By Alex Limkin, NSP-Subaru Ambassador On a day off, I stoke a fire, brew coffee, and sit down on a chair fashioned from split kindling. Ranger, a shaggy-haired buddy who lives down the road, comes by for a scratch and to piss on my snow tires. I gave him a ham bone on Christmas Day, [...]
By Sarah Chapelle, NSP-Subaru Ambassador Family. We are all born into one, but we also acquire many more throughout life. Whether a church family, work family, or sports family, each makes us feel whole in different ways. The National Ski Patrol family is no exception. Two years ago, my husband and I packed our bags [...]
By Jay Zedak, NSP-Subaru Ambassador and NSP Board Member Every Memorial Day for many years, I have attended the parade in Hudson, Ohio (population 25,000). When I was a child, I decorated and rode my bike (banana seat of course). As an adult, I proudly drove the fire engine or heavy rescue truck as a [...]
By Nicholas Harper-Johnston, NSP-Subaru Ambassador It is 4 am. The frost inside my sleeping bag wakes me up from a restless sleep. All I hear are the sounds of the wind whipping on my tent fly. I try to fall back asleep but it’s pointless. Eventually, it is time to wake up. They give us [...]
By Michelle Longstreth, NSP-Subaru Ambassador Photos by Andrew Longstreth Cirrus sniffed; she moved to the right. I stopped to watch her next move. It is hard as a handler to stop, watch and wait. She kept going across the hill and stopped again. She sniffed, buried her nose in the snow, sniffed a couple more [...]
By Marshall Thomson, NSP-Subaru Ambassador My path to becoming a ski patroller started 51 years ago in an upstate New York hospital where a young 19-year-old college student lay in a hospital bed planning her own funeral with her mother. This young girl was about to undergo another surgery for massive internal injuries, acute [...]
By Chris Tota, NSP-Subaru Ambassador It was a brutally cold January day when I was riding up Lift 7 at Belleayre Mountain with a veteran patroller, and we were discussing mountain procedures for calling in and responding to accidents. As a Young Adult Patroller just turning 15 years old, I had almost two months [...]
Nicholas Harper-Johnson NSP: When did you become a patroller, and what led you to start patrolling? Nick: I moved to Crested Butte, Colorado, as a youngster and was immediately impressed by those that made a living off the mountains, and especially those who came to help when things went wrong. I started volunteering with the fire [...]
Tina Biddle NSP: When did you become a patroller, and what led you to start patrolling? Tina: I started ski patrolling in '97 at Breckenridge. Earlier that summer, I worked with some patrollers at a local outdoor store, and it was apparent they loved patrolling. So I figured what the heck, I'll try it. NSP: What [...]
Michelle Longstreth NSP: When did you become a patroller, and what led you to start patrolling? Michelle: I started as a paid patroller in 1995. I started skiing at age 26, when I was working at Cardrona Ski Area in New Zealand as a lift operator. There, I met my first husband, an American on an [...]