From Bottle Caps to Rescues: The Evolution of Mount Hood Ski Patrol (Part 2 of 2) -(Click link in description for pictures)

Ski Patrol Has Changed, But Friendship Remains the Heart of Service. Longtime Mt Hood patroller, Gordy Winterrowd shares insights from his 50+ years of service, reflecting on the evolution of rescue equipment and the changing relationship between volunteer and paid patrol staff. Click here to see the pictures he is describing while chatting with us!

Welcome to Patroller Chats. What began as a way to support the history project, led by our own historian- Shirley Cummings has grown into a fun, informative, and definitely inspiring podcast. We're connecting with patroller's, hosts and more from across the Pacific Northwest. Diving into the stories, traditions, and unique histories of our amazing volunteers, all while having a great time, sharing some laughs, and getting into some spirited, heartfelt conversations.  This is Patroller Chats.

Chapters

• 1:51 Changes in Mount Hood Patrol
• 5:19 Evolution of Rescue Sleds
• 10:56 Changes in Mountain Management
• 18:07 Value of Volunteer Patrolling
• 22:58 European Skiing & Rescue Systems
• 27:22 Gordy's Austrian Injury Story
• 38:24 Travel Insurance Importance

Transcript

Murphy: 1:00

so, all right, switching gears just a little bit. What's changed? You know, in your 50 years with you know Mt Hood patrol in general, you know things of that nature. I mean, have you seen a huge change in the mentality? Have you seen a? You know how things have been.

Gordy Winterrowd: 1:27

Yeah, well, I think the quality we're still getting great people of good character and a lot of talented people. The equipment has changed. You know a lot. Here's a picture of the Y-East sled and you saw the. That's actually a dog sled there. And then we went to the Akja and then the Cascade and now the preferred sled is the Edge in the lower right down there and now the preferred sled is the edge in the lower right down there, and that dog sled had that sort of wooden handle in the front.

Jodie: 2:11

Now, did that actually do anything other than they put their hands on it for bracing, because they're bent over while the other guy is in the back that's able to stand up a little bit better?

Gordy Winterrowd: 2:21

It caused some injuries to patrollers a little bit better. It caused some injuries to patrollers and you could push. My understanding is you could push it left or right to help guide the sled a little. Oh, wow, yeah, but it was more just a place to hold on to the sled. And if you were in moguls, there were some issues associated with moguls. I was about to say there's no rope, there's no. I mean, how do you steer that bloody thing? And if you were in moguls, there were some issues associated with moguls.

Murphy: 2:44

I was about to say there's no rope, there's no, I mean how do you steer? That bloody thing.

Jodie: 2:49

Yeah, and then that's sort of like having a, you know, on the old time steering wheels, where you have that handle that you go, and they outlawed that because it's called too much impalement on people with accidents and stuff. Wow, what did you think of the Akja?

Gordy Winterrowd: 3:08

Oh, it was a lot of fun, very, very light. You had four handles.

Gordy Winterrowd: 3:17

A lot of times certainly at Timberline, we just used two handles, but it's very maneuverable and it was the akia was originally developed for climbing and in the in the uh center now today's akias, I think they I think you'd probably order them, um that you can separate them into two pieces. But the akia in the picture that you see there can be divided into two sections and so two different people can have it on their backs to carry up the mountain to a rescue scene. And so it was originally. That's, when they first came out, it was more for mountain rescue and then the ski patrols in Europe started using them.

Jodie: 4:08

So Murphy, you have a four-handle something. Yeah, we have a. What's that crystal?

Murphy: 4:12

And I was just about to ask you that. So from the Akja at Crystal they wind up using a. It was called a Cascade 300 or a Crystal sled. Yeah, a Cascade 350 or a Crystal Sled. Yeah, a Cascade 350. Yeah, or 350,.

Gordy Winterrowd: 4:26

I'm sorry. It was designed after the Akja and it's good for certain terrain. The Cascade is a lot heavier than the Akja so it runs a little different than the.

Murphy: 4:42

Akja Right, I love the Cascade sled.

Gordy Winterrowd: 4:46

Yeah or the 350.

Murphy: 4:48

The Crystal, as we love to call it, at Crystal Mountain. If you've got to traverse with that thing, it comes in handy. And moguls, I love it. You can just, you know, run moguls with that. But I have never run of all those sledseds. I'm not old enough to run the dog sled but I've never run the akia. That'd be interesting. I guess they still have those at a few mountains yeah, we have a couple.

Gordy Winterrowd: 5:12

Uh, yeah, we have a couple that we just keep for history I was gonna say posterity.

Murphy: 5:18

Nobody breaks that out for a rescue I think hayek still uses Akias.

Jodie: 5:24

Oh God no.

Gordy Winterrowd: 5:25

I've never seen one. They're also very good for ice and beer.

Murphy: 5:31

Oh, the Akias Ice and beer. Yeah, Ice and beer. Yeah yeah, that's a patrol rescue.

Jodie: 5:37

The patrol rescue. But no, I thought I heard that and maybe I misunderstood this so I'll have to double check but that Hayek might be still using an Akiya. And then you said that Dave Nelson, not Dave Nelson. I apologize, keith Petrie, he was the one that brought it over to Anthony Lake's patrol, correct?

Gordy Winterrowd: 5:59

yeah.

Jodie: 6:00

So it'll be interesting to see what they're using now.

Gordy Winterrowd: 6:01

Well, yeah, Anthony Lake still uses them.

Murphy: 6:05

Yeah, that's right, because Jack, who is the old division OET guy, told me that when he was over there they were still using Akias and they did their senior test and people had an Akia. Yeah, that's wonderful.

Gordy Winterrowd: 6:22

Yeah, they still do, and they've also bought some edges from Toby. They then traded in some Akias, but they have both now, akias and edges, there you go, there you go. And a little advertisement for Anthony Lakes, if you're in the category of a senior. The annual passes are very, very expensive. They're $10 a year.

Murphy: 6:55

What's the vertical there at Anthony Lakes?

Gordy Winterrowd: 6:58

They have one chair. I'm not sure exactly what the vertical is, but they have one chairlift and it's good terrain, though it's a lot of fun.

Jodie: 7:06

Aren't they known for their powder?

Gordy Winterrowd: 7:08

Correct Yep, yep.

Jodie: 7:11

That's what I thought. That's what I thought Known for the powder.

Murphy: 7:16

So what about the Mount Hood Patrol in general? What have you seen change in your 50 years patrolling there?

Gordy Winterrowd: 7:24

Well, each of the areas has expanded. Change in your 50 years patrolling there. Well, each of the areas has expanded. Mounted Meadows has moved into Heather Canyon and is up to. Probably has added eight lifts over the years. The Mounted Ski Bowl has expanded west into an area now called Outback which has outstanding and probably the steepest terrain on Mount Hood and on a great ski day that's a good place to be. And then Timberline has expanded to year-round skiing up on the Palmer snowfield. And you know, timberline has also expanded to summer operations as well for mountain biking.

Murphy: 8:17

Have there been any changes to how the mountain is governed or in the patrol that goes along with?

Gordy Winterrowd: 8:23

Yeah, we, you know I mentioned earlier Well, I guess I didn't mention earlier that we used to the dispatch system would be you'd show up in government camp at the what is now the Bowman Rescue Center, and you'd pick numbers and then, based on your, the sequence of your number, you'd pick numbers and then, based on your, the sequence of your number, you'd you'd choose your area and there were certain areas that had more demand and, if you're able, had a low number, then you could go to those. Go to that.

Gordy Winterrowd: 8:56

That your number, your area of choice, and that was the way the and it worked out fairly well for you, you know, getting all the areas covered. We then went to a dispatch system which was you'd submit the dates you wanted to ski the areas you wanted to ski in advance. We had three modules during the year. You do them for the fall, winter and spring modules, and there was that was manual, there was.

Jodie: 9:26

Diane Wasn't that I was going to say, Dave Wheeler, right.

Gordy Winterrowd: 9:29

Yeah, diane and Dave Wheeler ran that on the wall of their dining room or living room.

Jodie: 9:37

Way before computers.

Gordy Winterrowd: 9:39

Right. And then there were some earlier versions of that that were computer driven. But then in the I believe it was the perhaps late 90s we went to a dispatch system on the web and we're still doing that. It's now called Troopeter and that works extremely well, where you pick the area in advance. And the other difference is back years ago it was pretty random where you could go and it created a lot of camaraderie. Plus you got to know all 300 members. Then it moved to teams now where there's a Saturday team that is up there every two Saturdays, every other Saturday, and then a Sunday team that's up every other Sunday, and so a total of four teams per area and those people work together every two weeks. So they get to know the individual strengths, weaknesses and get to know the area. And they're pretty much there. Are people, of course, move around to different areas, but you're assigned to pretty much a primary area, and that's a change from years ago as well.

Murphy: 11:15

Okay, I got another question for you. You know we've talked to some people that you know have got their ski patrol history. You know we've talked to some people that you know have got their ski patrol history and they were mentioning back in the I don't want to say olden days, but you know in history the volunteer patrol ran the mountain and that was predominantly who you know did the assignments. They did avalanche control, they did everything. They did avalanche control, they did everything. And then you know, one year or over a couple of seasons let's just call it paid patrollers take over I always use paid, not professional, because I think we're all professional but paid patrollers from the mountain kind of took over and started doing avalanche mitigation. They started as it was communicated. They became the officer class and the volunteers became the enlisted class, with our you know patrol director being the senior enlisted guy that kind of monitored and handled all the enlisted people on the mountain. Is Hood like that. Has it been like that? What's the history?

Gordy Winterrowd: 12:26

and what is it?

Murphy: 12:26

like that now.

Gordy Winterrowd: 12:27

Yeah, and the level of that varies a little depending on the area you're patrolling. But no, that's pretty much the way we per what you were saying. Murph would run the morning meeting and traditionally, now that depending on the area is done by the paid patrol director and or some assistance, maybe going through weather conditions and so forth, projected customer count, that type of thing. But no, our hill captains still exist and make sure that the coverage is adequate and guide the assignments of the volunteers during the day.

Murphy: 13:24

But certainly the morning meeting now is done and, as you said, avalanche control is done by the paid patrollers as well the paid staff, and so I'm just going to say you're alluding or I guess saying that pay patrollers kind of run the mountain and we are now supplementary kind of patrollers.

Gordy Winterrowd: 13:50

No, it depends on the area. There's some areas where, and well, we are very integrated in certain areas and perhaps less integrated in other areas, but even in those areas we provide the OEC training for the paid patrollers. Oh, interesting, annually we do that, I would say, pretty much for all the Mount, the mounted areas. We provide their OEC training At a couple of areas. Well, one of the areas we're engaged in some of their other training and one of the areas we provide their OET training also for the paid patrollers mean also for the paid patrollers.

Murphy: 14:50

Yeah, that's uh interesting. So on the oet side, you know, I know a lot of mountains in a lot of different states where if you're a paid patroller, uh the boss goes hey, that's a toboggan. Uh, you know, go practice. And you know there's no OET training. Like the volunteers at our mountain at Crystal, you have eight weeks every weekend of toboggan training and it's intensive, and so when you come out of that thing, most people are really pretty competent and we're actually starting to get more of our pay patrollers, you know, know that come over and participate in our training. Is that what it is now like at Hood, or has it been that way for a while.

Gordy Winterrowd: 15:34

It's usually not at the same time, same day, but yeah, in two of the areas we're involved in.

Jodie: 15:46

One of the areas.

Gordy Winterrowd: 15:46

we're very heavily involved in it and the other to a lesser extent, but yes yes absolutely All right.

Murphy: 15:56

Well, that's good.

Gordy Winterrowd: 15:57

And particularly help with the new people. We're not doing annual refreshers for the paid staff typically, but certainly on initial training we're involved, right yeah.

Jodie: 16:13

So you guys were talking about more of the in-charge earlier on. Did that also determine if a run stayed open or if it was closed or not?

Gordy Winterrowd: 16:53

No, those decisions are typically made by the paid staff.

Jodie: 16:57

Currently, but in the past, going back in history.

Gordy Winterrowd: 17:01

Oh yeah, no, those just on the weekends Years ago. There might be one paid individual from the area and the Mounted Ski Patrol would handle the rest. Yeah, even at Mounted Meadows that was the case.

Murphy: 17:26

Yeah, we would get that. I should clarify that that is. What was told to us is that during the week you had a bunch of paid people and then on the weekend you'd have a representative from the paid staff or from the mountain. That would be there, but it was the volunteers that ran the whole program up until a couple of years ago, and then they started taking over Same at Mount Hood. Okay, Okay, well, that's good. All right, what are the good stories? Can you tell us?

Gordy Winterrowd: 17:56

Well, I'll say that anybody that wants to do community service and get to know some very fine people, there's no better way to do that than to volunteer with their local patrol. They, you know to the extent, the more you get engaged with your patrol in terms of learning and leadership, the more it'll impact your career in a positive way.

Murphy: 18:33

Your career in the mountain or your career in general, your weekly, your paid occupation? Oh, your paid occupation.

Gordy Winterrowd: 18:42

Yeah, you'll learn skills and techniques for personnel management that will make a lot of difference in your paid career.

Murphy: 18:53

Oh yeah. So as a former patrol director or mountain lead, you know I've done that job and I'm going to tell you, managing paid people right in like my regular job, is a whole lot different than managing volunteers.

Murphy: 19:11

Yes, it is, you know that winds up because you can't like incentivize them with any more money. Hey look, I'll give you some dough to go do this job. That doesn't work and that's. You know, one of the biggest challenges that I had to make in ski patrol is figuring out ways to be motivational without using money or something else like that.

Gordy Winterrowd: 19:35

Right, right, no, and it's a very enjoyable. You know, it's been great and the friendships are the reason that I've stayed involved for 57 years. It's been the friendships, and that includes both patroller friendships. There's a few patients that I've stayed in contact with.

Jodie: 20:02

Really.

Gordy Winterrowd: 20:08

And the area management. Getting to know and being friends with area management has been good as well.

Murphy: 20:17

How's the relationship with the paid staff? Pretty good.

Gordy Winterrowd: 20:21

Very good Okay, very good yeah. Yeah, and you know, it's just. You know, I would say yeah, I would say very good. So I would say yeah, I would say very good. You know, there's just like in any organization. There's certain individuals that are a little more challenging.

Murphy: 20:42

Nicely, nicely done. Good job, gordy, that goes with.

Gordy Winterrowd: 20:48

you know both volunteers, volunteer staff and and paid staff, but um so.

Murphy: 20:57

So have you gone to like tour to other mountains? You know I'm sure you have and looked at ski patrollers around there or chit chatted with ski patrollers that you know, like Anthony lakes. Or you know 49 North, you know up in Seattle Mount Spokane have you ever been to? You know those kind of just as a patroller and chatted with people Over the years.

Gordy Winterrowd: 21:22

I've done a lot of that both in the United States and in Europe. So there's a group that I'm part of. We met a patroller from Anchorage, alaska, alyeska, chris Breast, a number of years ago in Austria. He was there with a group of patrollers or former patrollers from Alaska, and Chris's goal is to ski every area west of the Mississippi before he dies.

Gordy Winterrowd: 21:54

He's up to about 95 or 96 right now, and so I've and one of the patroller from Mount Hood. We've gone out with Chris's group a number of different areas and typically we'll try to spend either. You know, and typically we'll try to spend either pre-morning time with those patrollers or afterwards with them, and when we go to Europe we typically in the last couple of years this hasn't been the case, but we used to try to spend a half a day with the European ski patrols to discuss equipment, techniques, procedures, and that was always educational and worthwhile.

Murphy: 22:43

Is it true? All right, I'm just asking that if you get injured on the mountain in Europe, that their service isn't entirely free as a ski patrol. So if you get rescued, you're getting out your checkbook.

Jodie: 23:04

Speaking from personal experience.

Gordy Winterrowd: 23:07

I've got a little personal experience to answer that. But what you want to do if you're skiing in Europe is buy a insurance policy which will allow a helicopter to pick you up should you be injured in one of the higher elevations, and so that's where there would be cost. If you were injured and a helicopter came to pick you up, there would be a charge unless you bought the insurance. Insurance is inexpensive $35, I think, for the week perhaps and so you always want to buy that insurance. That would be the cost. But if a patroller picked you up and did a sled ride, there'd be no charge.

Gordy Winterrowd: 23:55

But I've helped on a number of cases over there, and there was one case we were involved with in Chamonix, an area called Grand Mountain is the English version of it, but anyway where the patient it was a broken midline femur. We splinted and provided some traction and basically the sled ride was, you know, a hundred yards or less to where there was a flat spot that the helicopter could come in and pick them up, and so, and just to get them to the hospital faster. In another case, in an area called the Stubai Glacier, the person was injured and basically it was picked up by a snowcat. What they do is the front of the snowcat has a chair on it, but the center of the chair, rather than a chair, is a stretcher chair is a um. The stretcher and the snowcat will deliver the patient to the, the flat area where a helicopter can come in and and take care of it, take it from there.

Murphy: 25:21

So it's the helicopter that you'd be paying for if you don't have been charged, or they alluded to the fact that they were charged when you know they were rescued, so yeah.

Gordy Winterrowd: 25:44

Yeah, I was. Two years ago I was hit by a high-speed, out-of-control skier in Lech, Austria.

Jodie: 25:55

Why don't you tell us a little bit more about that, Gordy?

Gordy Winterrowd: 25:58

Okay.

Murphy: 25:59

Did you buy the insurance, Gordy?

Gordy Winterrowd: 26:02

Yes, I think I bought the insurance. Oh, okay, but more importantly, by travel insurance. I bought travel insurance. More importantly, buy travel insurance. I bought travel insurance because the travel insurance will take care of your hospitalization. The individual when he hit me, big guy, I don't think I was injured, but then he proceeded to land on me and that's when he broke five ribs, creating a flail chest. He punctured one of my lungs and he had pneumothorax and eventually hemothorax. And the exam perhaps I shouldn't say this, but the exam by the patroller was uh, can you get up now?

Jodie: 26:56

Um, can you get up now?

Gordy Winterrowd: 26:59

I can't breathe but sure, get up. I can't breathe, but um, so um we.

Murphy: 27:06

I just want to know was that the primary or secondary assessment?

Jodie: 27:10

I just want to know was that the primary or secondary?

Gordy Winterrowd: 27:12

assessment it was both, so it was about maybe a mile and a half down.

Jodie: 27:23

So I chose to ski down rather than I. Just this just flummoxed me. Here he is with a flail chest, and for people that don't know what a flail chest is, it's where part of the lungs, sort of the brigs, go in when you're inhaling, and it's separated from the rib cage. It's a little hard to breathe, let alone what elevation were you at?

Gordy Winterrowd: 27:46

Ballpark. Yeah, that you know. I'm not sure I'll look it up here real fast. Yeah, I'm not sure I'll look it up here real fast, but I told them that I would just make it down on my own, so I wouldn't necessarily call it skiing down.

Jodie: 28:04

Why did you choose to ski down versus go down in a sled? Curiosity that curiosity.

Gordy Winterrowd: 28:09

Well, I was a little concerned about the uh capabilities of the individual primary and secondary exam and then and there he that area uses akias and I. I could just see myself bouncing across moguls and the pain associated with that.

Jodie: 28:31

Oh my goodness gracious.

Gordy Winterrowd: 28:33

So I chose just to. I wouldn't call it skiing down, but made my way down, and then we walked to the medical clinic. With a pneumothorax.

Jodie: 28:45

Correct Five broken ribs. Yes, oh my goodness gracious.

Gordy Winterrowd: 28:52

And then Murph, eight days in the hospital, oh man that's not an overnight. Eight days, yeah, yeah. So, jody, to answer your question on the elevation, it's 4,700 feet where we were, or less Ouch, so not too high.

Jodie: 29:16

High enough when you have a collapsed lung. So he then went to. How many different facilities did you get? How I happen to know a little bit more about this is I get these random little texts from Gordy asking me some information about how he might get home, and I'm like what the heck do you mean? How are you going to get home my air transport, air ambulance yes, so I'm doing research over here in the us of a trying to help him figure this out.

Murphy: 29:43

Oh, this wasn't that long ago, two years ago. Two years ago, I thought this was like ancient history. No, it was uh well, it was actually.

Gordy Winterrowd: 29:54

Yeah, it was uh beginning of 20 february 24, so actually one year ago.

Murphy: 29:59

Yeah, yeah, february of 24, yeah, that's last year yes, yeah, oh man so that had to hurt I when it happened we were in them. It was into february and it was in March, so were you skiing by yourself or were you part of the ski flight thing that was going on?

Gordy Winterrowd: 30:20

Correct, yeah yeah, oh, okay. We had met a German attorney who we were skiing with two of us and the three of us were skiing when it happened.

Jodie: 30:36

So was Paul there when you fell. Yes, was he impressed with the assessment. I mean.

Gordy Winterrowd: 30:45

Well, I was skier number three, so they weren't aware that it had happened. Oh, gotcha, gotcha. So we had radio, so I was talking to them, but they were, you know, half a mile away or more over the hill, so they couldn't see any of it.

Jodie: 31:05

And when you say a large guy, gordy, you are not a short guy by any sense. You are how tall 6'3", 6'3", okay, any sense. You are how tall 6'3", 6'3", okay. And.

Gordy Winterrowd: 31:17

This guy. I'm guessing he weighed 250 pounds or something.

Jodie: 31:20

Oh.

Gordy Winterrowd: 31:21

Yeah, enough to do some damage.

Murphy: 31:23

So he was petite, because I'm 250 and I like to consider myself petite. Okay, and you're 6, what, what are you? 6'5", 6'5", how tall are you, murphy?

Jodie: 31:35

6'5" Six, what, what are you? Six, six-five, how tall are you, murphy? Six-five, yeah, okay, anyway, were you on your side when he landed on you, do you recall? I know it's hard to recall.

Gordy Winterrowd: 31:45

I think yeah yeah, right side up. Yes, yeah, yeah.

Jodie: 31:51

So then you were at the ski areas clinic, then they transported you by ambulance. Ambulance, or did you?

Gordy Winterrowd: 32:01

guys drive, we watch on you. We were at uh it was a private clinic at the base of the ski hill and uh, dr romberg's clinic and uh, after the uh, the x-rays, the, I was sent back to the hotel with a follow-up. That was on a Sunday, with a follow-up on Wednesday.

Jodie: 32:21

Wait a minute, wait a minute. They did an x-ray and you had a collapsed lung then Well, at that point I don't think it was collapsed.

Gordy Winterrowd: 32:31

It was punctured but it wasn't collapsed. And so Monday, it was a little difficult to get out of bed. Tuesday, and there was pain, more pain. Tuesday there was a lot more pain and a little harder to get out of bed, but Wednesday it was impossible to get out of bed because you don't have any strength to be able to sit up. Oh my gosh, I did not realize that part After another x-ray and CAT scan is when I was admitted to the hospital and yeah it was by ambulance from the clinic to the hospital.

Jodie: 33:13

And then they put the chest tube in. Correct yeah, and if I recall correctly, on some of these text messages and emails the tube came out correct. No, or it was disconnected.

Gordy Winterrowd: 33:30

No, I think it may have been one time. The ambulance took me back to the clinic for x-rays. The hospital had a cat scan unit but didn't have an x-ray unit. In a small little community and this hospital has 12 beds I'm sorry, 12, 11 or 12 rooms I was in the icu because the icu had oxygen in the walls. Um, so I think I think it was in the ICU because the ICU had oxygen in the walls. I think it was when I was waiting in the lobby at the clinic I received a call that some of my equipment might have still been in the clinic and I got up really fast without grabbing my blood container. It tipped over in the lobby on the marble floor of the clinic. I think that's maybe what you're referring to.

Jodie: 34:21

Ouch, it was a little embarrassing. I can't remember all, but there was something about the thing secured or whatever, but then they were going to give you. The other part of this was you're trying to arrange home and on commercial flight versus a medical transport.

Gordy Winterrowd: 34:41

Yeah, dr Romberg had written the insurance company a letter about requesting air ambulance just in case of embolism or anything else, and the insurance company didn't like that idea because they didn't want to spend the $100,000. So they wanted me to stay as long as possible and our regular flight was like on a Saturday. So I was supposed to be released on Wednesday and talk to the insurance and they said, well, we can't do it, can't do any scheduling until you're out of the hospital. So it would have been the following Wednesday, probably before I would have left. So we just decided to take the regular flight that following Saturday, which they had a little bit of risk.

Murphy: 35:35

Yeah, I'd say Ouch Last year, don't include this.

Gordy Winterrowd: 35:43

Delete most of this discussion from the.

Jodie: 35:47

Oh yeah. Well, so the moral of the story basically would be to make sure that you have adequate insurance when you go on a trip, as well as in case of an emergency, how you would want to make sure that you have special insurance that would cover you medically, correct?

Gordy Winterrowd: 36:06

Yeah, you'd want to have both travel insurance and the area rescue insurance, which is a $35 or $40 weekly for your visit. Yes, yeah. I was supposed to. You know the travel insurance would probably cover the helicopter, but it'd be easier not getting charged at all, so the $35 is worth it for.

Murphy: 36:36

Oh, I'd say, yeah, those ambulance rides are like I don't know five grand or some bloody thing like that.

Gordy Winterrowd: 36:42

The air, the air, the, the helicopters, you know? Yeah, oh yeah, or maybe even higher.

Murphy: 36:49

Yeah Well, that's why every year I look at that. Uh yeah Well, that's why every year I look at that who should sponsor us Life Flight? But when I look at that Life Flight, they give us you know, patrollers a deal that you can buy. Every year I look at that thing and go, oh man, is this the year that I actually should buy this and put it up there, just in case.

Jodie: 37:14

It's well worth it because you you would cover your whole family. So if there's an auto accident, yeah different things that way, so little plug there for lifelight or your area in, uh, whatever service you have in your part that you're listening to so definitely well, lifelight supports us at the convention, so you know we can give them a little TLC there.

Murphy: 37:35

Absolutely All right, let's see here. So, gordy, gordy, gord, what else do we have? We've got your local division awards. Oh, jody has a question. She wants to ask you that, she asks everybody. Okay, go ahead, jody, ask that question.

Jodie: 37:54

Okay, go ahead, jody, ask that question Okay, so basically and you might have seen that I don't know, but in regards to what does it mean to you with our NSP's creed of 1938, service and safety, what did it sort of mean to you initially, and has it changed over the years?

Gordy Winterrowd: 38:22

I don't. I'm not sure I would that it's changed. I think it just means helping areas allow the skiing population to avoid injury and then, should there be accidents, and avoid accidents, but should there be accidents, to be able to handle the situation in a very professionally efficient and you know the proper way to get them to the next level of care. But if you ask that question to areas, they would say the prevention is their key view Prevention exactly.

Jodie: 39:12

Key view of the ski patrol prevention Exactly.

Gordy Winterrowd: 39:16

Key view of the ski patrol. There's, you know, I think most patrollers might say help after the accident, but typically area owners are more interested in preventing. They're interested in both, of course, but prevention is.

Jodie: 39:31

Prevention is key. You're talking to an ear nurse here, and that is something that I will say for mount hood ski patrol, I mean, and it's its own, unique, with y east as the region, but it serves everyone there. Um is does excel on is the fact that there's a lot of functions, whether it's used to be known as ski fever or now is snowvana, participating at different in the summer bike events or marathons, but really also trying to get the message out and in different ways, and we've heard a lot of different takes on this. This is always sort of interesting to hear different philosophies and the like, but definitely as far as that's concerned.

Murphy: 40:16

So, I like it.