Ski patrol

Thursday, December 22, 2016 | B5

Times-News

OUTDOORS Another crack at Craters upgrade LUKE RAMSETH

Post Register‌

VIRGINIA HUTCHINS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Trent Searle pulls a toboggan carrying a journalist down a black-diamond ski run at Pomerelle Mountain Resort as volunteer ski patrollers get a required annual refresher of their toboggan-handling skills Dec. 17.

Pomerelle patrollers train for the worst Trauma on the ski slopes? These volunteers have your back VIRGINIA HUTCHINS

vhutchins@magicvalley.com‌

‌ALBION — In the room where some of them resuscitated a cardiac arrest victim a week earlier, Pomerelle Mountain Resort’s volunteer ski patrollers pulled on snow pants and helmets Dec. 17 for another shift of dealing with whatever the mountain would throw at them.

As always, they’d be the first skiers of the day to ride the lifts, checking that the wheels controlling the cables weren’t frozen. They’d raise protective pads above the level of the latest snowfall. They’d direct the morning’s skiers and boarders away from the runs where groomers were still at work.

And, as the white crosses on their red vests testified, they’d be ready to give emergency medical care to anyone with fall injuries, frostbite or a ski pole impalement.

“Anything that could be thrown our way, they’re trained for,” said Zack Alexander, mountain manager at Pomerelle.

When skiers or boarders get in over their heads — on runs too difficult for their abilities — the volunteer patrollers help them down. When winds kick up a whiteout, they shepherd everyone off the mountain.

But on this early-season Saturday, many of the volunteers had another task, too: demonstrating once again their skills for trans-

porting patients down the mountain in toboggans.

“We try to get everybody refreshed before the season starts,” patroller Jesse Hess said.

National Ski Patrol — the Colorado-based nonprofit that trains and credentials patrollers at Pomerelle and at ski areas around the country — requires annual S&T training for every member.

That’s skiing and tobogganing, Hess explained, as he added the last layers to his snow gear.

“You gotta get Studer the S part right,” said Jared Studer, scheduled to be the patrol’s hill chief for the day. “It’s called snowboard and toboggan.”

Either way, the patrollers’ toboggans — stocked with splints, backboards and neck braces — are key to getting patients from the Heilesen s n ow- cove re d slopes to an ambulance or helicopter.

And I’d have an unusual perspective on their toboggan test that day. With a reporter’s notebook instead of an injury, I’d be the “patient” for a descent down a black-diamond ski run.

‘Just short of a miracle’‌

In this first-aid room — a small, windowless space on the Pomerelle ski lodge’s lower level — 53-year-old Marvin Heilesen collapsed on the floor Dec. 10.

Full cardiac arrest.

VIRGINIA HUTCHINS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Volunteer ski patrollers raise a ski lift’s protective pads above the new snow level as Pomerelle Mountain Resort opens for the day Dec. 17.

But Heilesen, himself a Pomerelle ski patroller, was in the right company.

Senior patroller Kent Johnson cut off Heilesen’s shirt and placed the automated external defibrillator. Another patroller started the flow of oxygen. Another began chest compressions. Another monitored vital signs.

Heilesen flatlined several times.

The weather was too ugly for an

emergency helicopter to reach Pomerelle that day, but six volunteer patrollers worked in turns to keep Heilesen alive for the 45 Please see POMERELLE, Page B6

More online: In a

Magicvalley.com gallery, see more of Virginia Hutchins’ photos of the Pomerelle Ski Patrol in action.

Son watched as avalanche killed dad BRETT FRENCH

Billings Gazette‌

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‌ILLINGS, Mont. — The B story of an Idaho skier’s death in a Cooke City-area avalanche on Dec. 11 became clearer with the release of the accident report.

Chris Peterson, 55, of Ketchum, was killed while skiing with his son, Axel Peterson, a 27-yearold Bozeman, Mont., resident and budding filmmaker known in part for his extreme skiing footage. Together with his friends they are known as The Bridger Brigade. When the avalanche broke, Axel was standing at the top edge of the slide watching as the snow enveloped his father.

“It’s incredibly sad,” said Doug Chabot, of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center, one of the authors of the report. “He and his dad were tight, and both were pretty experienced.”

The pull of powder‌

The attraction that fresh snow exerts on skiers, snowboarders and snowmobilers is strong. And avalanche conditions can be so unpredictable that even those well-trained and knowledgeable about avalanche conditions have been killed.

The small, steep slope on the southeast face of Henderson Mountain was loaded with enticing, fresh snow when the Petersons showed up. What’s more, the skiers the Petersons joined had tried to trigger an avalanche on the slope by jumping on the snowpack and skiing across it, to no avail.

After such attempts, “it’s easy to think it’s OK,” Chabot said. But an unstable layer of depth hoar atop an icy base was essentially a mine field waiting for the right trigger, he added.

“In this case, Chris found a weak zone in the snow and it was able to collapse and propagate,”

COURTESY OF GALLATIN NATIONAL FOREST AVALANCHE CENTER‌

The avalanche that killed Idaho skier Chris Peterson broke 3 feet deep and was 80 feet wide at the crown and 150 feet wide halfway downhill.

Chris Peterson into some trees Chabot said.

The snow broke 3 feet deep and ran 250 feet downhill, pushing Please see AVALANCHE, Page B6

‌ARCO — In an advisory ballot measure last month, 57 percent of Butte County voters said they supported giving national park status to Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.

Now, a local group that has pushed for the Craters name change for two years hopes the evidence of local support will help finally secure the Merrill Idaho Legislature’s blessing of its proposal.

“This county wants this to happen,” said Helen Merrill, one of the organizers of the national park push.

Advocates say changing Craters from monument to national park would bring a higher tourism profile to the region, drawing more visitors through the struggling rural towns of Arco, Carey and Mackay. Yet there is powerful opposition to the idea, in the form of the Idaho Farm Bureau.

The organization is worried about added federal restrictions under the national park name, including limitations on hauling hay via U.S. 20/26 that passes through the monument.

Merrill, an Arco chiropractor, and another name-change organizer, County Commissioner Rose Bernal, said they are hopeful the Legislature passes a resolution supporting the name change in the coming sesBernal sion. Idaho’s congressional delegation has said it wants state support before taking up the proposal.

Data show “national park” in the name makes a difference.

Three national monuments that changed to national parks since 2003 boosted visitation by an average of 28 percent, according to the National Park Service. Craters has averaged about 200,000 annual visitors in recent decades, and last year reached nearly 250,000.

Craters staff members aren’t allowed to take a public position on the name change. But they previously noted that Craters is rarely on the radar of tourists headed to Yellowstone or Grand Teton national parks. National monuments aren’t always listed in atlases and guidebooks, where national parks are featured prominently.

“People know what a national park is,” Merrill said. “They do not know what a national monument is.”

Despite high hopes, there was no legislative action on a namechange resolution in the last session. In 2015, a resolution passed the Senate but was held up in the House just before the session ended.

Merrill and Bernal say Sen. Jeff Siddoway of Terreton has committed to pushing a resolution in the Senate this year. Siddoway could not be reached for comment.

In the House, Leodore’s Merrill Beyeler was a leading proponent of the name change and sponsored it in 2015. But he was defeated by challenger Dorothy Moon in the May primary. Moon said she was just starting to study the issue and planned to meet with advocates in the coming days.

Merrill and Bernal say they expect to find ample support for the idea in both houses, similar to 2015, and will make regular trips to Boise to discuss the proposal with legislators in the coming weeks.

But Farm Bureau spokesman John Thompson Thompson said the organization and its lobbyists plan to fight the proposal. In the bureau’s annual meeting at the end of last year, and again late last month, delegates from around the state voted to oppose the national park proposal, he said. A primary Please see CRATERS, Page B6

OUTDOORS

B6 | Thursday, December 22, 2016

Times-News

Avalanche From B5

that caused several injuries before burying him under 5 feet of snow.

Don’t trust tracks‌

The report emphasized what Chabot and other avalanche experts have seen too often — tracks on a slope are not an indication of stability, even lots of tracks.

Chabot recalled an avalanche eight years ago on nearby Crown Butte mountain that had “at least 100 tracks on it” when an avalanche broke and buried a snowmobiler.

“It’s all about hitting that right spot,” he said.

The accident report indicated that Chris Peterson was hesitant about skiing the steep slope, which varied from 35 to 43 degrees. Initially, the father and son agreed to dig a pit in the snow to assess how weak it might be.

But after climbing to the top and watching the two other skiers and a snowboarder safely descend, that initial caution was waived.

“We don’t know if digging a pit would have given them the information or not,” Chabot emphasized.

Rescue attempt‌

At its top the avalanche broke 80 feet wide, spreading out to 150 feet as it swept downhill.

Keeping his eyes on his father, Axel Peterson skied to where he’d last seen him and the group quickly organized a beacon search.

“With their skis off, the four had a strenuous time moving because of falling into air pockets between logs,” the GNFAC report said, although not using names to identify those involved. “(Axel Peterson) described falling chest deep in snow to the ground, having to swim out, reorient, and continue searching only to have it happen again. He said ‘it was the most insane thing I’ve ever had to go through … mind-boggling.’”

Within about 15 minutes Chris Peterson was located “wrapped around a tree” with his feet above his head. Attempts to revive him with CPR failed. He is the first avalanche fatality in Montana this season and only one of two to die in avalanches so far this winter.

Craters From B5

concern is that hay transported on the highway through the monument from eastern Idaho farms to Magic Valley dairies might face extra restrictions. Name-change proponents counter that the highway is owned by the state and wouldn’t be affected by a national park designation.

But Thompson points to restrictions placed on U.S. 191 running through Montana and Yellowstone National Park, where he said hay is required to be covered and certified weed-free.

He said there is also distrust about what amendments might be made once a name-change bill hits Congress — possibly introducing some sort of provision that impacts agriculture in or around the park.

Thompson admits the namechange backers have “worked hard” and have a good reason for their efforts. “We believe the folks out there have good intentions in terms of stimulating their economy,” he said.

Merrill said she’s repeatedly tried telling Farm Bureau members that the only change would be in the name. “We’re actually on the same side as you,” she said. “We don’t want something that’s going to manipulate or hurt our farmers or the agriculture in our area.”

“There’s this widespread fear of the government,” Bernal added.

“It’s irrational when it comes to this topic.”

The national park designation would apply only to the original 54,000 acres proclaimed by President Calvin Coolidge in 1924 as a monument. Management of the rest of Craters’ roughly 700,000 acres, expanded by President Bill Clinton in 2000, would remain the same, with hunting and grazing still allowed in certain areas.

Backers are aware name changes have been tried before and failed.

In the late 1980s, then-U.S. Rep. Richard Stallings got so far as to introduce a bill that would have changed the monument’s status to national park. But it didn’t go anywhere — in part due to similar concerns over added federal restrictions raised by hunting and grazing groups.

Still, advocates hope they can finally move a big step closer to “Craters of the Moon National Park” in the next few months, with backing from the Legislature.

“I think the odds are awesome,” Merrill said.

VIRGINIA HUTCHINS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Ski patrollers refreshing their toboggan skills stop partway down a Pomerelle Mountain Resort ski run so the patroller at the handles can switch places with the one on the tail rope.

Pomerelle From B5

minutes it took for a ground ambulance to arrive.

“Doing compressions that long, it’s a lot of work,” Johnson said. Rotating kept them fresh.

At the hospital, Heilesen asked a cardiologist why his chest hurt so much, Pomerelle s p o k e s wo m a n Gretchen Anderson said later.

The cardiologist explained: Your buddies never Johnson stopped working on you until they could load you onto the ambulance.

“For them to bring Marv back was a miracle, or just short of a miracle,” Anderson said. All of the resort’s patrollers, she said, have the same medical training as the six who saved Heilesen. “I couldn’t be more proud of those guys — all of the men and women, because any of them could have done that up there with their skills.”

Heilesen was at home in Rupert, recovering and looking forward to a family Christmas, Anderson reported Dec. 17 as Johnson and his fellow patrollers began another shift.

Soon Heilesen chimed in on the resort’s Facebook page: “Thank you everyone. I am doing great. I miss you all and wish to be back on the hill as soon as possible.”

‘Share what they love’‌

VIRGINIA HUTCHINS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Volunteer ski patrollers ride a Pomerelle Mountain Resort chairlift Dec. 17 to begin a training exercise. on-mountain medical facility the Pomerelle patrol hopes to build.

In the first-aid room in the lodge basement, much of the 10-by-25-foot space is consumed by two beds, a gurney, a stack of portable oxygen tanks and other medical equipment. Add a dozen or so patrollers changing into snow gear, and it’s standing room only.

The patrol facility of their dreams is a two-story building with more beds and with windows, so they can see the weather.

They’re penny-pinching, Johnson said, because they want it so badly.

The biggest cost to patrollers is their time, Studer said. They couldn’t do it without their families’ support.

“I think people do it,” said volunteer Dane Higdem, director of the Pomerelle patrol, “because they want to share what they love.”

Higdem The Pomerelle patrol includes a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, a stay-at-home dad, a CEO, an emergency medical technician and a high school student, for example. Higdem is the health, safety and environmental director for a cheese manufacturer. Johnson is a heavy equipment operator and pipefitter for an irrigation company.

But the ranks aren’t, in general, young.

“We have a graying crisis in the National Ski Patrol,” Higdem said.

Indeed, I saw a lot of gray hair in the patrol room on the morning of Dec. 17. Younger skiers, Johnson said, are less likely to volunteer their time.

Higdem’s 15-year-old son, Finn, has passed the National Ski Patrol’s Outdoor Emergency Care training — with its massive textbook and its $100 test — and is working on his S&T training.

Finn might become a recruitment tool. Higdem hopes Pomerelle’s young skiers and boarders will see his son with the patrol and think it’s cool.

Of the 45 ski patrollers at Pomerelle, only three are paid employees. And the volunteers — relying entirely on donations, their own fundraising and their wallets — buy the nonprofit patrol’s medical supplies, update the rescue equipment and pay for their travel and training.

It’s a costly proposition.

How costly? Johnson put his head together with five or six other patrollers to come up with averages. The expenses of becoming a ski patroller — including books, tests, dues, lift tickets, the patrol jacket and other costs — total about $700, they figured.

That’s in addition to the time required: 180 hours in class and 10 days training on the hill.

To retain National Ski Patrol status, a volunteer must patrol 10 days per season — at Pomerelle, it’s five days and five night-skiing sessions — which costs something like $400 to $500 per year for gas, supplies, dues and the rest. Getting the training to advance to senior status, Johnson said, costs an additional $200 to $500 that year.

Patrollers certified as instructors, like Johnson, meet more often, take more classes and travel more, instead spending something like $1,000 to $1,200 a year to retain their certification.

To raise money, Pomerelle patrollers provide medical support at downhill bicycle races, motocross races and Mini-Cassia’s annual Wake in the Snake wakeboard event, and they help with a ski swap organized by Idaho Water Sports, a major sponsor of the ski patrol.

When she shared the tale of Heilesen’s rescue, Anderson included a plea for donations to The view from a toboggan‌ the ski patrol. Donations can be Even long-time patrollers need designated for the general pa- that annual S&T refresher.

At the top of a ski run dubbed trol fund or to the fund for a new

VIRGINIA HUTCHINS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Inside the small first-aid room at Pomerelle Mountain Resort, Jesse Hess, left, and other volunteer ski patrollers gear up Dec. 17 for a shift on the mountain.

Instructor, Johnson helped me into a toboggan, wrapped its blankets around me and buckled its straps across my legs. In a second toboggan, a patroller played the “patient” role.

Then Johnson — certified by the National Ski Patrol as both an Outdoor Emergency Care and an S&T trainer — reminded the assembled patrollers what he’d look for: The patroller on the toboggan’s handles and the one on the tail rope must stagger their turns so the tail-roper can secure the toboggan if his teammate has trouble on a turn. They must communicate with each other and with the patient, to be sure she’s coherent and understands what’s happening. Even as they turn, they must keep the toboggan sliding straight down the mountain so it doesn’t tip.

Johnson wanted to see the patroller on the handles demonstrate a kick turn. He wanted to see the teammates safely switch positions. He’d watch to see whether the patroller in front kept a hand on each handle.

Lee Barfuss took the handles of my toboggan and Trent Searle the tail rope. A couple of others gave Barfuss a hand getting the slide started, and we headed down, surrounded by an entourage. Out front, Johnson skied backward to watch the team’s performance.

My ride was smooth, straight and efficient, with every move-

VIRGINIA HUTCHINS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Volunteers trained by the National Ski Patrol receive extensive training in emergency care. ment controlled.

Barfuss and Searle switched positions without a hitch, then stopped again to hand off to Studer, the only patroller on a snowboard that day, and Mark Shockey, a patroller with 30 years’ experience. We slid neatly to a stop beside the lift.

It’s not a ride you want to need.

Many skiers and snowboarders enjoy season after season without a medical emergency and never require the ski patrol’s toboggan.

But if you need this ride, I concluded, it’s a safe and professional one.

Even if Studer’s board does kick up a little too much snow for keeping a notebook dry.

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