From 1960 to Today: Six Decades on the Slopes

Frank Rossi's life story reads like a cultural history of American winter recreation. The 80-year-old ski patroller, who joined the National Ski Patrol in 1960 at just 17 years old, shares six decades of memories that span from wooden toboggans to modern rescue equipment, from an era before CPR to today's advanced medical protocols. Note: Recorded at a previous convention, please disregard background noises. (2023)

Stroke Signs: B-E-F-A-S-T method, Balance difficulty, vision changes, facial drooping, arm weakness, speech problems, Time is brain - 911. Call immediately if you suspect someone is having a stroke. 

The PNWD History Project:  Shirley Cummings, the official history project coordinator, (& all around fabulous lady), has been on a mission: Collect and assemble an archive of stories and pictures from the different ski patrols within the Pacific Northwest Division. Hence, Patroller Chats was born!  

Transcript

Frank Rossi's Introduction and History

Jodie 1:10

This interview was recorded at our annual convention in 2023. Frank had suffered a stroke approximately six months prior. He wanted to share his experience and help educate others about strokes. Besides chatting with us on his amazing history as a patroller, Frank has made a remarkable recovery, as strokes can affect a person's speech, so you may notice moments where Frank pauses here or searches for words True to his spirit. He didn't let that stop him from speaking openly about the various details that he went through on his stroke and in general. Look for that later in the interview. For now, let's begin chatting. Who are we talking to today?

Frank 1:55

I'm Frank Rossi. Been on Ski Patrol forever, it seems like Mostly on Stephen's. You know Snook-Holmick Pass Right.

Murphy 2:04

So, Frank, what's your patrol number or, excuse me, your NSP number 146-951. 146-951.

Frank 2:13

That's about 10,000 less than mine. That was sort of where it's located. The national number is 345. Three four, five nine. Three four, five nine. It's getting getting low.

Murphy 2:30

No beer off of that one either. Right, because we all know what that happens, all right, so, um, we're going to ask you the big question, frank when did you join the national Ski Patrol?

Frank 2:40

1960, when I was 17 years old.

Jodie 2:45

Oh, my goodness 1960.

Murphy 2:49

You want me to do that math.

Jodie 2:51

I can exactly tell you because it's one year past. Oh, my goodness gracious, that's 63 years.

Frank 2:59

Yes, I can still do the arithmetic.

Jodie 3:02

Well, it's because I was born in 61.

Murphy 3:06

I'm the spring chicken here. I am feeling good about myself today, born in 1943. Wow, so you joined at 17. So, okay, at 17,. Why did you join the ski patrol at 17? What prompted you to do that?

Frank 3:21

I don't really know. I grew up puget sound and bremerton so that was tough because I'd have to take the ferry across to go to the meetings right over and then I would get over and get somebody to pick me up on the seattle side to drive me up to Snoqualmie, and so usually we'd come up on Friday and spend Friday night, saturday night, come back on Sunday, so it was a three-day or Friday night and all Saturday Sundays, and we'd be skiing also on Saturday night. And for the grace of a number of people who would take me up and take me back, Right.

Murphy 4:08

So who were the people that picked you up on the other side, on the Seattle side of the ferry, trying to think Were they personal friends? Were they? Students you met Were they ski school buddies? Oh yeah, personal friends Were they students you met?

Frank 4:24

Were they ski school buddies? Oh yeah, picking up the name now, but John Hite. John Hite was predominantly. He sort of made the adoptive son of Frank me and a couple others who would pick us up in that, and later on after University of Washington would pick us up in that and later on after the University of Washington would pick us up and the university would bring us back up for the weekend and back. And it really was. John Height was really instrumental to us keeping on Wow.

Murphy 5:00

So where did you spend the nights? Do you remember when you were coming over?

Frank 5:15

Were you spending the nights up at the mountain? Yet John Hite and others RVs would take a toboggan down to his cabin with a keg of barrel for Saturday night in the snow and we'd sleep there and come back. And Gary was very important to not let him burn his house, that's an important thing. He did not drink as much beer as some of the others did.

Jodie 5:54

So when did you start skiing? What age were you?

Frank 5:56

I was 14 and really got started with a little bit Boy Scouts and then high school skate club, take the bus over to over both Snoqualmie and over in Stevens and have to get back, get the boat back across the other side and then I don't really figure out how I started the S-Nquamie, but somehow I'm involved in it, right.

Murphy 6:34

So you were over there in S-Nquamie and you are, you Alpine Nordic. What kind of controller are you?

Frank 6:41

I was Alpine until about 12 years ago. I changed over to Nordic I don't have to run the toboggans down the hill and so I started out with Summit Snoqualmie, which is now called West Right, and after college I went to officer with NOAA and so I was on east. So so two years I was up at, uh, blue knob middle, sort of middle of pennsylvania yeah, and, and that was a long drive and it was funny one because it was.

Frank 7:19

it used to be a nike message, and so it's. You know, on the top you ski down and come back up to the top and then oh, that's right.

Murphy 7:31

Yes, I've heard about that.

Frank 7:32

I went back on you know West Coast and you know I was able to get my duties in before going back in the sea, duties in and before going back and see, and then afterwards I was in liberty ski, which is on the south side of pennsylvania, so there was close, close a ride from there and, uh, don't particularly like east coast.

Murphy 8:00

machine made ice that's what I was going to ask. Tell us about the snow back east. Is it really as hard as they say? Frozen, you know? Basically a sheet of ice that you're skiing on.

Frank 8:10

It can be, and you don't want to ever go where the snow is putting too much water into it, and so you go through the snow and it's sort of wet and you come out the other side and it's solid. You can't move, it sticks to the bottom of your skis. Oh really, oh yeah. If you run through that essentially frozen water. As soon as you hit off the wet, you stop oh you're going to Superman.

Murphy 8:40

Oh Lord. So okay, you've patrolled at.

Frank 8:45

Uh what one, two, three, four ski areas, yeah, probably yeah, and somewhere afterwards I retired from noah and so, uh, 89, right, I went back to West now they call it and to politicians and cliques I decided I'm going to move down to Hayek. The family ski area.

Early Ski Patrol Days at Snoqualmie

Frank 9:17

Yeah, it's the old-style small ski area and I like that Right small ski area and I like that right and, uh, I like some of the others around. Instead of the big big skied, a lot of, uh, colorado and that, and I like the little ones right so hayek isn't open as much as east and west, or, excuse me, west and central.

Murphy 9:41

No, it's only, yeah, it's only open on the weekends, isn't it?

Frank 9:44

still, the Nordic is on Friday, right and Nordic and Alpine on Saturday and Sunday also, so I go. There's only a few Nordics on Saturday, which is nice, and unfortunately we open up the door on Friday and have to shovel out the door because it's snowed in all since Sunday night, right fall or prior week.

Murphy 10:19

So you get a lot of patrollers from Central. I know that Nordic patrollers that go over and you guys patrol together out in the backcountry and all the trails.

Frank 10:29

Well, there's a little bit of that At Central. A lot of them only do half their duty on Nordic, where those who are Nordic out of Hayek are full time Really. So when we do 24 days or 20 days of Nordic, it's 24 eight-hour days, whereas it could be only half those days hours from the central. So a little difference. Oh yeah, Somebody telling the tale and I don't have to come back in and be in the first aid room whereas the Central.

Frank 11:12

You know, go out in the morning what have you? And go down to. They have cooking for lunch at Central. And that's nice it is, it's pretty posh over there. I can say and that's nice it is, it's pretty posh over there.

Jodie 11:26

I can say, and they don't return.

Murphy 11:28

Kitchens multiple kitchens. Yeah it is pretty good. So you were 14 years old when you started skiing. You've been going for 63 years. In that 63-year time you must have gotten some awards. Yeah, a few too many. A few too many, few too many, probably not enough. So why don't you tell us some of the awards that you've gotten over the years?

Frank 11:49

well, the uh, the, the strongest service, maturus service award, national ocean outstanding for nordic oh, fantastic and and then Division Nordic for twice. I guess they just got it last year. Yeah, I was going to say, didn't you?

Murphy 12:09

get that last year or the year before.

Frank 12:11

Blue Merit Star Green Merit Star Green.

Jodie 12:15

Yellow. We've got to back up here.

Frank 12:17

Twice, but there actually should be a three. Oh, we're going to get that story Because they don't know it. Oh what? Oh, we're going to get that story because they don't know it. See, in the old days, you know I have a NSP number. Now, old days you didn't have a constant. When you moved to a new area they changed your numbers each time. So it started out with you know the first part, you know PO, 2,8 and then consecutive. So I went back to you know PO-28, and then consecutive, right, so I went back to Pennsylvania so that changed different. Oh, so you're talking about. And then I come back, it changes again. And I go back there, it changes again. So the last six-digit only started somewhere later.

Jodie 12:58

Are you talking about the P as in the individual patrol? Yeah, about the P as in the individual patrol.

Frank 13:04

The NSP would not give you a continue, originally a permanent number, and so the early in that summer, probably around.

Jodie 13:19

Some year 69.

Frank 13:21

They had. We had a teaching for new candidates, right yeah, john Height and I we had something like 70 candidates, 70?, 70. Zero. Because when Crystal started, just all of the nationals and the sort of senior moved to Crystal, and so we had a few Okay so 71.

Jodie 14:02

How many instructors would you say you had helping out in that? Just two of us.

Murphy 14:07

Oh my goodness, gracious Two and 70 students.

Frank 14:09

Yeah.

Murphy 14:11

I hope you had a lot of doctors and nurses in that class.

Frank 14:14

Well, in the old days Ned Clark joined patrol when I did patrol. Uh, joined patrol when I did patrol and he was the old doctor who actually went out and did all of the uh that he ran the toboggans and before they had snowmobiles. Uh, ned, and I have hauled across the level the sleds back. So the old days some of the docks were just alpine. Oh, the docks were alpine yeah, they did everything we did.

Murphy 14:56

I haven't seen that these days. Not anymore, no, no anymore.

Frank 15:10

No, no, the uh, that's much different.

Murphy 15:11

The uh, the physician you know, the physicians have been really great though over the years, right, oh yeah, the educational.

The Evolution of Ski Equipment

Frank 15:14

And you know I've enjoyed with those people and, like ned, all the years he was on. He always, always. You know why did he be on Ski Patrol? He said, well, I go to these other meetings and it's all physicians and they're the same thing and I go here I see real people. There's people who you know driving, you know rig operations, you know Boeing Continental Can, et cetera. The experience with all the other people he liked that and I think that's part of the Ski Patrol is all the different people.

Jodie 15:56

Interesting.

Murphy 15:57

We were just talking about that this afternoon, yep, about meeting other people that they're different, their other hat that they wear on a full time basis yeah, and it's you know, the camaraderie and everything that you get when you come to like these meetings and the convention where you get to see people out of. They're all patrollers, they all come from different backgrounds different skills.

Frank 16:24

Big plus is the different skill. You know that come to it and you know that's important having the different experience.

Murphy 16:34

Right, no, I agree. So I'm going to ask you here what does the phrase service and safety since 1938 mean to you? That's our national code, creed as we call it.

Frank 16:50

Well, it really started the need for helping people off the skills and that and they didn't have that before 38. Yep, and that's probably the most important. And that mean first aid Right and how to move them. And in those days it was difficult. You know, there were no snowmobiles, there were no groomers.

Murphy 17:28

How'd you like to do those moguls? No, thank you.

Frank 17:30

After a month there was no radio.

Jodie 17:35

How was the communication? Oh yeah, no radio.

Frank 17:38

That you've been told, because obviously you weren't there In the old days with the lifts they had a crank phone at the bottom, a phone up at the top so you could call from the bottom to the top and that was the only communications and the other probably different than these days they really, really watched riding up and did as much patrolling climbing up on the lift. Because you're observing that Years ago Becky Aldrich and Chuck, there at Snoqualmie they had more carrying on the toboggans because he was, you know, watching and uh, instead of just writing up, they were actually patrolling washing up and that's a big one I was going to say if you had the phone call.

Jodie 18:38

Well, somewhere I was going up the mountain on the chairlift and saw this person hollering for help. I don't't know how many little you know towers did you pass by.

Frank 18:48

I have no clue. They put the number if you're seeing it going up oh the tower number. But they don't put it on the backside. So when you're skiing down you can't see the number. It helps if you're dyslexic. Take a look at that.

Murphy 19:05

No, it going up, oh the tower number, but they don't put it on the backside, so when you're skiing down you can't see the number. Yeah, it helps if you're dyslexic. Take a look at that. No, it is true.

Frank 19:09

When you say number, you know 13 and you're skiing down. You can't see any numbers from the top down. Take a look at that.

Jodie 19:17

I never noticed that yeah.

Murphy 19:28

It funny because we're doing sweep and you have like wave off points and you're like trying to count towers and you're looking at going cash and if you come into a spot and you're not like a low rise and you pass where you're supposed to do your wave off.

Murphy 19:32

Yeah, you don't want to be looking over your shoulder to see what the number was oops, that could be a little rough, all right, so you know, let's talk about hayek for a sec, because you've been there for ages and ages. So we talked to Shirley and she was in one of our chats and she told us that that was the old training ground for the Olympic ski jump years and years ago.

Frank 19:55

Oh yeah.

Murphy 19:55

So when you were there in 1963, what was Hayek like?

Frank 20:00

I wasn't on those at that time but I know about it and some of the pictures and that you know they had real ski jumping and in the old days in the 30s up to World War II, they got off from Seattle and they took the train up and got off there and skied and then trains would bring them back down because the road was not good. Okay, Whoa.

Frank 20:34

And that there at Hayakanova, at Snoqualmie Summit, there's off the top of Thunderbird there was a jump and there was a jump off of that one that has now been trees filled up. Those were big and there was big jumping used to be in Leavenworth.

Murphy 21:00

Oh, I didn't know that, yeah.

Frank 21:02

And there still might be a small, but there's big jumping out at Leavenworth.

Murphy 21:06

So they had like a ski area at Leavenworth.

Jodie 21:09

Yeah, they do. Even I know this shocking.

Frank 21:14

Even I knew that I didn't know that how long so that was in the 60s, 50s jumping was super in, you know, the late 30ss and probably up to maybe early 50s, I would think, and there was a lot of jumping.

Murphy 21:33

Wow, yeah, not like the jumping we have now. Where those kids do you know their aerobatics as they're going through it? They were just going for distance in those days. So how many runs did Hayek have back in the old days in the 60s?

Frank 21:51

I don't really know the numbers, hayek, there was only a couple three. Well, they originally had a chair that went up and over. The chair, continuous, went up over the top and down the other side so they could come back up out of the coming back out.

Frank 22:11

It was a run around Right and until it broke apart and had to only go up one way, right Before they didn't have the backside, you know, one way, right before they didn't have the backside uh, but eight, ten years ago they built a a backside lift now and they replaced it to one that actually runs faster yeah, so I gotta this is kind of a little side story, but you made me think about this number runs.

Murphy 22:40

What is the story of the water tank that looks like a Rainier beer can?

Frank 22:45

Yeah, well, it really had an Oli label on it. And it was sort of I don't know how it was done, why it did, but it did, and it was a little consternation with the Catholic over there chapel at West, because you know a little bit. That's that. So officially they sort of moved the, the emblem, but uh, so wait a minute.

Murphy 23:20

This thing started in West and was shipped over to Hyatt. No, no, no.

Frank 23:25

The tank was there all the time but the chapel was over at West and they were being. They didn't like to look at the beer can for the water tank Right and the old for old tanks. The Roman Catholic would come up for the water tank and the old day for old tanks. The Roman Catholic would come up for the chapel and he had his ski boots on his.

Murphy 23:55

Wait a minute, so the priest would have his ski boots on, as he was doing.

Frank 23:58

Oh yeah, as soon as the chapel was done that Saturday morning, then he was out skiing.

Jodie 24:04

Wearing his boots during the service.

Frank 24:06

All right, oh yeah, yeah, there's some dedicated people.

Pre-EMS Era and First Aid History

Murphy 24:11

Yeah, that's very true. So do you know who painted that?

Frank 24:14

It is the only— no, it was before me. I don't know who did it.

Murphy 24:17

So it was like in the 450s it had to be, it had to be.

Frank 24:20

Because I joined in 60. So about then that was the first time I ever saw it. It was there, so it's been there a long time.

Murphy 24:29

And has it ever been repainted? Because I mean, what's amazing is? You can still see it. It's plain as day. Yeah, sort of. Yeah, it faded a little bit, but still, I mean, if you're talking about 50, 60, 70, years Wow, wow. Wow, that is amazing. All right, a little side note. So what did they do to get people down off the mountain when you first started there in the 60s? I mean, we've got our new fancy sleds that we have, you know, like our Cascades. What?

Frank 24:58

were you guys using? It was the old what they called the Sun Valley, which is a wood toboggan with a wire stokes connected onto it.

Murphy 25:09

Okay, and they were heavy. Oh, I bet.

Frank 25:11

And I don't know how I did it in those days, but at the storing them up, at the end of the day they were had a rack rack, three racks, oh my goodness, and I only weighed 145 when I graduated high school and about 155 college, and then I could have put them up there today.

Murphy 25:36

No, that's crazy. So steel, because we're not talking aluminum they're heavy steel stokes baskets with probably oak runners.

Frank 25:47

Oh yeah, Oak toboggan would have you.

Jodie 25:49

What do you think they weighed?

Murphy 25:52

Oh several hundred pounds.

Frank 25:53

I don't know. Go over to Central and unhook that one and see how much it weighs. They were heavy. There's one up on the wall outside.

Jodie 26:03

You go unhook that. Oh, not me, not me.

Murphy 26:06

The older I get, the more sensible I get, and I realize I just wouldn't be able to do that. Okay, so we talked a little bit about toboggans. They didn't have radios so you couldn't really call. You had the phone system that was you called.

Frank 26:21

Only from bottom to top.

Murphy 26:22

Yeah, bottom to the top and you kind of ring it. It's like an old ship's phone to get ahold of somebody.

Frank 26:29

I'm still amazed how a call went out. But it was really fun in the old days because they were we could do things we can't do today.

Jodie 26:41

Oh do tell oh, oh, oh, do tell, wait a minute, this might be, we'll be back at the old thunderbird lift there at uh west.

Frank 26:51

Uh well, at the end of the day, people would go down and sweep down and they had a couple people stay on top and when, when they completed the sweep, then we could come down, which means we took it in a tuck.

Jodie 27:13

Oh, I had a feeling he was going to say that Straight straight.

Frank 27:17

And yeah.

Murphy 27:20

How do you straight line that? Is it changed? Because the terrain now is you've got those cat tracks that are cut in.

Frank 27:27

There was one that got off the lift and it was stand there and they said we could go. It was skate, skate, skate, make around the corner and get in the tuck and it was steeper portion and then if you go down there, there's an old railroad level, so it comes down and there's a little flat down. And you had to do a perfect pre-jump, or if you got catapulted off the old railroad, you would be overflown the slope and hit the flat below it, and that was bad, bad, bad.

Murphy 28:09

Oh, because I'm sure it was flat when you landed.

Frank 28:12

No, you were gone. So we estimated that average speed was at least 50 miles an hour, and so the terminal at the bottom was something higher, and in 64-bot head competition downhill skis 210 centimeters, and that was pretty standard with most of our pros, not pros there the volunteers there we were on competition downhill.

Murphy 28:52

Frank, you were on 210s I am 6'5" and I used to ski 205s in that version ski.

Jodie 28:59

And Frank, how tall are you?

Frank 29:03

Oh, 5'8" down to just under 5'7 now. Oh, you must have been flying Well. First, before that ski, I got a 205 wood Kniezel slalom and then I got the downhills. And then I got the downhills and the first run it was on evening. I made no turns until I got to the bottom and I said I have to initiate a turn. The old days you really had to initiate turns on those and I have to really initiate this turn.

Frank 29:46

The old days you really had to initiate turns on those and I have to really initiate this turn, but they were, in that era, a really good ski because they didn't groom them and so the downhill had a very flexible front. Third, and the back-thirds was a railroad tie. It was stiff and you could get way back on the skis and never dump on the back. They would support you forever on the back. They would support you forever. And in the old days I went up the blue knob.

Frank 30:29

Somebody went underneath the line skiing down. I just went through it and put a tuck and caught him, up to him and stopped him, and I could do that in the old days, not anymore.

Jodie 30:41

Oh my goodness, go ahead. So I heard you say that you had a green and a blue merit star. What can you tell us about that? I forget exactly what they were. It's okay, and for other people that might be listening. A green star is for rescue, correct?

Frank 31:00

the one was probably with the search and rescue group and I had an unfortunate in Bellevue a attempt to save a life.

Jodie 31:16

It's okay. It's alright, frank, we can just pause here. Still bothers. A woman ran into a was a car accident yeah, the worker, the flagger right hit him oh, they hit a flagger, that's too bad, so I was the first one there.

Frank 31:51

Oh, you were.

Jodie 31:56

Why were you able to be there for him?

Frank 31:59

It still bothers me, probably never will.

Murphy 32:05

Yep, yeah, it still bothers. Probably never will. Yep, and we were talking about that today, about how long those incidents last and when you're a first responder, just how tough that is. You bring that baggage with you and it is hard and that's why being a patroller sometimes is really tough and you've got to be able to talk to your friends and talk to your fellow patrollers and you've got to be able to have that psychological first aid when you do that response, because it's it is tough. Frank, I'm glad you were there.

Frank 32:38

I started first aid equipment. I started before there was an EMS around before EMS around, started before EMS.

Murphy 32:47

Oh, that's right, you'd call 911 and get a dial tone. You don't get what.

Frank's Career with NOAA

Frank 32:50

I'm saying In the old days, in the early 60s, okay, if you had an ambulance, it was hours of the hearse.

Murphy 33:01

Yes, no, you're right, you're actually right, you're a driver and nobody, nobody uh aid.

Frank 33:06

You know, first aid person yeah, so if we had a problem uh one of the, was it usually uh one of the. I was a pro that one year right, yeah 64, so you'd ride as the aid transfer. And glad they're not. And he probably had a little drinking before he drove the hearse slash.

Jodie 33:33

This is very true. I mean, this is how it all got started. I mean, really, it's amazing, it is absolutely amazing.

Murphy 33:41

You're literally EMS. You're calling up EMS and the hearse shows up with a half-cropped driver and maybe somebody there with you.

Frank 33:50

We had to supply somebody to ride down with them, right, because there was nobody else, there was just the driver.

Jodie 34:26

I think I'd rather be the driver going down myself, but oh my goodness, I'm laughing so hard I'm crying.

Murphy 34:34

That would not be reassuring to have the first show up after oec.

Frank 34:37

It wasn't a red cross advanced advanced first aid, first aid and I was an instructor and, uh, early on and the as in bremerton with kitsap county right and the red cross, there was really good lock where I can still remember his name, miz. And before two, three weeks before they did it, they gave an introduction that CPR was coming in and actually did teaching CPR. Yeah, this is what's coming. And so a couple years later it nationally accepted CPR.

Murphy 35:18

So you started patrolling before there was CPR.

Frank 35:21

Oh, yeah, oh wow, holger, neal, sylvester and the other manual ones which I don't like.

Murphy 35:33

Out goes, the bad air in goes the good air.

Frank 35:35

Oh yeah, oh yeah, You've been there. You read the old book.

Jodie 35:39

So I happen to know this answer, but I'm going to pick on Murph here. Oh, no you said that your other job, your other hat, was with NOAA, and I personally happen to know what that stands for, because I have a niece that was noah now there's murphy, isn't it?

Murphy 36:00

national oceanographic and atmospheric association administration, administration, yeah that's close enough.

Frank 36:07

That's a lot long, long one. Noah's much easier to, yes, and there's a small one. Noaa is much easier to do.

Jodie 36:11

Yes, it is.

Frank 36:12

And there's a small commission officer and many civilian and I was one of the there was when I joined. It was like 270 officers In the whole NOAA. Yeah, and it went up to about 215. And right after I retired, gore reduced the and the only thing it reduced was the NOAA officer core. It went back down to about 300, and I don't know what it is now.

Murphy 36:52

So when you say Gore, you're talking Al Gore.

Frank 36:54

Yeah.

Murphy 36:55

Oh, al Gore, Mr Environmental, yeah, let's whack NOAA, they don't do anything.

Frank 37:00

Well, the president said, you know, reduce the government. And the only thing that got reduced was the NOAA officer.

Jodie 37:06

But that's part of the Commission Corps, but they are the part of the military and correct me if I'm wrong. I had to do a little bit of research when my niece was in that, but they are. There's the US Coast Guard and it's not an offshoot of it but it's affiliated with the US Coast Guard, correct?

Frank 37:27

Well, actually there's two terms. There's uniformed Okay, there's uniformed Right.

Jodie 37:34

That's right.

Frank 37:35

Which encovers seven, maybe eight now We've got the space one coming in Right. And then there's the military. Well, we don't shoot, so the two that are not military of the uniformed is public health service. There used to be like 5,000 of them and they could be engineers plus physicians and all that. And then the NOAA officer and it dated back for surveying to make the cartographers, you know, on the coast.

Frank 38:14

And with the later on, noah became so the weather service there and others that so good fisheries and so we're. They would be in a lot of different things. Okay, I spent most of mine related with the surveying and sub-oceanography. That's awesome Out of 22 years, spent seven of them on ships.

Murphy 38:41

Wow, like how long did you go out to sea each time?

Jodie 38:47

I know now it's currently about two years, and then you're inland about two, depending on what job. There's two things You're assigned to a ship for about two years and then you're inland about two, depending on what job?

Frank 38:53

Well, there's two things. You're assigned to a ship for maybe two years, but the longest I was out was five or six months before I come back to the home port. Okay, and there was a different ship that went down to Antarctic, so they were gone seven months and back to Seattle. Another one followed up it was nine, seven months and back to Seattle. Another one followed up it was nine months over and back. So that's a long ways from home and it's not like the tropics.

Jodie 39:23

I was going to say it's not the tropics.

Frank 39:24

And you need to get some place to put the gas in the ship, Right and the smaller ones. You got it every two weeks. We could do almost 30 days, but you were really going empty.

Jodie 39:41

Were you to the Antarctica.

Frank 39:44

I didn't. I got down to Tahiti.

Murphy 39:51

Oh, you stopped off at Tahiti. You had to warm up. Yeah, we knew Frank was. Yeah, Frank's smart Tahiti.

Jodie 39:53

Oh, you stopped off at Tahiti. He had to warm up. Yeah, we knew.

Murphy 39:54

Frank was, yeah, Frank's smart Tahiti Easter.

Frank 39:57

Yeah, easter Island, and I went through the Panama to Gulfport Not fun, but we had to do some equipment for a project over Barbados and I ended up, during that long project, lived on Barbados for a month, which was pretty good.

Murphy 40:24

Yeah, the Caribbean for a month Did you get well acquainted with rum while you were there.

Frank 40:29

It's pretty inexpensive, oh.

Murphy 40:31

I'm sure it is, and there's quite a few make it inexpensive.

Frank 40:33

Oh, I'm sure it is.

Murphy 40:38

And there's quite a few make it there.

Frank 40:40

Oh, this is awesome. Our pirate Frankie, he's got the rum, and they taught them all how to make their drinks for the inns and motels, and so they were very, very good.

Murphy 41:01

Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure that, yeah, that is the land of Rome. So we're going to change topics just for a little bit.

Frank 41:08

The one thing I miss from the early days is like the Snoqualmie Pass four areas Right. Don't have we used to call it junior, the young people.

Junior Ski Patrol and Demographics

Murphy 41:21

Oh yeah, the junior ski patrol. You have to be at least 18. They're trying to get it back 18.

Frank 41:25

And I really miss those and they were fun, they were great, and I look at this. So many people young, they're looking for something to do.

Murphy 41:37

Yeah, I was going to ask you about demographics because you've been around a while. What you know?

Frank 41:42

the age range of patrollers that you see now at HIAC you know, from started to now, I would say in the last five years, we've gotten more relatively younger and on our nordic we've got a couple fairly younger people really and uh, surprisingly older now. But uh, one of our really good guys is a semi-retired physician from ellensburg who is really good on the skis. We had a couple of young ladies who were under 40.

Jodie 42:22

When you started, would you say the age range of the average patroller? What would you say that was?

Frank 42:30

I mentioned that we had like 70 candidates. They were predominantly juniors.

Murphy 42:41

Uh-oh, Whose phone is that Frank?

Jodie 42:43

is that your?

Murphy 42:43

phone. See, he is popular.

Frank 42:46

He is my boss, but she's telling me where I'm at.

Murphy 42:52

All right, hold on All right. Hold on All right. Frank's boss just called. So Mrs Rossi is.

Frank 42:59

She spent the week or the day with her brother up at Spokane, up in the hill oh nice, and he's had some medical problems and so we'll go over tomorrow.

Murphy 43:16

Right.

Frank 43:17

And spend the day with them and that, and we're going to spend the night Saturday night or Sunday night here and drive back on Monday.

Jodie 43:27

Oh, wow.

Frank 43:28

You made it a weekend.

Murphy 43:29

Go ahead.

Jodie 43:30

You were telling us that out of that, 71 in the class, that age group, what was that?

Frank 43:37

I would say it was. I would say it was Easily two-thirds junior. You're kidding.

Murphy 43:45

Like below 25 oh yeah. Under 18.

Frank 43:48

Oh, under 18? Junior was under 18, so it was 16 to 18, which we don't have anymore.

Murphy 43:53

No, Under 18. Oh, under 18? Yeah, junior was under 18.

Frank 43:54

So it was 16 to 18, which we don't have anymore. No, and too bad, because I look at like the ISAR, search and rescue, huge, huge training for those people and they're looking for something to do and I think that was with also the junior that those days for the escape patrol is something they're at age. Hold on a second.

Murphy 44:27

Okay, frank, so go ahead, continue on. You were saying you had half of your initial recruiting class out of 70 people, most of them were, uh, juniors, and when you mean juniors, you mean juniors they had a.

Frank 44:42

Generally they had a lower uh uh heights. You know it's lower and for the juniors and generally the top ones were more the senior but they had the New Year's was a little too endived for the older guys and so the next day the juniors had to patrol the top.

Murphy 45:14

Oh, oh. So that's why you recruited the juniors, so after New Year's you would have some coverage on the hill and we had to.

Frank 45:26

it used to be Beaver Lake, it was not run is on under skied normally that and so everybody had to go there. It's like the first day you could ski that, everybody fall over literally. Yeah, that's deep, deep and every of that. That wasn't that difficult. We're going back and do it again and the second time. Oh, that's okay.

Murphy 46:00

So isn't Beaver Lake the lake that's like behind Central? No?

Frank 46:04

this is west, You've got Thunderbird and there's a little pond down below Right Between. You've got the old days at west, you've got Thunderbird, and then they had the other heap peak a little lower and right between that was a little pond called Beaver Lake. I wouldn't call it a lake. It probably gets you up to your belly button.

Murphy 46:32

Because I think we've actually had to do some search stuff back there where people have gone back sort of just pre-dusk and then they didn't make it back, and so we had to send in Nordic people with headlamps and flashlights whatever to go search? Yeah, so I'm pretty sure I know what you're talking about. So let me see what else. What kind of special activities did the mountain do when you were, you know, first starting there? Was there anything that they did to attract the public? Have fun. That they don't do now.

Murphy 47:10

Or they do more now than they did then.

Frank 47:12

More so now because they will do music things Right. That for those particularly over east Right and that for those particularly over east that do that. They have some big adventures near where the Oli tank, you know water tank there, the big, beer can they have? You know, have big, big things for uh, uh, ski board, uh, jumping in that, that, oh okay. And there's another group. I amaze what they call the ski boards snowboard or a ski board. This is like a Snowboard or a ski board.

Murphy 48:00

This is like a skateboard. Oh, I know what you're talking about.

Frank 48:02

It's got a ski underneath it, yes, and you only have a leash and you just stand on the board and you go and you better be good and whatever happens happens. And I have no idea how I could do that. Try and they just go. Yeah, how I could do that. Try and they just go. Yeah. It's just like a skateboard with a ski underneath instead of the wheels and you just jump on the top of it and away you go.

Murphy 48:28

Oh, I've seen those things and, yes, you're right, they are crazy.

Frank 48:31

Oh, more than crazy. Those guys just do whatever.

Murphy 48:34

Because it's like a skateboard, you know, in powder or in the hard pack, I in powder or in the hard pack. I mean they're all groomers that they're going to run and they are some crazy people because you see them hitting those jumps on the side. They spend a lot of time on the side of the run.

Frank 48:48

I don't imagine. Yeah, it's amazing.

Murphy 48:56

So we're going to change topics just for a little bit, for a second. So I don't know if folks know, but Frank wound up having a stroke. How long ago was that?

Frank's Stroke Experience

Frank 49:04

I had a stroke in February 8th.

Murphy 49:07

February 8th of this year, so that's about six months ago, and you can tell by Frank's voice that he is doing incredibly well. So you know, strokes are one of the things that we wound up dealing with. So, frank, tell us I guess you know from the symptoms and what you experienced what happened and then how you got to recover so fast, because not everybody is that fortunate.

Frank 49:32

Well, it's good that somebody observed that I was not right and so got up, sort of you know progressive. I got my oatmeal and got back in my chair and first of all I couldn't get the button in the buttonhole on my shirt because the stroke is affecting one side of you, and so I really couldn't manipulate it right. And then the brain was having it. I couldn't figure out how to get my password in there. Oh, on your computer, yeah, on the computer, flipped it up, couldn't get it Password I couldn't. I was just you know dumb. I knew it wasn't right and fortunately my wife got up a little earlier than normal and she sort of figured stumbling around sitting there and I said dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, and she woke up on what my problem was and called 911. So from the EMS, somehow I helped walk down the stairs.

Jodie 51:03

Oh, my goodness.

Frank 51:04

And I have no remember of that part walking out and so from where we lived to Bellevue over Lake Hospital probably would take me normally 15 minutes to my place of the house hospital. I think the paramedics probably put me under before up and suck out the clots up in your brain, right.

Murphy 51:49

So they went into like the femoral artery and then all the way up and they used a vacuum, sucked out that clot.

Frank 51:56

And it was a major stroke. And it was a major stroke Right. And two days later I could essentially walk around the hospital the next day, three days, walk around up and down the steps and sent me home three days later. Down the steps and sent me home three days later.

Murphy 52:27

And I could, physical, be 100%. So in how many days you were back to walking around A week Okay, I was a little cautionless I did.

Frank 52:39

End of March, okay, I did three or four Nordic patrols.

Murphy 52:46

This is post, Post oh my goodness.

Frank 52:52

And so no problem with physical. I could do everything.

Jodie 52:57

physical, the muscle was all working Perfect.

Frank 53:00

Perfect that and for the stroke it was major. I was not going to. If they didn't suck out the clots, I'd be in a lot of problems. Had memory of certain words and getting sentence connected Right and some work with the speech person and that, and it's big part two things to recover from the speak is don't be inhibited, don't talk about it and having more experiences.

Murphy 53:45

Right, so don't be self-conscious about having speech issues. You just got to push through it. Is that what you're saying?

Frank 53:48

and from day one I was very that way, okay, and the typical is to be closed. You're inhibited, right, and don't do that, just write up, tell it. I had a stroke, yep, and I'm working on it and it's getting much better and the experience is different people doing different things, yeah, and reading of anything.

Murphy 54:20

Oh really.

Frank 54:21

Yeah, reading, because that's words.

Murphy 54:23

Okay.

Frank 54:24

I could read pretty well, speaking it more difficult initially, and so read, read, read, read. I could actually, I think, still at the hospital before I came home a couple days later, I was doing Sudoku.

Jodie 54:49

Oh, my goodness.

Murphy 54:50

You're ahead of me, I still don't do.

Frank 54:51

Sudoku I'm always you know, poor on remembering names. I always have been. And numbers Want numbers Right, and I could do those and that, and so we came back from the hospital on Saturday. On Sunday afternoon it was time to fill out the long thing from the CPA and I've always done that. Before Kathy, my wife, had never done the CPA stuff.

Murphy 55:30

What is a CPA? It's like, are you talking taxes?

Frank 55:33

Yeah, oh, okay, and so I was coaching her the CPA questions and answers 1040 that you're trying to do All of that stuff. After the CPA I was teaching my wife how to do that.

Murphy 55:52

I wonder how heartless the IRS would be if you said hey, I just had a stroke, Can I get like a little delay? Yeah, I don't think so.

Frank 56:00

I did that on Saturdayurday night, that's incredible or the next day I moved money from, I paid off my visa, made that over to the check on that and I could do.

Murphy 56:17

But don't ask me to talk too much at that time, but I could do so your cognitive awareness and ability. It was still there. The stroke just affected the speech area of your brain.

Frank 56:30

And the physical One of the things in the doctor checking out is can I make a simple complete sentence?

Jodie 56:40

Yes.

Frank 56:41

And can you do a complete sense? Write one out, right, and okay, I could do that, okay, and some of the exercises checking out. And then the other thing, the beginning is okay, hold me. What's this object? Do you recognize? It's a cup.

Murphy 56:58

Do you?

Frank 56:58

recognize it's a pair of scissors. Can you recognize things? No problem. Do you recognize it's a pair of scissors? You know this. Can you recognize things? No problem with those.

Jodie 57:05

That's good.

Frank 57:05

And I went through those. I did pretty good almost all of those things, and sometimes you give them a joke.

Murphy 57:14

A dad joke or something. Yeah, oh, no, he's doing okay.

Jodie 57:18

And then also part of the recall. So they'll give you three words.

Frank 57:23

Oh, that's a tough one.

Jodie 57:24

Yes.

Frank 57:25

Give you three questions and then repeat them.

Jodie 57:28

That's a tough one.

Frank 57:28

That's a definite tough one.

Jodie 57:30

Yes.

Frank 57:30

Is can you hold three numbers in? Or doing something like touch your nose, point the top and things? Sort of give you some dexterity, it could be just not just words but actually action, and all part of those is getting the brain working.

Murphy 57:53

Wow. So you go through all that stuff and here we are. What? Six, seven months later? Yeah, frank, you're doing fantastic, doing awesome. I mean awesome, yeah, it's good, yeah. And then okay, so now you get to brag a little bit here. So when the cardiologist came in, and you know they looked at Frank and they go yeah, Frank, you know you got some mileage on the outside, but what did the cardiologist say about your vascular system?

Frank 58:23

I was amazed after they did the inspection on my head and pulling out the clots. They looked around the arteries and said looks like a 30-year-old instead of an 80-year-old.

Jodie 58:37

And I have no idea how the pump.

Frank 58:40

is that good?

Jodie 58:42

That's good, that's good, that's a good pump, that's a good heart pump yeah see People should join the ski patrol.

Frank 58:51

You know, you get that 30-year-old vascular system at 80. Or just keep doing it.

Murphy 58:56

Yeah, or just keep doing it.

Frank 58:58

Or even just keep doing it.

Frank 59:05

I'm not going to be able to mostly know what's happening. Oh, interesting. Or two weeks later, one of our patrollers, huh, I think I might have a heart 911. If you know the diagnosis of that, okay, but I don't think the person with his head being screwed up, so to speak, is going to bother somebody. He's going to have to see. It's not right. And for me it took a little bit of a while. I could not put a button on. It was impossible to get a button in the hole Right and then opened up the laptop, could not get the, Can't get in the laptop.

Frank 59:56

This is like automatic. I can almost close the eyes and you do it now. I could not get into there, so it's really important. Uh, the other thing after that you know afib, right, uh is common for over about 65, go get it checked, because if you have AFib, you're high possibility later to stroke.

Murphy 1:00:29

I did not know that, yes.

Frank 1:00:30

And so go get the AFib checked if that's a problem.

Murphy 1:00:40

And stop it. That's right, because AFib winds up giving you a higher chance of getting a blood clot in one of the chambers in your heart, which I guess breaks off and it's very common for everybody, after 65 or something, having AFib.

Jodie 1:01:04

And AFib stands for atrial fibrillation correct right, and so people a lot of times don't even realize that they have it. Unless they are used to checking for their pulse, they may not feel symptoms and mine are normally just just a little moment.

Recognizing Stroke Symptoms and Recovery

Frank 1:01:14

It's not a big long one or that, just a little bit and you don't know it, and so cab the doctor somewhere at 65. Go check out my AFib, because if you do, you want to get that blood thinner soon. Oh.

Murphy 1:01:31

Yeah, so what else do you want to add? Do you want to add? Do you have any more questions for Frank?

Jodie 1:01:36

The only boy. We could go on for hours with you, frank, but at some point we just want to do a little bit of information about what signs of a stroke are. I like this.

Murphy 1:01:47

So our safety coordinator has got this thing. Frank brought a card in and this card is did the doctors give you this?

Frank 1:01:56

No, I went online looking for different several of them and I figured it out, printed it out and had it laminated, and it's laminated All right, so go ahead, jodi.

Jodie 1:02:08

So basically it goes and covers about what is a stroke. So, people that are maybe not as familiar, these would be like if they came across Frank as his wife did You're looking at. Is there a sudden loss of balance? And because this starts off with B, fast that's B-E-F-A-S-T. So balance sudden loss Is the eyesight. Maybe there's some vision changes. One eye, both eyes, the face. Now on the face, does it look uneven? Is there a drooping of the mouth? Is there other where they can't? One eyebrow goes up and the other one doesn't. When you have a person, they ask them to put their arms out in front of them and you might see that one arm starts to drift down.

Frank 1:02:52

I think that would be a real important one.

Murphy 1:02:54

Right, yeah, that is. That's a telltale sign.

Jodie 1:02:57

And then speech. Now when they say, does the speech sound strange? Now that could be from they can't formulate their words. It might be that it's sort of they're having trouble moving their mouth and so it's sort of a garbled or like you had said, you're trying to pull that word out, that you can think it, but you're not actually able to say it for me.

Frank 1:03:21

The.

Jodie 1:03:22

The wife came over and I said no, it's just saying bad, bad, bad, which is not a sentence right correct and that same something, but you know, I could not really do a sentence and and the most important on this, besides recognizing it, is, you may have heard, with cardiac, with the heart, time is muscle and here with the brain, it's time is brain. So we have to call 911, get it going, because that also is crucial of getting them into the hospital and into. If they can dissolve the clot or they suck out the clot, or time makes a big difference whether they can do it or not do it.

Frank 1:04:10

Don't ask what's the problem. Call 911.

Murphy 1:04:15

Get EMS rolling.

Frank 1:04:16

Don't question it, not the Hurst 911.

Jodie 1:04:18

Yeah.

Murphy 1:04:19

That's one of the big things we talk about up on the mountain these days is if you roll up onto a scene and you know you need transportation, you're getting that figured out. Call Absolutely, because you get that transportation to a higher level of care going so that when you get down there it's already waiting and lucky for me is where already waiting and for.

Frank 1:04:38

Lucky for me is where Seattle County has a great great EMS paramedics, Some of the best in the United States and the world. Yeah, and they don't give as much for some EMTs. They're hitting on the paramedics. They're their top and that's important. And, like you said, time, time, time. It's got to go now.

Jodie 1:05:19

Delay can interfere with the type of care, depending on what's happening, that they may receive. I don't know if you know that.

Murphy 1:05:26

Well, the other thing too, is whatever.

Frank 1:05:30

Got to call them fast enough because was the doctor there at the moment, they got to get him there if he's not off. So it's you know, it's got to call right away.

Murphy 1:05:42

Right, yeah, get them going Well. Frank, I have to say thank you very much for taking the time to come and chat with us on our patroller chats. That was it was terrific. It was great to learn more about you. I've known you for years. I'm glad you could come in, sit down and share some of your memories, could come in, sit down and share some of your memories. I really wish you a lot of luck and more. I don't want to say quicker recovery, because you've already been really fast. I hope you get back to 100% very quickly.

Frank 1:06:12

Steady progression, steady progression. I'm happy as far as I did, absolutely.

Murphy 1:06:20

Thanks, frank, we appreciate it.