 began with snowy conditions. I carpooled with NoPoGirl, and we picked up another patroller in Sandy on the way up. The coverage at Timberline was about average for early-season, with some bare spots here and there, but overall not too bad. I drew the Floodo opening with a patroller who was one of the apprentices I trained last season. Off we went, into the blowing snow and flat light that would pretty much be what we would deal with the whole day. Tower pads were what we started with, and when we got up top, we found that there was a good bit of equipment missing from the top shack. I sent my apprentice off to finish the tower pads while another patroller and I went to go get the equipment we needed. It was shortly afterward that I made a huge mistake.

I decided to drag the toboggan full of equipment (mostly just 2 backboards with their packs) down West Leg Road instead of down Uncle John's Band. This was incalculably foolish, since WLR is so damned flat. I did it because I had heard the bottom pitch of UJB was kinda sketchy, and I didn't want to hog up a good line. I had to skate to pull the sled, and basically wore myself out doing it. I think even if I had been in decent shape, I'd have been pretty wiped after pulling that sled over those flats. That sucked. The next run I skied after that, I felt my quads almost cramping up. Never felt that on the hill before.

Anyway, I did my dispatch shift, talked with the Hill Captain about Hill Captain-y stuff, since this is my first season as a HC, and went in for lunch. I don't remember if I helped out on a case before or after I ate, but I got to do one later in the afternoon. For those of you unfamiliar with Timberline, there's a run called Cruzer, that's well, a cruiser - really long intermediate run on the west side of the area. I don't know the linear distance, but it's long. Probably somewhere around a mile and change. I had to take a toboggan down Cruzer to transport a young skier with a knee injury. Most of the trip on Cruzer was with an empty toboggan, so it wasn't too bad. The brutal part was coming up.

Timberline is what I call an "upside-down" ski area, in that the base lodge area is above most of the skiable terrain. In years past, we used to run the toboggan down to the nearest lift, pull the handles off of it, put a special bracket on the chair, put the toboggan on the chair and take it up the hill. This is pretty time-consuming, and probably irritating to the public, since it takes maybe 5 minutes to load the chair, and another 5 or so to unload, so there are two lift stoppages. What we do now is get a snowmobile to pick us up and pull us up West Leg Road. Basically, you wrap a rope around the toboggan handle and the snow-mo pulls you and the toboggan up. It's like water skiing, but a lot more work.

The trip up was just brutal. I would guess it took somewhere on the order of 15 minutes, maybe longer. I was absolutely wiped at the end, and had to stretch my quads out while other patrollers unloaded the patient, as my quads had started to cramp up again. All of this caused me to miss sweep, but I would have been skiing so slowly on sweep that it was probably for the good of everyone else that I was inside.

Ski Day 2 was over at Ski Bowl on November 27th, and was a much better day. Still cloudy and flat light, but the recent snows had things in great shape. It wasn't too far into my day that I got a case. I had finally finished up my assignment on Lower Bowl, and went up to do my shift at Rescue Center.

When I got to the bottom of the Upper Bowl lift, I was approached by the liftie and a couple boarders, who told me they had a friend who had hurt his leg up on Calamity. I radioed it in, and they sent one of the newer patrollers to respond. By the time I got up top, another patroller was right there with a toboggan for me to take. I headed on down, helped the rookie get the patient's leg splinted, loaded him in, and let the rookie drive. He did well, from what I could see from the tail-rope position. We got him down the hill, and I headed back up top.

We had a guy come up for a one-on-one tryout, since he couldn't make the tryout date because of prior plans. Several folks really wanted to make sure we gave the guy a shot at getting into the training program, since he was one of the rare folks who was interested in both nordic and alpine patrolling. Over the course of a couple runs, I'd seen enough - the guy could ski and did it pretty well. With some minor tweaks, he'll be a good sled-driver.

I let him shadow me on my afternoon assignment over on the Multorpor lift, and it didn't take long before he got to see just what we do. I got a call that there was an injured boarder in the terrain park. We had just been talking about how the parks are case-generators, too. We were one run over from the park, but I found a nice little cut through the trees and we found the injury. The boarder had broken his arm, so into a splint/sling/swathe he went, and I took him down to the bottom in the toboggan that another patroller brought us. A quick snow-mo tow across the Lake Road to the west-side aid room, and that was pretty much that. I re-packed the sled, and took it back over to Multorpor.

The rest of the day was pretty mellow, more or less uneventful. So far, through two ski days without the brace, the knee is feeling just fine. Still gets a little sore by the end of the day, but I think that'll fade as the season goes. Even if it doesn't, I can live with that.

Back to Ski Bowl tomorrow, for my debut as a Hill Captain. Should be fun!

PS - forgot to post about Nuts & Bolts back in June. First day was crappy weather for the toboggan instructors' shop-talk session, but the second day was freakin' EPIC. I got to really crank and bank out on the west side of the glacier, and learned a bunch of stuff from the PSIA guy - not only about skiing better, but being better at watching people ski and picking out things they need to work on. Nuts & Bolts is a great weekend for patrollers to get together and work on honing ski & toboggan skills. Usually always the first full weekend in June, and we get patrollers from all over. I skied with some guys from Michigan at the one this year.

An Evening With The Ski Patrol

2010-05-09T00:04:00.000-07:00

Saturday night was the annual Mt. Hood Ski Patrol awards banquet. I hadn't "suited up" in a while, and Bex hooked me up with a sweet new red tie to go with the white shirt and dark pinstripe suit. I was feeling pretty dapper, and ready to go hang out and have a nice evening with my fellow patrollers.

The usual drill for me at these things is to get a certificate indicating that I put in a bunch of days, and get some kind of recognition for being a sled coach. The peculiar thing about the last couple years had been getting Honorable Mention for the Hill Patroller of the Year award. I know there are few better skiers on the patrol, but plenty of better overall patrollers. To get that at last year's banquet was baffling, as I'd only put in 12 days between coming back off the shoulder surgery and ending my season early with the knee.

All I'd really managed to do this year was stay healthy and coach some more sled-drivers. I kind of felt like I had a shot at Alpine Coach of the Year, since I'd had to 'fly solo' a few times this year and try to get D team ready for their tests with a more challenging training schedule thanks to a few days where we didn't get to really get much training done. Putting in as many days as I did, I figured on getting that certificate again, and figured to get a mention as one of the guys who'd done Senior S&T, both of which happened.

I was slightly disappointed that I didn't get Alpine Coach of the Year, but the guy who did get it was certainly deserving. He was one of the guys that coached me during my apprentice year, and I knew he was an excellent coach. What caught me totally by surprise was winning the Hill Patroller of the Year award.

A little while prior to that, the patrol president had read out a fairly moving story about the guy for whom the Hill Apprentice of the Year award is named. I got to thinking about the company I was in - I am a past recipient - and I have to admit I got a little choked up at the story. So, I was already a little emotional, and then was quite literally stunned to tears when I was announced as the HPotY. I wasn't bawling, but there were tears, and I couldn't compose myself enough to make a speech, even if I'd been asked to. It was all a little much.

I like to think I have a fairly long ski patrol career ahead of me, so it never really entered my mind that I'd be considered for the award in any of my first few years, much less win it in my 4th. I'm sitting here shaking my head as I type this.

Well, since I couldn't regain my composure and coolly dispense some humorous or heartfelt comments at the time, I'll take the time to thank some people here.

First and foremost, my wife. Without her support and understanding, I wouldn't have had the opportunity in the first place. Of course, I thank my parents for getting me into the sport I love so dearly in the first place, for putting me into lessons and joining the ski club and supporting my racing habit. Naturally, all my race coaches (Brian, Deb, Paul, Cas, Sandy, John, Heidi, et al) deserve tons of credit for turning me into a good skier. My friend and co-worker Jeff deserves all the credit for getting me interested in the patrol, and my coaches from my apprentice year for turning me into a competent patroller. And I can't thank my orthopedic surgeon and physical therapist enough for putting my shoulder and knee back together and putting me back on the hill. I want to thank all the patrollers I've worked with since joining - each of you has taught me something, and you all make it a joy to come up to the mountain 20-odd times a season to work and play.

If I forgot anyone, I'm deeply sorry. I also apologize if this is sappy. :)

Equally surprising was being designated a Hill Captain. I had thought that required some shadowing or on-the-job training, and for some reason I thought there was some minimum level of patrolling experience required (5 years?). I'm definitely honored, for that and for being named the runner-up for the Alpine Coach of the Year. Unbelievable evening.

Ski Day 26: May Day @ Timberline

2010-05-01T22:31:00.000-07:00

Bruce Campbell's voice rumbled from the Sorento's speakers as I pulled into a parking space in front of the patrol building in Government Camp this morning. I had forgotten all about the audiobook for "Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way", until recently, so I'd put it on my iPhone earlier in the week, listening to chunks of it on my commute. Unsatisfied with Saturday morning radio, I'd put the audiobook on, and since I was kind of running on fumes, I'd hoped the interesting part of the story would get me going.

It kind of helped. But the temperature and precipitation weren't what I had expected when I stepped out of the SUV in Govy this morning, so right back into Do-I-Really-Have-To-Do-This mode I went. Clearly, there had been snow overnight, but it was raining. "Ah, hell. Maybe it'll be snowing at Timberline," I muttered to myself, and trudged inside.

I had been expecting maybe one other hill patroller, and had received an e-mail earlier in the week from the APC for Timberline telling me I'd basically be playing Hill Captain today. I wasn't particularly looking forward to being short-handed in the first place, since there had been a decent amount of snow during the week, and that usually means there's lots to do. I was pleasantly surprised to see one of the triple-digit-patrol-number types (AKA old-timer), grabbing the 'pouch' for Timberline - this meant we had a 'real' Hill Captain. Things were looking up.

Bruce was talking about being fired from the film he was working on, but I had to cut him off when I parked the Sorento up at Timberline. I was right about the snowing, but it didn't seem like it was cold enough that it would snow all day. I grabbed all my stuff and headed in to boot up and get ready for the day.

One of the A-team apprentices was there, getting a shadow day in (shame on you, D-team - where were you guys?), so at least we had one more guy for sweep and another sled-qualified guy if things got dicey. With a limited number of lifts in operation (it is May, after all), there wasn't as much to do as there is on a typical day at Timberline. With the weather, it was looking like there wouldn't be many guests on the hill, so hopefully that'd mean few (if any) injuries. Of course, the low visibility and flat light seemed fully prepared to conspire against us in that department.

Having checked the forecast Friday, it looked like it was supposed to be between 27 and 29 up there today, so I went with my yellow wax rated for 25-32 degrees when I prepped the skis last night. When it started changing over to a kind of misting rain as we walked out to the Pucci lift, I got to wondering if I'd made a mistake. But once I got the skis on the snow, they felt good. Fast, actually. We finished our opening assignment (Pucci lift wasn't running, but the terrain was open to skiers, so we still had to dust off and adjust tower pads over there), and headed off to the very cruisable terrain over off of Floodo.

The visibility was better lower down, so we could really open 'em up and crank the big turns. The only thing that sucked was that we had to keep stopping to attend to some more opening tasks that appeared to have been left undone by whoever was opening Floodo. Good practice for the rookie anyhow. Plus, the faster we get the opening stuff done, the better. We were on the second bump shift, so we got to go turn and burn until 10:30. The mountain was fairly empty until a little before 10.

The day pretty much passed uneventfully, until the afternoon. With the early closing, we were preparing for sweep at 2:30, and naturally someone gets hurt just as we're getting prepared to sweep. Unfortunately, the liftie who called it in over the phone did a poor job of describing the location of our injured party, so it took longer to locate the person. At least it was something we could do a snowmobile transport for, and it didn't take long before our sweep was in full swing.

Aside from one person slipping past the sweepers somehow (I was standing around up top, since I was "dispatch"), the day ended without further incident. I never did feel 100% "into it" today, but I figure even a week off the hill isn't enough at this stage of the year for me to recharge. It's been a pretty busy season, particularly for a "comeback year". With nothing on my patrol plate between the banquet next Saturday night and the Nuts & Bolts clinics in June, it looks like I'll have the break I'm thinking I'll need.

Ski Day 25: Closing Time @ Ski Bowl

2010-04-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

Mt. Hood, from near the top of Radical

Despite all the late-season snow, we got word last week that this weekend would be the last for Ski Bowl this season. I was a little bummed, but I could understand it. At least it was looking like Sunday would be a nice day, weather-wise.

It was.

The upper bowl was SWEET!

It got pretty warm rather quickly, and it was definitely a vest day pretty much from the start. Brett and I had two of our D-teamers up for toboggan tests, and we picked up a guy from A team that had failed his test a while back. We got to make some awesome runs on the sweet groom on upper bowl, then got the guys working with the sleds for some last-minute coaching tips before taking their test runs.

The apprentices getting ready to take a toboggan up the lift...

Liftoff!

The skiing was just fantastic spring stuff all day long. I took a fairly long break after we got the guys tested (and passed), which kind of gave me a little second wind. I took a whole bunch of runs in the afternoon, and was feeling great.

Towards the middle of the afternoon, I decided it was the right day and time to go officially face my demons, AKA the East Traverse - the scene of the crime, as it were. A year and ten days prior, I'd blown up my left ACL over there. I wanted to see if I could pick out where it happened, and see if I could find the route I ended up taking out of the woods to help my rescuers reach me. It was kind of surreal. I skied it slow and cautious, but everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. I instantly recognized the site, and recalled what it felt like. I started grinning when I saw the little cut through the trees that I traversed to get to Oh Shoot, then the open spot where I turned on my uninjured leg to the runout that empties onto Accelerator.

I made a couple turns down Oh Shoot, then zipped out the runout onto Accelerator. I felt awesome. I was acting like I'd won a race or something - hands up, victoriously fist-pumping, big stupid grin on my face. I looked back and sneered at the run that had taken my ACL last season, muttered something that I won't repeat here through clenched teeth, and skied down to the lift.

I know, I know. Just a TAD melodramatic.

Made a few more runs, and it was time for sweep. The two D-teamers and I loaded up the remaining toboggans from Rescue Center with the spare backboards, the drills, and some other stuff, and headed on down to Multorpor. We thought that hauling the sleds down might have earned us a tow across the flats to the Palace, but only the toboggans got towed anywhere. We got to hike back. Beer awaited us, but we had to get the sleds inside, and then get our crap together and leave, since we were being told that the operations people wanted to close and lock the parking lot gate. Lame.

Ski Day 24: Senior Moments @ Bachelor

2010-04-13T18:51:00.000-07:00

Sunday was all kinds of cool for me. It was my first trip to Mt. Bachelor, for starters. I know what you're thinking... (Actually, I kind of dislike that phrase. Quite impossible, I'd have to imagine, to know that. Let's try again.)

I can guess what you might be thinking...how could I have not been to Mt. Bachelor yet? I've been out here for 13 years (oh HOLY CRAP, really?), and I LOVE to ski, so it really is kind of mind-boggling, but I just never got around to it. Until Sunday, when I went there for the regional Senior Ski & Toboggan test (I guess you could consider it post-graduate work for sled-drivers, or whatever kind of beyond-basic-skill-level type of thing you can relate to). I had to get up stupid early, drive up to Government Camp, and carpool from there with Doug (the other patroller from MHSP who was doing the Senior S&T test with me). Doug drove, since he has a pickup and we were asked to haul the toboggans back from Bachelor. I was certainly glad not to have to drive the full 3 hours and change from my place.

Anyway, we got there earlier than we'd planned, but it was looking to be a beautiful day. We met up with a patroller from Hoodoo (I think) that we had trained with a couple weeks ago, and then the rest of the candidates rolled in, as did the evaluators and advocates (apparently, you get to have someone 'in your corner' on the Senior S&T evaluation, in case something comes up during the evaluation that needs to be addressed). We went through a briefing about the day's planned events, and headed out on the hill.

Pretty much from the start, things were a little disjointed. The first instruction I recall getting was that we'd all meet outside the lodge and do some stretching exercises. This ended up meaning, "meet at the top of the lift and do some stretching exercises". Okay, no problem, the view was better up there anyhow. We were each assigned a number, which would indicate the order we'd go in for the evaluations. Doug and I were 1 and 2, respectively, so I guess you could say we had the advantage of doing most of our waiting around after we demonstrated our skills instead of before.

I wouldn't say there was added pressure for going 1-2. Doug and I both had a lot of confidence going into the test, since we had a good training session a couple weeks prior at Meadows. "Just a walk in the park, Kazansky," I said to Doug (that's from Top Gun, for you kids out there). I made sure I didn't say that too loud - I didn't want to be known as "that cocky jerk from Hood'.

Anyway, we did a warm-up run over off the Outback Express chair, and the snow was fantastic. Really good day for showing off. We started in on large-radius carved turns, and the inconsistencies in the directions we were given from one evaluator or advocate to the next started showing up right away. Normally, when we train, when you stop after a drill, everyone stops below the person that went before them. It's safer than stopping above. So that's what I did. The next guy stopped below me, and so on, but then we got told to change the order we were standing in, so we had to either sideslip down or sidestep up to re-shuffle the order. This was, of course, pointless. We all had numbers, so we knew what order to go in - it wasn't like it mattered where we were standing.

Anyway, the directions on which way to line up got flip-flopped at least once more before we even finished the carved turns portion of the evaluation. At least we got to have a little fun skiing in between some of the drills, some of it due to Doug and I lobbying one of the evaluators to let us ski this one pretty sweet pitch with fresh snow on it.

Once we got all the ski skills out of the way (Doug and I basically kicked ass), we went in for a break and then grabbed the toboggans to start the toboggan-handling part of the program. The weather had been changing quite a bit all day, but for the most part, the snow was getting softer and stickier towards the afternoon. The slightly-more-grippy snow made things a little easier, IMO. That, and the added fact that we were on trails that weren't as steep as the stuff on which we train our apprentices, made me feel like maybe we had the whole toboggan part sewn up before we started.

That pretty much turned out to be the case. Doug and I both continued to represent the patrol well, and at one point, we each got paired up with one of the weaker candidates, presumably to see if that would make a difference for them. The too-many-chiefs syndrome reared its head once again, with different people telling us to park the toboggans across the fall line at one point, and down the fall line at a later point, and then arguing about it. The poor guy trying to herd all these cats did the best he could, though, so my hat's off to him. Once we finally finished up with the evaluations, we hauled the toboggans down to the patrol room and went into the lodge to await our results.

It seemed unnecessarily dramatic, the way they had us go in one by one to this 'council of twelve' kind of table arrangement, but whatever. They asked me how I thought I did, and a number of exceedingly smug or arrogant things to say flashed in my mind (I was *this close* to saying, "are you kidding me?"), but all I managed to say was, "I felt good out there." I must have had a look on my face that indicated that I felt more like what I almost said, because I swear I heard one of them stifle a laugh. Anyway, they asked me something about how I felt the test was, if it was difficult enough or whatever, and I don't really think I gave a helpful answer. I'd had a headache most of the afternoon, and I just wanted to get my certificate, help load the sleds in Doug's truck, and get the hell out of there.

Despite how I was feeling physically, I was really pleased with how Doug and I represented our patrol. It was a good experience overall, meeting patrollers from other areas and getting a feel for how they train and work. And it was definitely nice to finally ski Bachelor. I really want to go back as soon as I can and check out the rest of the mountain.

Hey, look - I went a whole blog post about skiing/patrolling without mentioning my knee. Oh wait...dammit. :-P

Happy 1st Birthday, New Left ACL!

2010-04-08T07:28:00.000-07:00

One year ago today, I started the long road back to skiing. A month before that, I had destroyed my left knee quite handily in a stupid little crash on the way out to check out Scotty's Way (AKA East Wall) at Ski Bowl. I won't go over the whole thing again - if you want to read that story, go here.

And I won't recount the story of the surgery, either. That's here, if you're interested. This blog turned into The Knee Show for a while there, so there's plenty to read if you're bored.

No, today's post is more about celebrating the journey. I've acknowledged the great people who helped me get back in the saddle, not just for skiing just for the fun of it, but to be back on the mountain making a difference as a ski patroller and a toboggan coach for the incoming patrollers. They know who they are, and I thank them silently every time I'm up there making turns. Heck, sometimes I thank them quite aloud. Like last Friday, when I was in Heather Canyon and thanked my orthopedist (Dr. Montgomery) while the Barkers and I were grinning like idiots after ripping up a pitch of knee-deep pow.

My Physical Therapist has mentioned to me a few times that my own diligence was as much a factor as anything she did for me during PT. So I guess, "Go, me!"

I also have to give a nod to the folks at Genesis Medical, who fitted me with my brace, and Bledsoe Brace Systems, who made it. Hopefully, I won't need it next season. The doc said I shouldn't have to. I imagine that since it didn't take too long to be skiing with confidence once I got back into it, that it won't take too long to be comfortable without the brace. We'll see.

Sure, there have been days where I thought it was going to take forever to get things feeling right, and some days on the mountain where I thought maybe I'd rushed back too soon, but I'm pleased with how things turned out. One of the somewhat surprising side effects of all this has been that I feel like my skiing has improved. In large part, this is due to all the balance work that Amanda had me doing in PT. I'm more body-aware, and skiing more focused than I ever did previously. Skiers, I highly recommend adding a good deal of balance work to whatever workout routine you're doing, if you aren't already. Get yourself a Bosu ball, and a 6"x36" foam roller, and use them. You'll be pleased with the results.

I don't, however, recommend blowing your ACL as motivation.

Ski Day 23: Epic "Me Patrol" @ MHM

2010-04-06T23:14:00.000-07:00

I guess I should call it "we patrol", since there were 3 of us. But that sounds kind of odd. Anyway, I'm finally getting around to blogging about last Friday. My blogslackery knows...uh...well, SOME bounds. I guess.

After looking at the week's forecast after Ski Day 22, I told myself I absolutely MUST ski that Friday. Fortunately, my boss is awesome and didn't have any problem with me taking the 2nd off to go ski. Even more fortunately, because I prefer not to ski alone, a couple of super cool people that I know also took a 'mental health day' on Friday. Barkernews and NoPoGirl are even more dedicated to skiing than I am, so I was very glad when they agreed to carpool and make turns with me.

We got up there a tad later than we probably wanted to, but I don't think it mattered much to any of us once we started skiing. It was pretty much all shit-eating grins and whooping and hollering while we tore up the fresh snow. We managed a couple trips through Heather Canyon before the avy danger closed it, but we pretty much found awesome stuff to ski in everywhere we went.

It's such a freakin' BLAST to ski with people who are genuinely having a great time, and Friday was a textbook example. If they put that sort of thing in textbooks. And they should.

My only gripe was that I didn't ski with a backpack, so wasn't carrying a proper camera. I could have taken some shots with my iPhone, but with the weather (it was snowing and pretty damn windy), I wasn't terribly interested in taking it out of my high-tech waterproof case (quart-sized ziploc freezer bag).

I was having too much fun to give a damn about counting runs, but we packed it in kind of on the early side. I was kind of relieved that B-news and NPG had to leave a little early to get their daughter out of daycare - it got me off the hook for having terrible endurance. While the knee has been holding up well most of the time, skiing all that powder was more and different work than I'd had to do for a full day all season. We were all getting fatigued by the last couple runs, though, as evidenced by the falling...

...which reminds me of why it's awesome to ski with people instead of solo. I had made a couple sweet turns in some untouched stuff on 1 Bowl when I let myself get bounced a little too far forward, causing my right ski tip to plunge. The ski felt like it dug in, and it definitely released (felt like I walked right out of it) when I fell. I swear it felt like the ski just stopped, so I asked NoPoGirl - who was above me - to help look for my ski. We didn't realize, until he held it up, that Barkernews had my ski. It had torpedoed underneath where I had fallen, and shot down the hill his direction. He pounced on it, saving me from having to search for it. I skied down to him on one ski, which was probably as stupid as it was impressive. Okay, not all that impressive. I fell twice, strangely (to me) when I was turning on it as my downhill ski. *shrug*

Anyway, it wasn't long afterward that we decided to call it a day and head home. It was an absolutely freakin' AWESOME day of skiing. I'll let one or the other of my fellow powderhounds from Friday decide whether or not the trip back to town gets any blog attention. ;-)

Ski Days 21 & 22: Evaluated and Evaluating @ MHM

2010-03-31T08:29:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was another one of those skiing weekends where I skied both days and the experience on each day was completely different. I kind of like those - because different is interesting and interesting is good - but when you start out with the sunny bluebird day, you don't want the second day to be different...

Anyway, Saturday was nothing short of awesome. I wasn't dispatched to patrol, but I had received a phone call last Sunday from our training director to talk about how my team was looking and who was ready to test. He mentioned that there was some desire that I take the NSP Senior Ski & Toboggan (S&T) test at Mt. Bachelor on April 11th, and that there was a clinic I needed to attend first, on March 27th.

I hadn't planned on doing the NSP Senior stuff until next season, but I thought, 'why not?'. If the patrol needs another Instructor Trainer, and I get to ski at Mt. Bachelor, then cool. If I don't manage to pass, at least I got to ski at Bachelor, and I'll hopefully know what I need to work on.

So, I went to the clinic. I couldn't have picked a better day to go skiing, and we basically took all our warm-up runs off the Cascade chair, which gave us access to some really fabulous wind-blown powder as well as some of the most perfect groomed corduroy you'll ever ski. Once we were finished having fun, it was down to business. We had a guy with us who has been patrolling forever (Dave, he's 78!), who has been an evaluator on a lot of NSP Senior S&T tests and knows what they're looking for.

The first thing he wanted to see us do was carved turns - large, meduim, and short radius. Now, when I carve large and medium radius turns, I get fast. This, in my opinion, is the natural effect of carving good turns. Unfortunately, despite my nicely-carved turns, I was told I needed to slow down for the evaluators. Even if I'm in control, they aren't going to like it if I go "too fast". So, I worked on that. Dave did say my short-radius turns were "absolutely perfect", though, so I was feeling pretty damn good about that.

But I had better be good at this stuff by now. I've been skiing a long time. And I've had some great coaches.

After all my showing off, it was time to see if I was any good at running the four-handled toboggan ("Cascade 350"), and find out if my tail-roping is as good as I thought it was. I had only run an empty 350 twice before Saturday. Sounds like I did pretty well - the trainers said I didn't look like a guy who had only run an empty 350 only twice in my life. I actually like running the 350 in the rear operator position. The 2-handled toboggan we used was a brand-spanking new Clipper, which is my favorite sled to run. It just handles so well.

The snow was pretty much perfect all day, even when it started to get a little mushy when things warmed up in the afternoon. Just fantastic. And I was feeling really good about my chances for passing the Senior S&T test on April 11th.

Sunday, the weather was entirely different. It was another blizzard, basically. Okay, maybe not a blizzard, but it was definitely snowing pretty hard and fairly windy. The snow was kind of heavy, and the sun-facing slopes were pretty chunky and a little firm underneath the newer snow. This made sled-testing a little challenging for the apprentices, and it got tougher as the day wore on and the snow got heavier and wetter. Still, we passed 8 of the 10 that came up that day. One of my guys didn't pass, and I think he just had a bad day, because I'd seen much better from him the last day we trained. Two of my guys who passed were guys I wouldn't have sent up for testing after what I saw last week, but I guess things clicked for them.

We de-briefed at Charlie's in Govy afterward, and passing 8 guys worked out perfectly, since the shot-ski has 4 shot glasses on it. :)

My knee held up fine over the weekend, but I was definitely sore after back-to-back days. The swelling wasn't bad, and I wasn't as stiff as I expected on Monday. Hopefully, the knee continues to be less and less painful after ski days, and next season will be better.

Ski Day 20: Training in a Blizzard @ MHM

2010-03-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

Yeah, it snowed at Meadows today. Quite a bit. And it was windy. Quite a bit windy. I had figured on having to go it alone coaching the apprentices today, but was pleasantly surprised to find a coach who happened to be patrolling up there willing to help me out. That was cool.

It was Andrew, who not only coached me when I was apprentice, but also hauled my sorry ass off the hill when I tore my ACL last March.

Other than fairly high winds and a lot of blowing snow, there isn't much to say about today. The guys all made good progress, and I have one guy that I'm sure is ready to test next week. Two others could probably pass, and the remaining guys still need some work.

The snow was awesome. We had to take a break from dragging sleds around to take a couple free runs on Rock Garden. Really really great - and untouched - snow. We'd have probably ventured into Heather Canyon if it wasn't such a time-consuming trip.

Weird thing of the day: my knee was painful the first time I sat in the back of one of the toboggans today. I was worried for a few minutes that I'd managed to re-injure it somehow, but once I got out of the sled at the bottom, it was fine. Felt fine the rest of the day. Weird.

Ski Day 19: A Practical Demo For My Trainees @ Timberline

2010-03-16T18:35:00.000-07:00

Hey, look - I didn't wait almost a week (or longer) to get around to blogging about a patrol day. I'm proud of myself, but not to the point that I'll be testing my flexibility by patting myself on the back.

Or did I just do that?

Whatever. Anyway, Sunday was another day of apprentice coaching for me, and this time I didn't have to fly solo. I don't mind doing so, other than I prefer not to have to be the one jabbering on all the time. We didn't have our full complement of trainees, so Brett and I had to take turns being a passenger in one of the toboggans.

We got kind of a late start to dragging the sleds around, because we both misread a message about where the toboggans would be. Turns out that not only were they not where we thought they'd be, they weren't where they were supposed to be. Confused yet? Good. Or, dammit. Despite being at Timberflats, we did manage to find some decent steeps to train on, and the snow was nice. It was sunny, cold, and breezy, but it did warm up a bit throughout the day. We pretty much did our laps in the lower part of the area through the morning.

In the afternoon, we went back to work on the lower area, then decided we should go check things out up top, so off we went to Palmer. We weren't even really off the chairlift before a call came in, and due to the lack of patrollers up there (why? where was everyone?), we got to respond. I was first on scene since I volunteered to be the first responder, and it was pretty obvious to me what I was dealing with before I even took the guy's jacket off to see his shoulder - dislocated. My own right shoulder twinged a little when he showed me that he couldn't lift it, and my suspicions were confirmed upon checking it out.

I made the appropriate calls, and got him into a blanket roll to stabilize the shoulder, with some assistance from Brett and the apprentices. Loaded him into the sled and off we went.

I'd forgotten just how long a toboggan pull I had ahead of me, when I said "I'll drive." We were a couple towers up from the bottom of Palmer. Anyone who knows Timberline knows that while not steep up there, it's a pretty long haul. I wondered to myself briefly how the knee would hold up - I hadn't had the opportunity to test it like this. Sure, I've skied 18 days to this point, and a couple of those days were above average intensity, but I hadn't skied a run that long all in one shot, much less having to do so braking a rescue toboggan behind me. With an apprentice watching.

I needn't have worried.

Yeah, of course I was sore at the end of the day, and there wasn't any time to dwell on the run when I got the guy down to the first aid room. I didn't really think about it again until after they got him on the ambulance gurney. Pretty proud I did it, and silently thanked my Ortho Doc and my PT.

Oh, one thing that was really cool was that the ambulance guys complimented me on my blanket roll. They almost didn't want to cut the cravats to remove it so they could use their contraption. Good thing they did, though - we got our blanket back. Those things disappear quite a bit, apparently.

Anyway, we put the sled back out on the hill, helped a girl find her dad and brother, then helped with sweep. Ended the day back at the Govy building, signing training cards and grading map tests, drinking a cold Pipeline Porter.

Ski Day 18: Almost The ACL Anniversary @ Ski Bowl

2010-03-07T23:18:00.001-08:00

Sunday found me in a familiar place, not surprisingly - Mt. Hood Ski Bowl. Other than having to 'fly solo' as a toboggan coach for the patrol, there was really only one thing noteworthy about Sunday.

It had been just one day shy of a year since I blew out my left knee up there at that very ski area.

It wasn't like it was the first time I'd been back there, and aside from it being a beautiful morning despite a severe lack of snow in the lower parts of the area, I was too focused on the task at hand - training apprentices - to give much thought to what had transpired 364 days prior. But after a few runs, my gaze as I rode the upper bowl chair drifted to my left, in the direction of the traverse where I crashed.

That section of the upper bowl hasn't been desirable skiing most of the season, and particularly so on Sunday, since there's been some melt-freeze action going on, and that area isn't in the sun until late in the day. So, I haven't really been to the exact spot. But I kind of hope I get the chance.

I put it out of my mind, like always, and focused on how much I was enjoying skiing and coaching the apprentices. They're improving, and I'm pretty sure they'll be ready in a couple weeks. The skiing got really good around 9:30, and since we got to start running sleds right from the start, we took a few runs off and just skied the soft spring snow over on Pizzazz and Cliffhanger. We would do that again later on. The bulk of the day was spent getting reps in running loaded sleds. Trying to observe two sled teams by myself was pretty taxing, but there isn't much one can do when the other scheduled coach doesn't show.

We paid for our turns later in the day by getting tasked to pull a crapload of rope lines at closing time. A great deal of the lower part of the bowl has been closed off because of poor snow coverage, but the area wanted the rope lines pulled in anticipation of the coming snow, since they'll be closed much of the week. But a task that big with 7 of us working was no problem at all.

I'd be remiss at this point if I didn't thank the people who got me back on skis after my injury, and to thumb my nose at the people who suggested I quit.

Thanks to:
My wife - I can't say enough about her support through it all. I would have been pretty miserable without all her help.
My surgeon - Dr. Montgomery did a great job, not only with the repair, but also just being a cool guy who took the time to make sure I knew as much as I could about what to expect and how to handle the whole process. He understood what my goals were, and made sure he was keeping them in mind every visit.
My physical therapist - Amanda did a great job tailoring a PT program that focused on the right things to get me back on my skis and feeling comfortable about the repair. All the balance work paid off in spades - I feel like I'm skiing better now than ever.

I don't think anyone who reads this was among those who suggested I quit skiing. But here's a nice frosty keg full of Shut The Fuck Up with a side dish of Kiss My Ass for them anyhow.

Getting Caught Up: Avy Refresher and Ski Days 15, 16, 17

2010-03-02T08:19:00.000-08:00

Another bout of blogslackeritis has brought about a dry spell here, and also what could be a massive missive, if I were to write as much as I could about basically all of February from a skiing/patrolling standpoint.

But I won't.

Feb 6th was my avalanche refresher course, and I certainly was pleased to get through it. Usually, the refresher means tromping around the snowfield just above the Timberline climber's lot, and that nearly always means post-holing. That isn't fun, and in anticipation of such shenanigans, I wore my knee brace. I was glad I did. The refresher was, for all practical purposes, a series of avalanche transceiver practice scenarios. The weather was better than I expected, but still windy and cold for part of it. It did snow on us a little bit, but no huge accumulation. I still needed some more practice on dealing with multiple-burial scenarios, but I did get probe strikes within a very short time of locating the first transceiver of the full scenario at the end. The only thing that went a little wrong was that one of the transceivers must have had low battery power when it was buried, because we never did get a signal from it once the scenario started. Hopefully, we'll find it in the late spring...

Feb 14th was effing miserable, and that was in large part because I am an idiot for agreeing to train the available apprentices on Valentine's Day. This did not thrill the missus, who had just had surgery on her toe to deal with a bone spur and some loose tissue. As if to punish my idiocy, it rained and just generally sucked that day. I don't even remember how the guys did, but we ran empty sleds on Radical and Cannonball at Ski Bowl. I think they did okay for their first extended time in the handles. I do remember they did fine with uploading the sleds on the chair.

The 21st was a gorgeous day to train, and we were at Meadows that day. The patrollers on duty there told us we weren't needed to help with opening assignments, so we got to ski for almost an hour with nobody else on the mountain. The guys needed the work on their carving, so we did that. Unfortunately, the sleds we had couldn't be used with sled carriers, and it was windy enough that we weren't particularly enamored with the idea of lap-loading them probably 10 times each, so we worked on rope-a-goat to get the apprentices a whole bunch of time getting used to tail-roping. It was probably for the best, since tail-roping is the hardest part of toboggan handling anyway. It was a good day to have nice sharp edges, which I did. I've been really on top of tuning my skis this season. I just need a truing bar now, and maybe some sticks of p-tex and a metal scraper to take care of the little grooves that have appeared in my bases. Probably a new plastic scraper for wax, since the one I have is looking pretty rounded on the edges...

The 28th was a 'regular' patrol day for me, meaning I wasn't coaching apprentices. It was looking to be a very warm and sunny day at Ski Bowl, and it wasn't long before I had unzipped the armpit vents of my parka. I changed from my parka to my vest somewhere around 9:30 that morning. Beautiful day. I had the lower-bowl opening assignment with John A, and we did a ton of rope line work. We did such a good job, that we were asked to set one up for the 'speed trap' that was being run as part of the Fusion Series of ski/snowboard competitions. We didn't get to run it, but the fastest speed I heard was 64 mph. We did some more transceiver practice - a multiple burial - and did pretty respectable at it this time around. The snow started off pretty firm, but once the sun cooked it a bit, it got nice and soft and fun to ski. All in all, a pretty good day.

Through it all, the repaired knee has been handling things pretty well. It's almost always sore at the end, but I chalk that up to conditioning (my lack of it) just as much as I would chalk it up to just being how I expect it to be at about 10 months post-op. I need to get off my ass and start riding my exercise bike and stuff again, which I've started up last night. Watching Premier League soccer is a great thing to do while riding, since a half is 45 or more minutes solid with no need to reach for a remote to skip commercials, so I watched Arsenal beat Stoke City off the DVR.

Ski Day 14: Me Patrol @ Meadows

2010-02-03T19:12:00.000-08:00

Looking to the east, from Discovery Ridge

I should have been doing this all along - taking a midweek day to go skiing. I'd been hiding behind excuses most of my sabbatical, and in large part I still feel they were justified. I wanted the knee to have more rest between ski days. I wasn't going to waste the gas to go ski if things weren't going to be basically awesome. Then of course, things were basically awesome when we were in Hawaii. But being in Hawaii was basically awesome also.

Okay, Hawaii was better than awesome. Awesome times Hawaii minus skiing. I'm not entirely sure what that equals, but I know it's better than awesome.

Anyway, I knew there'd been some fresh snow up there recently, and I figured that they've been getting enough at Timberline and Meadows that things should be pretty damn good at either place. But I was in a Meadows mood today, so I drove the extra distance.

I wasn't disappointed. I have a feeling the weather was probably better at Meadows than Timberline. Seemed like things up high and to the west were more socked in than where I was. The sun was struggling to make an appearance, and for a while it did. I was too busy skiing to worry about taking a lot of pictures, though. And I didn't bring the 'big camera' - I just had the phone.

Looking uphill from outside Patrol HQ

Everything felt great, too. I think working on fundamentals the last couple weeks with the apprentices rubbed off on me a little bit. I found that I was skiing very balanced and smooth, up until I started getting fatigued. I thought maybe I would just be in the mood for cruising all day, just making big GS/SG turns on the groomers, since a lot of the off-groom was dust-on-crust. This was until I went up high and skied off of the Cascade lift.

The visibility up there was terrible, and certainly not conducive to flying solo into Heather Canyon, but I did pick my way down the ridge on Elevator, which was a delightful run. It would have been better not skiing by Braille, but the snow there was a good mix of soft windpack and some powder drifts here and there.

I skied pretty much all over the mountain, but found that I was having the most fun over off Shooting Star, since the groomers over there were holding up well to the midweek traffic, and the runs that don't get a lot of direct sun (3-D, O-Ring, and Rock Garden) were loads of fun. A little bumpy and tracked out, but I did take the occasional face shot when I found some high-shin-deep pow. I was having a ball.

The Mazot. A little cafe on the mountain.

Somewhere in all this, I ducked into the Mazot for a Vitamin Water and a cookie, but other than that I took no breaks aside from the lift rides. Definitely needed the ice on the knee when I got home.

I'm gonna have to do this more often.

Ski Day 13: Eclipsed @ Ski Bowl

2010-02-01T16:49:00.000-08:00

Mt. Hood in the afternoon. Didn't have time to wait for the clouds to move off.

Sunday was day 13 for the season, eclipsing my total from the injury-shortened previous season. It started out snowing, changed to rain, then some strange glowing orb made an appearance in the sky. Gotta love Oregon weather. At least the skiing was good all day, even in the slop.

I was feeling good about getting back on the hill for day 13. It's actually a lucky number for me, and a favorite number as well. We had actually got back-to-back weekends of training for my apprentice team, so hopefully some continuity there. And with any luck, we'd have nothing to do but train all day - no cases.

We did have that bit of luck, which the group desperately needed. There were a couple of the guys that had been picking up what we'd been giving them and doing well, but the bulk of the group needed a full day's work. I tried out a couple more carving drills to get them skiing with a better stance and make smoother turns, and it seemed like that was working. We moved on to the sideslipping stuff, and that's where I learned something.

We'd been doing these drills in short bursts, mostly because I was worried they'd get bored doing the same exact thing over and over, but also because we hadn't had a REAL full day to work on this stuff - I was trying to cram in two days of work into one. What I ended up learning was something I should have known all along - the longer we let them run each drill, the better they got. They just needed time to find their individual comfort points with each of the things we were giving them. Things really started clicking in the afternoon.

We moved on to the "rope-a-goat" drills, which simulate being on the tail rope of a sled. The tail roper gets into his normal tail-roping position, but at the other end of the rope, instead of a sled, is one of the other apprentices. This got them to see what all the sideslipping drills were all about and why they're important, which helped them out a great deal also.

We rounded up to RC to grab the training sleds to put them away, but the upper bowl was too inviting to not take a run up there. So we did. It was a little chunky, and was starting to set up some since the sun was no longer shining on it, but it was fun. We paused briefly to take in the view of Mt. Hood, and to allow some of the group who hard yard-saled above us to collect themselves and catch up. We went back up, grabbed the sleds, did a brief demo of running them unloaded, and headed off toward the "Palace".

The apprentices wait, taking in the view, chatting with JG.

Our top two skiers in the apprentice group got a shot at running the unloaded sleds first, but we did get everyone at least a short run in the handles. Hopefully, they'll continue their progress next week while I'm off at the avalanche refresher.

The knee felt pretty good all day, but was fairly sore at the end. Showing off for your apprentice crew is hard work.

Ski Days 11 and 12: Training at T-line

2010-01-25T14:51:00.000-08:00

Considering that Day 11 was weeks ago, you may commence with the "slacker" comments. :)

Day 11 was back on January 10th, and was the first day of coaching for me for ski patrol. I'd met some of the team at tryouts, but not all, so it was nice to meet the gang and get to know the patrol candidates that I'll be helping become sled-drivers. We had an interesting day, as we ended up responding to I think three cases in the morning while trying to get some "area orientation" done. Our first run after opening found us coming up on an injured snowboarder that had found some "death cookies" on the side of one of the terrain park jumps, and he broke his board. I don't remember the other two cases, but I think they were snowboarders also.

While it was good for the newbies to get exposed to a little "live fire", I would definitely have preferred to get going on turning them into better skiers. We have one guy on the team that's really a strong skier, but the rest need some work. It'll come.

What we did manage to do, however, was take almost the entire crew down the Glade trail into Govy after we'd finished up. I'd never skied the Glade before, and it was fun despite the conditions. The only thing that sucked about it was the walk from the trail's end down to the patrol building in Govy. My knee doesn't like walking downhill in ski boots on pavement.

Day 12 was yesterday. I mentally took note of the fact that I have now equaled my total days skied from last season and it's not even February yet. It was starting out to be a decent day, but cold, and we knew the weather would be coming, in the form of much-needed snow. I don't mind the pack-cover days when it means many inches of new white stuff.

We finished opening a little quicker than last time out, which was nice because it (hopefully) meant we'd get more time to work with the trainees on skiing skills and getting them into the habit of skiing with a more powerful and balance stance than they currently do. It didn't take too long before we started getting in on cases, just like last time. I think our tally was 4 this time, and it really made it tough to get the gang working on anything with any consistency.

But, it was more good experience for the new guys. This "live fire" will help them out during OEC and when the time comes for them to run through FRT, they should be pretty familiar with the process. Especially if we keep getting to respond to cases every time we go up.

The new snow provided some challenges for the weaker skiers in the group, but they pretty much all made some progress out there. I think we have one guy that we will have to spend a little extra time with, but the group on the whole is getting better. We happened across some racers training over on Wy'East, while in search of a steeper groomed pitch to do some drills on, and I kind of let myself get goaded into running the 12 or so slalom gates they'd set up. The coach was at the top practically insisting I give it a shot, since I'd mentioned I used to race.

I really have to quit doing things like that. I don't need to get the itch to race again. I can't afford slalom and GS skis, and a race suit, and all that stuff. Certainly don't want to do it as out-of-shape as I am.

But I caved, and hopped into the course. I skied it pretty respectably, I thought, and had that same shit-eating grin afterward I had when I fore-ran that slalom a couple seasons ago. I mused about how my all-mountain mid-fat skis probably aren't the best tools of the trade for slalom skiing, and off we went to go work on more stuff.

A run or two later, I saw that coach again. "Nice skiing back there", he said. "Thanks", I said. Then thought, I don't need that kind of encouragement...gonna be harder to resist finding a way back into racing...

Anyway, the rest of the day went pretty smoothly, and there was probably about 6" or so of snow that had fallen throughout the day. All that new snow was awesome out on Otto Lang, where I got to take a couple of my apprentices for sweep. The light was flat, but the snow was great, and easy to ski by braille. All that snow didn't translate into 100% fun, though. I had a pretty good chore getting it off the Sorento after I got back to the patrol building, but that was nothing compared to helping dig out one of the other coaches' car...

The knee continues to feel good while skiing, but it still gets sore afterward. I figure that's going to be the case probably all season. I really need to start bringing an ice pack for the drive home instead of waiting until I get home. Especially if the drive is going to start out just creeping down the mountain like yesterday.

Ski Day 10: Mixed Weather at T-line

2010-01-09T14:31:00.000-08:00

Timberline Lodge, from uphill.

Patrolling at Timberline seems to be such a mixed bag most of the time. For everything, not just the weather. I'm never really sure what's in store up there. My 8th patrol day of the season - last Sunday - seemed typically atypical. Weather seemed like it would rain, but the air temp was too cold for that, and then it was nearly socked in at the top of Mile during my bump shift - after a delayed start for the Mile lift, due to visibility.

I did my opening assignment with one other patroller over on Molly's lift, rounded up to Stormin' Norman, hung there for a bit, dealt with a near-miss of a case ("possible" injury, nobody to be found at location), then rounded up to Mile when it started loading.

When I got up there, the visibility was maybe 700 feet or so, which isn't really all that bad to ski in. I helped drag a sled out of the top building so we wouldn't have to wrestle it out of there if we had a case, and when I went to place it where we would stage it, I found a bamboo/rope line that had been just eaten up by a groomer cat. Half of it was buried so deep that I had to grab my avy shovel to dig it out.

The rest of the day was pretty much just skiing. I kept hearing about cases on the radio, but there was always someone else closer than I was who could respond. I did make sure I was in a position to respond with a sled if someone needed it, but all the ones I could have helped on ended up being snowmobile transports instead.

Looking out to the south. Mt. Jefferson to the right there. Loved the sky in this one.

I snapped some photos during the day as the weather changed, and posted them via Twitter/Facebook. Sweep seemed a little disjointed as well, but we got it all done without much confusion. Back up tomorrow for the first training day of the year for my team. Should be fun.

Ski Days 7, 8, and 9: On Patrol @ The Bowl

2009-12-31T11:59:00.001-08:00

This one's going to be a little light on the details, since Day 7 was 11 days ago, and day 8 was 4 days ago. Day 9 was just the day before yesterday, though. Hey, I'm on vacation, what do you want from me? :)

Dec 20th was ski day #7 for me this season, and it was one of those days that used to typify patrol days for me - not terribly cold, but very wet. Definitely a pack-cover day. I don't remember exactly how the day started, but it did rain. Not as bad as I had come to expect from looking at the forecast, but it did rain. It being a Sunday before a major holiday, we had very few guests at Ski Bowl. I was counting people out of curiosity while on my assignment at Multorpor, and the patrollers did not actually outnumber the guests, although it may have seemed so.

I'd waxed and sharpened both my old K2 Escape 5500 Unlimited and Apache Outlaw skis - the 5500s just in case the coverage was thin. I decided to actually take the 5500s on the hill with me, and it seems I didn't need to do that. In fact, there were a couple runs on the upper bowl where I wished I had the fatter Apaches, especially since I got asked to tail-rope for one of the patrollers doing his annual 'check-ride'. I got a little caught up in the chunk and the ski dived a little on me. I went down, but as gracefully as one can when one's feet don't go where one expects. No re-injury to the knee.

Very little happened from a ski patrol standpoint, as far as I can recall. I ended up doing more skiing than anything else, and spent a good bit of time at Rescue Center at the top of the bowl. The groomers over on Multorpor were excellent, very skiable.

Day 8 - the 27th - was cold and overcast. That's really all I remember. I spent a bunch of time at RC again, checking the score of the Steelers game (23-20, good guys). I shot just one picture from the RC window, from my iPhone.

That was about the best visibility we had that day. The snow wasn't great, a lot of hard stuff out there mixed with some dusting, but the groomed stuff that wasn't scraped off was nice. With freshly sharpened and waxed skis, it was easy going for me. I think the sun tried to show itself a few times, and there were a couple holes in the clouds where I saw blue sky, but it never got sunny by any stretch. It was a nice day, though - no pack cover needed.

We had a pretty big crew on Sunday, so things got done quickly. This also usually means that when the injuries are few, it almost seems like nothing happened because there were so many of us. The story would be rather different on Tuesday.

Day 9 - the 29th - was a bit goofy. No Hill Captain was dispatched, and it was looking like we'd have only myself and one other hill patroller, plus one associate that I'd never met before. Without a Hill Captain, we effectively had no one whose official capacity was to do the paperwork, hand out radios, and interface with the paid patrol at the area. So, being the most senior of the hill patrollers that day, I took it upon myself to play Hill Captain.

Thankfully, we had a walk-on hill patroller, so there were 3 of us plus (Andrew, Jared, and I) the associate ("Raz", a pretty cool guy). There were 3 paid patrollers on duty as well, and they basically covered all the hill setup stuff, which was cool. I did find a couple things that needed doing on the hill, so I took care of those, but it was one of those mornings where it seemed like we might not have many guests and little to do.

That turned out not to be the case. It was sunny to start the day, which was a nice change from most of my patrol days. Definitely no need for the pack cover today, and it was worthy of actually hauling out the "real" camera and taking pictures outside.

But the time to just hang out up top and enjoy the view was short-lived. We got a call for a case - my first real patrolling action of the season! It was reported as a back injury, and responding from RC all the way over to the terrain park on Multorpor gave me a ton of time to imagine what I might have to deal with. Jared followed me out the door to wait at the top of Multorpor to bring the sled.

Turned out to be kind of an odd one. Obviously, I can't go into great detail, but we did backboard him - mostly just for ease-of-transport. I couldn't detect any fracture or anything that indicated a spinal injury. We got him into the aid room, did some more assessment, but found nothing that indicated anything other than perhaps a muscular injury. I ended up spending the bulk of the middle of the day in the aid room, keeping an eye on the injured guy until his dad was able to take him home, and then dealing with a walk-in case.

Meanwhile, people are out on the hill losing their children and dropping backpacks off the chairlift. Poor Jared got tagged to go grab a backpack that had been dropped off the lift near the rather treacherous (since the snow level is so low) cliff band underneath the lower bowl chair. Sounded like quite an adventure. We had a couple calls that came in from Lift Operations about injured people, but we could not locate them. Between that and the missing child reports, we were running pretty ragged trying to find people. Definitely a busy day.

Towards the latter part of the afternoon, though, things calmed down and it started to snow. A LOT. I pulled out the pack cover just for the trip down the mountain to the "palace" to de-boot and head home. Got all the radios signed back in and on their chargers, paperwork faxed off, keys put away, and headed off to a cabin in Govy where Andrew and his folks and some of their friends were staying for a quick beer and "de-brief", then headed home in the snow. Nice day.

Ski Day 6: An Epic Couple Hours @ Meadows

2009-12-16T23:44:00.000-08:00

My original plan for today was to ski all day at either Meadows or Ski Bowl. I'd have been flying solo, and while I don't mind doing it, I prefer to ski with people. So it was probably just as well that I stayed up way too late Tuesday night playing TF2 and woke up all kinds of late today, or I might not have had the chance to get some epic runs in with ski patrol pal and all-around-good-guy Barkernews. He'd basically been chomping at the bit to go ski, and wasn't going to be denied the freshies that we knew were up there. Sure glad NoPoGirl gave him the 'hall pass'.

So it was that sometime shortly after 5:30, we were on our way up to Meadows to go rip it up. I hadn't done any proper powder skiing since last season, so I was curious to see how that would go. I've been skiing with a lot more confidence the last few times out, so I figured the knee would handle it fine. I've had a little bit of patellar pain of late, so have been taking it a bit easy, but I felt pretty good today.

The drive up was pretty brutal with the snow and wind, but it didn't take us long to find a sweet powder stash that made it worth the trip. That we made 4 runs on it was so much the better. I was skiing pretty well, and rather comfortably until about the 5th run. I was getting pretty tired, but I knew I had a couple more in me, and we skied pretty much right up until closing time. It was only a couple hours, but we made them count. I might have gone a little too hard at the beginning, but I was having too much damn fun.

The Apache Outlaws once again proved to be a more than capable ski for everything - we found some fresh stuff that nobody had touched (oh MAN was it great), there was some tracked-up stuff, some groomed, and some kind of mushy corny stuff near the bottom. The skis just handle it all.

We packed it in probably just as they were letting the last people on the chair for the night, and I think we made the right choice instead of trying to squeeze in another run. Down the hill we went, stopping in Govy for a beer and a bite to eat. We definitely earned it. That was the most fun I've had skiing in a while.

Ski Days 4 & 5: Calibrating @ Meadows and Evaluating @ Bowl

2009-12-06T19:03:00.000-08:00

This weekend was shaping up - in my mind, at least - to be a pretty easy weekend of skiing. The coaches' calibration/clinic for the ski patrol was Saturday, and today was patrol tryouts. I figured Saturday to be a day where I'd just ski a little bit, demonstrate a skill or two here or there, and that was it. Sunday, I figured it would be similar - ski a little bit, watch the potential future patrollers show us what they could do, write stuff on a card, call it a day.

While Saturday was basically a 11am-2:30pm ski day, I put in a good bit of turns at Meadows. We spent a good bit of time working on getting everyone on the same page as far as teaching and demonstrating the fundamentals, as well as the drills to help our apprentices sharpen their skiing skills and turn them into sled-drivers. I was really showing off, too. I'd done a pretty good job on sharpening up the edges of my skis, so they were gripping nicely on the firm stuff where most of the others weren't, which allowed me to really let 'em rip a little bit.

One of the other coaches who hadn't really seen me ski a lot said that he didn't realize I was such a good skier, and asked if I had a racing background. Not only did it feel good to get that compliment, but I really felt fantastic on the hill. Everything just felt smooth and crisp, but also like it was a lot of work. The large radius turns on the hard groomed stuff on Shooting Star Ridge were so much fun, just rolling the skis over and making big, fast, powerful arcs. Still some strengthening to do if I want to be able to go that hard all day. And I do.

Today was another relatively short day, skiing from just before 10 to 2:30-ish, and evaluating people who want to join the patrol as sled-drivers. I wondered if we'd have any 'rock stars' in our group, but secretly hoped none of them ski better than I do (they don't, not the ones in either of the two groups I evaluated with JG).

Without giving too much away (or boring you with the details), we ran them through some 'static drills', then started evaluating them skiing the groomed stuff - carved turns, skidded turns, sideslipping, etc. Part of what we were looking for was how they'd handle skiing the off-groom stuff as well. There wasn't a lot of it on the part of the mountain that was open - high winds limited us to the east side of Ski Bowl, as did time - but the stuff we did find was challenging enough to help us separate the wheat from the chaff.

One of these sections of chunk-n-junk was over on the upper east section of Raceway. That part of the run looked at first glance like a spot where we'd get to see the candidates ski some powder, or at least some loose ungroomed snow. The stuff underneath the few inches of windblown powder was rather firm and very uneven. I volunteered to demonstrate, and skied it very well. So well, in fact, that the guys we were evaluating underestimated just how challenging it was. The first guy crashed about 5 turns in, and one of the others came out of a ski about 2/3 of the way down. I merely grinned, especially when satisfied they weren't hurt, but was positively cackling inside when they all were flipping me crap about making it look so easy. Even JG was impressed.

Shame that after we'd released our group, I went and chattered out of a ski on the lower section of Raceway - in full view of a whole bunch of people looking out the window of the Multorpor Lodge. I didn't go down hard at all, didn't get hurt, but it was pretty embarrassing. I laughed it off, though, since you can't really do much once the binding releases.

JG and I evaluated a second group, running them through all the same kind of stuff, and I had another really good run through the crap on upper Raceway. JG told on me, though, telling the second group not to assume it was going to be as easy as I was going to make it look.

After all the ski testing was done, it was back to the patrol building to de-brief and finally eat my sandwich. Satisfied with myself for having skied as well as I did, and not really feeling too beat up after back-to-back days, I headed home. I'm gonna go ice my knee now.

Ski Days 2 & 3: Ski Patrolling Again

2009-11-30T23:13:00.000-08:00

Looking down the hill, from the top of Magic Mile. Clouds were starting to break up.

Black Friday found me on the mountain once again, this time in my familiar red patrol jacket. I was excited and nervous to be back patrolling again, as patrolling presents a different set of challenges than free-skiing does. Would I do fine pulling a sled? What about skiing off the groomed stuff? What if I have to kneel for a long time holding c-spine stabilization?

Friday at Timberline, I only got to answer one of the three, and that was the off-piste question. Well, one could say I pulled a sled...but it was empty, and I only had to drag it across the flats from the parking lot to the base of the Mile lift, then upload with it on the chair. Just like old times. For most of the morning, the weather seemed to be my usual fare for patrol days - bad visibility, high winds, heavy wet snow. But that changed towards noon, and most of the mountain was out of the clouds in the early afternoon, remaining so until I left.

As for skiing off-piste, this was more or less official business. I say 'more or less', because I don't think the search for the tracks of some folks who'd gotten themselves lost out-of-bounds was an officially-sanctioned activity. We weren't directed to do it, the other patroller and I, but we felt it was an appropriate bit of investigation. And it wasn't like we were out there just skiing around. It was almost all traversing, only a handful of turns. We weren't out there long, either, as we'd gotten recalled not long after we decided to try to find where the lost folks had exited the area boundary.

A lot of people ended up out of bounds on Friday. I'm not entirely sure why. And I think if I hadn't fielded the call from the lodge switchboard, I probably wouldn't have been so keenly interested in the family of four that had managed to lose themselves in one of the canyons to the west of the area. Long story short, they got out of there - tired, and thirsty, but safe.

I didn't pick up any cases on Friday. Everything happened nowhere near me, it seemed.

Love what the setting sun does to the mountain. Shot from the Jeff Flood Express chairlift.

After taking Saturday to just chill, I was back on duty Sunday at Ski Bowl. I think I found that one day's rest between ski days isn't going to cut it just yet. This has me wondering about next weekend, where I'm on the hill both days, but between the sled coaches' clinic and evaluating tryouts, I don't think it'll be high-stress skiing either day.

The view from Rescue Center, at the top of Ski Bowl. Freakin' Awesome.

But Sunday was gorgeous. Sunny, 30-something, not much wind. I started out the day expecting to open up RC. I hadn't been back to the Bowl since the knee injury, but I wasn't bothered by the fact that I was re-visiting the 'scene of the crime'. I was surrounded by good people, and it was a beautiful day.

I ended up not getting to open RC - Barkernews got to do that - but I got to help with a 'special project'. Basically, there were enough bare spots on the Lower Bowl main run that the area felt it should be closed off. So, pro patroller Brett and I started in on closing it off. We got some assistance from a couple other patrollers, so the task went quickly.

I rounded up to RC, chatted with B-news, and went out to check the Outback closures. This involved skiing some steeper stuff than I'd done to date since coming back, and on much firmer and more uneven snow. The chattery stuff wasn't comfy skiing, but I handled it fine. I wouldn't call it pretty, but it wasn't terrible. I made a handful more runs before lunch, then decided that I would take it easy the rest of the day. The knee was getting sore and I didn't want to risk the bad things that can happen when you ski tired. I made a few more runs in the afternoon as well, but spent the bulk of the middle of the day manning the radio at RC.

Probably a good move, too. The trip down the hill at the end of the day felt better than the earlier afternoon runs, and I was glad for that. I wanted to finish the day making good turns, and I did that on the cruisers down Multorpor on the way back to the Palace.

More of Mt. Hood's alpenglow awesomeness. Never gets old.

On the trip over 26 back to Govy, the traffic on 26 looked just brutal. So I joined the gang at Charlie's for a beer, checked the pass cam on my iPhone a few times, and left when it no longer looked like a string of taillights. Good day.

Ski Day 1: Back On The Horse @ T-line

2009-11-20T19:03:00.000-08:00

So it took a stranger to send me a message on Facebook to remind me about this marginally interesting collection of ones and zeroes here on the ol' Interwebs, but here we go.

Ski season started for me last Saturday the 14th. Given how long I've been a skier, this isn't really news outside of a couple things:

1. It's the earliest start I've had since 1994
2. OH HOLY CRAP I HAD KNEE SURGERY 7 MONTHS AGO

The first day back on the sticks since the ACL repair was pretty good, actually. I was skiing tentatively for the bulk of the morning, but got more and more comfortable as the day wore on. I started getting tired about 10 runs in, and decided to call it a day after 14. The day started out simply gorgeous, got a little cloudy around the middle of the day, then the sun re-appeared for the last couple runs.

I got to see and chat with some patrollers, including Barkernews and NoPoGirl, which was cool. Even got to see The Hizz. It was nice to just be out there again, doing something I love to do, even if I was flying solo. A little weird not to be in a red jacket, though. That starts for me a week from today. Next up is another day of 'me patrol', as I wanted to get another day of free-skiing in to see if I can handle more than 14 runs.

I already posted on Facebook, but huge thanks to my Ortho doc and my PT for fixing my left knee and helping get me back in action. I feel like I'm fully me again, now that I'm back on the horse.

Fifteen Years Ago Today...

2009-07-15T13:41:00.000-07:00

...I helped blast a $4,000 remote controlled helicopter drone out of the sky over Todendorf, Germany, using a $38,000 missile.

Four years ago today, I had my right ankle surgically repaired. It started making popping noises going up stairs this year. Happens pretty much all the time now.

Knee Update: Into The 9th Week

2009-06-12T16:53:00.000-07:00

Had a visit with the Orthopedic Surgeon today, another follow-up for the knee. He's pleased with my progress, which is really no surprise given how PT has been going. He did a couple laxity tests and some other mild poking and prodding, and said it felt great. We talked some about what's next, and what I can and can't do at this point.

Golf is something I can do as tolerated, just swing easy. No running just yet, but the elliptical should be fine as long as I'm careful. Should be able to start straight-line jogging in about another month.

In October or so, I'll have to visit with him again about getting a brace for skiing this season.

Now, for the stuff everyone's been either waiting for or dreading: the 'scope pics. Apologies for the poor quality, I had to take pictures of the pictures, and they were poor quality printouts anyway. I'm going to see about getting digital copies.

Clockwise, from upper left: ACL, ruptured; Hole for pin; New ACL; Pin

Knocking Some Dust Off The Blog With Another Knee Update

2009-05-31T18:15:00.000-07:00

Gosh, ever since I got into Twitter and Facebook (curse you, parents, brother, classmates, and friends! :) ), this old blog just isn't what it once was. Massive catching up needs to happen, but I'll get to what I can get to. Might have to do some beer blogging again, especially if the Highland Pub here in Gresham keeps coming out with kickass stuff on nitro, like the Oatmeal Stout and Vanilla Gorilla Porter a few weeks back. Damn good stuff. Then there's the goodies you can get on tap at 4th Street Brewing (used to be Main Street Ale House). Yum.

Anyway, I got to looking through the comments from previous posts and noticed this:

Dyanne said...
Hi--I am having ACL reconstruction in June, and I have been scouring the Internet looking for information. I found your blog and wondered if you would mind sharing more information about your surgical decisions and your recovery process. Did you go with the patellar tendon, the hamstring tendon, or the cadaver tissue? How much range of motion do you have now? What is your predicted comeback percentage? (80 percent? 100 percent?) I am a very active high school English teacher and professional dancer/co-director for an NBA team. I am worried about being able to dance 100% after this surgery. Not that I have a choice--I certainly can't dance now. I have a sprained MCL, sprained LCL, torn ACL, torn meniscus and a bone bruise. I am not a happy camper...

Hopefully, my responses will be helpful, so here goes:

Regarding surgical decisions - I went with the hamstring harvest/graft. I spoke at some length with my brother, who had an ACL repair done about 3 weeks before I even injured mine, and he recommended the cadaver tissue, given his discussion with his orthopod. I wanted to get my own recommendation from my orthopod, since he'd done the 'scope job on my shoulder in 2008 and I felt I could trust his judgment. He recommended the hamstring graft, citing success rates and the issues surrounding rejection/infection and other risks with cadaverous tissue versus my own tissue. In talking with several other ski patrollers who have had ACL repairs, the recommendations seem split right down the middle as to one over the other, and everyone I've talked to so far has been pleased with their repair. So it's probably a toss-up, but my recommendation is to find an orthopedic surgeon who you trust and go with whatever procedure he/she has most experience doing.

Regarding range-of-motion - I can reach 135 degrees of flexion on my own as of the last measurement in my 7th week post-op (last week). As for comeback percentage, all I know is the doc says I will be able to resume skiing when the season starts, but he wants me in a brace for the first season back. I figure if I can ski, I'll be able to resume pretty much all activities unrestricted.

Regarding recovery - I was given some PT exercises to do starting just a few days post-op, nothing more than setting the quad muscles and bending the knee. I started full-on PT about 2 weeks post-op, and that consisted in the beginning of ROM exercises and stretching, and have since moved more towards strengthening. I was on crutches until a month post-op, and my doc said I could ditch the brace at week 6. His recommendation was to wear it whenever I felt I needed to protect the knee, but generally I didn't need it anymore at that point. I've been going to PT sessions twice a week, and doing take-home exercises daily, most of which are focused on strengthening and proprioception at this point.

Regarding the rest of the comment - Sounds like your injury was quite a bit more severe than mine - I tore the ACL, damaged my lateral meniscus, had a noticeable bone bruise, but the damage to the MCL and LCL wasn't significant. The latter bit was somewhat of a surprise to me, given how it happened, but I'm thankful I didn't have what my PT referred to as "the sad trifecta" of ACL, MCL, and meniscus/menisci.

I hope your surgery goes well and best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery.

In other news, the Ski Patrol awards banquet was last night. We went, and had a decent time. Both of us weren't feeling particularly well, and the price of drinks didn't go a long way towards improving that. The prime rib was excellent, though. I got to see a lot of people and give them the knee update face-to-face, catch up with a couple of the guys who helped me that fateful 12th day (one of whom was coming off a knee repair this past season), and talk to an old sled coach who is now the Patrol president about his shoulder surgery. The best part was seeing some of the newbies I'd coached get their crosses. I think that's what will keep me coming back to the banquet. It certainly won't be the price of the drinks.

I was given a certificate of appreciation for sled-coaching, even though my season was cut short by the knee injury. I was absolutely shocked to get another Honorable Mention for the Barney McNab Hill Patroller of the Year award. I'm flattered and honored, of course, but very surprised. Unfortunately, we both were feeling kinda crappy, so we bounced early.

Knee Update: 1 Month Post-Op

2009-05-07T16:31:00.000-07:00

Well, technically tomorrow marks the full month, but today was important enough not to wait. Besides, it's my blog and I get to choose which hairs I want to split.

Things have been going pretty well since the unwrapping and the follow-up a couple weeks back. PT is what it is, and happily that has been largely good. I'm working with Amanda again, so I have the level of comfort that goes along with knowing what to expect about my therapist's style/approach (she was my PT for the shoulder episode last summer/fall).

As with the shoulder, we're all about the stretching and range-of-motion work to start, and moving into proprioception and strengthening later. Today, I managed full revolutions on the bike, and actually got the thing up to 35+ RPM for a good bit. Did some walking around, some stretching, balance stuff, took some ROM measurements, all kinds of good stuff.

The funkiest thing was the "Purple Tool of Torture", which was esssentially this kind of scraper-looking thing. Amanda worked on the hamstrings with that and some nice warm gel, and it made a HUGE difference. Hopefully there'll be more of that, because it felt really good afterward.

Still have a lot of work to do, obviously, but Amanda is really pleased with my progress. Which means I am as well. ROM looks good (flex at 116 active, 118 passive; extension right at zero), motion looks good, strength is about where we expect it. The biggest thing about today was this: no more crutches.

I'll repeat.

No. More. Crutches.

I know, right? Awesome. I still have to be careful obviously, and I won't be doing any walkathons or anything for a good bit, but I'm very pleased. And I'm looking forward to the work I have ahead of me.

Knee Update: Unwrapped

2009-04-12T15:35:00.000-07:00

Today was finally the day I got to take the wraps off my surgically repaired left knee. It felt good to air the poor thing out, as it was feeling very itchy and uncomfortable under the dressings. The bonus was that I got to take a proper shower as well, which felt fantastic.

My first follow-up with Dr. M is on Friday, and hopefully that will mean I'll have some other things to share, like maybe pics from the scope and/or some MRI goodies. Here are today's pictures:

Full battle dress uniform - immobilizer, Cryo/Cuff port exposed.

Cryo/Cuff and pretty elastic wrapping...

Still looks like a nicely wrapped package...

There was a layer of cottony stuff, much of which is still stuck to the leg here, as I peel off the gauze pad. Sprung a little leak, it appears...

Still have some of the fuzz on, but here it is. I did finally get it all off of there before the shower.

You can follow my left knee's Twitter, if you're into that sort of thing: http://twitter.com/mikesleftknee

Now That's The Knee Surgery Over, How Did It Go?

2009-04-08T20:32:00.001-07:00

Quite well, in fact. Check-in got bumped way up to 8am, so the likelihood that Imight have to spend the night diminshed significantly. PPMC's Short-stay area was just recently moved, and it looks really nice. The check-in area looks almost like a nice hotel lobby.

I figured I'd have time to haul out the iPod and listen to some podcasts before my name got called, but I was wrong. They got me all checked in very quickly, and it wasn't long at all before I'm getting my IV and having my knee shaved. Nice nurses, very efficient. No missed pokes for the IV.

Doc M. dropped in to talk some about the procedure and what he wants me to do/not do after. Handshake, see you afterward. The anesthesiologist was excellent, making sure we did something similar to my shoulder procedure that helped with the recovery nausea. The anesthesia starts dripping via IV, numbing shots to the hip, and I don't even remember getting the shot that did the nerve block.

Next thing I know, I'm in the recovery ward, getting some ice chips and nurses dropping by to check on me. I kept dozing off and basically forgetting to breathe, as I kept hearing polite voices: "C'mon, don't forget to breathe now." I had to really focus on deep breaths, and my throat wasn't nearly as dry or sore as it was for the shoulder repair last year.

Got moved to recovery room, water and crackers now, still a little light-headed. Dr. M dropped by to tell me how things went, and all sounded like it was a walk in the park. ACL graft looks good, did some work on the menisci, looking good. Handshake, thanks, see you next Friday.

B comes in, and we hang out watching TV and munching on the saltines and sucking down ice water. Took a good while for the light-headedness to get to the point where I felt I could get up on the crutches, but I had to - I needed to use the bathroom. The timing was good, though, since it was about the time I was getting antsy to 'go' that the nurses came in to help me give the crutches a shot.

After an Austin Powers-style urination, I got back into bed, we hung out some more until the PT gal dropped by to go over the exercises and see how I'm getting around on the crutches. Exercises for now are simply quad-sets and heel slides, nothing major for now. Can't really do them until the block wears off.

More hanging around in recovery followed, and we finally got let out since I felt good-to-go. No nausea, pain under control thanks to the drugs, okay on crutches = discharge. Had a fun little wheelchair ride, then into the back of the Sorento for the ride home.

Just been watching TV so far, now doing computer stuff. Taking the next couple days away from work to chill and use the CryoCuff. No GameReady system for me this time, but the cuff is lighter, simpler, and I own it now. :)

Knee Update: MRI Review, Surgery Scheduled

2009-03-30T16:05:00.001-07:00

I saw my Orthopedic Surgeon today. Went over the MRI and X-ray results, and I was actually a little surprised to see that it wasn't as bad as I had expected.

However, the ACL will need to be repaired. I had no doubt about that. What was surprising was there was less damage to the other structures of the knee than I figured, so in that respect there was some good news. The lateral meniscus was difficult to assess on the MRI, but we'll take care of all of that stuff when we get in there.

I'd rather not have to be going through all of this, but at least I have people I trust working for me on this. The guy who did my shoulder last summer is going to do my knee, and he's done loads of repairs like the one I'm going in for. My PT will most likely be the same one who helped me rehab the shoulder, so I know what to expect from post-op PT.

Surgery is next Wednesday afternoon (April 8th). Next post will probably be after that, pumped full of painkillers. :)

Knee Update: I-Day Plus 6

2009-03-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

MRI finally scheduled for Monday morning, and a visit to the Orthopedist 2 weeks later. In a holding pattern until then. I decided to go back and see the guy who repaired my shoulder, since I trust him.

I'm trying to take it easy and be patient, but the lack of full mobility drives me a little nuts. Plus, there's still so much ski season left. Why couldn't I have done this in May or something? Frak.

Knee Update: I-Day Plus 3

2009-03-11T22:19:00.000-07:00

Well, the swelling in the left knee has diminished considerably, thanks to rest/ice/compression/elevation, and 1500mg/day of Salsalate. I'm not in constant pain like I was on Monday.

It will bear weight, but I'm trying not to push that envelope too much. I can't fully extend it, and can only flex it to about 70 or so degrees without pain. The motion I do have seems smooth and comfortable, so that's encouraging, but attempting to walk on it without the neoprene brace is uncomfortable at best.

It still feels laterally unstable, and also feels like I could hyperextend it rather easily. The kneecap isn't loose or anything, and I can't really detect any laxity in the limited tests I've tried on my own. We'll see what my ortho doc has to say about all that whenever I get the chance to go see him. I'm waiting for the insurance company to approve my MRI request before I schedule that, and I'm not sure if I want to schedule an appointment with my ortho doc without the MRI done.

Hopefully, I will hear back tomorrow about the MRI approval and get that scheduled ASAP.

Ski Day 12: Dammit Dammit Dammit

2009-03-08T17:16:00.000-07:00

Well, the day started out well enough. My other coach and I got our 6 apprentices wrangled over to Ski Bowl, there was tons of fresh snow, and the sun was even threatening to make an appearance.

I sent all the apprentices off with regular patrollers to help with the opening assignments, and figured I'd just take whatever special project came up, or if there wasn't one, go find some freshies. The 'special assignment' du jour was shoveling the snow-steps down to the Rescue Center. The patroller who'd called it in to me was thinking I'd make some poor apprentice do it, but they were already assigned, and I wanted them on the hill learning the opening assignments - not shoveling snow.

I finished the steps, and decided to go out and check the east wall ("Scotty's Way"). I got a little Tree Patrol in on the way over, but ended up a little lower than I planned, so had to hike a little ways uphill to make the traverse entry to head out to Scotty's. The traverse has a lot of very bumpy sections, and as anyone who's skied it knows, you have to keep the knees loose and absorb it all, or try and hop the ones that are too close together.

I got to a spot where I felt like I needed to hop one that was too close, and...well, I didn't land it correctly. I was too far back on my tails, and my left knee made the sound of celery being twisted when I hit.

I laid in a heap briefly, in a good deal of pain, cursing that as well as the fact that I should have known better than to get back the way I did. I failed the first attempt to stand up, but succeeded at the second. Testing the knee, it felt horrilby unstable laterally. I knew I'd have to call for a sled, but I felt like I could kind of ski out of where I was as long as I kept the knee flexed and tight, then turn to my left and traverse on my good leg. So I "called in fire on my own position" and got hauled down the hill.

After filling out my own form and getting some ice, I called B to tell her I'd be home early, and why that was. After that, I pulled my lunch out of my backpack and ate, while figuring out how to get home. All my stuff - and the Sorento - was over on the other side of the area, so I ended up having a fellow patroller go over and get my stuff and drive the Sorento over, so I could pack it in and go home.

A buddy from my OEC class was up skiing, and he dropped by the aid room just in time to help me get my stuff to the Sorento. The drive home was pleasant, despite the knee pain - I'd never seen how the trees looked in mid-day sun with all the snow on them. It's always dark when I drive to/from the mountain on a patrol day.

Anyway, I got home, dumped all my stuff off, and had B take me to urgent care. The wait was only an hour 45 or so, and I left with a nice black neoprene immobilizer and a shiny new pair of crutches. I figure I'll push to get an MRI as soon as it's practical to do so. If this thing needs repair, I want it done sooner rather than later, and if I just have to take some time off and then ski with a brace for the rest of the season, I want to know that ASAP as well.

Ski Day 11: Coaching At Meadows

2009-03-03T22:09:00.000-08:00

Our training sign, near the top of 3-D.

Yeah, yeah, so I'm finally getting around to this on a Tuesday night. I don't get paid for this; I'll write when I feel like it. :)

Anyway, Sunday was my first day on the mountain after the epic dumpage of snow the previous week. While I was glad to be up there, I really was disappointed in myself for not taking a day off last week for a little 'Me Patrol'. But, the snow was fantastic, and thankfully we didn't get rained on too much.

We got a slightly later start than I'd hoped, but we finally wrangled the apprentices together and rounded up the carpool to Meadows just after 7. It was cloudy and a little windy, and we were expecting snow. We got it, and so on goes the pack cover. There wasn't much for us to do to help the rest of the patrollers with opening, so we did what little we were asked to do, and started off towards Shooting Star for training.

Apprentices prepare for a training run.

We began with some free-skiing on the runs we'd be running sleds on, so the gang could get familiar with the slope, then started right in on running sleds. The team made some decent progress, but they still all want to let their inside/uphill shoulder wander uphill instead of keeping their shoulders square to the fall line. They're going to get tired of me telling them to work on that, but I don't care - they need to get it right.

Next week, we're back at Ski Bowl. I want to get the group working on some more fundamentals, so I'm going to line up some different drills to run them through. Hopefully, they'll get it and it will translate to their toboggan handling.

Ski Day 10: Definitely A Cover Day

2009-02-22T20:55:00.000-08:00

A look uphill from Lower Bowl. The sun almost made an appearance in the morning.

The forecast for Government Camp today was 42 degrees and rain when I checked last night. I knew it would be a pack-cover day, but was pleasantly surprised that I didn't really need it until after lunch.

I met up with my guest coach Toby and the rest of the 'D Team'-ers at the patrol building in Govy, which was a rather busy place since avalanche training was also happening today. We got everyone all signed in and headed over to Ski Bowl. We only had 5 of the 10 or so we usually have. No idea why.

One of the paid patrollers setting a rope line. Apparently, this was for some kind of speed-trap.

As usual, we spent the morning helping out with opening. It was hard to resist just skiing the beautifully groomed trails right off the bat, but there was work to be done. Fortunately, there is one good thing about the lack of recent snowfall or freezing precipitation - very little needs to be done to the rope lines, tower pads, etc., so we were done quickly. And I did get to make some nice sweeping carved turns on the corduroy. As much fun as skiing the steep and deep is, there are few things on skis more satisfying than perfectly carved turns at the ski's natural radius.

The obligatory 'Hi Mom & Dad' shot.

We did some skiing drills and worked on some other fundamentals in the morning, but really wanted to try and take advantage of the groomed stuff in the Upper Bowl. It was pretty much like spring conditions up there, and even the off-groom stuff was pretty decent. We did a couple practice transceiver searches in the morning (the first one was unsuccessful - the person who hid it forgot to turn it on), then grabbed the sleds and went over to the east side for lunch.

After lunch, it was sled-running time. The gang is getting better, and we were running loaded sleds over on Raceway off the Cascade chair. After last session, we felt like the pitch on Raceway was a perfect choice to get them working on some steeper stuff before throwing them down Accelerator or Radical. I would have liked to have done some work on the Upper Bowl, but the guys I'm coaching just weren't ready for that, in my opinion. They should be ready for some steeper stuff at Meadows next week, though. I'm going to spend some time thig week picking out some new drills for them for Sunday. They've all got a similar set of flaws I want them to fix.

After sled-running, we headed back to RC for a quick transceiver-search - mostly so we could put the thing away for next week - and then rounded back up for Outback sweep. Sweep was fun, as I took a route I don't recall having taken on sweep in a good long time, and the snow was a nice mix of spring-like crud and mush. After sweep, we zipped on back to the Palace to hoist a brew to a fallen patroller who'd passed on a week ago. I never met him, but everyone who'd been on the patrol a while and knew him had all kinds of great stories and surely miss him.

I moseyed back over to the patrol building to finish my paperwork (brief rundown of the day and comments about the apprentices' training and progress), fax it off, and head home. Despite being a bit soaked from the afternoon's rain, I felt good.

Well, It Kinda Couldn't Be Helped

2009-02-21T19:15:00.001-08:00

After resisting it for as long as I could, I decided to join Facebook. I always felt like MySpace, Facebook, and similar kinds of sites were for people much younger than I am, and it just seemed trendy and lame. I have a blog, what do I need other crap for? I barely post weekly as it is.

But...my folks are on it, my brother is on it, and a crapload of my high school classmates are on it as well. The novelty of it might wear off after my 20th reunion this summer, but so far it's actually pretty neat, and I'm catching up with all kinds of people I've lost touch with.

Ski Day 9: No Cover, No 4WD, No Pix

2009-02-08T21:44:00.001-08:00

Finally, I am back in the groove (I hope) for sled-coaching.

Today was off to Ski Bowl with my gang of apprentices and guest coach, to finally get in a proper day with my team. It was shaping up to be a no-cover day, and the roads were clear and dry on the way up to the mountain, so no need to flip the 4WD switch.

Damn shame my camera battery was dead. No hat-trick.

On the up side, it was a fantastic day to train. The snow was nice and hard on the upper bowl, which made it excellent for sideslipping and edge-setting drills. We did some carved turns to start, however, on the nicely groomed Canyon. I've noticed this season I have a propensity for sitting back a little on my skis on my first real run of the day, so my turns are crappy, but today I think I finally started the day right. My demonstration turns for the apprentices felt perfect.

The only thing that bothered me today was my lower back, which I had tweaked a bit Friday night while trying to coax our 128-lb Great Dane into the bathtub (Kingston was a stinky puppy and he had a vet appointment Saturday morning). But even with things not entirely right with my lower back, skiing felt fine.

The sideslipping/edge-setting drills went fairly well. I suppose it'll just come with some more time, but some of them were having a lot of trouble catching on with the whole keeping-the-shoulders-square-to-the-fall-line thing, so maybe they just need to keep at it. I did give them some things to think about and work on off the hill, so maybe that'll help.

We had them running sleds today, and they looked pretty comfortable on the easy runs. Some of them seemed to be applying what we worked on in the morning, so that was nice to see. Hopefully, that continues.

Things warmed up as the clouds rolled in, so the snow was getting a little softer by the afternoon. I led a small group on the peak hike portion of the Outback sweep, hoping maybe the snow out there was decent.

It wasn't. Well, it was decent enough, I guess. The upper part was firm, but skiable, and I actually enjoyed the turns up top. But the Black Label Pitch was a nasty little chatter-fest. But we got through it and the trip out the Log Road was actually not as bad as I'd expected. Back up top to drag the training sleds back to the Palace, and then it was time to sign the apprentices' training sheets.

I wrapped up my day with some more coaches' paperwork at the Govy building, faxed it off, and headed for home. Hopefully, we get a heap of new snow. They could use it up there, and the apprentices need some nice slop to train in. Like I had.

Sixburgh!

2009-02-01T20:27:00.001-08:00

Wow, what a game! I was worried there for a minute, but that TD catch by Holmes was something else. I might well have sweated off 5 pounds in the last 7 minutes of that game.

Ben had a decent game, not spectacular, but he was awesome when it mattered most.

Super Sunday

2009-02-01T09:57:00.000-08:00

Well, I didn't put any money on the Steelers on my last trip to Vegas, so there's nothing really on the line today.

Well, except for whether or not my "5-time Super Bowl Champions" shirt becomes a collector's item.

My prediction?

Steelers win, 28-17. Ben has a solid game to make up for his awful showing in Super Bowl XL.

Ski Day 8: Another No-Cover Day

2009-01-31T21:38:00.000-08:00

After missing last week with a cold (that still lingers, but at least I can move and think and stuff as of last week), I got back on the hill yesterday. It worked out that the Saturday team at T-flats needed a coach, so I swapped so I could stay home today and watch my Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII.

Despite being fairly cold and rather windy, the sun made an appearance and it was a beautiful day. I'd post photos, but I didn't take any. The camera battery was dead. Too bad, too - there was a really cool-looking cloud I wanted to show y'all. And the view of Jefferson above the clouds from Mile was nice.

It was an interesting day up there, as it didn't take long for the injuries to mount. As a training group, we didn't get in on any cases, but I got one just trying to grab a sled to transport it back out on the hill. I had a walk-up, a snowboarder with a scrape on his chin from a fall. Patched him up and he went back out on the hill with a big-ass piece of gauze taped to his chin. Other than the abrasion, he was fine.

But it was a MASH unit in the first aid room. Seemed like all snowboarders in there, which was no surprise to me, given the rather firm snow. I did finally get a sled packed up and took an apprentice - actually, a patroller making the jump from Associate to Hill (sled-driver) - with me to haul the sled over to the lift, and he got some practice uploading a sled.

I missed out on a lot of coaching in the afternoon, as I was given a project to do by one of the paid patrollers. I had to go find some brand new tower pads and replace a couple ratty ones on Molly's. We had replaced them earlier, but the head coach for the day grabbed the wrong kind of pads (the ones for sign-posts). I couldn't really blame him, as it turned out those pads were the only new ones there were. I ended up putting the two least crappy pads back out on the hill.

Sweep was fairly uneventful, except for the two snowboarders we had to help down the hill. It was a boyfriend/girlfriend couple, and they'd decided to take their boards off and walk down the hill. One of the paid patrollers was driving the snowmobile and offered one of them a ride. We assumed it was the girlfriend that needed the ride and the guy could snowboard (this is usually the case - guy takes girlfriend snowboarding for the first time, she gets tired, yadda yadda), but it turned out that she was the more skilled rider (but not by much), so the guy gets a ride and I have to ski with the girlfriend to make sure they get on the lift before we close it up. The run was pretty flat, so I ended up having to give her a tow with one of my poles.

Had To Skip This Weekend

2009-01-22T21:31:00.000-08:00

No ski patrolling for me this past (Conference Championship) weekend. Bit of a bummer, too, as the weather looked to be what I'm calling "no-cover weather" this season, meaning it looked like the kind of day I wouldn't have to use my pack cover.

But, there was a damn good reason for it. Those in the know, know, and I'm not gonna say any more on the subject. And I was happy to have to take the weekend off from going to the hill for the reason that I did.

The only thing that really sucked was not having power at the house nearly all of Sunday. I missed the first half and most of the 3rd quarter of the Steelers' AFC Championship win over the hated Ratbirds. I'm finally posting a little about it, now that I've seen the whole game (thanks, NFL Network). I have to say, it was everything I expected from a heated rivalry and a conference championship. I think I might have strained a calf and/or a quad jumping off the sofa when Troy Polamalu intercepted that pass and scored the touchdown that sealed it. Glad to see that the Ravens' RB McGahee is okay. Brutal hit.

I'm stoked to see my guys back in the big dance. Good for the Cardinals, too, for getting there. They've had quite a playoff drought. Whisenhunt has done some great things out there in the desert, but I think the Rooneys made the right choice in Tomlin. Should be a great game. Go Steelers!

Ski Day 7: Training In The Rain

2009-01-14T23:46:00.000-08:00

More blogslackery from me, this time fewer days late than last time. Lots of other things going on that are more important than blogging, one of which only a few of you know about, and I'll leave it at that. Maybe it might be time to think about Twitter.

Sunday I was back on the hill, this time at Timberflats, taking a new group of apprentices through some skiing drills and evaluating their skill level to see where they'll land in terms of their training teams for the patrol.

I knew we were in for rubbish weather, given the forecast, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. I carpooled from Govy up to T-flats with the other two trainers, and we talked a little about what our strategy was.

After the morning meeting and our own little briefing, we set out in groups to help out with opening assignments. I had 3 guys with me, and we helped open up Molly's. We didn't get as much done as I'd hoped before we had to re-join the others, but it was enough. They were all tying clove hitches by the end of it. Hopefully, they'll remember how for next time.

Once we re-joined the rest of the training group, it was time to put them through their paces to see who our 'rock stars' were, and who would be a 'project'. We only had one ex-racer, but the rest were decent skiers, with a couple exceptions. It was kind of fun 'showing off' (demonstrating the maneuvers), and we did get a good look at everyone. We got quite a few drills done before lunch, and since the weather basically sucked, we gave a few folks the option to spend the bulk of the afternoon in the first aid room to learn how things operate in there.

More drills in the afternoon, then sweep. Things were fairly unremarkable, until I checked my phone during sweep - Steelers 28, Chargers 10. Oh hell yes. It was 35-17 good guys by the time I got done with sweep and we were having a mini-debrief at the cafeteria. Few better ways to end a patrol day than finding out my Steelers would be advancing to the AFC Championship Game.

We went to Charlie's for beer and de-brief, and us coaches went over our apprentice teams. I had a soda, courtesy of one of the apprentices, since I couldn't have a beer, but it was still a good capper on the day. I was beat, though - it's hard work showing off on skis all day. :)

Ski Day 6: No Pack Cover?

2009-01-05T18:30:00.000-08:00

Whoa...I completely slacked off on posting about Sunday's patrol day. I'm going to back-date this post, but I'm owning up to my slackitude here and now. First full week back at work followed my first patrol day of the new year, plus a lot of Guitar Hero: World Tour with B (so much fun!) and some other stuff chewed up a lot of time I could have spent blogging. Anyway...

Sunday was the first patrol day this season where I didn't have to put on my patrol pack's cover - no precipitation! It was, however, very windy and quite cold, so getting into sled packs for inspection in the morning was challenging with the frozen straps.

After finishing up my opening assignment, I headed up to RC to warm up a little, then headed off to do the rope line on Skyline and the Upper Surprise closure. I was skiing toward the bottom of the upper bowl lift when a bystander alerted me to an injured snowboarder some 300 feet away and a little ways uphill of the bottom of the lift. I called in to RC that I was checking it out, but expected to need a sled, given I'd been told it was a knee injury. I figured I'd get there first if I hiked, so I did.

My sorry out-of-shape ass got up to the injured 'boarder pretty quick, and I did the assessment, called for the sled, yada yada. It was pretty windy, so we worked quickly to get her bundled into the sled and head down the hill. Another case I didn't get to drive the sled, despite my best attempts to convince my 2nd-responder that I should do it. We got her to the first aid room, did some more to make her more comfortable and immobilize the knee, finished the paperwork, and headed back up.

After that, I had lunch, warmed up, and met up with a guy who was interested in joining the patrol. He couldn't make next week's tryouts, and I was asked by the sled-training director to give him a ski evaluation. He was a solid telemark skier, needing some minor technical improvements, but I thought he was definitely skilled enough to handle sled training without any trouble. Turned out he's patrolled elsewhere, so my evaluation was pretty much a formality.

We finished the evaluation and decided to explore the rest of the mountain, which led us over to the east side of the area. I was going to ski a little with him over on Cascade, when I got notified of another injury at the base of Multorpor. I parted ways with the 'recruit', and responded to the case - another 'boarder with a shoulder injury. Assessment indicated a probable subluxation, so into a sling he goes and off we go to the first aid room. Wrapped that one up and finally assumed my post at Cascade. The rest of the afternoon was uneventful, and I headed home. Pretty good day, and to finish it without being soaked was doubly satisfying.

Ski Days 4 and 5: This Is Heavy @ Ski Bowl

2008-12-30T09:49:00.000-08:00

Upper Bowl, on Saturday - during the brief period of no precipitation.

So a week had passed, and with it, a colossal dumping of snow. Sunday was a return trip to Ski Bowl, and as often happens during the early part of the season, things weren't exactly normal. Both of the west side chairlifts had some sort of issue - upper bowl on a wind hold, lower with a mechanical issue - and on top of that, it was raining. A LOT.

I got to open up Rescue Center, which meant a snowmobile ride all the way up, since the upper chair wasn't running. I got the logbook started and took care of what I could up there, then the decision was made that we would operate with the Multorpor chair as the dispatch, since it was the highest running lift. This meant I got to pack a sled up with a pair of backboards, the oxygen/BLS pack, the AED, and the logbook, and ski it down from the top.

It had been since last summer that I'd pulled a toboggan, and the only thing I'd done since the shoulder repair was tail-roping at the coaches' clinic a couple weeks ago, so I was excited to see how it would go. Granted, there wasn't a patient in it, but it was heavier than an empty sled, what with all the stuff I packed in it. It went well, and even pulling it along the flats in some spots wasn't uncomfortable at all. I mentally thanked my ortho surgeon and my PT when I arrived at Multy and set about unpacking and getting on with the day.

One of my OEC classmates was on the hill with me, and after the decision was made to open upper bowl, he and I got to set a nice long rope line from the Warming Hut over to the Low Road entrance, so people could get over to Multorpor but not down to the bottom of lower bowl, since that lift was still running. They did get lower running later on.

I had the Cascade assignment from 12 to 2, and so I was trying to keep dry-ish and warm-ish by using the tree we had the sled leaned against up top as shelter. This didn't work terribly well, so I just started making laps. Wet and warm (and getting turns in) is better than wet and cold. One run, I decided to see how things were going over at the handle tow. I got over there, and saw racer kids getting on the tow about 1/4 the way up instead of at the loading area at the bottom. I decided to talk to the lift operator at the top about it, and while we were discussing it, a 'boarder fell off the tow about 20 feet from the top. Lucky for the 'boarder, I was right there. My first real case of the season - a shoulder injury. Creepy or fitting? I dunno. Anyway, sounded like it was just a subluxation, and upon assessment, I could tell it was definitely back in the socket. We got her all taken care of, but I didn't get to drive the sled. Oh well.

I was rounded back up to take a break in RC and get warm/dry, and just around the time we were turning things over to the night crew, another shoulder injury happened. By the end of the day, though, things had cooled enough for the rain to switch to snow. We had some brief moments of no precipitation, but everyone was well soaked most of the day. Thankfully, we didn't open the Outback, because the heavy wet stuff on the ungroomed runs of upper bowl wasn't much fun to ski.

Afterward, most of the crew got together at Charlie's for beer. I just had one - bought by one of last year's trainees. In fact, about 70% of the crew we had on the hill today were folks that were apprentices last season. They did great.

Monday was another interesting day. High winds delayed the opening of upper bowl, and the epic dumpage of snow overnight meant avalanche control work for the paid patrollers. There was a lot of work to be done on the rest of the hill as well, and we got kind of a later start than we'd planned. I got to clear all the tower pads on Multorpor, which was somewhat time-consuming, and then cleared off a handful of fences/ropelines that needed it. The snow that was falling was quite heavy and wet on the lower hill, so it was a little sticky. Probably should have waxed the skis Sunday night.

Once I got my chores done, it was off to lower bowl, since upper was still on hold for high winds and avy control. I did some more opening-type work, then went down to the aid room to dry off and warm up. Back up to RC after that, now that the lift was at least taking patrollers up, for a couple runs and then lunch.

After lunch, we were going to do some sled refreshers, but we got a call about an injury, so we stood by with a sled to respond. When it became apparent that it was going to take more of a search to locate the injured party, we headed down so we could respond from top of lower bowl instead of all the way up top. Then, we ended up joining the search, but nobody ever found anyone matching the description of the injured person, so we went back up top after re-setting a fenceline.

I got asked to go out and re-set some of the area boundary signs on the west edge of the area, which meant a hike out to Tom Dick Peak. I was excited about doing it, but also a little worried about toting bamboo and disks down some of those steep pitches in the deep and slightly wind-packed snow. I'd already broken trail on the east wall, where if it's flat enough, you couldn't move forward even if you pointed your skis straight down the fall line. So I knew it would be tough going, as once you let your tips dive a little, you're going down.

I was pretty tired from the hike (so out-of-shape), so I took a little break up top before slogging through hip-deep snow to re-set the upper signage. After that, I took in what little of the view I had, and started down. I made long traversing turns, and got down to below the chutes where I neede to re-set a couple of the boundary markers. Unfortunately, setting those boundary markers means you don't have the vertical needed to make the flats below without skating/poling/hiking. Having to cut trail in knee-deep heavy snow slowed things down even more.

The trail-cutting sucked, but the turns I got on the steeps in between the flats were fantastic and well worth it. The only bummer was that I was so gassed from the trail-cutting that I could only string together maybe 5 turns at a time before having to stop and take a rest. The other good thing about the trail-cutting was the profuse thanks from the guys who had to sweep the west boundary behind me. My tracks made it a pretty easy run for them on the flats.

I got home, had dinner with the missus, and then we went off to Safeway to get cat food and some other stuff. We watched a little TV and crashed. I had originally planned to get some gaming in - either Team Fortress 2 or Left 4 Dead, but once I got settled in and got all my stuff set up to dry out, I was too damn tired.

The best kind of too damn tired.

Just HAD To Go And Measure...

2008-12-22T16:34:00.000-08:00

I couldn't let all that snow go un-measured for depth. Here's how it stacks up:

Deepest drift: 33" (at east edge of driveway)
Deepest pile: 38" (shoveled from driveway)
Depth on street: 13" (near mailbox)
Big drift in back yard: 22" (east side of yard)
Depth west side of house: 29"

And here's some more photos. The sun was fighting to make an appearance. It sort of succeeded.

Dogs out enjoying the backyard.

Just can't keep that license plate clean...

Nice little purple tint to the sky from the setting sun...

More Good Deeds

2008-12-22T14:42:00.000-08:00

We got a call from my sis-in-law (B's youngest) after I got done helping out the neighbors, and so off we went to Troutdale to pick her up and take her to Freddy's to get some dog food and other stuff. The roads are completely snow-covered, and many side streets just have the packed ruts from people driving - and the ruts are anywhere from 4"-8" deep. Needless to say, there were plenty of vehicles stuck in the intersections of main roads and side streets. Most of that was made worse by the plows, which had left piles in those intersections, as they haven't plowed any side streets.

Anyway, we took care of the sis-in-law's errands, dropped by Home Depot (no shovels and no de-icer), and rolled on home. When we got to our turn, there was a green Explorer stuck in the intersection, so we did a loop around and came into our neighborhood from the back way. We almost got stuck in one spot, but the Sorento's 4-wheel-drive and the great tires I got last year grabbed just enough traction to get past the deep spot we were in, and we made it home.

I could see the Explorer hadn't moved, so I grabbed my shovel and headed out to help. We got them pretty well dug out, and then a pickup came by and pulled them clear of the intersection. I was going to dig out the deep stuff at the intersection when I noticed two things - one, they were stuck again at the next intersecion past my house; and two, I was getting tired and sore. I decided to help the folks in the Explorer again, and call it a day.

Next time we have another big-time storm, I might just rent a Bobcat or something for a month or so.

Did I Move Back To Vermont?

2008-12-22T09:53:00.000-08:00

This is easily the most snow I've seen at the house since we moved in 10 years ago. Not only are we pretty much assured of a properly white Christmas, it's beginning to look a lot like back home. Kinda wish I had that old snowblower that Dad used to use to clear the driveway. I'd be a huge hit with the elderly neighbors. As it was, I helped a neighbor shovel a path from her garage out to the street (still not plowed), and then together we went out and did the same for a few of the older/disabled neighbors. I'm sore, but I feel great about it.

As for our driveway, I had things completely shoveled between both vehicles, and out to the ruts in the snow on the street. But that was yesterday. Today, I had to re-do much of that work, but gave up on clearing the spot between both vehicles. I might go do that later.

Here's some shots to give you an idea of the volume of snow we're dealing with...

Ok, now I know that wasn't covered when we tucked in for the night...

Taking a break from digging out. Pretty deep pile forming near the recycle bin.

Hip-deep! That's not piled from me shoveling, either. That's just drifted. The shallowest bit of the yard is still a good 6" or more.

Ski Day 3: Bowl Full Of Blizz

2008-12-21T23:54:00.000-08:00

Saturday marked my return to Ski Bowl, and what a day it was! There was snow the entire way up this time, courtesy of the recent dumpage that hit town. We usually don't see much snow all the way down in Portland, so it was a unique experience driving the full length of the trip from home to the mountain on snow-packed roads. The Sorento did beautifully in 4WD.

I hopped the shuttle from the patrol building to Ski Bowl east with one of the other patrollers, so as to save some parking spots for the public. This kinda screwed with my usual routine of how I determine what comes with me and what stays in the Palace, but it worked out just fine. I'll probably keep doing that, and the patrol is encouraging us to take the shuttle for Timberline as well, which should mean some trips down the Glade trail down into Govy - something I still have yet to experience.

Anyway, it was shaping up to be 'one of those days', as the regular radios at the Palace hadn't been charging. We sent someone over to the patrol building in Govy to get the training radios, so things worked out all right.

We had a TON of work to do for mountain setup. None of the usual stuff was already on the hill, so we were hauling around bamboo and rope and fence to get things marked off and made safe for the public. Usually, we get done with setup by 9-ish. I didn't get done and up to RC until about 11:30. We kept running out of rope, and there were a heap of tower pads buried under about 3' of snow that a couple patrollers and I dug out. I didn't get any pictures, mostly because I was too busy. I don't like getting the camera wet/snowy, either.

After lunch, it was my turn to man the radio/log at RC, so I did. I managed to get a run in, thanks to a fellow patroller, and I proved to myself just how out of shape I am. After my stint at RC, I skied all the way down to the bottom to go get my season pass, then rounded back up top. It was getting cold, but I was too happy to be back at the Bowl to care. I managed to get in a few more runs on the upper bowl before dropping back in on RC to see if we had any closing assignments or needed to wrap anything up before handing things over to the paid patrollers for the evening.

That's when things got a little interesting. I was taking a brief shift at the radio in RC, when a call came in that the lower bowl chairlift had 'de-roped'. Uh oh. Smells like an evac. We immediately started checking all the evacuation gear, and dispatched some patrollers to start talking to folks on the chair and hopefully discourage any jumpers. Even with all the snow, it's dangerous - not to mention illegal - to jump off. We had a good group of patrollers all set to go for the evac when we got the call to stand down - the repair had been successful. I got to man the radio for all this fun, but learned quite a bit about how we would coordinate things from the dispatch end - not something you really get from the evac practice, which tends to focus more on the act itself of removing people from a stuck lift.

At any rate, we got out of there a little later than we'd hoped. There was an injury over on the east side of the hill, just as we were all speeding towards the Palace for de-briefing. The patroller on-scene handled it well, and I think the delay actually helped with the drive home - the roads weren't very clogged at all. The drive home itself wasn't bad until I got closer to the Brightwood area, where things got a little dicey.

The snow on the road was pretty deep in spots, close to about 6", but the visibility was the worst part. There were a couple times I couldn't really see the road for all the blowing snow. It was pretty brutal, but I didn't panic, and got home safely. A happy missus and a kick-ass pork loin dinner were waiting at home for me, as were some mighty big snow drifts...

Sunday was interesting. We had some Christmas shopping to do and errands to run, so out into the snow we went. But not before shoveling a path to the Sorento, and not before chipping off the 1/4" of ice on the windward side of the vehicle. The rear was pretty rimed-up as well from the drive home from Ski Bowl Saturday night. We got everything done and once we got back home, I shoveled the driveway. B took a shot of me digging out a path to the Jeep, and I took some of the snow and the dogs. We had some drifts that were knee-deep or more, and all of it was crusty on top from the freezing precipitation the previous night. Fun!

Digging out...gotta be able to get to the recycling bin, right?

Pretty big drift to completely hide the front steps...

Couple taps of the fist and this came off in big chunks.

The dogs enjoying playing in the crust-on-dust

"Go 'way, Dad...I'm peein'!" I wondered why he stopped and looked at me like that. B told me afterward that Kingston had stopped to relieve himself whilst I was trying to get a shot of him.

I Asked For It

2008-12-17T12:07:00.000-08:00

Cell phone shot out the 2nd-floor window at work. Pretty good accumulation going so far.

Yeah, all that snow? That was me. I poked the bear. I'm the one who blogged that Mother Nature needed to get her shit together and start making with the white stuff.

And we're getting it. Boy howdy.

The best part? I'm going to get to patrol at Ski Bowl this weekend. Sounds like I will have the chance to give a ski evaluation on a potential new patrol recruit. Should be fun.

It's made things a little wonky around work, though. Meetings getting rescheduled, people working from home, etc. Today, I took the MAX in, first to my (last) physical therapy appointment, then on to work. The shuttle wasn't running, so I walked part of the way and got a ride from a co-worker.

It's with somewhat mixed feelings that I'm finished with PT. I'm not done done, just no more visits to the clinic. I still have to stretch and strengthen, but I'm in a place where I can do it all on my own. However, I'll kinda miss my therapist, who has been just awesome. She's had two shoulder surgeries as well, and that along with her skill and personality has made this shoulder repair/rehab journey a much better experience than the last one. I have one simple recommendation to anyone who needs to rehab any sort of surgical repair - find a PT who has had the same or similar injury/surgery. They know exactly what you're going through, and have all the tricks and tips you can imagine for a quality rehab. Plus, they won't let you 'cheat' when you're measuring progress. :)
Thanks, A!

Ski Day 2: Blizztastic at Timberflats

2008-12-14T16:57:00.000-08:00

I guess Mother Nature woke up. Saturday, I had another opportunity to get a second ski day in, and the weather obliged. It was a windy and snowy drive up to Government Camp, with the snow starting as I reached Sandy. The road was quite covered by the time I got into the Brightwood area, and there were several inches on the ground in Govy. I hung around the patrol building to see if anyone wanted to carpool up from there to Timberline. One of the other coaches, Matt, offered to drive me up, so I rode up with him.

It was windy, cold, and snowing like crazy up there, and I couldn't have been happier about it. We were doing our coaches' calibration, where we get all the toboggan coaches together to get ourselves on the same page with coaching techniques and the such. We spent the morning in the Barlow Room at the main (historic) Timberline Lodge, talking about all of the processes/procedures and such for how we're going to train our new patrollers.

The afternoon, we worked on some on-hill stuff, going through the basic stance and other fundamentals, and even working on some sled stuff. I got to do a brief stretch on the tail rope, my first time getting hands on a sled since the shoulder repair. It felt good, and I'm pretty confident that I'll be fine coaching and patrolling this season.

I didn't get any pictures taken, except for a couple of the Sorento after getting back to Govy. But it was a good day.

This was how much it snowed in Govy from about 7am to about 3:45pm.

And today? Well, today was kind of awesome. We got up relatively early to find that it had snowed some overnight and was continuing to come down. The dogs got to enjoy it briefly, before we put them back in the house so we could go out and get some shopping done. The snow wasn't deep yet, but the idiots who can't drive in it were out there. The best part of it all was that there weren't many people shopping, so we weren't fighting large crowds at any of the places we went.

We noticed a news van over near Gresham Station, and without a logo on it, I wasn't sure what station it was. I saw a tall, lanky fella in a blue coat and familiar-looking beanie cap, so I had Beck swing closer to see if it was someone I knew, and it was! Barkernews and his crew were out there from KATU doing their part to cover the snowstorm. We chatted briefly, and then proceeded to finish our shopping. I was on the phone with my mom at the time - today was my folks' 40th anniversary - so I had to pass the phone to Beck while I chatted with B-news. I had a good chat with the folks, as well.

I called my bro Jim afterward, and sounds like the poor kid messed up his knee again. Hopefully he called Mom & Dad as well.

We were hoping to get our tree today, but didn't. Maybe sometime mid-week. But we're running out of time...

Puppy Playtime

2008-12-06T13:20:00.000-08:00

Well, since Ski Patrol tryouts were cancelled (thanks a heap, Mother Nature. Get your shit together and start dumping some friggin' SNOW!), I had no recruits to go help evaluate. And dispatch was full up for the weekend, so no patrolling for me - we're getting some Christmas shopping and other errands done. This morning was a trip to the dump to get rid of our old ceiling fan from the master bedroom, then off to the mall for some ornaments for family and to try and find some other gifts.

After that, it was time to take advantage of the sun and play with the dogs in the back yard. And of course, that means pics. Here they are...

Dad, you gonna throw something or what?

I want that ball! Gimmegimmegimme...

...gimmegimmegimme...

Ok, I'll be patient...

C'mon, please...? Throw the ball...

Me too please...gimme ball!

I think somebody got a little tired of trying to share...

...then changed her mind...maybe...

Ski Day...Oh Wait...Nope...

2008-11-30T09:07:00.000-08:00

High winds conspired against me Saturday, robbing me of my second ski day of the season. I got all the way up to the patrol room at Timberflats before finding out that we weren't going today. I helped call a few folks to spread the word, probably barely early enough to save them the drive up the Timberline road. We sat around and BSed for a while, then left. It's just as well. Not only was it windy as hell, it was rainy and crappy, and they'd lost some snow since last time up. Not a recipe for a fun day of patrolling.

I ended up coming home, helping B take care of a flat tire on the Jeep, doing some grocery shopping, then meeting some friends at Skyland for the "Civil War" game. Pretty fun time.

Friday, I had a visit with my physical therapist, and while the shoulder had tightened up a bit, she wasn't concerned. Sounds like we'll do at least one more visit, if not a second. Just need to keep up with the stretching and strengthening. I go back and see her the middle of next month.

I have to say, from start to near-finish, this shoulder procedure and rehab has been an excellent experience from a patient care standpoint. All the way from the MRI through the surgery, the initial recovery and throughout PT, the people and the care have been outstanding. Big thanks to the folks at Orthopedic Specialists and the Providence Portland Medical Center's rehab clinic at the Plaza.

Ski Day 1: Back In The Saddle @ Timberflats

2008-11-23T19:33:00.000-08:00

Ahh, the ol' mountain. Paid patroller Brian in the foreground.

I'm so damn out of shape. But the sore I feel already is the best kind of sore, earned from making turns on the mountain. Today was the first day patrolling for me this season, and the first day doing really much of anything remarkable since the shoulder repair.

It was a gorgeous day up there, except for some of the hard icy stuff up top. I was pleased to get to patrol with some great people, among them Barkernews and NoPoGirl. I was most pleased that NoPoGirl's first day back on snow was the same as mine - this meant that I'm not a huge wuss. :)

Check me out in my new $119 Oakley goggles. I paid $38 for them. Tramdock.com wins! (Shot by NoPoGirl)

A wistful look at Ski Bowl. C'mon, Mother Nature, get crackin'. More snow please!

The day started out slow, then just after lunch, things started happening. I was supposed to first-respond to a case on the lower Mile Canyon, but the combination of being told it was on Otto Lang (uhhh...WTF? How...?) and my slow skiing caused me to arrive after a couple other patrollers. A 'boarder got caught up in the ungroomed snow on the edge of the trail and hip-checked a rock. He was a pretty tough customer, clearly in a lot of pain, so we padded up a backboard and strapped him in so we could get him down with a minimum of movement. I didn't get to drive the sled, which was probably wise anyway. He wasn't a big guy, so I bet I'd have been fine, except perhaps if I had to pull the sled uphill. I wanted to play around a little with an empty sled to see how I'd fare, but didn't really have the chance.

There were several other cases, but I was only involved in the one. Most importantly, I didn't become one myself. My legs are much more sore than my shoulder.

Kingston @ 5 Months

2008-11-18T23:02:00.000-08:00

The boy is getting LARGE. Haven't weighed him yet, but he's probably heavier than Phoebe is. Here they are together in the back yard.

And chilling with me on the couch in the TV room:

Poor fella's got it so rough.

Yes I Can

2008-11-06T15:31:00.001-08:00

The doc says I can ski! Just gotta be smart. More later. ( Sent from my phone)

Blogslackery, Roundup

2008-11-04T23:27:00.000-08:00

For the 3 to 5 people who might still be visiting after the post drought, it's time for a quick update.

Shoulder - still progressing, PT going well. I go to see my orthopedist on Thursday. Hopefully, I will have some idea of when I can return to the slopes after that visit. As for my progress in PT, I'm still doing stretching, but the focus is now more on strengthening. I have lots of pretty-colored thera-bands! Oh, and the exercises to go with them.
Kingston - he's probably 4" taller than Phoebe at the shoulders, but probably weighs about the same. He's getting smarter, but that isn't necessarily 100% good news...anyway, I'm going to get some more photos up sometime in the next couple weeks.
Ski Patrol - had the OEC refresher this past Sunday. Got to see Barkernews and NoPoGirl and the adorable Hazel, as well as several of my OEC classmates, sled-training mates, and some recently-minted patrollers whom I'd coached last season. I'm looking forward to patrolling with them and the rest of the gang this season. Yes, the plan is to sled-coach again this season. Looks like Sundays again, since we're short on coaches for the Sunday training teams. Hopefully, I will get to do some ski evaluations at the tryouts December 6th and 7th.
Pals - Met up with Ryan, Kelly, and Miranda for the Tillamook Mac & Cheese cook-off thingy, which Kelly was event-coordinating for. Very fun night! Also, had a cracking good time at Ryan's birthday party. Also celebrated a promotion for my friend Rick.

I think that's about enough recap for now. Hopefully, I will get back into the habit of regular posts again.

Sling Free

2008-10-02T17:34:00.000-07:00

Hooray! Doc says no more sling. He's very pleased with where I'm at. PT continues, more focus on strengthening. Yay!

Shoulder Progress, By The Numbers

2008-10-01T23:51:00.000-07:00

So, I don't really remember where I started, but let's just say that immediately following surgery, I couldn't really move the shoulder much at all. And of course, I wasn't supposed to. I didn't have much range-of-motion even a couple weeks post-op. But so far, here's where I'm at, roughly 8 weeks post-op:

Flexion: Active - 135°, Passive 145°(I think I started PT at maybe 90°)
Abduction: Active - 105°, Passive 123° (I don't think I could get any more than 35-40° when I started PT)
Internal Rotation (at 45° abduction): Active - 58°, Passive - 63° (this was also quite poor when I started PT)
External Rotation (at 45° abduction): Active - 45°, Passive - 50°(I think I started with about 10°. Probably less.)

There's still a lot of work to be done, but I really like where I'm at and the rate I'm progressing. And, perhaps just as importantly, my physical therapist is pleased. Hopefully my orthopedist will be as well.

Blogslackery: Catching Up - Chair Assault, Shoulder Progress

2008-09-27T14:29:00.000-07:00

I meant to post last week, really I did. What I wanted to do was post about my chairlift evacuation training experience with the patrol, and another shoulder update. I only got a couple of decent shots of the evac, as it was pretty miserable.

I suppose I'll do all that anyway. Back on the 21st, B dropped me off at the Sandy Starbucks to meet up with some fellow Ski Patrollers to carpool up to lift evac training (or what I call "Chair Assault School"). We had quite a group, and it was pretty cool to see a lot of us 'doing our part for the environment'. It was more cool to share a ride up to the hill with some old OEC/sled-training mates, some of whom I hadn't seen since maybe April.

The weather sucked. I should have gone up the weekend that Barkernews and NoPoGirl went up - they had MUCH better weather.

As for what the hell I was doing up there only just over 7 weeks post-op? Well, it's a requirement. And I got sort of a 'gimme' this time around - I only had to observe the evac procedures. But, since I'm doing as well as I am, I decided to go ahead and participate in the avalanche transceiver practice, some of the knot-tying stuff, and watch some of the low-angle rope-rescue stuff. Tromping around in the crappy weather was only made better by the company and the fact that it appeared that the runs had been mowed, so my legs weren't soaked from all the walking around the area. Apart from the weather, and answering the "what the hell did you do to yourself" questions fifty-plus times, it really wasn't all that bad.

And there were burgers and dogs and beer afterwards. I brought my stretching stick up as well, so I could keep doing my range-of-motion work.

Speaking of which, I'm happy to report that my progress check on Wednesday was very positive. I'm well beyond 130 degrees of extension, and creeping up on 50 degrees external rotation. My therapist is pleased with the other progress indicators, which I won't bore you with. More and more stuff gets added to my PT to-do list, but I'm determined to get the shoulder ready to go and only miss maybe the first few weekends of the ski season.

The Repaired Shoulder @ 6 Weeks

2008-09-18T18:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's PT session marked the 6-week mark from the shoulder repair, and things continue to progress quite well. My therapist continues to be pleased with how well my range-of-motion is improving, and now we're getting into 'pre-strengthening'.

That means, for one thing, that I got to start working with the arm bike. I got started on it a little ahead of my appointment, since I arrived early. Apparently, both the aide who got me started and I missed the comment in my records about starting off at 35 RPM - I did what the screen on the machine told me and got going at 50-70 RPM. Oops. I was a little sore afterwards, but it wasn't painful to go that fast, so that was good.

We added some more isometrics to my daily PT work, so it's starting to be more of a time-sink now. As far as pain goes, I haven't taken any meds in a long time, and usually just icing the shoulder after my exercises is all I've had to do. Internal rotation is so far the only motion that is uncomfortable from the start, but it sounds like that is expected, given my repair type and where I'm at. Extension so far has the greatest range, and shoulder abduction feels like it's comfortable through the range until the elbow starts getting close to shoulder level.

2 more weeks of 2x/week PT is in store for me, and hopefully October 2nd is the day I'll be rid of my sling for good.

Wings, Silly English Knnniggits, And More Puppy Cuteness

2008-09-14T12:06:00.000-07:00

Last night, we went out with our pals Ryan & Kelly, who we haven't been out with in a long time. We hung out at their place for a bit, checked out the Boiler Room at the Kennedy School, then met up with Miranda & Brian at Fire on the Mountain for some hot wings. After that, we all went to see Monty Python and the Holy Grail at the Laurelhurst Theater. It'd been a while since I'd seen the film, and I don't recall ever having seen it in a theater, so it was fun. Lots of people, myself included, were saying lines from the movie during the showing, and nobody seemed to mind at all.

Today's just been errand-running, but Beck managed to take some cute shots of Kingston while I was getting ready. Also, I have one in here from the other day. The boy's just so damn cute.

Beck shot this one. He can finally get on the couch by himself. I don't know if that's a good thing or not...

Another one from B. I love his expression, and his cocked ear!

Kingston relaxes in the shade.

Shoulder Stuff and Other Things Nobody Will Read

2008-09-13T15:34:00.000-07:00

Well, this week was the first full week of actual physical therapy on the shoulder. Today marks about 5 and a half weeks since the surgery, and my therapist says things are progressing very well. She's haid a pair of surgeries on her right shoulder, so I'd say she's got a good handle on what I'm dealing with. We've been just doing mostly stretching and some massage, working on getting range-of-motion back and breaking down some of the scar tissue. I can already feel the lump underneath the middle of the 3 front incisions is now almost gone. Compared to the '96 ordeal, this has been a walk in the park. Not a lot of painful and frightening popping and sharp pain...well, really none at all this time around. Next week, I get to start working on some light strengthening work to go along with the stretching. I'm still guarding it a lot, so my therapist has to keep reminding me to relax. That part's just like last time...except last time was more like an order, and it was followed by more forceful stretching and the popping and pain. I'm excited about how well things are progressing. Hopefully I get to ditch the sling altogether in a couple weeks.

A little rewind - Tuesday's commute home got a little interesting at the Goose Hollow stop. Some guy was absolutely flipping the hell out at two other passengers. The nutter was white or maybe a light-complected hispanic guy, and he was just hurling racist insults at a couple of black passengers. This guy then started in on the other passengers, cussing at the top of his lungs at pretty much anyone he saw. It was comical for a moment, but when another passenger suggested he leave because he was scaring some of the children on the train, he got even more agitated. F everybody, apparently, and the kids too. I thought about exiting the train - the last thing I need is my repair job getting messed up from some f-nut on the train - but I stayed put as 4 or 5 other passengers basically removed the crazy dude from the train.
The train operator must have called the police, as it wasn't maybe a couple minutes after the loony had been removed from the train and restrained by other passengers that the police arrived. And it wasn't just the cops. A fire truck with paramedics also showed up, and I saw one of the medics preparing a needle, so I assume they gave him a sedative. He needed it, no doubt. They also had some SERIOUS zip-ties for the guy, and they got him on a gurney and took him away.
I have to say, the guy's two 'primary targets' were remarkably calm in the face of a furious barrage of racist insults from this f-nut. Kudos to them for not escalating things, and to the helpful passengers and the MAX operator.

I don't have any new Kingston pictures, but the little fella is getting BIG. His paws are positively massive, and he's as tall at the shoulders as Phoebe is. If I can ever get them to sit or stand still side-by-side long enough, I'll get a shot so y'all can see.

3 Weeks Post-Op - The $12,800 Shoulder

2008-08-28T23:38:00.000-07:00

Went back for my second post-op check with my Ortho doc, and he says things are progressing nicely. I can't ditch the sling completely just yet, but it's more a protective/preventive measure than anything. I'm to go ahead and schedule my Physical Therapy now, which is good - it'll feel more like I'm rehabbing it if I have that structure and some more goals to meet. I can extend to the front almost 70 degrees now, abduct somewhere past 45, and externally rotate probably almost 10. Doesn't sound like much, but compared to 3 weeks post-op the last time around, I'm MILES ahead.

I'm so very pleased with my medical insurance as well. I think I've paid only a handful of co-pays, and that's about it. The surgery, the follow-up visits, and the Game Ready unit were all covered fully. I'll have to shell out some co-pays for Physical Therapy, but that will pretty much be it. Here's an inside look at what $12,800 will get you...

At top right, that is a piece of cartilage that was loose. "Have that removed."

"That's gonna need some silk." The repairs in progress.

More repair-y goodness. Shift that capsule!

Shoulder Update: 1 Week Post-Op

2008-08-14T22:45:00.000-07:00

Well, so far everything is going well. Got my stitches out today, and a very limited set of 'exercises' to do. I get to use the sling a bit less, and continue the ice/compression stuff for another couple weeks before I go back in to see the doc. He wants me to be able to have forward extension to about 45 degrees and be able to comfortably externally rotate to about 5 degrees outside of neutral. He didn't specify any goals for abduction, but I'll try to make some progress there as well. The idea is to take it easy for starters, just gain a little motion back. Last time around, I was stuck in a sling for about 5 weeks, so this is already a little more aggressive and I like it. I need to stay smart about it, though. I imagine I'll be glad to have the Percocet refill...

Hopefully after the next appointment, I can get some of the still pictures from the 'scope. The doc showed me one today where there was a nice bit of loose cartilage that needed to be removed, and one where I could clearly see how frayed and torn up things were in there.

Most importantly, however, I can still take pictures of the puppy, so here are some more.

Not a bad profile shot.

Got it made in the shade, haven't you, boy?

Jumpy jumpy!

I can haz treets now?

Unwrapped

2008-08-09T15:41:00.000-07:00

Uh huh, it does say "yes". They wrote "no" on the other one. Not pictured is another incision on the back side.

Took the wraps off the shoulder yesterday. Still can't take a shower yet, but at least I got a sponge bath in, and got to straighten the arm out a little. Tomorrow starts 'program 2' on the Game Ready unit, where we add some pressure to the ice. I still have to use the pain medication, but it's starting to get farther between. Haven't slept a full night without having to get up and take some, but things are improving.

Oh, and to make up for the photo above, here's a shot of Kingston. His paws are getting almost as big as Phoebe's are...

I loved how he left a little paw print in the microfiber of the couch.

Now That's The Surgery Over, How Did It Go?

2008-08-06T21:22:00.000-07:00

Quite well, I'd say. The doc didn't have to do an open repair, just the scope, so it was the best-case scenario for the surgery.

I feel pretty lucid as I type this, but the nerve block hasn't worn off yet, so as Terry Tate would say, the pain train's comin'. Nothing to complain about at the moment except for the sore throat and the typing with one hand thing. I've got my really cool Game Ready ice/compression wrap, and some good pain meds for when I need 'em, so things are good.

Surgery Tomorrow

2008-08-05T17:32:00.000-07:00

Well, tomorrow's the big day, check-in at 11 am. Maybe I'll post some drug-induced rambling sometime Thursday or Friday. For the curious and strong-stomached, here's a page that talks about the kind of procedure I'm having done. There are pictures in the sidebar on the left of that page.

More Kingston!

2008-07-31T19:54:00.000-07:00

The boy is too much the cute. He's getting bigger, and the 'accidents' in the house are decreasing as well. He has a bladder infection, so we're giving him antibiotics, and thankfully that is really not much of a chore - he gobbles the pills right up! Anyway, on to the photos...

Going In For More Repairs

2008-07-29T17:51:00.000-07:00

Today I met with my Orthopedist, and after some more X-rays and motion tests, we decided that an arthroscopy was indeed in order for my damaged right shoulder. Not wanting to put this off much longer - both to avoid missing the best part of next ski season and to be done with my rehab before going on sabbatical next March, I decided to have the procedure done sooner rather than later.

So, the second repair job is scheduled for next Wednesday. Should be a fairly simple (compared to The Bankart Job 12 years ago) 'scope job, and hopefully a slightly quicker rehab.

Probably good to get this out of the way while the puppy is still light enough to carry in one hand. And hopefully by the time he's too heavy, I won't have a need to pick him up anyway.

Speaking of the lil' fella, more pix coming soon.

Meet Kingston!

2008-07-24T21:14:00.000-07:00

There's a new kid in town...

So we added to the 'family' tonight. We'd been talking on and off about getting a 'brother' or 'sister' for Pheebs, and I'd been lobbying hard for a male dog - either a Great Dane or an American Bulldog. I won this time around - he's a Great Dane. I'm not spoiled - I'm well-taken-care-of. :)

Anyway, his name is Kingston Henry, he's just about 8 weeks old, and so far he and Pheebs are still getting to know each other but seem to be adjusting well. Should be interesting when the cat realizes she's outnumbered...

Just looking around.

On the move!

Ski Day 32: Done Taking Chances This Season

2008-07-13T23:00:00.000-07:00

The training lanes on Palmer. Note the massive crevasses above the snowfield.

I pushed my luck with my damaged shoulder for the last time this season. I had a close call with another subluxation, this time while adjusting tower pads in some pretty deep lift tower wells. I recognized the situation I was about to put myself in and backed off, averting another shoulder tweak.
I figured every ski day since the Father's Day re-injury was a bit of a gamble, and at 28 or so days patrolled this season, there wasn't any good reasont to keep poking fate in the eye. Especially since I've already had the MRI and I don't need to go radically changing the situation before I've even had the chance to properly review the MRI with the Ortho doc.

But it was a gorgeous day. The kind of day that reminds you just why you patrol in the summer. It being a Sunday, and with fewer than the usual number of camps in session, it figured to be a light day. Sounded like Saturday wasn't - they had to take someone off the hill in a helicopter.

The historic lodge, from the Magic Mile chairlift.

Aside from re-adjusting tower pads - which was quite a bit of work - there was little going on until about mid-morning. Then things got just a little crazy. We had an actual case just 50 yards or so away from where the apprentices were doing their First Responder Training. Some of them had passed their check-offs just a little while earlier, and got to get right into a real live case - one that required a backboard. They did quite well.

The apprentices get a briefing from the FRT instructors.

After that, there were a couple cases that happened right around the same time, but to listen to the radios, it sounded like a lot worse was going on. I think some confusion about terminology (nobody told us what a 'lap park' was), and someone's inability to distinguish left from right (not me, I was in the Army for 8 years - I know damn well which is which), contributed to a whole lot of radio traffic. We got things cleared up and I did assist on one of the cases (a knee).

When I got to take some free runs, they were fantastic on the western side of the area. Nice soft stuff, plenty of space, big turns. Just lovely. I got to patrol with an OEC classmate of mine who I hadn't seen in a while, which was cool.

Ski Bowl. Lots has changed since a couple weeks ago, eh?

No surprise cases at the end of the day was a welcome occurrence, and sweep was uneventful. What was fun to watch were all the tourists snapping photos of the snow and stuff. People were working really hard to get that perfect shot of their loved one(s) with the mountain in the background just so.

I was worn out and crashed after showering off all the sweat, salt, and sunscreen. Now I get to wait to find out what the shoulder is going to cost me in terms of late-summer projects around the house and re-starting ski patrol stuff in the fall. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a 'scope job and a quick rehab.

Preliminary MRI Report: Torn Labrum

2008-07-02T17:00:00.000-07:00

As I expected, I got a call from my doctor's office today about my shoulder MRI Arthrogram from last Friday. The story as it stands now is a torn labrum, which is really no surprise to me. I go in to see an Orthopedist at the end of the month to further discuss the MRI results and the inevitable surgical procedure. Given the history and the mechanism of injury, it's most likely a Bankart lesion. Again.

Hopefully, they can do the repair arthroscopically. I'm really not looking forward to the surgery at all, but better a 'scope job than another open repair job. With any luck, I can get it scheduled soon enough to avoid missing the fun of the pre-season Ski Patrol activities like the OEC refresher and Chair Assault School.

I'll be an unhappy camper if I'm prohibited from however much external rotation I need to play TF2. :)

Ski Day 31: Birthday Fun @ Timberflats

2008-06-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

Saturday, I turned 37. Rather than sleep in, kick back, relax, and enjoy a day off, I decided I should head up to the mountain and patrol. Actually, it wasn't a snap decision - I had dispatched to patrol some months ago. Last year, I spent the evening of my birthday with the patrol, playing victim for the OEC finals. So why not do some patrol-y stuff again this year?

It was already quite warm when I parked the Sorento in the 'chute' up near the day lodge, and I grabbed my gear and headed to the patrol room, in shorts. At just before 6am, it was already shaping up to be a short-sleeves kind of day. If it weren't for the wind, I might not have bothered with my long-sleeved shirt.

Recently-minted patroller Nate - one of the guys I sled-coached this season - was up with us, and it was nice to see a new guy putting time in on the hill. I wonder if the rest of the freshly-crossed-up patrollers will put in some days this summer. We definitely need the help.

Ski Bowl, looking only barely skiable. But that's still a lot of snow over there for this time of year. I don't think they are able to run the alpine slide yet...

Still rocking a ton of snow. Mile Canyon isn't even much of a canyon yet, and it almost looks like you could still ski on Norman.

I got to test the shoulder out a little by hauling a sled up on the Mile chair, and that was no problem. I'm pretty sure I can do most anything I need to on the hill, and as long as I'm skiing carefully and not lifting and extending much above shoulder level, I'll be fine.

The snow was already pretty soft when we started out, and it obviously would continue to soften up as the day went on. But the first couple runs of the day were pretty nice. My folks called me to wish me a happy birthday, and it was kind of lucky timing on their part - I was just out checking some rope-lines, and had stopped to just kind of take in the glorious cloudless day when my phone rang. We chatted for a bit, and then it was back to work.

I got back up top and decided to call my brother to wish him a happy birthday as well (we're fraternal twins), and I had only been on the line with him for maybe a couple minutes when we finally started getting busy. I was hurrying him off the phone when he told me to go find one of the GMVS (Green Mountain Valley School) kids that he knows to go say hi. I'd have to get to that later, though - people were getting hurt.

I got to drive the sled for 3 cases on Saturday, which made it one of my busier patrol days. One was a collarbone, the other a shoulder dislocation (I feel your pain, kid), and the last one was a 'boarder we had to put on a backboard in one of the terrain parks. And that's just the stuff I was involved in. There were several more cases throughout the day. And of course the last one had to happen just as we were waiting on the last chair on Palmer for sweep.

Between my 2nd and 3rd cases, I did manage to run into the kid my brother told me to say hi to, which was kinda cool. There were several groups from VT up there, and I had the chance to talk to some kids from Middlebury College. It's always kinda cool to chat with home-staters when you're all the way across the country.

Anyway, we finally got released I think around 3:30 or so, and I took off for home. I needed to get cleaned up and ready to go out and meet some friends for my little birthday gathering. As I drove through Rhododendron, I noticed the temperature display at the Dairy Queen: 103. No effin' way, I thought. Must be just from being in the sun or something. But the next 3 readerboards I saw were all in triple digits. I started to wonder if I couldn't convince everyone to meet me at Charlie's or the Rat instead...

But the gathering at the Rose & Thistle was too much fun for me to really care much about the temperature. Sis-in-law Jenn and her hubby Troy were there, as were Rick & Brandi, Ryan & Kelly, Ryan's bro Travis, and my co-worker Nathan and his fiancee Katie. Katie's from GA, so she was the only one unfazed by the heat. It was great to see everyone and hang out drinking and talking and laughing. B and I got there early and ate right away, since we were both terribly hungry and didn't want to start drinking on empty stomachs. Turned out to be a good thing, except the gang was maybe a tiny bit bummed that they missed the waitress bringing out my Guinness cake with a single candle on it and singing me 'Happy Birthday'. I got some great gifts and funny cards, and the evening what just what I needed after the day I had on the hill.

After we got home, I decided I should play a little Team Fortress 2 with some folks from the Control Point community, since they're a good lot. I was still pretty...'happy', let's say. Late night TF2-ing can be quite an adventure, since the CP folks often decide to get a little creative with map selection and playing games-within-the-game. I had a load of fun goofing around with a couple of the guys I've played with quite a bit, and we were trying out all kinds of things. One of them is a server admin for one of the servers, so we were messing around with game speed, gravity, and all kinds of stuff. It might actually have been more fun sober...

On Second Thought, Let's Not Go There. It Is A Silly Place

2008-06-28T06:15:00.000-07:00

Been waiting for this one for a long time, thanks to one of my all-time favorite movies...and I quote...

"I'm 37."
"What?"
"I'm 37, I'm not old."
"Well, I couldn't just call you 'man'."
"You could call me 'Dennis'."
"I didn't know you were called 'Dennis'."
"Didn't bother to find out, did you?"

Thanks to the future-posting feature of Blogger, I'll be in the morning meeting for the Patrol when this gets posted. I love technology!

So That's The MRI Over, How Did It Go?

2008-06-27T14:25:00.000-07:00

The answer is, I don't know yet. I should hear back on that sometime next week.

As for the process itself, it went well. I arrived a little early, filled out one form (I love the part about how I injured it...I almost wrote, "which time?"), waited a few minutes, then was taken to the dressing rooms to change into the exam getup.

The tech described the procedure - I was to get some lidocaine, then the "contrast" injection. I'm oversimplifying it so I don't bore anyone, and that process took about 20 minutes. Throughout, the tech and the doctor were X-raying my shoulder to see where they wanted to do the injections. I could see the monitor, so I was watching that whole thing. It was kinda neat to see my 11-year-old suture anchors, and watch the contrast fluid spread into my shoulder.

Of course, I asked for a couple shots of that for the blog, and they obliged. Just before I went into the MRI machine, the tech handed me a CD that had a special media viewer on it and 3 of the X-Rays they took.

Not much difference between the three shots, but here they all are. You can see my suture anchors, and the bright-ish blob over the head of the humerus is where the contrast solution was injected into the glenohumeral joint capsule. Neat.

After the injections, I sat around a bit, then was walked into the MRI room. They strapped my shoulder up, put me on the bed, and into the tube I went. I remembered how bored I was with my ankle MRI, but that was nothing compared to this. At least with the ankle, I could watch all the blinking lights and the countdown timer, and didn't have to worry about my breathing. This time around, I couldn't see anything other than the inside of the "tube" - a very bland light-blue.

25 minutes of shallow, even breathing and chunk-chunk-chunk...whirrrr...whirrr... etc. later, they let me out for "the fun part".

"The fun part" consisted of 5 more minutes in the machine, this time with my arm above my head. "Fun" isn't the f-word I would use. Maybe with a healthy shoulder, but I was in some pain just from the pressure of the contrast solution. But, everyone over at Portland Medical Imaging was super nice and professional, so the experience on the whole was pretty decent.

Ain't Gotta Fight All The Time

2008-06-24T23:41:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you just gotta take a break from all the killing and the burninating, and get to rockinating. Even if you're a little nicked up.

The one thing that Valve failed to do was spruce up the guitar taunt with the Axetiguisher like they did with the Medic and his Ubersaw (the original Bonesaw taunt just sounded like a violin, but the Ubersaw is all electric-y and awesome). Pretty disappointing, if you ask me, but probably quite minor in the grand scheme of the game.

Shoulder Saga Continues

2008-06-23T16:26:00.000-07:00

So with the re-re-reinjury to my once-repaired right shoulder last weekend, I knew it was only a matter of time before I'd have to do something more about it than just take things a little easy and do some range-of-motion and strengthening exercises. I've been down this road before.

Today, I got up in excruciating pain, presumably from having slept on my shoulder just wrong. After taking some good pain meds, icing it, and a brief nap, I called my doctor's office to see if I could get in sometime this week.

They were able to see me today. Which basically rocks.

So, as an early birthday present to myself, I have some different pain meds, and an MRI Arthrogram scheduled for Friday morning. Hooray. Hopefully whatever is messed up in there will be something they can fix with a 'scope job and not another open Bankart reconstruction.

'Cause one of those was plenty.

UPDATE: Holy crap, Salsalate is the bomb. I had just taken a 750mg tablet prior to posting this originally at 4:26pm (and in a good deal of pain) and as of 5:14, I feel almost no pain at all in the shoulder.

Ski Day 30: Father's Day @ Timberflats

2008-06-15T20:25:00.000-07:00

Couple of ski teams from my home state were up. A later version of the board indicated that Sugarbush was also up. Wonder if Smugglers' is sending any kids to ski camps this year...?

So, the only thing that sucks about summer patrolling is the wake-up time. 4:10am for me today, but it was a nice quiet drive up to the mountain. Rancid's "Daly City Train" chunked from the Sorento's speakers as I pulled into the lot.

Perhaps foreshadowing the kind of morning I was going to have, I slipped and fell getting out of the SUV. There was a nice sheet of ice under the front wheels extending to mid-way under the vehicle. As I fell, I subluxated my right shoulder. To quote Uncle Benny from Lethal Weapon 4, "Bruddy Mahverus". It hurt like hell, but the pain subsided quickly.

Earlier in the week, it was looking like it would just be me and one other guy. I was stoked to see 3 more hill patrollers and an associate up there when I got to the patrol room. It was gonna be a good day.

Mt. Jefferson off in the distance, from the top of the Magic Mile lift.

Well, mostly. We had to install a crapload of tower pads, and set a bunch of boundary markers. While tedious, those tasks were actually kind of fun. I liked the technique of "tail-roping" the tower pads instead of trying to carry the suckers in all that wind.

Another picture of patrollers doing patrol-y things. JG and Juergen install tower pads. It was my turn next.

It was still early and the conditions were still reminiscent of Vermont Frozen Boilerplate (I wonder if the Burke kids were thinking, 'I came out here to get away from this crap'?), when I got the call to head down to a possible injury at the top of the Mile lift. I took off, and about 10 turns down, I chattered right out of both skis.

Bruddy Mahverus.

I have a nicely bruised right hip (No, you don't get to see. Trust me when I tell you the bruise is about the size of the palm of my hand.), a little bruise just above the left boot-top (presumably from my right boot), and oh yes, some more right shoulder pain from a second subluxation to show for my rather spectacular crash.

The scene of the crime. I guess about 300 feet below where I shot this.

I slid far. REALLY far. Like so far I wondered if I would stop sliding when I reached Palmer midstation. It took seemingly forever to get my body turned around and get my feet below me so I could attempt to stop. I finally did so, and popped right up on my feet.

Yes, another patroller saw me. I bought a pitcher of beer at the Rat afterward.

One ski kept pace with me, more or less. The other, not so much. It outran me by at least 500 feet. A bystander saw and came over to ask if I was okay. Nice little role reversal, I thought. Laughing about the whole thing between grimacing in pain, I told him I was okay, stepped into the one ski that was near me, and attempted to ski down to the other ski. I did okay, but it wasn't the smooth one-ski drills I remembered being able to do 20-some years ago. Something to add to my practice repertoire, I suppose. Maybe make next year's crop of hill apprentices do it with me when I coach them.

The case had been taken care of by the time I'd arrived, by one of the pro patrollers who'd already been there. Wasted trip in the first place. I wish it had just been a wasted trip - y'know, without the whole falling on my ass part. I checked the DIN on my bindings after the crash and found they were well below where I would have set them. I guess that's what I get for assuming the shop got it right the first time.

Everybody and their dog (not pictured) was climbing today. I missed out on the chance to haul an injured one off the hill.

The skiing the rest of the day was glorious spring (okay, summer) snow. The west side of the lift was opened up, and there was some excellent snow over there. It was so wide open and uncrowded that you could make these giant looping carved turns that took up what felt like acres of space. It was so satisfying and fun that I didn't feel the bumps and bruises.

I sure feel 'em now, though.

Sweep found me on the west side of the hill for some more hero turns in the epic summery-ness, and the gang hit the Ratskeller in Govy for beer, pizza, and chatter. Monkey Face Porter from Cascade Lakes Brewery was the pitcher I bought, and it was damn good. Nice way to cap the day.