From Wilderness Emergency Care to Modern Aid Rooms: One Patroller's Evolution

Barbara Lierson shares her remarkable journey in the National Ski Patrol since 1988, from her early days at Marshall in Missoula to her current role at Summit Central at Snoqualmie Pass. Her unique perspective highlights the evolution of ski patrol protocols, training approaches, and the challenge of integrating new patrollers with longtime veterans.  Note: Recorded at a previous convention, please disregard background noises. (2023)

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

Meeting Barbara Learson

Barbara 1:12

Okay, I'm Barbara. My last name is Lierson. I happen to be the only Lierson in the country, according to Google, so that's who I am Interesting.

Murphy 1:21

Fantastic, I didn't know that. See, I learned something new today. All right, so what's your NSP number? 144-593. Okay, drum roll All right. So what's your national number? 8295.

Jodie 1:38

Oh, Very nice, all right, excellent.

Murphy 1:41

No beers off of that one. What year did you join the National Ski Patrol?

Barbara 1:46

19, let's see See.

Murphy 1:49

I'm not the only one that had a positive thing.

Barbara 1:51

I took my OEC training in the fall of 88. It was what I think, the second year or the first year of the WEC book. Oh, and then I guess I was part of the WEC book. Oh, and then I guess I was part of the patrol by January.

Murphy 2:09

And what patrol is that?

Barbara 2:12

It no longer exists. It was Marshall in Missoula.

Murphy 2:16

Marshall in Missoula.

Barbara 2:17

Yeah.

Murphy 2:18

There's two things I learned. I didn't know there was Okay, so Marshall in Missoula. And then where do you patrol now?

Barbara 2:27

Now I patrol at Summit Central part of Snoqualmie Pass.

Murphy 2:31

Part of Snoqualmie.

Barbara 2:32

Pass.

Murphy 2:33

Yes, well, and you know, truth is, we wound up patrolling together for a while and Barb helped me get my senior through OEC. Really, she was an integral part of me being able to pass that oh my gosh, yeah, wonderful.

Barbara 2:48

Thank you Wonderful.

Murphy 2:51

Always. Many thanks to that. Let's see here. I don't know if I'm supposed to ask this of ladies, but I'm going to ask you anyway how old were you when you joined the Ski Patrol?

Barbara 2:59

You know, I don't know. And one of the nice things about being a trainer and evaluator is you always get to pick your age. Oh so the other night at emt training I told everybody it was 59. Today I think I'll be maybe 58 or 60 wow, 58 or 60. You want to skip 59 because well, I was that the other night. Oh okay, yeah all right.

Murphy 3:26

So um your status with the ski patrol, are you alpine nordic aid room? Do you do bike patrolling?

Journey to Becoming a Ski Patroller

Barbara 3:33

I have done bike patrolling in the past. When I was at crystal, um, I have been alpine, uh. But when I moved over to washington state, um, there was only a position for aid room at crystal, and so I ended up on the aid room. Yay for adrian and and I've stayed in the aid room because now I've had so many injuries I can't do the other yeah, yeah, we'll get going.

Murphy 4:02

We're back. We're back. We took a little hiatus, a break, dinner lounging around. We're back with Mrs Lierson here. See what we're doing the only one right.

Barbara 4:15

Correct Mrs.

Murphy 4:15

Lierson in the Google in the United States Correct All right, so hold on a second here.

Barbara 4:23

Yeah.

Murphy 4:23

Yeah, we're back with Barb.

Barbara 4:26

Okay.

Murphy 4:26

Absolutely. So the question where do we leave off? Why did you become a ski patroller?

Barbara 4:34

Because it was a cheap way to continue doing what I had fallen in love with during the beginning of my midlife crisis.

Murphy 4:43

I like that, I like that.

Jodie 4:44

I like that, but you know, what we didn't figure out is what age were you when you joined the patrol.

Barbara 4:50

Midlife, midlife.

Jodie 4:51

Midlife. There you go, okay.

Barbara 4:54

I had been working in blind rehab out of Helena Montana covering quite a large area of Montana, and the handicap program at Bridger Bowl called me up and said you know, if you can get us some blind skiers or skiers with who are visually impaired, we will give you free ski lessons, free lift passes, free equipment. All you have to do is come down to Bridger every Saturday for like eight weeks in a row.

Barbara 5:23

I did that for two years. Then started the midlife crisis, quit my job, went over to Missoula to go back to school, started the divorce and it was like the first year of the OEC class. It was called WEC. Maybe the second year.

Murphy 5:42

Is it WEC or WAC?

Barbara 5:43

WEC W-E.

Jodie 5:45

WEC W-E-C.

Barbara 5:47

I knew some of the people that had helped to write the book.

Murphy 5:49

All right. What is that an abbreviation for?

Jodie 5:52

Wasn't it Wilderness Emergency.

Barbara 5:55

Care.

Murphy 5:56

Okay, that's right yeah.

Barbara 5:58

And so I signed up for the class did it did some of my training at marshall ski hill, which is outside of missoula and is no longer in existence. But my home patrol was great divide, out of helena, and that's where I learned how to toboggan on my own, because it was like just go it, so we would go out and practice.

Barbara 6:26

And it took a couple years to get certified as a toboggan rider or driver. And then when I transferred here to Washington, I was for two years on a patrol where women could only be in the aid room. They didn't know how to ski, even though we had somebody from that was at the international level of skiing. She was a woman, she couldn't ski right.

Murphy 6:56

What year was this? 1940, 30?

Barbara 6:59

Oh, my goodness, and then eventually made it over to the western side of the state and started at Crystal because they had openings for somebody in the aid room, so I got on in the aid room.

Murphy 7:12

Oh, okay.

Barbara 7:13

And worked with Mary Lou.

Murphy 7:15

Oh, I know Mary Lou. Yes, I patrolled with her.

Barbara 7:17

Yes, who is just the most incredible patroller?

Murphy 7:22

Oh yeah, and a stickler for details when you are in that patrol room.

Barbara 7:25

Yes.

Murphy 7:28

Hi Mary.

Jodie 7:29

Lou. So when you were learning by yourself to pull the sled, did you ever have to call for your own rescue?

Barbara 7:38

Not when I was learning, but there was an incident where I went out and somebody came along. I went out to kind of quite a ways out at great divide, kind of in our back country, and another patroller came along on a snowmobile and said grab on, and then, uh, proceeded to take the snowmobile at a fairly fast clip and I got caught in the ropes and yeah.

Murphy 8:06

Did you have a toboggan behind you when you crashed?

Barbara 8:09

I had, yes. Double, ouch, but luckily it was on a flat line. You know flat kind of forest road.

Murphy 8:20

That's gotta hurt. Ouch yeah well, I hope you gave that patroller driving the snow machine a good tongue lashing.

Barbara 8:30

Well, I refuse to buddy up with him anymore. Yeah, I don't blame you at all.

Murphy 8:36

I don't blame you at all. So you're currently up at Stokwami Central, I know that. So I'm just going to answer that question for you. Okay, and you are in the aid room. Are you going out and doing any more skiing on the hill? I know you do a ton of training.

Barbara 8:51

So injuries have stopped me from skiing Right, and so I put my snowshoes on and I go out on the hill with my snowshoes at the lower part of the hill. Excellent, no issues.

Jodie 8:59

Excellent.

Barbara 9:00

At the lower part of the hill Excellent, and have been first responders on things on my way between aid room slots. You know we have several at Central.

Murphy 9:11

Right.

Barbara 9:12

And also, if there's something near the building that I happen to be in, I'll go out and be first responder. Yeah.

Murphy 9:20

You know that is one thing I miss about being at Central is at Crystal Mountain. There are very few accidents and even you've got to know your way to get there fast because you've got like Jack Ramsey who is an ambulance chasing patroller. He gets there first. I don't know how he does it sometimes, and there are a few other people like that, but you would wind up getting because Central is so close to Seattle that you would have people skiing and they would ski all the time and they're skiing on stuff they shouldn't, but most of these entries are over on the Bunny Hills and you'd get great practice in OEC. I mean that was a huge deal for me. I was like, oh yeah, in fact I keep telling myself I've got to go back and do a couple of days at Central because I know I will get more incidents at Central in the couple days that I'm there than I will all season at Crystal.

Barbara 10:12

Come up Friday nights.

Murphy 10:14

Oh yeah, that's actually a good idea, yeah.

Injuries and Aid Room Experience

Barbara 10:17

Lots of injuries and a very small group of people patrollers there to take care of them, all right.

Murphy 10:24

You might see me there this season.

Jodie 10:26

Do you ever do impromptu practices?

Murphy 10:29

Oh yeah, crystal Mountain has this.

Barbara 10:32

They have Andrew. Yeah, they've got Andrew. Who does?

Murphy 10:35

training all the time and they wound up buying a mannequin that when you do CPR, the doctor can actually go and change the pulse on there to see if it's actually working or not working, and you can check external pulse, you can check carotid pulse and then, oh, they just turned off respiration sounds. Oh, what do you do now? And you've got paramedics and doctors standing over you and they're looking to see how you're going to respond. It is the most nerve-wracking thing. One thing that I wound up having a great time with at seniors is you guys threw so much stuff at me that I've gone to every scene, every real scene after that and it's like a cakewalk.

Murphy 11:18

I don't get panicked about anything, right? The only time where I do get panicked is when I've got the doctor, paramedamedic, whatever else standing over with that iPad hooked up to that damn dummy and they're going, oh, and they're throwing out these medical terms and it's like, oh, yeah, they just collapsed and we don't know what's going on. Go, oh, yeah, yeah, but I've had some fairly significant incidents after that. But, like I said, you know with yeah, but I've had some fairly significant incidents after that. But, like I said, you know, with all that senior training and all the stuff that you had just a walk in the park.

Jodie 11:48

Excellent, yeah, excellent. So thanks again.

Murphy 11:50

Barb.

Barbara 11:50

Thank you.

Murphy 11:51

All right, we are covered. Have you patrolled in another location? That was good, and we kind of I was going to ask you another how old question, but I think I'm going'm gonna. It was like middle age that you learned to ski, right? Okay, we'll just, we'll put that there, um, but here is something I'm interested to know have you received local, region, division and national awards? And I know you have.

Barbara 12:15

so this is a time for you to actually toot your own horn a little bit, to shine yes, I have received all of that and name some of them so when I I just became a miller uh, which is a regional, local kind of thing, and I was like breathless, uh, in awe that I was nominated, for that's awesome yeah, um, my national award was out of the blue to me and then when I got the plaque that I get to keep and I started reading everybody that that is on there, it was like I'm at that level, oh my God.

Barbara 13:25

And now Mary Lou has gotten that same award and it's like oh my God, oh my God, um, because she is on such a high pedestal for me, she's so incredible, um, yeah is mary lou here?

Jodie 13:39

yes, awesome, you'll have to introduce her well, we'll have to interview her I think you will have to interview. Yes, yes, yeah, we'll do that no, that's good.

Murphy 13:49

Yeah, and, by the way, all those awards were well-deserved. Well, I mean, you earned every single one of them. They were not a gift, including that Miller Award, which, in the Northwest region, is the highest award that you can receive. That's awesome yeah that was a great thing. I was very happy when Peter told me that you won that. Peter Schwartz, that is.

Barbara 14:07

Yeah. Okay, so let's see here what does the phrase service and safety since 1938 mean to you? That's how long we've been doing ski patrol, ski patrol what does it mean to you?

Murphy 14:20

I mean, when you hear that you know our two logo yeah, our service and safety.

Barbara 14:25

That's what we do. We serve and we're there because we love to help other people. We don't need to have lots of accolades because we're doing it, because that's who we are. And to promote safety is, as far as I'm concerned, getting those little kids aware of safety so that as they grow they become know people, then go out and an ambassador for us um serving, trying to help newbie patrollers realize that as a patroller there are so many ways that you can serve throughout the year, not just during the ski season, but you can be a ski patroller in so many other ways.

Barbara 15:19

One of the retired patrollers from Crystal Mountain he was there before you were, so you wouldn't know him, okay, he and Mary Lou and I served together at Crystal in the aid room During COVID. He's a motorcycle rider and he and his brother, who's a retired sheriff's person, and some other people were out in their trucks towing their bikes because they do wounded soldier visits on their bike and take wounded soldiers out riding bike and take wounded soldiers out riding and they come across this accident some Harley drivers right dab in front of them. This one guy crashed. He was the last guy in the group crashed. His bike, went over the cliff. He went sprawling across the road with a broken neck.

Barbara 16:08

Ouch With a broken neck. Oh so my patroller friend and the other people he was with literally saved this guy's life. One of the people that had stopped their car was also a flight nurse.

Murphy 16:25

Right.

Barbara 16:25

And she had her jump bag with her. Oh wow, so she had oxygen with her. This guy is still going. His wife is a person that I do herding events with, so I know her and it was just a miracle. But that's what we do as patrollers. It doesn't matter that you're not on the ski hill Once a patroller and you're always a patroller. You always are out there to support other people who need help.

Awards and Achievements

Murphy 16:55

That's excellent I like that. Yeah, that's very true. And you said herding, which I'm gonna say herding, like tell us about your dogs, because I know you love those babies so I have old english sheep dogs and I do the expected thing, like they get their championships. Notice how she says that you just get their championships. Okay, yeah.

Barbara 17:20

And then I do the fun thing. So my dogs herd sheep. I take lessons. I've been kicked out of the field because of injuries and because I've been trampled too many times by the sheep.

Murphy 17:35

I grew up on a sheep farm. That's hard to do, Barb.

Barbara 17:37

It is, but when they're charging towards you and there's no place to go, it's like, oh bad word.

Jodie 17:45

Isn't the sheep dog supposed to herd them away from you?

Barbara 17:49

Well, if he's bringing them towards you? Well, this is true, this is true. Look, mommy, I'm bringing you all these sheep at 80 miles an hour.

Murphy 17:58

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Barbara 18:00

But yeah, so we do that.

Murphy 18:04

How many sheepdogs do you have?

Barbara 18:05

Right now I have four of my own, and I am working to do some training with one that I bred. She's now two, and so she came home with me from a dog show down in California and I have to put titles on her, and then she'll go back to her owner to have a litter of puppies.

Murphy 18:29

When you say titles, that means she's entered an event, yeah, and won and won event and yeah and won.

Jodie 18:34

And won, and won. It was Barbie, yeah, and won.

Murphy 18:38

Thanks for the modesty. I appreciate that.

Barbara 18:41

I have to tell you there are three things that are really easy to get on a dog and it's called canine good citizen and you can get trick dog and they don't have to do a lot to get trick Dog. And then there's Farm Dog, which is being a good citizen out on a farm. So I have a. What is she? She will be 13 in December.

Murphy 19:02

Right.

Barbara 19:03

And I took her out and she got her Farm Dog title, she got her Trick Dog title and she got her Canine Good Citizen title. She got her trick dog title and she got her Canine Good Citizen title. So now she's champion. So and so, with Canine Good Citizen, with these three titles behind her, Awesome, that's cool. It was so much fun. The judges were great with her. It was great.

Murphy 19:25

Barb has her dog turning tricks.

Barbara 19:28

Hey.

Jodie 19:30

You know you have to do what you have to do.

Barbara 19:32

You guys are so quick Laughter.

Murphy 19:36

Okay, I'm going to ask you a couple of things about Central, because you've been there for ages, right?

Barbara 19:41

Not as long as some people, not as long as some. So what are some of the?

Murphy 19:45

changes that you've seen. I mean they've gone through three ownership deals. I mean, have you seen a lot of changes? I mean when I was there I wound up seeing a few and I was only there for like six years.

Barbara 20:02

So some of the positive changes that I've seen are we have some better equipment. Uh, some more lifts are going in across the the past so that we have people can access the back country a little bit easier um rob our. Our resident will be retiring soon. That will be a big change, oh.

Murphy 20:21

I didn't know that.

Barbara 20:22

But the person who is going to be taking over will do just awesome and has been in training. He's one of the paid staff at Braun and he will be awesome.

Murphy 20:35

Wow.

Barbara 20:35

So that will be a change. I also do search and rescue and one of the things that I love about the pass is that I've been up on the pass on night missions where we've had to house people and I've been able to call up Rob or the manager and say I need to house these people overnight and all of a sudden buildings are open we've got places to put people, and that's not true on a lot of hills and that relationship is not true on a lot of places.

Barbara 21:10

So I I think that's a positive building that relationship. Um, we now have aid stations across the hill right, and we are trying to follow the King County protocol, whereas instead of taking everybody to every injured person to a certain spot and having them sit on a bed in the aid room they're off the mountain we take them straight down the hill, put them in their family car, put them on the bus, put them in an ambulance and get them to more definitive care.

Murphy 21:46

So I think that's a good thing yeah, I appreciated that when I was there, where that started to be the policy, where you just it was grab and go, and if you could get them down to the ambulance or down to POV, that's personal vehicle, then they're out of there.

Barbara 22:02

They're out of there, yeah, which is really good, because at golden hours.

Murphy 22:07

They always tell you you want to get somebody to hire care within that hour. And they stand a much better chance of coming out unscathed.

Jodie 22:15

Now, do you do it for the minors? And when I say minor, minor injuries like the ankles and wrists, Get them off the hill. Yeah, get them off the hill where it's not as crucial for that golden hour.

Barbara 22:27

If it's a minor, they get more choices, but they can go to the lodge. If they're connected to one of the ski schools, they can go there. But we don't have people hanging out in the aid rooms anymore. That's good. It is good yeah.

Murphy 22:43

I think COVID did a lot of that work. Yes, it did, because even at Crystal it's like yeah, unless you're really hurt, you're going to tell your story walking Right.

Barbara 22:51

At Crystal you get a lot more walk-ins.

Murphy 22:53

Yeah.

Barbara 22:54

And serious walk-ins, and we don't get the serious walk-ins but we do get you know. Okay, we've got this happening over at the rental shop. You know you've got a cardiac over there. And so they didn't walk in where they might walk in at Crystal. But you still get those.

Murphy 23:15

Yeah.

Barbara 23:16

Now, do you have Nordic where you're at? Thank you, yes, we do. We have a really nice Nordic patrol. We have what 40, 20 to 40 miles of Nordic trails. We have a backcountry patroller and a lot of the people on SPART, our ski patrol SAR unit. I've heard that. Yeah, spart Are part of the backcountry patrol.

Changes at Snoqualmie Pass

Murphy 23:41

Yeah, it's pretty big and they show up every morning and they wind up just being a part of the patrol, which is something that's really nice, and there's been times where we have really needed them, where they've got to go out in the middle of nowhere and find somebody, because I would not want to skate, ski out, oh man, because it's all uphill Right, it is uphill yeah, not fun.

Jodie 24:03

Oh my goodness, but that's good no.

Murphy 24:05

Well, let's see here. What else Did you want to ask anything?

Jodie 24:14

Have you seen anything like over the changes of time from a uniform standpoint from people that are involved, like who might have only been up on the hill, they're doing time in the aid room back and forth, or any changes that way that you've noticed?

Barbara 24:27

So up at the pass, people who are aid room patrollers or just patrollers are out on the hill with jacket with a cross on it and you know doing those things. I know some hills don't allow there are people that aren't skiing for whatever reason at that season to be out on the hill with a red jacket. But at the pass you can. Um, what I have seen is and I don't know how to solve it is we've got a lot of new people, but how to integrate them with the people that have been there forever? Things have changed. New people embrace the changes. Some of the older people are going. That's not how we do things. And how do you? You know, how do you make those two groups come together?

Murphy 25:21

Yeah, mesh that older folks and the newer recruits.

Barbara 25:25

Right.

Murphy 25:26

And there are new things that happen that you know. King County Protocol changes.

Barbara 25:30

Yes.

Murphy 25:31

Yeah, and that's tough trying to integrate those things with you know somebody who's been there for a while, because they are just stuck in their ways. They are and it's tough.

Barbara 25:39

It is tough and then you lose a good patroller with a lot of knowledge and a lot of history and a lot of depth that could be working with some of the newbies.

Jodie 25:52

Right.

Barbara 25:53

You know, if you could figure out a way to entice them back into that.

Jodie 25:57

Right, absolutely.

Murphy 25:58

Yeah. So average age of patrollers at Crystal or, excuse me, at Central, has it gone down, gone up? I mean, is it kind of I'm?

Barbara 26:09

still thinking it's somewhere between, say, 35 to 60.

Murphy 26:15

Okay.

Barbara 26:16

In that range because we've gotten a lot of newbies. It seems every class there are several people that are younger, but we also have people 55, 60 who have wanted to be a patroller all their life, and now they have time in their life to do it, you know, and so they have gone through the OEC class and become patrollers and that's awesome.

Murphy 26:38

Yeah, that first year of becoming a ski patroller. No life man it is tough.

Murphy 26:44

My brother is thinking about patrolling down at Mount Hood where he lives, and so I've been chatting with him. I go. You know that first year, that first year, is a killer. After that it's easy, right, well, easier. But that first year you are going to spend some serious time doing OEC and getting proficient at that, so just be aware. And then you're going to spend all that time on the mountain learning how to run a toboggan and don't worry, I know you're improving and you're just a really fast slalom skier now, but we will get that out of you. We'll make you a utility skier again, yes, but we will get that out of you.

Jodie 27:19

Yeah, we'll make you a utility skier again. Yes, curiosity how many were in your WEC class? Because you started with the WEC.

Barbara 27:25

Oh my goodness, there was probably 30 people 30?

Murphy 27:28

Oh wow.

Barbara 27:29

Yeah, it was a big class.

Murphy 27:33

How many was in yours? Oh man, because I took OEC when I was. What was that? 2013? Ballpark number. Probably about 30, 35. And I know we didn't graduate. 30, 35. And now I look back at how many people are still patrolling out of that 30, 35 in 10 years, and it's a small number.

Barbara 27:59

Very small number, very small number.

Murphy 28:02

Yeah 71.

Barbara 28:04

In your class 71?

Jodie 28:08

71 was enrolled.

Murphy 28:11

Now, needless to say, Is that OEC?

Jodie 28:13

Needless to say, after that class and how many people that were lost during that class never again. And how many people that were lost during that class.

Murphy 28:21

Never again. Can you imagine running an OEC class with 70 people? You have like those stations. You're trying to bandage people.

Jodie 28:35

Now granted, it was one of those things that within, I think, the first week or two weeks it went down to 50 and then down to 40. But to be fair, I mean that's not being fair when people are trying to learn. I don't care if you have 20 instructors, you still need to have.

Murphy 28:47

That's hard.

Jodie 28:48

But I'm also not used to teaching really small classes until recently, and I'm like this just seems weird 30 to 40 or so was the average size, and then down to 3 to 7. I'm like wow, it is so different.

Training New Patrollers

Murphy 29:06

You know, and I'm always amazed at the quality of training that you get in OEC when you think about it. It's somebody who's volunteering, dedicating as much time as all of the newbies when they're coming through and they arrange for all of the wound care and all of the moulage, you know, so you can actually think about what's going to happen on the mountain. And then you've got to get all your victims, you know, because it's not just you know the people that are in the class. You get other folks, and then you know, midterms come, and then you have to recruit a whole bunch of your patrollers to get out there so that they can, you know, be assessed. I mean, it is really an amazing thing that we do every single year to try and get people.

Murphy 29:49

Yes, which is why, you know, I think we should really try and hold on to as many people as we can, because that's a massive investment in time that it takes to bring these people on board. And then that first year. I remember my first year as a patroller. My head was just swimming. That first incident, you're like oh, help me.

Barbara 30:07

Yeah, your brain kind of leaves.

Jodie 30:10

That was the standard statement, the first one that you're going to have. Just take a second, check your pulse, take a breath and then proceed Right.

Barbara 30:18

Check your pulse, take a breath.

Jodie 30:20

And then proceed Right, and every single class that either I was in charge of or participated, it was a matter of hey, we happen to have the great Peter outside our window.

Murphy 30:34

Oh no, he's giving us a wave. Yeah, we're going to have to interview him here, sir. Yes, definitely, but but um, yeah, so go ahead um, it was reference to.

Jodie 30:44

I just had a, so I'm gonna jump in here.

Barbara 30:47

A senior moment, yeah, I don't know what your questions are, but one of my concerns is that I look around at the conference, at the convention, and I don't see a lot of those newbies. And I look around at who's teaching classes and who's stepping up to do the volunteer work and I don't see any of those newer patrollers doing that. And I think that, yeah, they come up and a lot of the patrollers that we have had the last couple of years have migrated to the paid staff.

Jodie 31:17

Yes.

Barbara 31:18

Because they only have to do three days whatever, and they're done for the month and we're losing people. They don't understand the history, they don't understand the heritage, they don't understand how ski patrol even began.

Jodie 31:38

So, with that being said, what do you guys do, as when someone comes in new, to give them a little bit of that background?

Barbara 31:47

So when I teach an instructor?

Jodie 31:49

development class.

Barbara 31:51

I have wonderful Liz who has all of that just off the. Yes, just flows off her tongue. And so she does that a lot and that's something we used to do a lot of in the patrol manual that I don't think people even know exists, Right, oh well so here's a personal story, uh-oh.

Murphy 32:12

So I was a patroller, I think going on my fourth year in ski patrol, before I learned that there was a book that was called the ski patrol manual. Oh my goodness, I said where do I get one of these things? And Liz says it's available on the website for $5. So I downloaded the PDF for $5 and I can't believe how many questions that book answered. Some of it's not relevant anymore, but I I gotta say at least 60 to 70 percent of that thing had awards history.

Barbara 32:43

I mean all the stuff that you kind of miss yeah, like I didn't know what all the stars meant.

Jodie 32:49

It's all in that book, people yeah, and, and the thing is, is that that's what made an impact for me is that we had on our I think it was the first or within the two weeks. First two weeks we had someone came in and it was the president at the time and had a nice little canned presentation, but it was just like, oh my gosh, I never knew. Oh my gosh, I never knew. And then it was oh, there's people outside of this patrol, there's other things that that you know. You hear the words national ski patrol, you hear this or that, and it just goes flying by because you're just trying to swim right your head up above water and then it's like there's divisions, there's a national, there's this.

Jodie 33:32

Yeah, we need to end the history. Gotta have we you know what we need to have do a recording with shirley you do, and just a recording that this is going to be a 15 minute presentation about everything to get you, your, your fingers wet and you want to learn more yeah, doing her and her and Liz, her and Liz.

Murphy 34:00

Yeah, I can't wait to interview Liz Dodge and.

Barbara 34:02

Mary Lou because.

Murphy 34:03

Mary Lou also worked in the international European division. Oh, I didn't know that, yeah.

Jodie 34:09

So now we have two times that we've got Shirley on the Zoom thing, that we did so the past two years with the Psychological First Aid, the workshops, and then she did her piece on history and each time we're all just sort of like putting our hands in our chins and just listening you want to have the popcorn and she's just. I mean her wealth of knowledge.

Barbara 34:32

Yes, it's amazing.

Jodie 34:33

Yeah, yeah.

Murphy 34:35

Yeah, well, we'll keep going.

Barbara 34:36

Yeah, we'll get those.

Murphy 34:37

So Well, we'll keep going yeah, we'll get those. So anything else you want to add?

Barbara 34:41

Wrapping this up.

Murphy 34:42

Yeah.

Barbara 34:43

Senior program opens all of those doors.

Murphy 34:46

Yeah, it does. I will say it was huge.

Barbara 34:48

Yeah it's. You hone your skills but, more importantly, you start connecting and expanding your family of patrollers and patrol families all over, and then when you go to places, it's like I am so proud to be a ski patroller.

Murphy 35:10

Yeah.

Barbara 35:11

So proud to be a ski patroller.

Murphy 35:12

Yeah, and I don't think I've paid for a ski ticket in. I don't know how long I call up my buddies at every mountain. Well, let's see.

Jodie 35:18

How much have you paid in jackets?

Barbara 35:23

Oh, those are incidentals.

Jodie 35:24

Yes incidentals, that's true, yeah, that's true.

Murphy 35:27

Not nearly as much, as I've gotten back in skiing Absolutely and skiing at other mountains, plus skiing and skiing at other mountains. Plus, you know, you come to these events and you wind up seeing people that you, you know, get to see maybe once or twice a year.

Barbara 35:39

Right.

Murphy 35:40

And so it's really fun. I actually like the conventions.

Jodie 35:44

Yes.

Murphy 35:44

That's a little secret thing, Secret.

Jodie 35:46

It's out World.

Murphy 35:49

We have it here. I get to run into people that are at different mountains, and you know my brother-in-law patrols at Mount Spokane. I'm Mike Burns, and you know, so I get to meet people that he patrols with and they tell me funny stories about Mike, and so it is. It's like you said, it's like one big, extended family.

Barbara 36:07

Yes.

Murphy 36:07

And so it is. It's really fun and I take a lot out of it.

The Ski Patrol Community

Jodie 36:11

And then you go, powder fall oh yeah, oh, now that's a whole another and you know other and you start yeah, and then the mountain starts our, our family starts becoming even bigger and you learn even more history well, what about more of like a, a buddy system?

Jodie 36:28

um, I mean, you hear it as a mentorship, a buddy system, whatever, but it's someone that you really. You have like two or three people, I mean, I don't know, you know your class size, et cetera, but you get people that want to share this information and it's just. It's not like it's going to be a huge amount of time, but part of your goals throughout the season is hey, how many divisions are there in the National Ski Patrol? What year did the National Ski Patrol start? When did Central start?

Barbara 36:59

Or even why did you become a patroller?

Murphy 37:02

Yeah, that's a big question. I always, when I'm seeing new guys up on the left and we're going up, I've never ridden with them or patrolled with them. That's one of the first questions I ask why did you join? What is it?

Jodie 37:18

Because that will tell you a lot about. You know their motivation and will they be there in a couple of years, right, right, and it's rare. Every once in a while you get that person that was just there to get the lift ticket, yeah, and do that, and then they get the absorption of this is a pretty cool group, and look at what I'm learning, huh, but I can't say that's the higher number. It's like oh, I have to do all this for a ticket, yeah, it's worth it.

Murphy 37:45

That's very true. There is a lot of work. I will not discount that. I mean, like I say, the amount of time that you spent, barb, doing that senior stuff I still laugh at when you purposely fell into a tree, well, feet sticking up, head down buried, and it's like okay, go.

Jodie 38:07

And you're hearing this. Go, hurry up, go get me out of here, hurry, hurry.

Murphy 38:12

And it's muffled because you're half buried and freezing. Oh, how many times we had to stop training and take Barb into the building and warm her up, get her some hot cocoa or some tea, because she was frozen. Okay, while I'm sitting here, I have a whatever wound on my bicep. Oh, I've dislocated my shoulder, so she's drinking tea with her right hand and you're getting your left hand, you know stuck to your head so, okay, those are good, they all come in handy.

Jodie 38:44

Thank you so much.

Barbara 38:45

We really appreciate this this was so much fun.

Murphy 38:48

I look forward to hearing everybody's thing oh yeah, well, thanks for taking the time to come and talk with us.

Jodie 38:53

We appreciate it and if you have any suggestions or encourage others to say hey, because it can be real brief, it can be, you get going and, man, we're hearing more things about people. It's just like you did what. Wow, oh, you saw what. It's fascinating, absolutely fascinating.

Murphy 39:12

It's good. Well, thanks again, thank you All right.

Barbara 39:14

See you, barbara, bye, bye.