Night Ski in How Ski Patrol Broke Me

It was my second night on night ski. Night ski shift began at 0950 each morning and generally finished around 20:30 each night. Some days were longer than others. This day, the snow was mixed with some ice and chunks of frozen shit. Not literal shit, of course. It just wasn’t one of those days a ski patroller and or anyone actually enjoys. I was dispatched to a patient in a relatively difficult location. He was a more simple rescue than I had thought, but the transport itself was over 40 minutes. About 30 minutes into the egress, something happened that would forever change my career as a ski patroller.

Before I knew what was happening, everything slowed down. My whole world (just like they described in the movies) went into slow motion. I felt something on my left side and without thinking, I braked. My toboggan circled in front of me and my patient and I made eye contact. I happened to be on the steepest part of the hill and noticed the rocks, fencing, and people at the bottom. I tried to dig my edge in and wound up on my backside, with just my right arm connected to the toboggan. All I could think was “stop it before we both die.”

Generally speaking, safety first is the first responder’s rule of thumb. However, sometimes a patient is in grave danger and a first responder can react to save that patient- even if it means putting themselves in danger. I realized that I wasn’t supposed to do this, even in my situation. I debated letting go of the toboggan if I couldn’t stop it soon enough. I figured it better just the patient hit the fencing, people, and/or rocks rather than both of us. Surely I would die if I hit the rocks while being pulled by 335 lbs of weight (patient was about 250, as stated, and toboggan with all the gear was probably 85 lbs). If I didn’t die, then I would be severely hurt. I couldn’t decide what to do and just when it seemed like doomsday was about to fully choke me, my edge caught and the toboggan flipped over. This launched me into a nose dive with my snowboard dragging behind me. The patient, strapped in, simply flopped to his side.

Shaken, I sat up. What. Just. Happened? I thought. I looked up to see people taking their skis off to assist my patient. In quick haste, I removed my snowboard and half crawled back up to my patient. I couldn’t flip the toboggan alone, so a witness helped me. Something was tingling in my right arm. The patient, stunned, but ok, stated that he actually felt better. He had had an anterior shoulder dislocation that seemingly popped back into place during our combined accident. I paused for a moment and thought “I’m the ski patroller. Why did we just wreck?” Then I remembered the strange sensation I felt on my left shoulder. The sound associated with it was like skis banging into each other. It felt like a human body. A human body! I got hit!

When it dawned on me, I planted my body against the toboggan. I unhooked the horns from their locked position (the pieces the patroller holds on to while skiing to guide the toboggan) and placed them into the snow. I gave them a hard shove so they’d stick and we wouldn’t go anywhere. I instructed the looky-loos to stand on the crest of the hill to guide traffic away from us. We were in a very blind location. I then grabbed my radio and called for help. After that, my world went black.