I am proud to announce that @ChunderBlunder has joined the National Ski Patrol. He will be training at our local ski hill, Pine Knob. Starting May 7th. he will have classes twice a week through the end of October. He is just finishing his junior year in High School. He has always been one to head into danger to help rather than run away from it or freeze. Over the past year he has had a couple interactions with the Ski Patrol that were very positive. I had previously related the story where he helped the individual that got in over his head at Killington. He had to be taken down off Grand Targhee when a collision popped his ACL. That ride included getting down in a toboggan and then a tow up out of the area we were in by snowmobile. He had been talking about it quite a bit all season long. We had gone to the patrol shack at Pine Knob back in January and talked to them then. The final straw for him was the Gathering in Utah. Watching the work they did at Snowbasin and then watching the Patrol at Alta conduct avalanche mitigation on Baldy and Castle was what finally cemented it for him. He watched them for quite awhile. We were both very impressed. He has already been in a number of situations in his young life that involved helping others in peril and/or suffering great trauma. He has never faltered. He just recently saved his nephew, my youngest grandson, who fell into a swimming pool.
He is considering going to college out West, taking what he learns here in the Patrol program out there and then furthering his skills as a Patroller while he attends a university. I don't know where life will take him ultimately, but I am proud of him for taking this step.
He is considering going to college out West, taking what he learns here in the Patrol program out there and then furthering his skills as a Patroller while he attends a university. I don't know where life will take him ultimately, but I am proud of him for taking this step.
