Oliver (Ollie) Peck: age 5, skier at 49˚ North

Landon McCaffree: age 10, skier at Mt. Spokane

Kendal Brumet: age 11, skier at Lookout Pass

Libby Collins: age 12, skier at Silver Mountain

Family Winter Sports Guide sponsored by Ski the Northwest Rockies association.

Amy McCaffree has been a freelance writer for Out There since 2006, and is Out There Kids columnist and special section editor. She started skiing in 9th grade, taking lessons with her junior high Ski Club at Ski Acres at Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascade Mountains. Since winter 2003-04, she has been a season pass skier at Mt. Spokane.

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Be mindful of the “freeze-thaw-freeze effect,” according to Mt. Spokane ski patrol director Eric Ewing. “In the morning the snow is typically firm and as the sun hits the snow, it softens and gets sticky. And as the sun goes down, the snow gets firm again. This is also true for areas in the shade.” When snow starts to melt, Ewing advises also being cautious of “underlying snow obstacles, like rocks, logs, and stumps.” 

Lower extremity (knees and below) and clavicle or shoulder injuries are common on the slopes anytime, says Ewing. “Skiers can reduce risk by being prepared for the conditions—both physical fitness and maintaining equipment properly. Make sure your body is fueled. Have a good breakfast, don’t skip lunch, and make sure you drink lots of water.” 

On bluebird days, sunburn and eye burn are also risks. “Folks often forget sunscreen and expose flesh that hasn’t seen the sun for a while, which burns easily,” says Batchelder. He recommends always wearing goggles, or at least sunglasses, to avoid eye injuries.  

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Schweitzer formalized its avalanche dog program in winter 2016-17. “Finding good handlers—someone who has the capability to do this job and has the education—is harder than finding good dogs,” says Thompson, who has 23 years of patrol experience. Annie, a Labrador retriever, was only eight weeks old when Thompson got her. She is the third search and rescue dog he has trained. At that time, he was still living in Colorado and patrolling at Beaver Creek Resort. He moved to North Idaho when Annie was two.

Avy dogs are “great mascots” for avalanche education and connecting and engaging with the skiing public, says Thompson. Dogs train year-round, and not only learn search and rescue skills, but also how to ride a chairlift, a snowmobile, and in a helicopter. Annie and her fellow Schweitzer avy patrol dogs, Abbey and Murphy, are sponsored by Dr. Tim’s, a pet food company, and by North Idaho Animal Hospital for vet care.

After hearing the news about the in-bounds slide at Silver, Thompson gathered his avalanche safety equipment and Annie and Abbey. “We weren’t there on the hasty search. We arrived about 2 hours in,” says Thompson. “The dogs were critical in finding skiers that first day. If people are buried without a beacon, an avy dog is the next best [way to find them].” Annie alerted searchers to the location of one of the deceased skiers.

The following day, Wednesday, Jan. 8, the search resumed when another skier was reported missing. Silver Mountain Ski Patrollers, Thompson and Schweitzer’s avy dogs, and patrollers from all the local mountains converged at the avalanche site. “Any time an unprecedented event like that happens, the community works together,” says Thompson. After he was able to investigate the avalanche, his preliminary report for IPAC detailed the avalanche as 300-feet wide and traveling more than 900 feet down the 16-to-1 ski run, having been releasing about 90 feet from the summit of Wardner Peak.

In-bounds avalanches happen at many ski areas, most occurring in a “controlled environment with explosives and mitigation techniques” conducted by professional ski patrollers, explains Thompson who is also a certified National Ski Patrol Level 1 avalanche instructor. “Our avalanche center’s niche is the recreation side, to educate and forecast and to give the public information and tools,” he says. The center provides online resources and in-person classes tailored to backcountry users, snowmobilers, and skiers. 

“We never would have heard of the Silver one if it had been released during patrol’s avalanche mitigation work that day…. For whatever reason, something different happened that day.” Despite the tragedy, Thompson isn’t alarmed. “When you start to do the numbers of how many people ski and how often this happens…99.9 percent of the time it’s safe,” he says. “The reality is Mother Nature has a mind of her own, and as much as we try to manipulate the snow, it’s not enough.”

He continues, “I think it’s important for people to understand that the possibility [of avalanche] is there. Does that mean you have to wear your avalanche beacon in-bounds? No. Should you? Why not— [it] does no good sitting in your car,” he says. 

“Avalanche beacons, shovels, and probes are great when you make a bad decision. But the best thing is to not make a bad decision,” he says, particularly with backcountry ski terrain. “The one thing that comes to mind is slope angle—if you avoid avalanche terrain, you’re not going to get caught in an avalanche. You can ski all day and make powder turns and not be on avalanche terrain. But if you’re going on the avalanche terrain, take the tools with you. Be able to identify if you’re in a spot that could avalanche.”

Angle awareness also applies to in-bounds skiing. “Usually your average blue run is tip-toeing into avalanche range. So that puts it into perspective. It doesn’t mean that there is a need to have heightened awareness. [Patrollers and mountain staff] manipulate the snow a ton, with snowcats and avalanche mitigation,” says Thompson.

At Schweitzer Mountain “half of the runs are steep enough to have a slide, but most don’t have a history of slides,” he says. Patrollers begin avalanche mitigation work early each morning and continuously monitor snow conditions throughout the day, “keeping our finger on the pulse of our snowpack,” explains Thompson. 

The public can have confidence in professional ski patrollers who undergo avalanche training, he says. “Ski patrol at Schweitzer and Silver take their job very seriously and open the terrain when it is safe.” Stay in touch with Schweitzer’s patrol dogs on their Instagram profile @schweitzer.avydogs.

[Photos courtesy of Schweitzer Mountain Resort]

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There’s a good chance if you spend any time in the village at Schweitzer you’ll run into Mark and Colleen White. These two unofficial Schweitzer greeters are hard to miss with their welcoming smiles, infectious laughter, and endearing Texas drawls. Spending time with them on the mountain is delightful in any season.

They both rip it up on the slopes during winter and are staples at Schweitzer’s summer events. Mark’s comedic nature is complimented by Colleen’s exuberance for adventure, and the two of them live life at Schweitzer to the fullest. It’s only after you’ve fallen under their charm that you realize something is missing. That would be Mark’s right arm. 

On a beautiful day in January 2017, Mark (58), Colleen (46), and their son Ashton (26), all passionate snowboarders, headed over to Little Blue Ridge Run to take advantage of some excellent mid-season conditions. “We had just gotten off the T-Bar, and strapped into our bindings when I said, ‘party of three, let’s go!’” explains Mark. “Less than a minute later, I was buried under the snow.” 

The accident happened so fast that Colleen and Ashton weren’t even aware Mark was missing. “We wondered if we had passed him so we headed to Stella and started asking people if they had seen him. At this point, I was 80% scared and 20% mad,” Colleen explains. “On the lift, I tried to call him and it went to voicemail. As soon as we got off Stella, I went straight to ski patrol.” 

At the same time Colleen and Ashton were starting to worry, Mark was wedged tight between two trees just off Little Blue with a severed artery causing him to lose a substantial amount of blood. “Luckily, my saving snow angel, a skier on the run, saw the accident but couldn’t locate me in the trees,” says Mark. “Her husband skied on to get ski patrol, and she waited by the spot where she was certain I had left the trail.” When ski patrol arrived and began to search the area, one patroller noticed a black crescent shape. Trudging through the snow, he realized it was Mark’s helmet. 

Time is of the essence in any accident situation and more so when a patient needs critical care. There is no question for Mark or Colleen that the quick thinking of Schweitzer’s ski patrol staff saved his life that day. Once Mark was airlifted to the hospital, his condition was determined to be severe. He had his clavicle, shoulder, and humorous repaired with metal bars and plates. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to repair the core nerve in his right arm, and it was amputated in July of 2017. 

Flash forward to another sunny day at Schweitzer, this time it’s January 2019. Mark and Colleen have just finished a day of riding and they are happily chatting about their runs. “We work from our home in the White Pine, and so when we can get out to ride, we do,” says Colleen. “It was the big question if Mark would snowboard again, but this is what we love and where we love to be.”

“Schweitzer is our happy place still,” adds Mark. “After the accident, I waited to see if I could snowboard. I practiced on small hills only going about 18 feet the first time and that felt huge! I follow a pretty strict criteria now for riding. If on any given day I have three things not in sync, I don’t go. I’m looking to feel strong, have good weather, go when the mountain’s not too crowded, and I don’t head to unfamiliar terrain if I’m with new friends or guests. If any three of those aren’t in alignment, I’m back in the condo chilling.” 

For Mark the hardest part isn’t riding with one arm. He’s still working on healing and coping with some lingering pain from the accident. “Snowboarding really helps me fight off the periodic melancholy. Exercise helps distract me from the pain and the realization that I’m not the same person I was physically two years ago. Losing an arm is pretty humbling. But it’s also been unbelievably cool.” 

Mark and Colleen feel that the accident solidified their connection to the Schweitzer community. “We fell in love with this place when my parents moved from Texas to Moyie Springs 27 years ago,” says Mark. “As soon as we saw an opportunity to work remotely, Colleen and I knew we wanted to live here. Even after everything, this is where we want to be. Some days are hard for me on the mountain. I still get anxious when I’m riding Little Blue, but when I’m on my board and I’m in the zone, I’ve found my balance. Until I fall over that is!”

Dig Chrismer landed in Sandpoint 8 years ago with her four children after several years ricocheting around the world. These days she’s the marketing manager for Schweitzer Mountain Resort and is on a mission to prove that telemark skiing isn’t dead. 

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Married now for 35 years, their blended generational ski family includes four adult children and seven grandchildren, ages 12-21. All became skiers at a very young age and still ski—though the lone grandson now snowboards.

Once Mt. Spokane’s ski season opens, Seth and Gloria, now retired, are at the mountain every week, Wednesday through Sunday, until closing day.

The Fletchers first taught their kids how to ski, and also enrolled them in lessons. Same for their grandbabies. “Grammy and Poppy taught them how to ski,” says Seth, “and their parents helped out, too.”

For the Fletchers, winter break is a big deal. While only two grandchildren, and their parents, live in Spokane, the rest of the clan travels here for Christmas time.

“So we ski non-stop,” Gloria says. All stay overnight at their two Snowblaze condo units, located on the mountain close to the ski park. “We had to buy a second condo because we had too many grandkids.”

As the grandkids’ skills improved, it became tradition to conquer the checklist of skiing terrain together off all five chairlifts while skiing with Grammy and Poppy. They love those runs where they’re altogether, swooshing through fresh snow near their grandchildren, wide smiles on everyone’s faces. Meeting up at the bottom of each chairlift and riding up two by two to do it again and again, no matter the weather—from powder days to bluebird days and everything in between.

“Even it’s crappy, we still go up for a few runs. The only time we don’t go is if it’s raining,” says Gloria.

But mountain living includes more than flying down the mountain and seeking powder. “Our grandkids go sledding, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing—we have all that equipment.

“So when the ski day was done, the day was never done,” Gloria says. “Some of older grandkids are now telemark and backcountry skiing.” Impressively, through the 40+ years of skiing, no one in the family has sustained any major injuries.

“The nice thing about skiing together is that it’s probably the only sport that you do together” year after year. “You only watch kids at soccer or baseball games. But skiing is the one sport that is a family sport, no matter how old or how little” say Seth and Gloria.

“Everyone in our family can ski any terrain, any mountain…once you learn (how to ski), you have it—not something you ever forget,” says Seth.

The Fletchers are also a ski patrol family, since Seth joined Mt. Spokane Ski Patrol the 1973-74 season. The perk of discounted lift tickets helped make skiing more affordable for their family. Additionally, the patrol’s annual ski swap is where they still find gear for everyone.

They’re also part of the local ski racing scene. Starting in the late 1970s, three of their children, when each was 7-8 years old, joined the team based at Mt. Spokane, and raced until age 14. Their son, Kevin, was even a ski racer for the University of Idaho.

The Fletcher’s two local grandkids also joined the ski team at Mt. Spokane, and their 12-year-old granddaughter—skiing with her grandparents since she was two—is still a member of the Mt. Spokane Ski Racing Team (MSSRT), formerly known as the Spokane Ski Racing Association. Gloria volunteers as a certified level 4 “timing and calc official,” and Seth used to officiate races.

As a devoted ski family, from the beginning the Fletchers skied with their children every weekend, from opening day to closing day, as well as occasional nights.

Though Seth “retired” from patrol six years ago, after 39 years of volunteer service, both still volunteer. In fact, because of the thousands of hours Gloria has given to supporting MSSP, a new service award was established three years ago to honor her example. Called the “Gloria Fletcher Distinguished Service Award,” it’s given annually to an outstanding non-patrol volunteer.

“This is going to be an exciting ski year, because of the new runs on Mt. Spokane’s backside. Our kids and grandkids can’t wait to come,” says Gloria. “It’s going to be so much fun. It gives us a new reason to be excited for skiing.”

[Sponsored by Ski the NW Rockies.]

Find more ski family stories in the OTO archives.

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“I’m always keeping in mind the safety of the airplane passengers and resort guests,” he says. “I don’t look forward to the snow when it comes to cleaning the aircraft but on the other hand, I enjoy the powder up on the slopes.”

Emmingham has spent the last 16 years battling winter conditions at the airport and the last eight seasons volunteering with the Mt. Spokane Ski Patrol. But Emmingham was a recreational skier long before his hobby turned into community service.

“I made the mistake of riding up the chair lift next to my wife’s boss at a company ski event,” he says. “Her boss was a patroller and talked me into doing it. Now it’s become such a major part of my life.”

Emmingham started patrol school in 2003. The basic ski tests, Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC) training, field training and skiing with a mentor was stressful, expensive and time consuming, according to Emmingham. But it was all worth it.

“It’s nice to be in that outdoor environment and have the opportunity to help people,” Emmingham says. “Ski patrollers are here to help everybody have better experiences and it feels good to give back to the community while still doing something I care about.”

The years of hard work have paid off. He has received several awards including the 2003-2004 Outstanding New Patroller and the 2009 Patroller of the Month. He is currently the Friday night “Hill Captain” and obtained Senior Patroller status in 2009.

Despite his devotion, Emmingham says there are several misconceptions about ski patrol. “It’s not some glamorous job,” he says. “It’s a lot of hard work.” Patrollers constantly transport toboggans, put out markers, reset safety signs and move safety pads.

Fifteen inches of new snow may be great for guests, but for patrollers it means hours of extra work. But Emmingham doesn’t seem tired of working around snow, both on and off the slopes. “I’ve definitely been bitten by that volunteer bug,” he says. “Ski patrolling matches my lifestyle and it’s something that will be easy for me to stick with. I can’t really imagine not doing it.”

Here’s what you’ll catch this self-proclaimed “gear head” patrolling the runs with on Mt. Spokane.

LAYERS: Brent prefers Patagonia down sweaters, Patagonia RI pullovers and simple Mountain Hardwear layers for cold days.

SOCKS: “SmartWool Ski Socks are the best, I’ve found,” Brent says. “They have excellent support and killer warmth to weight ratio.”

BIBS: Marmot Randonnee Gore-Tex bibs. “Temperature regulation is critical for a patroller,” Brent says. “We are exposed to the elements for extended periods of time. I like these bibs because of the Gore-Tex Pro Shell fabric. They stay warm with minimal layers and they breathe well. The removable knee pads seem bulky but are a nice feature.”

JACKET: Moonstone Gore-Tex patrol jacket. It’s simple, durable, helmet capable and allows for layering, he says.

GLOVES: Brent wears Marmot Randonnee Gore-Tex gloves. “Don’t everyone’s gloves match their bibs?” he jokes.

BOOTS: Tecnica Icon TNT XRS boots. “These are nothing fancy but they fit and keep me in an aggressive stance,” he says.

SKIS: Brent switches between two pairs of Atomic skis. He uses Atomic R11 skis with Atomic 412 bindings–All Mountain for most days on the hill. But his Atomic Snoop Daddy skis with Atomic Neox bindings are great for powder days and “off-piste fun.”

GOGGLES: Smith Tinted goggles for day use and Scott clear goggles for night skiing.

WATCH: The Suunto Vector Watch has weather, altimeter and compass functions. “I like to track runs and the amount of vertical I ski in a day,” he says.

FIRST AID: Conterra Patrol 2 Aide Belt. His kit is filled with items such as a SAM splint, CPR Blob, gauze, band-aids, cravats, pupil dilation light, Black Diamond Headlamp, rescue scissors and Insta-Glucose 24.

RESCUE GEAR: Foldable saw, rescue rope, carabiners, space blanket, hand warmers, GU Energy, NiteRider TriNewt head light, Garmin eTrex Legend GPS.

TOYS: “My ContourHD 1080p Helmet Camera is absolutely unnecessary for patrolling but it’s a lot of fun,” Brent says. “It’s sleek, light and High Definition.” Brent also uses a Phresheez iPhone application that tracks his runs and links photos taken throughout the day.

The post What’s Your Gear?: Brent Emmingham, Ski Patrol appeared first on Out There Venture.

This weekend is the 45th annual Mount Spokane Ski Patrol Ski Swap, the largest swap in the region and a great place to get your gear – new & used – for cheap. Equipment, clothing and accessories for all winter sports are available, including Nordic and alpine skiing & snowboarding.

It’s also the primary source of funding for the Mount Spokane Ski Patrol (a non-profit organization) for operations, purchase of medical and first aid supplies, rescue equipment and training materials.

The swap is Saturday, Oct. 31st – 9 am to 5 pm  and Sunday, Nov. 1st – 9 am to noon at the Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds, Havana Street, Spokane. Admission is $4 at the door; free for kids 12 & under.

Cash, credit cards and personal checks are accepted. Note: come early Saturday morning to beat the crowd. Come back on Sunday to take advantage of 25% discount on market items.

Visit www.mssp.org or call (509) 343-1499 for more information.

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Saturday is the Tour de Rock, a mountain bike ride to raise funds for the 49 Degrees North Ski Patrol. Same-day registration is 9:30-10:30 am. Meet at the main lodge at 49 Degrees North. Stick around for a barbecue and live music.

The ride is $35 with a long-sleeve t-shirt or $25 without.

For information, call 937-4922 or visit 49skipatrol.org

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