May 28, 2025 • 67 mins
Frank Rossi's life story reads like a cultural history of American winter recreation. The 80-year-old ski patroller, who joined the National Ski Patrol in 1960 at just 17 years old, shares six decades of memories that span from wooden toboggans to modern rescue equipment, from an era before CPR to today's advanced medical protocols. Note: Recorded at a previous convention, please disregard background noises. (2023)
Stroke Signs: B-E-F-A-S-T method, Balance difficulty, vision changes, facial drooping, arm weakness, speech problems, Time is brain - 911. Call immediately if you suspect someone is having a stroke.
The PNWD History Project: Shirley Cummings, the official history project coordinator, (& all around fabulous lady), has been on a mission: Collect and assemble an archive of stories and pictures from the different ski patrols within the Pacific Northwest Division. Hence, Patroller Chats was born!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jodie (00:11):
This interview was recorded at our annual
convention in 2023.
Frank had suffered a strokeapproximately six months prior.
He wanted to share hisexperience and help educate
others about strokes.
Besides chatting with us on hisamazing history as a patroller,
Frank has made a remarkablerecovery, as strokes can affect
(00:32):
a person's speech, so you maynotice moments where Frank
pauses here or searches forwords True to his spirit.
He didn't let that stop himfrom speaking openly about the
various details that he wentthrough on his stroke and in
general.
Look for that later in theinterview.
For now, let's begin chatting.
(00:52):
Who are we talking to today?
Frank (00:55):
I'm Frank Rossi.
Been on Ski Patrol forever, itseems like Mostly on Stephen's.
You know Snook-Holmick PassRight.
Murphy (01:05):
So, Frank, what's your patrol number or, excuse me,
your NSP number 146-951.
146-951.
Frank (01:13):
That's about 10,000 less than mine.
That was sort of where it'slocated.
The national number is 345.
Three four, five nine.
Three four, five nine.
It's getting getting low.
Murphy (01:31):
No beer off of that one either.
Right, because we all know whatthat happens, all right, so, um
, we're going to ask you the bigquestion, frank when did you
join the national Ski Patrol?
Frank (01:41):
1960, when I was 17 years old.
Jodie (01:45):
Oh, my goodness 1960.
Murphy (01:49):
You want me to do that math.
Jodie (01:52):
I can exactly tell you because it's one year past.
Oh, my goodness gracious,that's 63 years.
Frank (02:00):
Yes, I can still do the arithmetic.
Jodie (02:02):
Well, it's because I was born in 61.
Murphy (02:06):
I'm the spring chicken here.
I am feeling good about myselftoday, born in 1943.
Wow, so you joined at 17.
So, okay, at 17,.
Why did you join the ski patrolat 17?
What prompted you to do that?
Frank (02:21):
I don't really know.
I grew up puget sound andbremerton so that was tough
because I'd have to take theferry across to go to the
meetings right over and then Iwould get over and get somebody
to pick me up on the seattleside to drive me up to
(02:44):
Snoqualmie, and so usually we'dcome up on Friday and spend
Friday night, saturday night,come back on Sunday, so it was a
three-day or Friday night andall Saturday Sundays, and we'd
be skiing also on Saturday night.
And for the grace of a numberof people who would take me up
(03:08):
and take me back, Right.
Murphy (03:09):
So who were the people that picked you up on the other
side, on the Seattle side of theferry, trying to think Were
they personal friends?
Were they?
Students you met Were they skischool buddies?
Oh yeah, personal friends Werethey students you met?
Frank (03:25):
Were they ski school buddies?
Oh yeah, picking up the namenow, but John Hite.
John Hite was predominantly.
He sort of made the adoptiveson of Frank me and a couple
others who would pick us up inthat, and later on after
University of Washington wouldpick us up in that and later on
(03:46):
after the University ofWashington would pick us up and
the university would bring usback up for the weekend and back
.
And it really was.
John Height was reallyinstrumental to us keeping on
Wow.
Murphy (04:01):
So where did you spend the nights?
Do you remember when you werecoming over?
Frank (04:16):
Were you spending the nights up at the mountain?
Yet John Hite and others RVswould take a toboggan down to
his cabin with a keg of barrelfor Saturday night in the snow
(04:39):
and we'd sleep there and comeback.
And Gary was very important tonot let him burn his house,
that's an important thing.
He did not drink as much beeras some of the others did.
Jodie (04:54):
So when did you start skiing?
What age were you?
Frank (04:57):
I was 14 and really got started with a little bit Boy
Scouts and then high schoolskate club, take the bus over to
over both Snoqualmie and overin Stevens and have to get back,
(05:18):
get the boat back across theother side and then I don't
really figure out how I startedthe S-Nquamie, but somehow I'm
involved in it, right.
Murphy (05:34):
So you were over there in S-Nquamie and you are, you
Alpine Nordic.
What kind of controller are you?
Frank (05:41):
I was Alpine until about 12 years ago.
I changed over to Nordic Idon't have to run the toboggans
down the hill and so I startedout with Summit Snoqualmie,
which is now called West Right,and after college I went to
(06:02):
officer with NOAA and so I wason east.
So so two years I was up at, uh, blue knob middle, sort of
middle of pennsylvania yeah, and, and that was a long drive and
it was funny one because it was.
it used to be a nike message,and so it's.
(06:23):
You know, on the top you skidown and come back up to the top
and then oh, that's right.
Murphy (06:31):
Yes, I've heard about that.
Frank (06:33):
I went back on you know West Coast and you know I was
able to get my duties in beforegoing back in the sea, duties in
and before going back and see,and then afterwards I was in
liberty ski, which is on thesouth side of pennsylvania, so
there was close, close a ridefrom there and, uh, don't
(06:58):
particularly like east coast.
Murphy (07:00):
machine made ice that's what I was going to ask.
Tell us about the snow backeast.
Is it really as hard as theysay?
Frozen, you know?
Basically a sheet of ice thatyou're skiing on.
Frank (07:11):
It can be, and you don't want to ever go where the snow
is putting too much water intoit, and so you go through the
snow and it's sort of wet andyou come out the other side and
it's solid.
You can't move, it sticks tothe bottom of your skis.
Oh really, oh yeah.
If you run through thatessentially frozen water.
(07:35):
As soon as you hit off the wet,you stop oh you're going to
Superman.
Murphy (07:41):
Oh Lord.
So okay, you've patrolled at.
Frank (07:45):
Uh what one, two, three, four ski areas, yeah, probably
yeah, and somewhere afterwards Iretired from noah and so, uh,
89, right, I went back to Westnow they call it and to
(08:15):
politicians and cliques Idecided I'm going to move down
to Hayek.
The family ski area.
Yeah, it's the old-style smallski area and I like that Right
small ski area and I like thatright and, uh, I like some of
the others around.
Instead of the big big skied, alot of, uh, colorado and that,
and I like the little ones rightso hayek isn't open as much as
(08:38):
east and west, or, excuse me,west and central.
Murphy (08:42):
No, it's only, yeah, it's only open on the weekends,
isn't it?
Frank (08:45):
still, the Nordic is on Friday, right and Nordic and
Alpine on Saturday and Sundayalso, so I go.
There's only a few Nordics onSaturday, which is nice, and
unfortunately we open up thedoor on Friday and have to
(09:08):
shovel out the door because it'ssnowed in all since Sunday
night, right fall or prior week.
Murphy (09:19):
So you get a lot of patrollers from Central.
I know that Nordic patrollersthat go over and you guys patrol
together out in the backcountryand all the trails.
Frank (09:29):
Well, there's a little bit of that At Central.
A lot of them only do halftheir duty on Nordic, where
those who are Nordic out ofHayek are full time Really.
So when we do 24 days or 20days of Nordic, it's 24
(09:53):
eight-hour days, whereas itcould be only half those days
hours from the central.
So a little difference.
Oh yeah, Somebody telling thetale and I don't have to come
back in and be in the first aidroom whereas the Central.
You know, go out in the morningwhat have you?
(10:14):
And go down to.
They have cooking for lunch atCentral.
And that's nice it is, it'spretty posh over there.
I can say and that's nice it is, it's pretty posh over there.
Jodie (10:26):
I can say, and they don't return.
Murphy (10:28):
Kitchens multiple kitchens.
Yeah it is pretty good.
So you were 14 years old whenyou started skiing.
You've been going for 63 years.
In that 63-year time you musthave gotten some awards.
Yeah, a few too many.
A few too many, few too many,probably not enough.
So why don't you tell us someof the awards that you've gotten
over the years?
Frank (10:49):
well, the uh, the, the strongest service, maturus
service award, national oceanoutstanding for nordic oh,
fantastic and and then DivisionNordic for twice.
I guess they just got it lastyear.
Yeah, I was going to say,didn't you?
Murphy (11:10):
get that last year or the year before.
Frank (11:12):
Blue Merit Star Green Merit Star Green.
Jodie (11:16):
Yellow.
We've got to back up here.
Frank (11:17):
Twice, but there actually should be a three.
Oh, we're going to get thatstory Because they don't know it
.
Oh what?
Oh, we're going to get thatstory because they don't know it
.
See, in the old days, you knowI have a NSP number.
Now, old days you didn't have aconstant.
When you moved to a new areathey changed your numbers each
time.
So it started out with you knowthe first part, you know PO,
(11:42):
2,8 and then consecutive.
So I went back to you knowPO-28, and then consecutive,
right, so I went back toPennsylvania so that changed
different.
Oh, so you're talking about.
And then I come back, itchanges again.
And I go back there, it changesagain.
So the last six-digit onlystarted somewhere later.
Jodie (11:59):
Are you talking about the P as in the individual patrol?
Yeah, about the P as in theindividual patrol.
Frank (12:05):
The NSP would not give you a continue, originally a
permanent number, and so theearly in that summer, probably
around.
Jodie (12:20):
Some year 69.
Frank (12:22):
They had.
We had a teaching for newcandidates, right yeah, john
Height and I we had somethinglike 70 candidates, 70?
, 70.
Zero.
Because when Crystal started,just all of the nationals and
(12:52):
the sort of senior moved toCrystal, and so we had a few
Okay so 71.
Jodie (13:03):
How many instructors would you say you had helping
out in that?
Just two of us.
Murphy (13:07):
Oh my goodness, gracious Two and 70 students.
Frank (13:10):
Yeah.
Murphy (13:12):
I hope you had a lot of doctors and nurses in that class
.
Frank (13:15):
Well, in the old days Ned Clark joined patrol when I
did patrol.
Uh, joined patrol when I didpatrol and he was the old doctor
who actually went out and didall of the uh that he ran the
toboggans and before they hadsnowmobiles.
(13:37):
Uh, ned, and I have hauledacross the level the sleds back.
So the old days some of thedocks were just alpine.
Oh, the docks were alpine yeah,they did everything we did.
Murphy (13:57):
I haven't seen that these days.
Not anymore, no, no anymore.
Frank (14:11):
No, no, the uh, that's much different.
Murphy (14:12):
The uh, the physician you know, the physicians have
been really great though overthe years, right, oh yeah, the
educational.
Frank (14:15):
And you know I've enjoyed with those people and,
like ned, all the years he wason.
He always, always.
You know why did he be on SkiPatrol?
He said, well, I go to theseother meetings and it's all
physicians and they're the samething and I go here I see real
(14:35):
people.
There's people who you knowdriving, you know rig operations
, you know Boeing ContinentalCan, et cetera.
The experience with all theother people he liked that and I
think that's part of the SkiPatrol is all the different
(14:56):
people.
Jodie (14:56):
Interesting.
Murphy (14:58):
We were just talking about that this afternoon, yep,
about meeting other people thatthey're different, their other
hat that they wear on a fulltime basis yeah, and it's you
know, the camaraderie andeverything that you get when you
come to like these meetings andthe convention where you get to
see people out of.
They're all patrollers, theyall come from different
(15:20):
backgrounds different skills.
Frank (15:24):
Big plus is the different skill.
You know that come to it andyou know that's important having
the different experience.
Murphy (15:34):
Right, no, I agree.
So I'm going to ask you herewhat does the phrase service and
safety since 1938 mean to you?
That's our national code, creedas we call it.
Frank (15:51):
Well, it really started the need for helping people off
the skills and that and theydidn't have that before 38.
Yep, and that's probably themost important.
And that mean first aid Rightand how to move them.
(16:17):
And in those days it wasdifficult.
You know, there were nosnowmobiles, there were no
groomers.
Murphy (16:28):
How'd you like to do those moguls?
No, thank you.
Frank (16:31):
After a month there was no radio.
Jodie (16:36):
How was the communication ?
Oh yeah, no radio.
Frank (16:38):
That you've been told, because obviously you weren't
there In the old days with thelifts they had a crank phone at
the bottom, a phone up at thetop so you could call from the
bottom to the top and that wasthe only communications and the
other probably different thanthese days they really, really
(17:01):
watched riding up and did asmuch patrolling climbing up on
the lift.
Because you're observing thatYears ago Becky Aldrich and
Chuck, there at Snoqualmie theyhad more carrying on the
(17:25):
toboggans because he was, youknow, watching and uh, instead
of just writing up, they wereactually patrolling washing up
and that's a big one I was goingto say if you had the phone
call.
Jodie (17:39):
Well, somewhere I was going up the mountain on the
chairlift and saw this personhollering for help.
I don't't know how many littleyou know towers did you pass by.
Frank (17:49):
I have no clue.
They put the number if you'reseeing it going up oh the tower
number.
But they don't put it on thebackside.
So when you're skiing down youcan't see the number.
It helps if you're dyslexic.
Take a look at that.
Murphy (18:05):
No, it going up, oh the tower number, but they don't put
it on the backside, so whenyou're skiing down you can't see
the number.
Yeah, it helps if you'redyslexic.
Take a look at that.
No, it is true.
Frank (18:09):
When you say number, you know 13 and you're skiing down.
You can't see any numbers fromthe top down.
Take a look at that.
Jodie (18:18):
I never noticed that yeah .
Murphy (18:28):
It funny because we're doing sweep and you have like
wave off points and you're liketrying to count towers and
you're looking at going cash andif you come into a spot and
you're not like a low rise andyou pass where you're supposed
to do your wave off.
Yeah, you don't want to belooking over your shoulder to
see what the number was oops,that could be a little rough,
all right, so you know, let'stalk about hayek for a sec,
because you've been there forages and ages.
So we talked to Shirley and shewas in one of our chats and she
(18:49):
told us that that was the oldtraining ground for the Olympic
ski jump years and years ago.
Frank (18:55):
Oh yeah.
Murphy (18:56):
So when you were there in 1963, what was Hayek like?
Frank (19:00):
I wasn't on those at that time but I know about it
and some of the pictures andthat you know they had real ski
jumping and in the old days inthe 30s up to World War II, they
got off from Seattle and theytook the train up and got off
there and skied and then trainswould bring them back down
(19:26):
because the road was not good.
Okay, Whoa.
And that there at Hayakanova, atSnoqualmie Summit, there's off
the top of Thunderbird there wasa jump and there was a jump off
(19:49):
of that one that has now beentrees filled up.
Those were big and there wasbig jumping used to be in
Leavenworth.
Murphy (20:00):
Oh, I didn't know that, yeah.
Frank (20:02):
And there still might be a small, but there's big
jumping out at Leavenworth.
Murphy (20:07):
So they had like a ski area at Leavenworth.
Jodie (20:09):
Yeah, they do.
Even I know this shocking.
Frank (20:15):
Even I knew that I didn't know that how long so
that was in the 60s, 50s jumpingwas super in, you know, the
late 30ss and probably up tomaybe early 50s, I would think,
and there was a lot of jumping.
Murphy (20:34):
Wow, yeah, not like the jumping we have now.
Where those kids do you knowtheir aerobatics as they're
going through it?
They were just going fordistance in those days.
So how many runs did Hayek haveback in the old days in the 60s
?
Frank (20:51):
I don't really know the numbers, hayek, there was only a
couple three.
Well, they originally had achair that went up and over.
The chair, continuous, went upover the top and down the other
side so they could come back upout of the coming back out.
(21:12):
It was a run around Right anduntil it broke apart and had to
only go up one way, right Beforethey didn't have the backside,
you know, one way, right beforethey didn't have the backside uh
, but eight, ten years ago theybuilt a a backside lift now and
they replaced it to one thatactually runs faster yeah, so I
(21:36):
gotta this is kind of a littleside story, but you made me
think about this number runs.
Murphy (21:41):
What is the story of the water tank that looks like a
Rainier beer can?
Frank (21:45):
Yeah, well, it really had an Oli label on it.
And it was sort of I don't knowhow it was done, why it did,
but it did, and it was a littleconsternation with the Catholic
(22:06):
over there chapel at West,because you know a little bit.
That's that.
So officially they sort ofmoved the, the emblem, but uh,
so wait a minute.
Murphy (22:21):
This thing started in West and was shipped over to
Hyatt.
No, no, no.
Frank (22:26):
The tank was there all the time but the chapel was over
at West and they were being.
They didn't like to look at thebeer can for the water tank
Right and the old for old tanks.
The Roman Catholic would comeup for the water tank and the
(22:48):
old day for old tanks.
The Roman Catholic would comeup for the chapel and he had his
ski boots on his.
Murphy (22:56):
Wait a minute, so the priest would have his ski boots
on, as he was doing.
Frank (22:59):
Oh yeah, as soon as the chapel was done that Saturday
morning, then he was out skiing.
Jodie (23:05):
Wearing his boots during the service.
Frank (23:07):
All right, oh yeah, yeah , there's some dedicated people.
Murphy (23:12):
Yeah, that's very true.
So do you know who painted that?
Frank (23:15):
It is the only— no, it was before me.
I don't know who did it.
Murphy (23:18):
So it was like in the 450s it had to be, it had to be.
Frank (23:20):
Because I joined in 60.
So about then that was thefirst time I ever saw it.
It was there, so it's beenthere a long time.
Murphy (23:30):
And has it ever been repainted?
Because I mean, what's amazingis?
You can still see it.
It's plain as day.
Yeah, sort of.
Yeah, it faded a little bit,but still, I mean, if you're
talking about 50, 60, 70, yearsWow, wow.
Wow, that is amazing.
All right, a little side note.
So what did they do to getpeople down off the mountain
when you first started there inthe 60s?
(23:53):
I mean, we've got our new fancysleds that we have, you know,
like our Cascades.
What?
Frank (23:59):
were you guys using?
It was the old what they calledthe Sun Valley, which is a wood
toboggan with a wire stokesconnected onto it.
Murphy (24:10):
Okay, and they were heavy.
Oh, I bet.
Frank (24:12):
And I don't know how I did it in those days, but at the
storing them up, at the end ofthe day they were had a rack
rack, three racks, oh mygoodness, and I only weighed 145
when I graduated high schooland about 155 college, and then
(24:35):
I could have put them up theretoday.
Murphy (24:37):
No, that's crazy.
So steel, because we're nottalking aluminum they're heavy
steel stokes baskets withprobably oak runners.
Frank (24:47):
Oh yeah, Oak toboggan would have you.
Jodie (24:50):
What do you think they weighed?
Murphy (24:52):
Oh several hundred pounds.
Frank (24:53):
I don't know.
Go over to Central and unhookthat one and see how much it
weighs.
They were heavy.
There's one up on the walloutside.
Jodie (25:03):
You go unhook that.
Oh, not me, not me.
Murphy (25:07):
The older I get, the more sensible I get, and I
realize I just wouldn't be ableto do that.
Okay, so we talked a little bitabout toboggans.
They didn't have radios so youcouldn't really call.
You had the phone system thatwas you called.
Frank (25:22):
Only from bottom to top.
Murphy (25:23):
Yeah, bottom to the top and you kind of ring it.
It's like an old ship's phoneto get ahold of somebody.
Frank (25:29):
I'm still amazed how a call went out.
But it was really fun in theold days because they were we
could do things we can't dotoday.
Jodie (25:41):
Oh do tell oh, oh, oh, do tell, wait a minute, this might
be, we'll be back at the oldthunderbird lift there at uh
west.
Frank (25:51):
Uh well, at the end of the day, people would go down
and sweep down and they had acouple people stay on top and
when, when they completed thesweep, then we could come down,
which means we took it in a tuck.
Jodie (26:14):
Oh, I had a feeling he was going to say that Straight
straight.
Frank (26:18):
And yeah.
Murphy (26:21):
How do you straight line that?
Is it changed?
Because the terrain now isyou've got those cat tracks that
are cut in.
Frank (26:27):
There was one that got off the lift and it was stand
there and they said we could go.
It was skate, skate, skate,make around the corner and get
in the tuck and it was steeperportion and then if you go down
there, there's an old railroadlevel, so it comes down and
(26:50):
there's a little flat down.
And you had to do a perfectpre-jump, or if you got
catapulted off the old railroad,you would be overflown the
slope and hit the flat below it,and that was bad, bad, bad.
Murphy (27:10):
Oh, because I'm sure it was flat when you landed.
Frank (27:13):
No, you were gone.
So we estimated that averagespeed was at least 50 miles an
hour, and so the terminal at thebottom was something higher,
and in 64-bot head competitiondownhill skis 210 centimeters,
(27:43):
and that was pretty standardwith most of our pros, not pros
there the volunteers there wewere on competition downhill.
Murphy (27:53):
Frank, you were on 210s I am 6'5" and I used to ski 205s
in that version ski.
Jodie (28:00):
And Frank, how tall are you?
Frank (28:04):
Oh, 5'8" down to just under 5'7 now.
Oh, you must have been flyingWell.
First, before that ski, I got a205 wood Kniezel slalom and
then I got the downhills.
And then I got the downhillsand the first run it was on
(28:35):
evening.
I made no turns until I got tothe bottom and I said I have to
initiate a turn.
The old days you really had toinitiate turns on those and I
have to really initiate thisturn.
The old days you really had toinitiate turns on those and I
have to really initiate thisturn, but they were, in that era
, a really good ski because theydidn't groom them and so the
(29:03):
downhill had a very flexiblefront.
Third, and the back-thirds wasa railroad tie.
It was stiff and you could getway back on the skis and never
dump on the back.
They would support you foreveron the back.
(29:24):
They would support you forever.
And in the old days I went upthe blue knob.
Somebody went underneath theline skiing down.
I just went through it and puta tuck and caught him, up to him
and stopped him, and I could dothat in the old days, not
anymore.
Jodie (29:42):
Oh my goodness, go ahead.
So I heard you say that you hada green and a blue merit star.
What can you tell us about that?
I forget exactly what they were.
It's okay, and for other peoplethat might be listening.
A green star is for rescue,correct?
Frank (30:00):
the one was probably with the search and rescue group
and I had an unfortunate inBellevue a attempt to save a
life.
Jodie (30:17):
It's okay.
It's alright, frank, we canjust pause here.
Still bothers.
A woman ran into a was a caraccident yeah, the worker, the
(30:39):
flagger right hit him oh, theyhit a flagger, that's too bad,
so I was the first one there.
Frank (30:52):
Oh, you were.
Jodie (30:56):
Why were you able to be there for him?
Frank (31:00):
It still bothers me, probably never will.
Murphy (31:06):
Yep, yeah, it still bothers.
Probably never will.
Yep, and we were talking aboutthat today, about how long those
incidents last and when you'rea first responder, just how
tough that is.
You bring that baggage with youand it is hard and that's why
being a patroller sometimes isreally tough and you've got to
be able to talk to your friendsand talk to your fellow
patrollers and you've got to beable to have that psychological
(31:28):
first aid when you do thatresponse, because it's it is
tough.
Frank, I'm glad you were there.
Frank (31:38):
I started first aid equipment.
I started before there was anEMS around before EMS around,
started before EMS.
Murphy (31:48):
Oh, that's right, you'd call 911 and get a dial tone.
You don't get what.
Frank (31:51):
I'm saying In the old days, in the early 60s, okay, if
you had an ambulance, it washours of the hearse.
Murphy (32:01):
Yes, no, you're right, you're actually right, you're a
driver and nobody, nobody uh aid.
Frank (32:07):
You know, first aid person yeah, so if we had a
problem uh one of the, was itusually uh one of the.
I was a pro that one year right, yeah 64, so you'd ride as the
aid transfer.
And glad they're not.
(32:28):
And he probably had a littledrinking before he drove the
hearse slash.
Jodie (32:34):
This is very true.
I mean, this is how it all gotstarted.
I mean, really, it's amazing,it is absolutely amazing.
Murphy (32:41):
You're literally EMS.
You're calling up EMS and thehearse shows up with a
half-cropped driver and maybesomebody there with you.
Frank (32:51):
We had to supply somebody to ride down with them,
right, because there was nobodyelse, there was just the driver
.
Jodie (32:58):
I think I'd rather be the driver going down myself, but
oh my goodness, I'm laughing sohard I'm crying.
Murphy (33:07):
That would not be reassuring to have the first
show up after oec.
Frank (33:09):
It wasn't a red cross advanced advanced first aid,
first aid and I was aninstructor and, uh, early on and
the as in bremerton with kitsapcounty right and the red cross,
there was really good lockwhere I can still remember his
name, miz.
And before two, three weeksbefore they did it, they gave an
(33:33):
introduction that CPR wascoming in and actually did
teaching CPR.
Yeah, this is what's coming.
And so a couple years later itnationally accepted CPR.
Murphy (33:50):
So you started patrolling before there was CPR.
Frank (33:54):
Oh, yeah, oh wow, holger , neal, sylvester and the other
manual ones which I don't like.
Murphy (34:06):
Out goes, the bad air in goes the good air.
Frank (34:08):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, You've been there.
You read the old book.
Jodie (34:11):
So I happen to know this answer, but I'm going to pick on
Murph here.
Oh, no you said that your otherjob, your other hat, was with
NOAA, and I personally happen toknow what that stands for,
because I have a niece that wasnoah now there's murphy, isn't
(34:32):
it?
Murphy (34:32):
national oceanographic and atmospheric association
administration, administration,yeah that's close enough.
Frank (34:40):
That's a lot long, long one.
Noah's much easier to, yes, andthere's a small one.
Noaa is much easier to do.
Jodie (34:43):
Yes, it is.
Frank (34:44):
And there's a small commission officer and many
civilian and I was one of thethere was when I joined.
It was like 270 officers In thewhole NOAA.
Yeah, and it went up to about215.
(35:09):
And right after I retired, gorereduced the and the only thing
it reduced was the NOAA officercore.
It went back down to about 300,and I don't know what it is now
.
Murphy (35:25):
So when you say Gore, you're talking Al Gore.
Frank (35:27):
Yeah.
Murphy (35:27):
Oh, al Gore, Mr Environmental, yeah, let's whack
NOAA, they don't do anything.
Frank (35:32):
Well, the president said , you know, reduce the
government.
And the only thing that gotreduced was the NOAA officer.
Jodie (35:39):
But that's part of the Commission Corps, but they are
the part of the military andcorrect me if I'm wrong.
I had to do a little bit ofresearch when my niece was in
that, but they are.
There's the US Coast Guard andit's not an offshoot of it but
it's affiliated with the USCoast Guard, correct?
Frank (36:00):
Well, actually there's two terms.
There's uniformed Okay, there'suniformed Right.
Jodie (36:06):
That's right.
Frank (36:07):
Which encovers seven, maybe eight now We've got the
space one coming in Right.
And then there's the military.
Well, we don't shoot, so thetwo that are not military of the
uniformed is public healthservice.
(36:27):
There used to be like 5,000 ofthem and they could be engineers
plus physicians and all that.
And then the NOAA officer andit dated back for surveying to
make the cartographers, you know, on the coast.
And with the later on, noahbecame so the weather service
(36:52):
there and others that so goodfisheries and so we're.
They would be in a lot ofdifferent things.
Okay, I spent most of minerelated with the surveying and
sub-oceanography.
That's awesome Out of 22 years,spent seven of them on ships.
Murphy (37:14):
Wow, like how long did you go out to sea each time?
Jodie (37:19):
I know now it's currently about two years, and then
you're inland about two,depending on what job.
There's two things You'reassigned to a ship for about two
years and then you're inlandabout two, depending on what job
?
Frank (37:25):
Well, there's two things .
You're assigned to a ship formaybe two years, but the longest
I was out was five or sixmonths before I come back to the
home port.
Okay, and there was a differentship that went down to
Antarctic, so they were goneseven months and back to Seattle
.
Another one followed up it wasnine, seven months and back to
Seattle.
Another one followed up it wasnine months over and back.
(37:48):
So that's a long ways from homeand it's not like the tropics.
Jodie (37:55):
I was going to say it's not the tropics.
Frank (37:57):
And you need to get some place to put the gas in the
ship, Right and the smaller ones.
You got it every two weeks.
We could do almost 30 days, butyou were really going empty.
Jodie (38:14):
Were you to the Antarctica.
Frank (38:16):
I didn't.
I got down to Tahiti.
Murphy (38:23):
Oh, you stopped off at Tahiti.
You had to warm up.
Yeah, we knew Frank was.
Yeah, Frank's smart Tahiti.
Jodie (38:25):
Oh, you stopped off at Tahiti.
He had to warm up.
Yeah, we knew.
Murphy (38:26):
Frank was, yeah, Frank's smart Tahiti Easter.
Frank (38:30):
Yeah, easter Island, and I went through the Panama to
Gulfport Not fun, but we had todo some equipment for a project
over Barbados and I ended up,during that long project, lived
(38:50):
on Barbados for a month, whichwas pretty good.
Murphy (38:56):
Yeah, the Caribbean for a month Did you get well
acquainted with rum while youwere there.
Frank (39:02):
It's pretty inexpensive, oh.
Murphy (39:03):
I'm sure it is, and there's quite a few make it
inexpensive.
Frank (39:05):
Oh, I'm sure it is.
Murphy (39:11):
And there's quite a few make it there.
Frank (39:13):
Oh, this is awesome.
Our pirate Frankie, he's gotthe rum, and they taught them
all how to make their drinks forthe inns and motels, and so
they were very, very good.
Murphy (39:33):
Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure that, yeah, that is the land of
Rome.
So we're going to change topicsjust for a little bit.
Frank (39:40):
The one thing I miss from the early days is like the
Snoqualmie Pass four areas Right.
Don't have we used to call itjunior, the young people.
Murphy (39:53):
Oh yeah, the junior ski patrol.
You have to be at least 18.
They're trying to get it back18.
Frank (39:57):
And I really miss those and they were fun, they were
great, and I look at this.
So many people young, they'relooking for something to do.
Murphy (40:09):
Yeah, I was going to ask you about demographics because
you've been around a while.
What you know?
Frank (40:14):
the age range of patrollers that you see now at
HIAC you know, from started tonow, I would say in the last
five years, we've gotten morerelatively younger and on our
nordic we've got a couple fairlyyounger people really and uh,
surprisingly older now.
(40:35):
But uh, one of our really goodguys is a semi-retired physician
from ellensburg who is reallygood on the skis.
We had a couple of young ladieswho were under 40.
Jodie (40:55):
When you started, would you say the age range of the
average patroller?
What would you say that was?
Frank (41:03):
I mentioned that we had like 70 candidates.
They were predominantly juniors.
Murphy (41:14):
Uh-oh, Whose phone is that Frank?
Jodie (41:16):
is that your?
Murphy (41:16):
phone.
See, he is popular.
Frank (41:18):
He is my boss, but she's telling me where I'm at.
Murphy (41:24):
All right, hold on All right.
Hold on All right.
Frank's boss just called.
So Mrs Rossi is.
Frank (41:32):
She spent the week or the day with her brother up at
Spokane, up in the hill oh nice,and he's had some medical
problems and so we'll go overtomorrow.
Murphy (41:49):
Right.
Frank (41:50):
And spend the day with them and that, and we're going
to spend the night Saturdaynight or Sunday night here and
drive back on Monday.
Jodie (41:59):
Oh, wow.
Frank (42:01):
You made it a weekend.
Murphy (42:02):
Go ahead.
Jodie (42:02):
You were telling us that out of that, 71 in the class,
that age group, what was that?
Frank (42:10):
I would say it was.
I would say it was Easilytwo-thirds junior.
You're kidding.
Murphy (42:17):
Like below 25 oh yeah.
Under 18.
Frank (42:21):
Oh, under 18?
Junior was under 18, so it was16 to 18, which we don't have
anymore.
Murphy (42:25):
No, Under 18.
Oh, under 18?
Yeah, junior was under 18.
Frank (42:27):
So it was 16 to 18, which we don't have anymore.
No, and too bad, because I lookat like the ISAR, search and
rescue, huge, huge training forthose people and they're looking
for something to do and I thinkthat was with also the junior
(42:55):
that those days for the escapepatrol is something they're at
age.
Hold on a second.
Murphy (42:59):
Okay, frank, so go ahead , continue on.
You were saying you had half ofyour initial recruiting class
out of 70 people, most of themwere, uh, juniors, and when you
mean juniors, you mean juniorsthey had a.
Frank (43:14):
Generally they had a lower uh uh heights.
You know it's lower and for thejuniors and generally the top
ones were more the senior butthey had the New Year's was a
little too endived for the olderguys and so the next day the
(43:43):
juniors had to patrol the top.
Murphy (43:46):
Oh, oh.
So that's why you recruited thejuniors, so after New Year's
you would have some coverage onthe hill and we had to.
Frank (43:59):
it used to be Beaver Lake, it was not run is on under
skied normally that and soeverybody had to go there.
It's like the first day youcould ski that, everybody fall
(44:20):
over literally.
Yeah, that's deep, deep andevery of that.
That wasn't that difficult.
We're going back and do itagain and the second time.
Oh, that's okay.
Murphy (44:32):
So isn't Beaver Lake the lake that's like behind Central
?
No?
Frank (44:36):
this is west, You've got Thunderbird and there's a
little pond down below RightBetween.
You've got the old days at west, you've got Thunderbird, and
then they had the other heappeak a little lower and right
between that was a little pondcalled Beaver Lake.
(44:58):
I wouldn't call it a lake.
It probably gets you up to yourbelly button.
Murphy (45:05):
Because I think we've actually had to do some search
stuff back there where peoplehave gone back sort of just
pre-dusk and then they didn'tmake it back, and so we had to
send in Nordic people withheadlamps and flashlights
whatever to go search?
Yeah, so I'm pretty sure I knowwhat you're talking about.
(45:25):
So let me see what else.
What kind of special activitiesdid the mountain do when you
were, you know, first startingthere?
Was there anything that theydid to attract the public?
Have fun.
That they don't do now.
Or they do more now than theydid then.
Frank (45:45):
More so now because they will do music things Right.
That for those particularlyover east Right and that for
those particularly over eastthat do that.
They have some big adventuresnear where the Oli tank, you
(46:09):
know water tank there, the big,beer can they have?
You know, have big, big thingsfor uh, uh, ski board, uh,
jumping in that, that, oh okay.
And there's another group.
I amaze what they call the skiboards snowboard or a ski board.
(46:30):
This is like a Snowboard or aski board.
Murphy (46:33):
This is like a skateboard.
Oh, I know what you're talkingabout.
Frank (46:35):
It's got a ski underneath it, yes, and you only
have a leash and you just standon the board and you go and you
better be good and whateverhappens happens.
And I have no idea how I coulddo that.
Try and they just go.
Yeah, how I could do that.
Try and they just go.
Yeah.
It's just like a skateboardwith a ski underneath instead of
(46:57):
the wheels and you just jump onthe top of it and away you go.
Murphy (47:00):
Oh, I've seen those things and, yes, you're right,
they are crazy.
Frank (47:04):
Oh, more than crazy.
Those guys just do whatever.
Murphy (47:06):
Because it's like a skateboard, you know, in powder
or in the hard pack, I in powderor in the hard pack.
I mean they're all groomersthat they're going to run and
they are some crazy peoplebecause you see them hitting
those jumps on the side.
They spend a lot of time on theside of the run.
Frank (47:20):
I don't imagine.
Yeah, it's amazing.
Murphy (47:28):
So we're going to change topics just for a little bit,
for a second.
So I don't know if folks know,but Frank wound up having a
stroke.
How long ago was that?
Frank (47:36):
I had a stroke in February 8th.
Murphy (47:39):
February 8th of this year, so that's about six months
ago, and you can tell byFrank's voice that he is doing
incredibly well.
So you know, strokes are one ofthe things that we wound up
dealing with.
So, frank, tell us I guess youknow from the symptoms and what
you experienced what happenedand then how you got to recover
(48:01):
so fast, because not everybodyis that fortunate.
Frank (48:04):
Well, it's good that somebody observed that I was not
right and so got up, sort ofyou know progressive.
I got my oatmeal and got backin my chair and first of all I
(48:31):
couldn't get the button in thebuttonhole on my shirt because
the stroke is affecting one sideof you, and so I really
couldn't manipulate it right.
And then the brain was havingit.
I couldn't figure out how toget my password in there.
(48:54):
Oh, on your computer, yeah, onthe computer, flipped it up,
couldn't get it Password Icouldn't.
I was just you know dumb.
I knew it wasn't right andfortunately my wife got up a
little earlier than normal andshe sort of figured stumbling
around sitting there and I saiddumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, and she
(49:23):
woke up on what my problem wasand called 911.
So from the EMS, somehow Ihelped walk down the stairs.
Jodie (49:35):
Oh, my goodness.
Frank (49:37):
And I have no remember of that part walking out and so
from where we lived to Bellevueover Lake Hospital probably
would take me normally 15minutes to my place of the house
hospital.
(49:57):
I think the paramedics probablyput me under before up and suck
out the clots up in your brain,right.
Murphy (50:22):
So they went into like the femoral artery and then all
the way up and they used avacuum, sucked out that clot.
Frank (50:28):
And it was a major stroke.
And it was a major stroke Right.
And two days later I couldessentially walk around the
hospital the next day, threedays, walk around up and down
the steps and sent me home threedays later.
Down the steps and sent me homethree days later.
Murphy (51:00):
And I could, physical, be 100%.
So in how many days you wereback to walking around A week
Okay, I was a little cautionlessI did.
Frank (51:12):
End of March, okay, I did three or four Nordic patrols
.
Murphy (51:18):
This is post, Post oh my goodness.
Frank (51:25):
And so no problem with physical.
I could do everything.
Jodie (51:30):
physical, the muscle was all working Perfect.
Frank (51:33):
Perfect that and for the stroke it was major.
I was not going to.
If they didn't suck out theclots, I'd be in a lot of
problems.
Had memory of certain words andgetting sentence connected
(51:53):
Right and some work with thespeech person and that, and it's
big part two things to recoverfrom the speak is don't be
inhibited, don't talk about itand having more experiences.
Murphy (52:17):
Right, so don't be self-conscious about having
speech issues.
You just got to push through it.
Is that what you're saying?
Frank (52:21):
and from day one I was very that way, okay, and the
typical is to be closed.
You're inhibited, right, anddon't do that, just write up,
tell it.
I had a stroke, yep, and I'mworking on it and it's getting
(52:43):
much better and the experienceis different people doing
different things, yeah, andreading of anything.
Murphy (52:52):
Oh really.
Frank (52:53):
Yeah, reading, because that's words.
Murphy (52:55):
Okay.
Frank (52:56):
I could read pretty well , speaking it more difficult
initially, and so read, read,read, read.
I could actually, I think,still at the hospital before I
came home a couple days later, Iwas doing Sudoku.
Jodie (53:21):
Oh, my goodness.
Murphy (53:23):
You're ahead of me, I still don't do.
Frank (53:24):
Sudoku I'm always you know, poor on remembering names.
I always have been.
And numbers Want numbers Right,and I could do those and that,
(53:44):
and so we came back from thehospital on Saturday.
On Sunday afternoon it was timeto fill out the long thing from
the CPA and I've always donethat.
Before Kathy, my wife, hadnever done the CPA stuff.
Murphy (54:03):
What is a CPA?
It's like, are you talkingtaxes?
Frank (54:06):
Yeah, oh, okay, and so I was coaching her the CPA
questions and answers 1040 thatyou're trying to do All of that
stuff.
After the CPA I was teaching mywife how to do that.
Murphy (54:25):
I wonder how heartless the IRS would be if you said hey
, I just had a stroke, Can I getlike a little delay?
Yeah, I don't think so.
Frank (54:33):
I did that on Saturdayurday night, that's
incredible or the next day Imoved money from, I paid off my
visa, made that over to thecheck on that and I could do.
Murphy (54:49):
But don't ask me to talk too much at that time, but I
could do so your cognitiveawareness and ability.
It was still there.
The stroke just affected thespeech area of your brain.
Frank (55:02):
And the physical One of the things in the doctor
checking out is can I make asimple complete sentence?
Jodie (55:13):
Yes.
Frank (55:14):
And can you do a complete sense?
Write one out, right, and okay,I could do that, okay, and some
of the exercises checking out.
And then the other thing, thebeginning is okay, hold me.
What's this object?
Do you recognize?
It's a cup.
Murphy (55:31):
Do you?
Frank (55:31):
recognize it's a pair of scissors.
Can you recognize things?
No problem.
Do you recognize it's a pair ofscissors?
You know this.
Can you recognize things?
No problem with those.
Jodie (55:37):
That's good.
Frank (55:38):
And I went through those .
I did pretty good almost all ofthose things, and sometimes you
give them a joke.
Murphy (55:47):
A dad joke or something.
Yeah, oh, no, he's doing okay.
Jodie (55:51):
And then also part of the recall.
So they'll give you three words.
Frank (55:55):
Oh, that's a tough one.
Jodie (55:56):
Yes.
Frank (55:57):
Give you three questions and then repeat them.
Jodie (56:00):
That's a tough one.
Frank (56:01):
That's a definite tough one.
Jodie (56:02):
Yes.
Frank (56:03):
Is can you hold three numbers in?
Or doing something like touchyour nose, point the top and
things?
Sort of give you some dexterity, it could be just not just
words but actually action, andall part of those is getting the
(56:23):
brain working.
Murphy (56:26):
Wow.
So you go through all thatstuff and here we are.
What?
Six, seven months later?
Yeah, frank, you're doingfantastic, doing awesome.
I mean awesome, yeah, it's good, yeah.
And then okay, so now you getto brag a little bit here.
So when the cardiologist camein, and you know they looked at
(56:46):
Frank and they go yeah, Frank,you know you got some mileage on
the outside, but what did thecardiologist say about your
vascular system?
Frank (56:55):
I was amazed after they did the inspection on my head
and pulling out the clots.
They looked around the arteriesand said looks like a
30-year-old instead of an80-year-old.
Jodie (57:10):
And I have no idea how the pump.
Frank (57:13):
is that good?
Jodie (57:14):
That's good, that's good, that's a good pump, that's a
good heart pump yeah see Peopleshould join the ski patrol.
Frank (57:24):
You know, you get that 30-year-old vascular system at
80.
Or just keep doing it.
Murphy (57:29):
Yeah, or just keep doing it.
Frank (57:30):
Or even just keep doing it.
I'm not going to be able tomostly know what's happening.
Oh, interesting.
Or two weeks later, one of ourpatrollers, huh, I think I might
have a heart 911.
(57:52):
If you know the diagnosis ofthat, okay, but I don't think
the person with his head beingscrewed up, so to speak, is
going to bother somebody.
He's going to have to see.
It's not right.
And for me it took a little bitof a while.
I could not put a button on.
(58:14):
It was impossible to get abutton in the hole Right and
then opened up the laptop, couldnot get the, Can't get in the
laptop.
This is like automatic.
I can almost close the eyes andyou do it now.
(58:34):
I could not get into there, soit's really important.
Uh, the other thing after thatyou know afib, right, uh is
common for over about 65, go getit checked, because if you have
(58:54):
AFib, you're high possibilitylater to stroke.
Murphy (59:01):
I did not know that, yes .
Frank (59:03):
And so go get the AFib checked if that's a problem.
Murphy (59:12):
And stop it.
That's right, because AFibwinds up giving you a higher
chance of getting a blood clotin one of the chambers in your
heart, which I guess breaks offand it's very common for
everybody, after 65 or something, having AFib.
Jodie (59:36):
And AFib stands for atrial fibrillation correct
right, and so people a lot oftimes don't even realize that
they have it.
Unless they are used tochecking for their pulse, they
may not feel symptoms and mineare normally just just a little
moment.
Frank (59:46):
It's not a big long one or that, just a little bit and
you don't know it, and so cabthe doctor somewhere at 65.
Go check out my AFib, becauseif you do, you want to get that
blood thinner soon.
Oh.
Murphy (01:00:04):
Yeah, so what else do you want to add?
Do you want to add?
Do you have any more questionsfor Frank?
Jodie (01:00:09):
The only boy.
We could go on for hours withyou, frank, but at some point we
just want to do a little bit ofinformation about what signs of
a stroke are.
I like this.
Murphy (01:00:19):
So our safety coordinator has got this thing.
Frank brought a card in andthis card is did the doctors
give you this?
Frank (01:00:28):
No, I went online looking for different several of
them and I figured it out,printed it out and had it
laminated, and it's laminatedAll right, so go ahead, jodi.
Jodie (01:00:40):
So basically it goes and covers about what is a stroke.
So, people that are maybe notas familiar, these would be like
if they came across Frank ashis wife did You're looking at.
Is there a sudden loss ofbalance?
And because this starts offwith B, fast that's B-E-F-A-S-T.
So balance sudden loss Is theeyesight.
(01:01:01):
Maybe there's some visionchanges.
One eye, both eyes, the face.
Now on the face, does it lookuneven?
Is there a drooping of themouth?
Is there other where they can't?
One eyebrow goes up and theother one doesn't.
When you have a person, theyask them to put their arms out
in front of them and you mightsee that one arm starts to drift
(01:01:24):
down.
Frank (01:01:25):
I think that would be a real important one.
Murphy (01:01:27):
Right, yeah, that is.
That's a telltale sign.
Jodie (01:01:29):
And then speech.
Now when they say, does thespeech sound strange?
Now that could be from theycan't formulate their words.
It might be that it's sort ofthey're having trouble moving
their mouth and so it's sort ofa garbled or like you had said,
you're trying to pull that wordout, that you can think it, but
(01:01:50):
you're not actually able to sayit for me.
Frank (01:01:54):
The.
Jodie (01:01:55):
The wife came over and I said no, it's just saying bad,
bad, bad, which is not asentence right correct and that
same something, but you know, Icould not really do a sentence
and and the most important onthis, besides recognizing it, is
(01:02:17):
, you may have heard, withcardiac, with the heart, time is
muscle and here with the brain,it's time is brain.
So we have to call 911, get itgoing, because that also is
crucial of getting them into thehospital and into.
If they can dissolve the clotor they suck out the clot, or
(01:02:39):
time makes a big differencewhether they can do it or not do
it.
Frank (01:02:43):
Don't ask what's the problem.
Call 911.
Murphy (01:02:47):
Get EMS rolling.
Frank (01:02:48):
Don't question it, not the Hurst 911.
Jodie (01:02:51):
Yeah.
Murphy (01:02:52):
That's one of the big things we talk about up on the
mountain these days is if youroll up onto a scene and you
know you need transportation,you're getting that figured out.
Call Absolutely, because youget that transportation to a
higher level of care going sothat when you get down there
it's already waiting and luckyfor me is where already waiting
and for.
Frank (01:03:11):
Lucky for me is where Seattle County has a great great
EMS paramedics, Some of thebest in the United States and
the world.
Yeah, and they don't give asmuch for some EMTs.
(01:03:35):
They're hitting on theparamedics.
They're their top and that'simportant.
And, like you said, time, time,time.
It's got to go now.
Jodie (01:03:51):
Delay can interfere with the type of care, depending on
what's happening, that they mayreceive.
I don't know if you know that.
Murphy (01:03:59):
Well, the other thing too, is whatever.
Frank (01:04:02):
Got to call them fast enough because was the doctor
there at the moment, they got toget him there if he's not off.
So it's you know, it's got tocall right away.
Murphy (01:04:15):
Right, yeah, get them going Well.
Frank, I have to say thank youvery much for taking the time to
come and chat with us on ourpatroller chats.
That was it was terrific.
It was great to learn moreabout you.
I've known you for years.
I'm glad you could come in, sitdown and share some of your
memories, could come in, sitdown and share some of your
memories.
I really wish you a lot of luckand more.
(01:04:37):
I don't want to say quickerrecovery, because you've already
been really fast.
I hope you get back to 100%very quickly.
Frank (01:04:44):
Steady progression, steady progression.
I'm happy as far as I did,absolutely.
Murphy (01:04:53):
Thanks, frank, we appreciate it.
This interview was recorded at our annual
convention in 2023.
Frank had suffered a strokeapproximately six months prior.
He wanted to share hisexperience and help educate
others about strokes.
Besides chatting with us on hisamazing history as a patroller,
Frank has made a remarkablerecovery, as strokes can affect
(00:32):
a person's speech, so you maynotice moments where Frank
pauses here or searches forwords True to his spirit.
He didn't let that stop himfrom speaking openly about the
various details that he wentthrough on his stroke and in
general.
Look for that later in theinterview.
For now, let's begin chatting.
(00:52):
Who are we talking to today?
Frank (00:55):
I'm Frank Rossi.
Been on Ski Patrol forever, itseems like Mostly on Stephen's.
You know Snook-Holmick PassRight.
Murphy (01:05):
So, Frank, what's your patrol number or, excuse me,
your NSP number 146-951.
146-951.
Frank (01:13):
That's about 10,000 less than mine.
That was sort of where it'slocated.
The national number is 345.
Three four, five nine.
Three four, five nine.
It's getting getting low.
Murphy (01:31):
No beer off of that one either.
Right, because we all know whatthat happens, all right, so, um
, we're going to ask you the bigquestion, frank when did you
join the national Ski Patrol?
Frank (01:41):
1960, when I was 17 years old.
Jodie (01:45):
Oh, my goodness 1960.
Murphy (01:49):
You want me to do that math.
Jodie (01:52):
I can exactly tell you because it's one year past.
Oh, my goodness gracious,that's 63 years.
Frank (02:00):
Yes, I can still do the arithmetic.
Jodie (02:02):
Well, it's because I was born in 61.
Murphy (02:06):
I'm the spring chicken here.
I am feeling good about myselftoday, born in 1943.
Wow, so you joined at 17.
So, okay, at 17,.
Why did you join the ski patrolat 17?
What prompted you to do that?
Frank (02:21):
I don't really know.
I grew up puget sound andbremerton so that was tough
because I'd have to take theferry across to go to the
meetings right over and then Iwould get over and get somebody
to pick me up on the seattleside to drive me up to
(02:44):
Snoqualmie, and so usually we'dcome up on Friday and spend
Friday night, saturday night,come back on Sunday, so it was a
three-day or Friday night andall Saturday Sundays, and we'd
be skiing also on Saturday night.
And for the grace of a numberof people who would take me up
(03:08):
and take me back, Right.
Murphy (03:09):
So who were the people that picked you up on the other
side, on the Seattle side of theferry, trying to think Were
they personal friends?
Were they?
Students you met Were they skischool buddies?
Oh yeah, personal friends Werethey students you met?
Frank (03:25):
Were they ski school buddies?
Oh yeah, picking up the namenow, but John Hite.
John Hite was predominantly.
He sort of made the adoptiveson of Frank me and a couple
others who would pick us up inthat, and later on after
University of Washington wouldpick us up in that and later on
(03:46):
after the University ofWashington would pick us up and
the university would bring usback up for the weekend and back
.
And it really was.
John Height was reallyinstrumental to us keeping on
Wow.
Murphy (04:01):
So where did you spend the nights?
Do you remember when you werecoming over?
Frank (04:16):
Were you spending the nights up at the mountain?
Yet John Hite and others RVswould take a toboggan down to
his cabin with a keg of barrelfor Saturday night in the snow
(04:39):
and we'd sleep there and comeback.
And Gary was very important tonot let him burn his house,
that's an important thing.
He did not drink as much beeras some of the others did.
Jodie (04:54):
So when did you start skiing?
What age were you?
Frank (04:57):
I was 14 and really got started with a little bit Boy
Scouts and then high schoolskate club, take the bus over to
over both Snoqualmie and overin Stevens and have to get back,
(05:18):
get the boat back across theother side and then I don't
really figure out how I startedthe S-Nquamie, but somehow I'm
involved in it, right.
Murphy (05:34):
So you were over there in S-Nquamie and you are, you
Alpine Nordic.
What kind of controller are you?
Frank (05:41):
I was Alpine until about 12 years ago.
I changed over to Nordic Idon't have to run the toboggans
down the hill and so I startedout with Summit Snoqualmie,
which is now called West Right,and after college I went to
(06:02):
officer with NOAA and so I wason east.
So so two years I was up at, uh, blue knob middle, sort of
middle of pennsylvania yeah, and, and that was a long drive and
it was funny one because it was.
it used to be a nike message,and so it's.
(06:23):
You know, on the top you skidown and come back up to the top
and then oh, that's right.
Murphy (06:31):
Yes, I've heard about that.
Frank (06:33):
I went back on you know West Coast and you know I was
able to get my duties in beforegoing back in the sea, duties in
and before going back and see,and then afterwards I was in
liberty ski, which is on thesouth side of pennsylvania, so
there was close, close a ridefrom there and, uh, don't
(06:58):
particularly like east coast.
Murphy (07:00):
machine made ice that's what I was going to ask.
Tell us about the snow backeast.
Is it really as hard as theysay?
Frozen, you know?
Basically a sheet of ice thatyou're skiing on.
Frank (07:11):
It can be, and you don't want to ever go where the snow
is putting too much water intoit, and so you go through the
snow and it's sort of wet andyou come out the other side and
it's solid.
You can't move, it sticks tothe bottom of your skis.
Oh really, oh yeah.
If you run through thatessentially frozen water.
(07:35):
As soon as you hit off the wet,you stop oh you're going to
Superman.
Murphy (07:41):
Oh Lord.
So okay, you've patrolled at.
Frank (07:45):
Uh what one, two, three, four ski areas, yeah, probably
yeah, and somewhere afterwards Iretired from noah and so, uh,
89, right, I went back to Westnow they call it and to
(08:15):
politicians and cliques Idecided I'm going to move down
to Hayek.
The family ski area.
Yeah, it's the old-style smallski area and I like that Right
small ski area and I like thatright and, uh, I like some of
the others around.
Instead of the big big skied, alot of, uh, colorado and that,
and I like the little ones rightso hayek isn't open as much as
(08:38):
east and west, or, excuse me,west and central.
Murphy (08:42):
No, it's only, yeah, it's only open on the weekends,
isn't it?
Frank (08:45):
still, the Nordic is on Friday, right and Nordic and
Alpine on Saturday and Sundayalso, so I go.
There's only a few Nordics onSaturday, which is nice, and
unfortunately we open up thedoor on Friday and have to
(09:08):
shovel out the door because it'ssnowed in all since Sunday
night, right fall or prior week.
Murphy (09:19):
So you get a lot of patrollers from Central.
I know that Nordic patrollersthat go over and you guys patrol
together out in the backcountryand all the trails.
Frank (09:29):
Well, there's a little bit of that At Central.
A lot of them only do halftheir duty on Nordic, where
those who are Nordic out ofHayek are full time Really.
So when we do 24 days or 20days of Nordic, it's 24
(09:53):
eight-hour days, whereas itcould be only half those days
hours from the central.
So a little difference.
Oh yeah, Somebody telling thetale and I don't have to come
back in and be in the first aidroom whereas the Central.
You know, go out in the morningwhat have you?
(10:14):
And go down to.
They have cooking for lunch atCentral.
And that's nice it is, it'spretty posh over there.
I can say and that's nice it is, it's pretty posh over there.
Jodie (10:26):
I can say, and they don't return.
Murphy (10:28):
Kitchens multiple kitchens.
Yeah it is pretty good.
So you were 14 years old whenyou started skiing.
You've been going for 63 years.
In that 63-year time you musthave gotten some awards.
Yeah, a few too many.
A few too many, few too many,probably not enough.
So why don't you tell us someof the awards that you've gotten
over the years?
Frank (10:49):
well, the uh, the, the strongest service, maturus
service award, national oceanoutstanding for nordic oh,
fantastic and and then DivisionNordic for twice.
I guess they just got it lastyear.
Yeah, I was going to say,didn't you?
Murphy (11:10):
get that last year or the year before.
Frank (11:12):
Blue Merit Star Green Merit Star Green.
Jodie (11:16):
Yellow.
We've got to back up here.
Frank (11:17):
Twice, but there actually should be a three.
Oh, we're going to get thatstory Because they don't know it
.
Oh what?
Oh, we're going to get thatstory because they don't know it
.
See, in the old days, you knowI have a NSP number.
Now, old days you didn't have aconstant.
When you moved to a new areathey changed your numbers each
time.
So it started out with you knowthe first part, you know PO,
(11:42):
2,8 and then consecutive.
So I went back to you knowPO-28, and then consecutive,
right, so I went back toPennsylvania so that changed
different.
Oh, so you're talking about.
And then I come back, itchanges again.
And I go back there, it changesagain.
So the last six-digit onlystarted somewhere later.
Jodie (11:59):
Are you talking about the P as in the individual patrol?
Yeah, about the P as in theindividual patrol.
Frank (12:05):
The NSP would not give you a continue, originally a
permanent number, and so theearly in that summer, probably
around.
Jodie (12:20):
Some year 69.
Frank (12:22):
They had.
We had a teaching for newcandidates, right yeah, john
Height and I we had somethinglike 70 candidates, 70?
, 70.
Zero.
Because when Crystal started,just all of the nationals and
(12:52):
the sort of senior moved toCrystal, and so we had a few
Okay so 71.
Jodie (13:03):
How many instructors would you say you had helping
out in that?
Just two of us.
Murphy (13:07):
Oh my goodness, gracious Two and 70 students.
Frank (13:10):
Yeah.
Murphy (13:12):
I hope you had a lot of doctors and nurses in that class
.
Frank (13:15):
Well, in the old days Ned Clark joined patrol when I
did patrol.
Uh, joined patrol when I didpatrol and he was the old doctor
who actually went out and didall of the uh that he ran the
toboggans and before they hadsnowmobiles.
(13:37):
Uh, ned, and I have hauledacross the level the sleds back.
So the old days some of thedocks were just alpine.
Oh, the docks were alpine yeah,they did everything we did.
Murphy (13:57):
I haven't seen that these days.
Not anymore, no, no anymore.
Frank (14:11):
No, no, the uh, that's much different.
Murphy (14:12):
The uh, the physician you know, the physicians have
been really great though overthe years, right, oh yeah, the
educational.
Frank (14:15):
And you know I've enjoyed with those people and,
like ned, all the years he wason.
He always, always.
You know why did he be on SkiPatrol?
He said, well, I go to theseother meetings and it's all
physicians and they're the samething and I go here I see real
(14:35):
people.
There's people who you knowdriving, you know rig operations
, you know Boeing ContinentalCan, et cetera.
The experience with all theother people he liked that and I
think that's part of the SkiPatrol is all the different
(14:56):
people.
Jodie (14:56):
Interesting.
Murphy (14:58):
We were just talking about that this afternoon, yep,
about meeting other people thatthey're different, their other
hat that they wear on a fulltime basis yeah, and it's you
know, the camaraderie andeverything that you get when you
come to like these meetings andthe convention where you get to
see people out of.
They're all patrollers, theyall come from different
(15:20):
backgrounds different skills.
Frank (15:24):
Big plus is the different skill.
You know that come to it andyou know that's important having
the different experience.
Murphy (15:34):
Right, no, I agree.
So I'm going to ask you herewhat does the phrase service and
safety since 1938 mean to you?
That's our national code, creedas we call it.
Frank (15:51):
Well, it really started the need for helping people off
the skills and that and theydidn't have that before 38.
Yep, and that's probably themost important.
And that mean first aid Rightand how to move them.
(16:17):
And in those days it wasdifficult.
You know, there were nosnowmobiles, there were no
groomers.
Murphy (16:28):
How'd you like to do those moguls?
No, thank you.
Frank (16:31):
After a month there was no radio.
Jodie (16:36):
How was the communication ?
Oh yeah, no radio.
Frank (16:38):
That you've been told, because obviously you weren't
there In the old days with thelifts they had a crank phone at
the bottom, a phone up at thetop so you could call from the
bottom to the top and that wasthe only communications and the
other probably different thanthese days they really, really
(17:01):
watched riding up and did asmuch patrolling climbing up on
the lift.
Because you're observing thatYears ago Becky Aldrich and
Chuck, there at Snoqualmie theyhad more carrying on the
(17:25):
toboggans because he was, youknow, watching and uh, instead
of just writing up, they wereactually patrolling washing up
and that's a big one I was goingto say if you had the phone
call.
Jodie (17:39):
Well, somewhere I was going up the mountain on the
chairlift and saw this personhollering for help.
I don't't know how many littleyou know towers did you pass by.
Frank (17:49):
I have no clue.
They put the number if you'reseeing it going up oh the tower
number.
But they don't put it on thebackside.
So when you're skiing down youcan't see the number.
It helps if you're dyslexic.
Take a look at that.
Murphy (18:05):
No, it going up, oh the tower number, but they don't put
it on the backside, so whenyou're skiing down you can't see
the number.
Yeah, it helps if you'redyslexic.
Take a look at that.
No, it is true.
Frank (18:09):
When you say number, you know 13 and you're skiing down.
You can't see any numbers fromthe top down.
Take a look at that.
Jodie (18:18):
I never noticed that yeah .
Murphy (18:28):
It funny because we're doing sweep and you have like
wave off points and you're liketrying to count towers and
you're looking at going cash andif you come into a spot and
you're not like a low rise andyou pass where you're supposed
to do your wave off.
Yeah, you don't want to belooking over your shoulder to
see what the number was oops,that could be a little rough,
all right, so you know, let'stalk about hayek for a sec,
because you've been there forages and ages.
So we talked to Shirley and shewas in one of our chats and she
(18:49):
told us that that was the oldtraining ground for the Olympic
ski jump years and years ago.
Frank (18:55):
Oh yeah.
Murphy (18:56):
So when you were there in 1963, what was Hayek like?
Frank (19:00):
I wasn't on those at that time but I know about it
and some of the pictures andthat you know they had real ski
jumping and in the old days inthe 30s up to World War II, they
got off from Seattle and theytook the train up and got off
there and skied and then trainswould bring them back down
(19:26):
because the road was not good.
Okay, Whoa.
And that there at Hayakanova, atSnoqualmie Summit, there's off
the top of Thunderbird there wasa jump and there was a jump off
(19:49):
of that one that has now beentrees filled up.
Those were big and there wasbig jumping used to be in
Leavenworth.
Murphy (20:00):
Oh, I didn't know that, yeah.
Frank (20:02):
And there still might be a small, but there's big
jumping out at Leavenworth.
Murphy (20:07):
So they had like a ski area at Leavenworth.
Jodie (20:09):
Yeah, they do.
Even I know this shocking.
Frank (20:15):
Even I knew that I didn't know that how long so
that was in the 60s, 50s jumpingwas super in, you know, the
late 30ss and probably up tomaybe early 50s, I would think,
and there was a lot of jumping.
Murphy (20:34):
Wow, yeah, not like the jumping we have now.
Where those kids do you knowtheir aerobatics as they're
going through it?
They were just going fordistance in those days.
So how many runs did Hayek haveback in the old days in the 60s
?
Frank (20:51):
I don't really know the numbers, hayek, there was only a
couple three.
Well, they originally had achair that went up and over.
The chair, continuous, went upover the top and down the other
side so they could come back upout of the coming back out.
(21:12):
It was a run around Right anduntil it broke apart and had to
only go up one way, right Beforethey didn't have the backside,
you know, one way, right beforethey didn't have the backside uh
, but eight, ten years ago theybuilt a a backside lift now and
they replaced it to one thatactually runs faster yeah, so I
(21:36):
gotta this is kind of a littleside story, but you made me
think about this number runs.
Murphy (21:41):
What is the story of the water tank that looks like a
Rainier beer can?
Frank (21:45):
Yeah, well, it really had an Oli label on it.
And it was sort of I don't knowhow it was done, why it did,
but it did, and it was a littleconsternation with the Catholic
(22:06):
over there chapel at West,because you know a little bit.
That's that.
So officially they sort ofmoved the, the emblem, but uh,
so wait a minute.
Murphy (22:21):
This thing started in West and was shipped over to
Hyatt.
No, no, no.
Frank (22:26):
The tank was there all the time but the chapel was over
at West and they were being.
They didn't like to look at thebeer can for the water tank
Right and the old for old tanks.
The Roman Catholic would comeup for the water tank and the
(22:48):
old day for old tanks.
The Roman Catholic would comeup for the chapel and he had his
ski boots on his.
Murphy (22:56):
Wait a minute, so the priest would have his ski boots
on, as he was doing.
Frank (22:59):
Oh yeah, as soon as the chapel was done that Saturday
morning, then he was out skiing.
Jodie (23:05):
Wearing his boots during the service.
Frank (23:07):
All right, oh yeah, yeah , there's some dedicated people.
Murphy (23:12):
Yeah, that's very true.
So do you know who painted that?
Frank (23:15):
It is the only— no, it was before me.
I don't know who did it.
Murphy (23:18):
So it was like in the 450s it had to be, it had to be.
Frank (23:20):
Because I joined in 60.
So about then that was thefirst time I ever saw it.
It was there, so it's beenthere a long time.
Murphy (23:30):
And has it ever been repainted?
Because I mean, what's amazingis?
You can still see it.
It's plain as day.
Yeah, sort of.
Yeah, it faded a little bit,but still, I mean, if you're
talking about 50, 60, 70, yearsWow, wow.
Wow, that is amazing.
All right, a little side note.
So what did they do to getpeople down off the mountain
when you first started there inthe 60s?
(23:53):
I mean, we've got our new fancysleds that we have, you know,
like our Cascades.
What?
Frank (23:59):
were you guys using?
It was the old what they calledthe Sun Valley, which is a wood
toboggan with a wire stokesconnected onto it.
Murphy (24:10):
Okay, and they were heavy.
Oh, I bet.
Frank (24:12):
And I don't know how I did it in those days, but at the
storing them up, at the end ofthe day they were had a rack
rack, three racks, oh mygoodness, and I only weighed 145
when I graduated high schooland about 155 college, and then
(24:35):
I could have put them up theretoday.
Murphy (24:37):
No, that's crazy.
So steel, because we're nottalking aluminum they're heavy
steel stokes baskets withprobably oak runners.
Frank (24:47):
Oh yeah, Oak toboggan would have you.
Jodie (24:50):
What do you think they weighed?
Murphy (24:52):
Oh several hundred pounds.
Frank (24:53):
I don't know.
Go over to Central and unhookthat one and see how much it
weighs.
They were heavy.
There's one up on the walloutside.
Jodie (25:03):
You go unhook that.
Oh, not me, not me.
Murphy (25:07):
The older I get, the more sensible I get, and I
realize I just wouldn't be ableto do that.
Okay, so we talked a little bitabout toboggans.
They didn't have radios so youcouldn't really call.
You had the phone system thatwas you called.
Frank (25:22):
Only from bottom to top.
Murphy (25:23):
Yeah, bottom to the top and you kind of ring it.
It's like an old ship's phoneto get ahold of somebody.
Frank (25:29):
I'm still amazed how a call went out.
But it was really fun in theold days because they were we
could do things we can't dotoday.
Jodie (25:41):
Oh do tell oh, oh, oh, do tell, wait a minute, this might
be, we'll be back at the oldthunderbird lift there at uh
west.
Frank (25:51):
Uh well, at the end of the day, people would go down
and sweep down and they had acouple people stay on top and
when, when they completed thesweep, then we could come down,
which means we took it in a tuck.
Jodie (26:14):
Oh, I had a feeling he was going to say that Straight
straight.
Frank (26:18):
And yeah.
Murphy (26:21):
How do you straight line that?
Is it changed?
Because the terrain now isyou've got those cat tracks that
are cut in.
Frank (26:27):
There was one that got off the lift and it was stand
there and they said we could go.
It was skate, skate, skate,make around the corner and get
in the tuck and it was steeperportion and then if you go down
there, there's an old railroadlevel, so it comes down and
(26:50):
there's a little flat down.
And you had to do a perfectpre-jump, or if you got
catapulted off the old railroad,you would be overflown the
slope and hit the flat below it,and that was bad, bad, bad.
Murphy (27:10):
Oh, because I'm sure it was flat when you landed.
Frank (27:13):
No, you were gone.
So we estimated that averagespeed was at least 50 miles an
hour, and so the terminal at thebottom was something higher,
and in 64-bot head competitiondownhill skis 210 centimeters,
(27:43):
and that was pretty standardwith most of our pros, not pros
there the volunteers there wewere on competition downhill.
Murphy (27:53):
Frank, you were on 210s I am 6'5" and I used to ski 205s
in that version ski.
Jodie (28:00):
And Frank, how tall are you?
Frank (28:04):
Oh, 5'8" down to just under 5'7 now.
Oh, you must have been flyingWell.
First, before that ski, I got a205 wood Kniezel slalom and
then I got the downhills.
And then I got the downhillsand the first run it was on
(28:35):
evening.
I made no turns until I got tothe bottom and I said I have to
initiate a turn.
The old days you really had toinitiate turns on those and I
have to really initiate thisturn.
The old days you really had toinitiate turns on those and I
have to really initiate thisturn, but they were, in that era
, a really good ski because theydidn't groom them and so the
(29:03):
downhill had a very flexiblefront.
Third, and the back-thirds wasa railroad tie.
It was stiff and you could getway back on the skis and never
dump on the back.
They would support you foreveron the back.
(29:24):
They would support you forever.
And in the old days I went upthe blue knob.
Somebody went underneath theline skiing down.
I just went through it and puta tuck and caught him, up to him
and stopped him, and I could dothat in the old days, not
anymore.
Jodie (29:42):
Oh my goodness, go ahead.
So I heard you say that you hada green and a blue merit star.
What can you tell us about that?
I forget exactly what they were.
It's okay, and for other peoplethat might be listening.
A green star is for rescue,correct?
Frank (30:00):
the one was probably with the search and rescue group
and I had an unfortunate inBellevue a attempt to save a
life.
Jodie (30:17):
It's okay.
It's alright, frank, we canjust pause here.
Still bothers.
A woman ran into a was a caraccident yeah, the worker, the
(30:39):
flagger right hit him oh, theyhit a flagger, that's too bad,
so I was the first one there.
Frank (30:52):
Oh, you were.
Jodie (30:56):
Why were you able to be there for him?
Frank (31:00):
It still bothers me, probably never will.
Murphy (31:06):
Yep, yeah, it still bothers.
Probably never will.
Yep, and we were talking aboutthat today, about how long those
incidents last and when you'rea first responder, just how
tough that is.
You bring that baggage with youand it is hard and that's why
being a patroller sometimes isreally tough and you've got to
be able to talk to your friendsand talk to your fellow
patrollers and you've got to beable to have that psychological
(31:28):
first aid when you do thatresponse, because it's it is
tough.
Frank, I'm glad you were there.
Frank (31:38):
I started first aid equipment.
I started before there was anEMS around before EMS around,
started before EMS.
Murphy (31:48):
Oh, that's right, you'd call 911 and get a dial tone.
You don't get what.
Frank (31:51):
I'm saying In the old days, in the early 60s, okay, if
you had an ambulance, it washours of the hearse.
Murphy (32:01):
Yes, no, you're right, you're actually right, you're a
driver and nobody, nobody uh aid.
Frank (32:07):
You know, first aid person yeah, so if we had a
problem uh one of the, was itusually uh one of the.
I was a pro that one year right, yeah 64, so you'd ride as the
aid transfer.
And glad they're not.
(32:28):
And he probably had a littledrinking before he drove the
hearse slash.
Jodie (32:34):
This is very true.
I mean, this is how it all gotstarted.
I mean, really, it's amazing,it is absolutely amazing.
Murphy (32:41):
You're literally EMS.
You're calling up EMS and thehearse shows up with a
half-cropped driver and maybesomebody there with you.
Frank (32:51):
We had to supply somebody to ride down with them,
right, because there was nobodyelse, there was just the driver
.
Jodie (32:58):
I think I'd rather be the driver going down myself, but
oh my goodness, I'm laughing sohard I'm crying.
Murphy (33:07):
That would not be reassuring to have the first
show up after oec.
Frank (33:09):
It wasn't a red cross advanced advanced first aid,
first aid and I was aninstructor and, uh, early on and
the as in bremerton with kitsapcounty right and the red cross,
there was really good lockwhere I can still remember his
name, miz.
And before two, three weeksbefore they did it, they gave an
(33:33):
introduction that CPR wascoming in and actually did
teaching CPR.
Yeah, this is what's coming.
And so a couple years later itnationally accepted CPR.
Murphy (33:50):
So you started patrolling before there was CPR.
Frank (33:54):
Oh, yeah, oh wow, holger , neal, sylvester and the other
manual ones which I don't like.
Murphy (34:06):
Out goes, the bad air in goes the good air.
Frank (34:08):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, You've been there.
You read the old book.
Jodie (34:11):
So I happen to know this answer, but I'm going to pick on
Murph here.
Oh, no you said that your otherjob, your other hat, was with
NOAA, and I personally happen toknow what that stands for,
because I have a niece that wasnoah now there's murphy, isn't
(34:32):
it?
Murphy (34:32):
national oceanographic and atmospheric association
administration, administration,yeah that's close enough.
Frank (34:40):
That's a lot long, long one.
Noah's much easier to, yes, andthere's a small one.
Noaa is much easier to do.
Jodie (34:43):
Yes, it is.
Frank (34:44):
And there's a small commission officer and many
civilian and I was one of thethere was when I joined.
It was like 270 officers In thewhole NOAA.
Yeah, and it went up to about215.
(35:09):
And right after I retired, gorereduced the and the only thing
it reduced was the NOAA officercore.
It went back down to about 300,and I don't know what it is now
.
Murphy (35:25):
So when you say Gore, you're talking Al Gore.
Frank (35:27):
Yeah.
Murphy (35:27):
Oh, al Gore, Mr Environmental, yeah, let's whack
NOAA, they don't do anything.
Frank (35:32):
Well, the president said , you know, reduce the
government.
And the only thing that gotreduced was the NOAA officer.
Jodie (35:39):
But that's part of the Commission Corps, but they are
the part of the military andcorrect me if I'm wrong.
I had to do a little bit ofresearch when my niece was in
that, but they are.
There's the US Coast Guard andit's not an offshoot of it but
it's affiliated with the USCoast Guard, correct?
Frank (36:00):
Well, actually there's two terms.
There's uniformed Okay, there'suniformed Right.
Jodie (36:06):
That's right.
Frank (36:07):
Which encovers seven, maybe eight now We've got the
space one coming in Right.
And then there's the military.
Well, we don't shoot, so thetwo that are not military of the
uniformed is public healthservice.
(36:27):
There used to be like 5,000 ofthem and they could be engineers
plus physicians and all that.
And then the NOAA officer andit dated back for surveying to
make the cartographers, you know, on the coast.
And with the later on, noahbecame so the weather service
(36:52):
there and others that so goodfisheries and so we're.
They would be in a lot ofdifferent things.
Okay, I spent most of minerelated with the surveying and
sub-oceanography.
That's awesome Out of 22 years,spent seven of them on ships.
Murphy (37:14):
Wow, like how long did you go out to sea each time?
Jodie (37:19):
I know now it's currently about two years, and then
you're inland about two,depending on what job.
There's two things You'reassigned to a ship for about two
years and then you're inlandabout two, depending on what job
?
Frank (37:25):
Well, there's two things .
You're assigned to a ship formaybe two years, but the longest
I was out was five or sixmonths before I come back to the
home port.
Okay, and there was a differentship that went down to
Antarctic, so they were goneseven months and back to Seattle
.
Another one followed up it wasnine, seven months and back to
Seattle.
Another one followed up it wasnine months over and back.
(37:48):
So that's a long ways from homeand it's not like the tropics.
Jodie (37:55):
I was going to say it's not the tropics.
Frank (37:57):
And you need to get some place to put the gas in the
ship, Right and the smaller ones.
You got it every two weeks.
We could do almost 30 days, butyou were really going empty.
Jodie (38:14):
Were you to the Antarctica.
Frank (38:16):
I didn't.
I got down to Tahiti.
Murphy (38:23):
Oh, you stopped off at Tahiti.
You had to warm up.
Yeah, we knew Frank was.
Yeah, Frank's smart Tahiti.
Jodie (38:25):
Oh, you stopped off at Tahiti.
He had to warm up.
Yeah, we knew.
Murphy (38:26):
Frank was, yeah, Frank's smart Tahiti Easter.
Frank (38:30):
Yeah, easter Island, and I went through the Panama to
Gulfport Not fun, but we had todo some equipment for a project
over Barbados and I ended up,during that long project, lived
(38:50):
on Barbados for a month, whichwas pretty good.
Murphy (38:56):
Yeah, the Caribbean for a month Did you get well
acquainted with rum while youwere there.
Frank (39:02):
It's pretty inexpensive, oh.
Murphy (39:03):
I'm sure it is, and there's quite a few make it
inexpensive.
Frank (39:05):
Oh, I'm sure it is.
Murphy (39:11):
And there's quite a few make it there.
Frank (39:13):
Oh, this is awesome.
Our pirate Frankie, he's gotthe rum, and they taught them
all how to make their drinks forthe inns and motels, and so
they were very, very good.
Murphy (39:33):
Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure that, yeah, that is the land of
Rome.
So we're going to change topicsjust for a little bit.
Frank (39:40):
The one thing I miss from the early days is like the
Snoqualmie Pass four areas Right.
Don't have we used to call itjunior, the young people.
Murphy (39:53):
Oh yeah, the junior ski patrol.
You have to be at least 18.
They're trying to get it back18.
Frank (39:57):
And I really miss those and they were fun, they were
great, and I look at this.
So many people young, they'relooking for something to do.
Murphy (40:09):
Yeah, I was going to ask you about demographics because
you've been around a while.
What you know?
Frank (40:14):
the age range of patrollers that you see now at
HIAC you know, from started tonow, I would say in the last
five years, we've gotten morerelatively younger and on our
nordic we've got a couple fairlyyounger people really and uh,
surprisingly older now.
(40:35):
But uh, one of our really goodguys is a semi-retired physician
from ellensburg who is reallygood on the skis.
We had a couple of young ladieswho were under 40.
Jodie (40:55):
When you started, would you say the age range of the
average patroller?
What would you say that was?
Frank (41:03):
I mentioned that we had like 70 candidates.
They were predominantly juniors.
Murphy (41:14):
Uh-oh, Whose phone is that Frank?
Jodie (41:16):
is that your?
Murphy (41:16):
phone.
See, he is popular.
Frank (41:18):
He is my boss, but she's telling me where I'm at.
Murphy (41:24):
All right, hold on All right.
Hold on All right.
Frank's boss just called.
So Mrs Rossi is.
Frank (41:32):
She spent the week or the day with her brother up at
Spokane, up in the hill oh nice,and he's had some medical
problems and so we'll go overtomorrow.
Murphy (41:49):
Right.
Frank (41:50):
And spend the day with them and that, and we're going
to spend the night Saturdaynight or Sunday night here and
drive back on Monday.
Jodie (41:59):
Oh, wow.
Frank (42:01):
You made it a weekend.
Murphy (42:02):
Go ahead.
Jodie (42:02):
You were telling us that out of that, 71 in the class,
that age group, what was that?
Frank (42:10):
I would say it was.
I would say it was Easilytwo-thirds junior.
You're kidding.
Murphy (42:17):
Like below 25 oh yeah.
Under 18.
Frank (42:21):
Oh, under 18?
Junior was under 18, so it was16 to 18, which we don't have
anymore.
Murphy (42:25):
No, Under 18.
Oh, under 18?
Yeah, junior was under 18.
Frank (42:27):
So it was 16 to 18, which we don't have anymore.
No, and too bad, because I lookat like the ISAR, search and
rescue, huge, huge training forthose people and they're looking
for something to do and I thinkthat was with also the junior
(42:55):
that those days for the escapepatrol is something they're at
age.
Hold on a second.
Murphy (42:59):
Okay, frank, so go ahead , continue on.
You were saying you had half ofyour initial recruiting class
out of 70 people, most of themwere, uh, juniors, and when you
mean juniors, you mean juniorsthey had a.
Frank (43:14):
Generally they had a lower uh uh heights.
You know it's lower and for thejuniors and generally the top
ones were more the senior butthey had the New Year's was a
little too endived for the olderguys and so the next day the
(43:43):
juniors had to patrol the top.
Murphy (43:46):
Oh, oh.
So that's why you recruited thejuniors, so after New Year's
you would have some coverage onthe hill and we had to.
Frank (43:59):
it used to be Beaver Lake, it was not run is on under
skied normally that and soeverybody had to go there.
It's like the first day youcould ski that, everybody fall
(44:20):
over literally.
Yeah, that's deep, deep andevery of that.
That wasn't that difficult.
We're going back and do itagain and the second time.
Oh, that's okay.
Murphy (44:32):
So isn't Beaver Lake the lake that's like behind Central
?
No?
Frank (44:36):
this is west, You've got Thunderbird and there's a
little pond down below RightBetween.
You've got the old days at west, you've got Thunderbird, and
then they had the other heappeak a little lower and right
between that was a little pondcalled Beaver Lake.
(44:58):
I wouldn't call it a lake.
It probably gets you up to yourbelly button.
Murphy (45:05):
Because I think we've actually had to do some search
stuff back there where peoplehave gone back sort of just
pre-dusk and then they didn'tmake it back, and so we had to
send in Nordic people withheadlamps and flashlights
whatever to go search?
Yeah, so I'm pretty sure I knowwhat you're talking about.
(45:25):
So let me see what else.
What kind of special activitiesdid the mountain do when you
were, you know, first startingthere?
Was there anything that theydid to attract the public?
Have fun.
That they don't do now.
Or they do more now than theydid then.
Frank (45:45):
More so now because they will do music things Right.
That for those particularlyover east Right and that for
those particularly over eastthat do that.
They have some big adventuresnear where the Oli tank, you
(46:09):
know water tank there, the big,beer can they have?
You know, have big, big thingsfor uh, uh, ski board, uh,
jumping in that, that, oh okay.
And there's another group.
I amaze what they call the skiboards snowboard or a ski board.
(46:30):
This is like a Snowboard or aski board.
Murphy (46:33):
This is like a skateboard.
Oh, I know what you're talkingabout.
Frank (46:35):
It's got a ski underneath it, yes, and you only
have a leash and you just standon the board and you go and you
better be good and whateverhappens happens.
And I have no idea how I coulddo that.
Try and they just go.
Yeah, how I could do that.
Try and they just go.
Yeah.
It's just like a skateboardwith a ski underneath instead of
(46:57):
the wheels and you just jump onthe top of it and away you go.
Murphy (47:00):
Oh, I've seen those things and, yes, you're right,
they are crazy.
Frank (47:04):
Oh, more than crazy.
Those guys just do whatever.
Murphy (47:06):
Because it's like a skateboard, you know, in powder
or in the hard pack, I in powderor in the hard pack.
I mean they're all groomersthat they're going to run and
they are some crazy peoplebecause you see them hitting
those jumps on the side.
They spend a lot of time on theside of the run.
Frank (47:20):
I don't imagine.
Yeah, it's amazing.
Murphy (47:28):
So we're going to change topics just for a little bit,
for a second.
So I don't know if folks know,but Frank wound up having a
stroke.
How long ago was that?
Frank (47:36):
I had a stroke in February 8th.
Murphy (47:39):
February 8th of this year, so that's about six months
ago, and you can tell byFrank's voice that he is doing
incredibly well.
So you know, strokes are one ofthe things that we wound up
dealing with.
So, frank, tell us I guess youknow from the symptoms and what
you experienced what happenedand then how you got to recover
(48:01):
so fast, because not everybodyis that fortunate.
Frank (48:04):
Well, it's good that somebody observed that I was not
right and so got up, sort ofyou know progressive.
I got my oatmeal and got backin my chair and first of all I
(48:31):
couldn't get the button in thebuttonhole on my shirt because
the stroke is affecting one sideof you, and so I really
couldn't manipulate it right.
And then the brain was havingit.
I couldn't figure out how toget my password in there.
(48:54):
Oh, on your computer, yeah, onthe computer, flipped it up,
couldn't get it Password Icouldn't.
I was just you know dumb.
I knew it wasn't right andfortunately my wife got up a
little earlier than normal andshe sort of figured stumbling
around sitting there and I saiddumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, and she
(49:23):
woke up on what my problem wasand called 911.
So from the EMS, somehow Ihelped walk down the stairs.
Jodie (49:35):
Oh, my goodness.
Frank (49:37):
And I have no remember of that part walking out and so
from where we lived to Bellevueover Lake Hospital probably
would take me normally 15minutes to my place of the house
hospital.
(49:57):
I think the paramedics probablyput me under before up and suck
out the clots up in your brain,right.
Murphy (50:22):
So they went into like the femoral artery and then all
the way up and they used avacuum, sucked out that clot.
Frank (50:28):
And it was a major stroke.
And it was a major stroke Right.
And two days later I couldessentially walk around the
hospital the next day, threedays, walk around up and down
the steps and sent me home threedays later.
Down the steps and sent me homethree days later.
Murphy (51:00):
And I could, physical, be 100%.
So in how many days you wereback to walking around A week
Okay, I was a little cautionlessI did.
Frank (51:12):
End of March, okay, I did three or four Nordic patrols
.
Murphy (51:18):
This is post, Post oh my goodness.
Frank (51:25):
And so no problem with physical.
I could do everything.
Jodie (51:30):
physical, the muscle was all working Perfect.
Frank (51:33):
Perfect that and for the stroke it was major.
I was not going to.
If they didn't suck out theclots, I'd be in a lot of
problems.
Had memory of certain words andgetting sentence connected
(51:53):
Right and some work with thespeech person and that, and it's
big part two things to recoverfrom the speak is don't be
inhibited, don't talk about itand having more experiences.
Murphy (52:17):
Right, so don't be self-conscious about having
speech issues.
You just got to push through it.
Is that what you're saying?
Frank (52:21):
and from day one I was very that way, okay, and the
typical is to be closed.
You're inhibited, right, anddon't do that, just write up,
tell it.
I had a stroke, yep, and I'mworking on it and it's getting
(52:43):
much better and the experienceis different people doing
different things, yeah, andreading of anything.
Murphy (52:52):
Oh really.
Frank (52:53):
Yeah, reading, because that's words.
Murphy (52:55):
Okay.
Frank (52:56):
I could read pretty well , speaking it more difficult
initially, and so read, read,read, read.
I could actually, I think,still at the hospital before I
came home a couple days later, Iwas doing Sudoku.
Jodie (53:21):
Oh, my goodness.
Murphy (53:23):
You're ahead of me, I still don't do.
Frank (53:24):
Sudoku I'm always you know, poor on remembering names.
I always have been.
And numbers Want numbers Right,and I could do those and that,
(53:44):
and so we came back from thehospital on Saturday.
On Sunday afternoon it was timeto fill out the long thing from
the CPA and I've always donethat.
Before Kathy, my wife, hadnever done the CPA stuff.
Murphy (54:03):
What is a CPA?
It's like, are you talkingtaxes?
Frank (54:06):
Yeah, oh, okay, and so I was coaching her the CPA
questions and answers 1040 thatyou're trying to do All of that
stuff.
After the CPA I was teaching mywife how to do that.
Murphy (54:25):
I wonder how heartless the IRS would be if you said hey
, I just had a stroke, Can I getlike a little delay?
Yeah, I don't think so.
Frank (54:33):
I did that on Saturdayurday night, that's
incredible or the next day Imoved money from, I paid off my
visa, made that over to thecheck on that and I could do.
Murphy (54:49):
But don't ask me to talk too much at that time, but I
could do so your cognitiveawareness and ability.
It was still there.
The stroke just affected thespeech area of your brain.
Frank (55:02):
And the physical One of the things in the doctor
checking out is can I make asimple complete sentence?
Jodie (55:13):
Yes.
Frank (55:14):
And can you do a complete sense?
Write one out, right, and okay,I could do that, okay, and some
of the exercises checking out.
And then the other thing, thebeginning is okay, hold me.
What's this object?
Do you recognize?
It's a cup.
Murphy (55:31):
Do you?
Frank (55:31):
recognize it's a pair of scissors.
Can you recognize things?
No problem.
Do you recognize it's a pair ofscissors?
You know this.
Can you recognize things?
No problem with those.
Jodie (55:37):
That's good.
Frank (55:38):
And I went through those .
I did pretty good almost all ofthose things, and sometimes you
give them a joke.
Murphy (55:47):
A dad joke or something.
Yeah, oh, no, he's doing okay.
Jodie (55:51):
And then also part of the recall.
So they'll give you three words.
Frank (55:55):
Oh, that's a tough one.
Jodie (55:56):
Yes.
Frank (55:57):
Give you three questions and then repeat them.
Jodie (56:00):
That's a tough one.
Frank (56:01):
That's a definite tough one.
Jodie (56:02):
Yes.
Frank (56:03):
Is can you hold three numbers in?
Or doing something like touchyour nose, point the top and
things?
Sort of give you some dexterity, it could be just not just
words but actually action, andall part of those is getting the
(56:23):
brain working.
Murphy (56:26):
Wow.
So you go through all thatstuff and here we are.
What?
Six, seven months later?
Yeah, frank, you're doingfantastic, doing awesome.
I mean awesome, yeah, it's good, yeah.
And then okay, so now you getto brag a little bit here.
So when the cardiologist camein, and you know they looked at
(56:46):
Frank and they go yeah, Frank,you know you got some mileage on
the outside, but what did thecardiologist say about your
vascular system?
Frank (56:55):
I was amazed after they did the inspection on my head
and pulling out the clots.
They looked around the arteriesand said looks like a
30-year-old instead of an80-year-old.
Jodie (57:10):
And I have no idea how the pump.
Frank (57:13):
is that good?
Jodie (57:14):
That's good, that's good, that's a good pump, that's a
good heart pump yeah see Peopleshould join the ski patrol.
Frank (57:24):
You know, you get that 30-year-old vascular system at
80.
Or just keep doing it.
Murphy (57:29):
Yeah, or just keep doing it.
Frank (57:30):
Or even just keep doing it.
I'm not going to be able tomostly know what's happening.
Oh, interesting.
Or two weeks later, one of ourpatrollers, huh, I think I might
have a heart 911.
(57:52):
If you know the diagnosis ofthat, okay, but I don't think
the person with his head beingscrewed up, so to speak, is
going to bother somebody.
He's going to have to see.
It's not right.
And for me it took a little bitof a while.
I could not put a button on.
(58:14):
It was impossible to get abutton in the hole Right and
then opened up the laptop, couldnot get the, Can't get in the
laptop.
This is like automatic.
I can almost close the eyes andyou do it now.
(58:34):
I could not get into there, soit's really important.
Uh, the other thing after thatyou know afib, right, uh is
common for over about 65, go getit checked, because if you have
(58:54):
AFib, you're high possibilitylater to stroke.
Murphy (59:01):
I did not know that, yes .
Frank (59:03):
And so go get the AFib checked if that's a problem.
Murphy (59:12):
And stop it.
That's right, because AFibwinds up giving you a higher
chance of getting a blood clotin one of the chambers in your
heart, which I guess breaks offand it's very common for
everybody, after 65 or something, having AFib.
Jodie (59:36):
And AFib stands for atrial fibrillation correct
right, and so people a lot oftimes don't even realize that
they have it.
Unless they are used tochecking for their pulse, they
may not feel symptoms and mineare normally just just a little
moment.
Frank (59:46):
It's not a big long one or that, just a little bit and
you don't know it, and so cabthe doctor somewhere at 65.
Go check out my AFib, becauseif you do, you want to get that
blood thinner soon.
Oh.
Murphy (01:00:04):
Yeah, so what else do you want to add?
Do you want to add?
Do you have any more questionsfor Frank?
Jodie (01:00:09):
The only boy.
We could go on for hours withyou, frank, but at some point we
just want to do a little bit ofinformation about what signs of
a stroke are.
I like this.
Murphy (01:00:19):
So our safety coordinator has got this thing.
Frank brought a card in andthis card is did the doctors
give you this?
Frank (01:00:28):
No, I went online looking for different several of
them and I figured it out,printed it out and had it
laminated, and it's laminatedAll right, so go ahead, jodi.
Jodie (01:00:40):
So basically it goes and covers about what is a stroke.
So, people that are maybe notas familiar, these would be like
if they came across Frank ashis wife did You're looking at.
Is there a sudden loss ofbalance?
And because this starts offwith B, fast that's B-E-F-A-S-T.
So balance sudden loss Is theeyesight.
(01:01:01):
Maybe there's some visionchanges.
One eye, both eyes, the face.
Now on the face, does it lookuneven?
Is there a drooping of themouth?
Is there other where they can't?
One eyebrow goes up and theother one doesn't.
When you have a person, theyask them to put their arms out
in front of them and you mightsee that one arm starts to drift
(01:01:24):
down.
Frank (01:01:25):
I think that would be a real important one.
Murphy (01:01:27):
Right, yeah, that is.
That's a telltale sign.
Jodie (01:01:29):
And then speech.
Now when they say, does thespeech sound strange?
Now that could be from theycan't formulate their words.
It might be that it's sort ofthey're having trouble moving
their mouth and so it's sort ofa garbled or like you had said,
you're trying to pull that wordout, that you can think it, but
(01:01:50):
you're not actually able to sayit for me.
Frank (01:01:54):
The.
Jodie (01:01:55):
The wife came over and I said no, it's just saying bad,
bad, bad, which is not asentence right correct and that
same something, but you know, Icould not really do a sentence
and and the most important onthis, besides recognizing it, is
(01:02:17):
, you may have heard, withcardiac, with the heart, time is
muscle and here with the brain,it's time is brain.
So we have to call 911, get itgoing, because that also is
crucial of getting them into thehospital and into.
If they can dissolve the clotor they suck out the clot, or
(01:02:39):
time makes a big differencewhether they can do it or not do
it.
Frank (01:02:43):
Don't ask what's the problem.
Call 911.
Murphy (01:02:47):
Get EMS rolling.
Frank (01:02:48):
Don't question it, not the Hurst 911.
Jodie (01:02:51):
Yeah.
Murphy (01:02:52):
That's one of the big things we talk about up on the
mountain these days is if youroll up onto a scene and you
know you need transportation,you're getting that figured out.
Call Absolutely, because youget that transportation to a
higher level of care going sothat when you get down there
it's already waiting and luckyfor me is where already waiting
and for.
Frank (01:03:11):
Lucky for me is where Seattle County has a great great
EMS paramedics, Some of thebest in the United States and
the world.
Yeah, and they don't give asmuch for some EMTs.
(01:03:35):
They're hitting on theparamedics.
They're their top and that'simportant.
And, like you said, time, time,time.
It's got to go now.
Jodie (01:03:51):
Delay can interfere with the type of care, depending on
what's happening, that they mayreceive.
I don't know if you know that.
Murphy (01:03:59):
Well, the other thing too, is whatever.
Frank (01:04:02):
Got to call them fast enough because was the doctor
there at the moment, they got toget him there if he's not off.
So it's you know, it's got tocall right away.
Murphy (01:04:15):
Right, yeah, get them going Well.
Frank, I have to say thank youvery much for taking the time to
come and chat with us on ourpatroller chats.
That was it was terrific.
It was great to learn moreabout you.
I've known you for years.
I'm glad you could come in, sitdown and share some of your
memories, could come in, sitdown and share some of your
memories.
I really wish you a lot of luckand more.
(01:04:37):
I don't want to say quickerrecovery, because you've already
been really fast.
I hope you get back to 100%very quickly.
Frank (01:04:44):
Steady progression, steady progression.
I'm happy as far as I did,absolutely.
Murphy (01:04:53):
Thanks, frank, we appreciate it.
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