Ski Patrol Has Changed, But Friendship Remains the Heart of Service. Longtime Mt Hood patroller, Gordy Winterrowd shares insights from his 50+ years of service, reflecting on the evolution of rescue equipment and the changing relationship between volunteer and paid patrol staff. Click here to see the pictures he is describing while chatting with us!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Murphy (00:00):
so, all right, switching gears just a little bit.
What's changed?
You know, in your 50 years withyou know Mt Hood patrol in
general, you know things of thatnature.
I mean, have you seen a hugechange in the mentality?
Have you seen a?
You know how things have been.
Gordy Winterrowd (00:28):
Yeah, well, I think the quality we're still
getting great people of goodcharacter and a lot of talented
people.
The equipment has changed.
You know a lot.
Here's a picture of the Y-Eastsled and you saw the.
(00:52):
That's actually a dog sledthere.
And then we went to the Akjaand then the Cascade and now the
preferred sled is the Edge inthe lower right down there and
now the preferred sled is theedge in the lower right down
there, and that dog sled hadthat sort of wooden handle in
the front.
Jodie (01:11):
Now, did that actually do anything other than they put
their hands on it for bracing,because they're bent over while
the other guy is in the backthat's able to stand up a little
bit better?
Gordy Winterrowd (01:21):
It caused some injuries to patrollers a little
bit better.
It caused some injuries topatrollers and you could push.
My understanding is you couldpush it left or right to help
guide the sled a little.
Oh, wow, yeah, but it was morejust a place to hold on to the
sled.
And if you were in moguls,there were some issues
associated with moguls.
I was about to say there's norope, there's no.
(01:42):
I mean, how do you steer thatbloody thing?
And if you were in moguls,there were some issues
associated with moguls.
Murphy (01:45):
I was about to say there's no rope, there's no, I
mean how do you steer?
That bloody thing.
Jodie (01:49):
Yeah, and then that's sort of like having a, you know,
on the old time steering wheels, where you have that handle
that you go, and they outlawedthat because it's called too
much impalement on people withaccidents and stuff.
Wow, what did you think of theAkja?
Gordy Winterrowd (02:09):
Oh, it was a lot of fun, very, very light.
You had four handles.
A lot of times certainly atTimberline, we just used two
handles, but it's verymaneuverable and it was the akia
(02:29):
was originally developed forclimbing and in the in the uh
center now today's akias, Ithink they I think you'd
probably order them, um that youcan separate them into two
pieces.
But the akia in the picturethat you see there can be
divided into two sections and sotwo different people can have
(02:51):
it on their backs to carry upthe mountain to a rescue scene.
And so it was originally.
That's, when they first cameout, it was more for mountain
rescue and then the ski patrolsin Europe started using them.
Jodie (03:08):
So Murphy, you have a four-handle something.
Yeah, we have a.
What's that crystal?
Murphy (03:12):
And I was just about to ask you that.
So from the Akja at Crystalthey wind up using a.
It was called a Cascade 300 ora Crystal sled.
Yeah, a Cascade 350 or aCrystal Sled.
Yeah, a Cascade 350.
Yeah, or 350,.
Gordy Winterrowd (03:27):
I'm sorry.
It was designed after the Akjaand it's good for certain
terrain.
The Cascade is a lot heavierthan the Akja so it runs a
little different than the.
Murphy (03:43):
Akja Right, I love the Cascade sled.
Gordy Winterrowd (03:46):
Yeah or the 350.
Murphy (03:48):
The Crystal, as we love to call it, at Crystal Mountain.
If you've got to traverse withthat thing, it comes in handy.
And moguls, I love it.
You can just, you know, runmoguls with that.
But I have never run of allthose sledseds.
I'm not old enough to run thedog sled but I've never run the
akia.
That'd be interesting.
I guess they still have thoseat a few mountains yeah, we have
(04:11):
a couple.
Gordy Winterrowd (04:12):
Uh, yeah, we have a couple that we just keep
for history I was gonna sayposterity.
Murphy (04:18):
Nobody breaks that out for a rescue I think hayek still
uses Akias.
Jodie (04:24):
Oh God no.
Gordy Winterrowd (04:25):
I've never seen one.
They're also very good for iceand beer.
Murphy (04:32):
Oh, the Akias Ice and beer.
Yeah, Ice and beer.
Yeah yeah, that's a patrolrescue.
Jodie (04:38):
The patrol rescue.
But no, I thought I heard thatand maybe I misunderstood this
so I'll have to double check butthat Hayek might be still using
an Akiya.
And then you said that DaveNelson, not Dave Nelson.
I apologize, keith Petrie, hewas the one that brought it over
to Anthony Lake's patrol,correct?
Gordy Winterrowd (05:00):
yeah.
Jodie (05:00):
So it'll be interesting to see what they're using now.
Gordy Winterrowd (05:02):
Well, yeah, Anthony Lake still uses them.
Murphy (05:05):
Yeah, that's right, because Jack, who is the old
division OET guy, told me thatwhen he was over there they were
still using Akias and they didtheir senior test and people had
an Akia.
Yeah, that's wonderful.
Gordy Winterrowd (05:23):
Yeah, they still do, and they've also
bought some edges from Toby.
They then traded in some Akias,but they have both now, akias
and edges, there you go, thereyou go.
And a little advertisement forAnthony Lakes, if you're in the
(05:46):
category of a senior.
The annual passes are very,very expensive.
They're $10 a year.
Murphy (05:55):
What's the vertical there at Anthony Lakes?
Gordy Winterrowd (05:59):
They have one chair.
I'm not sure exactly what thevertical is, but they have one
chairlift and it's good terrain,though it's a lot of fun.
Jodie (06:06):
Aren't they known for their powder?
Gordy Winterrowd (06:09):
Correct Yep, yep.
Jodie (06:11):
That's what I thought.
That's what I thought Known forthe powder.
Murphy (06:16):
So what about the Mount Hood Patrol in general?
What have you seen change inyour 50 years patrolling there?
Gordy Winterrowd (06:24):
Well, each of the areas has expanded.
Change in your 50 yearspatrolling there.
Well, each of the areas hasexpanded.
Mounted Meadows has moved intoHeather Canyon and is up to.
Probably has added eight liftsover the years.
The Mounted Ski Bowl hasexpanded west into an area now
(06:47):
called Outback which hasoutstanding and probably the
steepest terrain on Mount Hoodand on a great ski day that's a
good place to be.
And then Timberline hasexpanded to year-round skiing up
on the Palmer snowfield.
(07:07):
And you know, timberline hasalso expanded to summer
operations as well for mountainbiking.
Murphy (07:17):
Have there been any changes to how the mountain is
governed or in the patrol thatgoes along with?
Gordy Winterrowd (07:24):
Yeah, we, you know I mentioned earlier Well, I
guess I didn't mention earlierthat we used to the dispatch
system would be you'd show up ingovernment camp at the what is
now the Bowman Rescue Center,and you'd pick numbers and then,
based on your, the sequence ofyour number, you'd pick numbers
(07:44):
and then, based on your, thesequence of your number, you'd
you'd choose your area and therewere certain areas that had
more demand and, if you're able,had a low number, then you
could go to those.
Go to that.
That your number, your area ofchoice, and that was the way the
and it worked out fairly wellfor you, you know, getting all
(08:05):
the areas covered.
We then went to a dispatchsystem which was you'd submit
the dates you wanted to ski theareas you wanted to ski in
advance.
We had three modules during theyear.
You do them for the fall,winter and spring modules, and
there was that was manual, therewas.
Jodie (08:27):
Diane Wasn't that I was going to say, Dave Wheeler,
right.
Gordy Winterrowd (08:30):
Yeah, diane and Dave Wheeler ran that on the
wall of their dining room orliving room.
Jodie (08:38):
Way before computers.
Gordy Winterrowd (08:40):
Right.
And then there were someearlier versions of that that
were computer driven.
But then in the I believe itwas the perhaps late 90s we went
to a dispatch system on the weband we're still doing that.
(09:06):
It's now called Troopeter andthat works extremely well, where
you pick the area in advance.
And the other difference isback years ago it was pretty
random where you could go and itcreated a lot of camaraderie.
(09:28):
Plus you got to know all 300members.
Then it moved to teams nowwhere there's a Saturday team
that is up there every twoSaturdays, every other Saturday,
and then a Sunday team that'sup every other Sunday, and so a
(09:49):
total of four teams per area andthose people work together
every two weeks.
So they get to know theindividual strengths, weaknesses
and get to know the area.
And they're pretty much there.
Are people, of course, movearound to different areas, but
you're assigned to pretty much aprimary area, and that's a
(10:12):
change from years ago as well.
Murphy (10:16):
Okay, I got another question for you.
You know we've talked to somepeople that you know have got
their ski patrol history.
You know we've talked to somepeople that you know have got
their ski patrol history andthey were mentioning back in the
I don't want to say olden days,but you know in history the
(10:37):
volunteer patrol ran themountain and that was
predominantly who you know didthe assignments.
They did avalanche control,they did everything.
They did avalanche control,they did everything.
And then you know, one year orover a couple of seasons let's
just call it paid patrollerstake over I always use paid, not
professional, because I thinkwe're all professional but paid
patrollers from the mountainkind of took over and started
(11:01):
doing avalanche mitigation.
They started as it wascommunicated.
They became the officer classand the volunteers became the
enlisted class, with our youknow patrol director being the
senior enlisted guy that kind ofmonitored and handled all the
enlisted people on the mountain.
(11:22):
Is Hood like that.
Has it been like that?
What's the history?
Gordy Winterrowd (11:26):
and what is it ?
Murphy (11:27):
like that now.
Gordy Winterrowd (11:28):
Yeah, and the level of that varies a little
depending on the area you'repatrolling.
But no, that's pretty much theway we per what you were saying.
Murph would run the morningmeeting and traditionally, now
(11:51):
that depending on the area isdone by the paid patrol director
and or some assistance, maybegoing through weather conditions
and so forth, projectedcustomer count, that type of
thing.
But no, our hill captains stillexist and make sure that the
(12:18):
coverage is adequate and guidethe assignments of the
volunteers during the day.
Murphy (12:25):
But certainly the morning meeting now is done and,
as you said, avalanche controlis done by the paid patrollers
as well the paid staff, and soI'm just going to say you're
alluding or I guess saying thatpay patrollers kind of run the
(12:46):
mountain and we are nowsupplementary kind of patrollers
.
Gordy Winterrowd (12:51):
No, it depends on the area.
There's some areas where, andwell, we are very integrated in
certain areas and perhaps lessintegrated in other areas, but
even in those areas we providethe OEC training for the paid
(13:16):
patrollers.
Oh, interesting, annually we dothat, I would say, pretty much
for all the Mount, the mountedareas.
We provide their OEC trainingAt a couple of areas.
Well, one of the areas we'reengaged in some of their other
(13:36):
training and one of the areas weprovide their OET training also
for the paid patrollers meanalso for the paid patrollers.
Murphy (13:50):
Yeah, that's uh interesting.
So on the oet side, you know, Iknow a lot of mountains in a
lot of different states where ifyou're a paid patroller, uh the
boss goes hey, that's atoboggan.
Uh, you know, go practice.
And you know there's no OETtraining.
Like the volunteers at ourmountain at Crystal, you have
eight weeks every weekend oftoboggan training and it's
(14:13):
intensive, and so when you comeout of that thing, most people
are really pretty competent andwe're actually starting to get
more of our pay patrollers, youknow, know that come over and
participate in our training.
Is that what it is now like atHood, or has it been that way
for a while.
Gordy Winterrowd (14:35):
It's usually not at the same time, same day,
but yeah, in two of the areaswe're involved in.
Jodie (14:46):
One of the areas.
Gordy Winterrowd (14:47):
we're very heavily involved in it and the
other to a lesser extent, butyes yes absolutely All right.
Murphy (14:56):
Well, that's good.
Gordy Winterrowd (14:57):
And particularly help with the new
people.
We're not doing annualrefreshers for the paid staff
typically, but certainly oninitial training we're involved,
right yeah.
Jodie (15:14):
So you guys were talking about more of the in-charge
earlier on.
Did that also determine if arun stayed open or if it was
closed or not?
Gordy Winterrowd (15:25):
No, those decisions are typically made by
the paid staff.
Jodie (15:29):
Currently, but in the past, going back in history.
Gordy Winterrowd (15:33):
Oh yeah, no, those just on the weekends Years
ago.
There might be one paidindividual from the area and the
Mounted Ski Patrol would handlethe rest.
Yeah, even at Mounted Meadowsthat was the case.
Murphy (15:58):
Yeah, we would get that.
I should clarify that that is.
What was told to us is thatduring the week you had a bunch
of paid people and then on theweekend you'd have a
representative from the paidstaff or from the mountain.
That would be there, but it wasthe volunteers that ran the
whole program up until a coupleof years ago, and then they
(16:18):
started taking over Same atMount Hood.
Okay, Okay, well, that's good.
All right, what are the goodstories?
Can you tell us?
Gordy Winterrowd (16:28):
Well, I'll say that anybody that wants to do
community service and get toknow some very fine people,
there's no better way to do thatthan to volunteer with their
local patrol.
They, you know to the extent,the more you get engaged with
(16:55):
your patrol in terms of learningand leadership, the more it'll
impact your career in a positiveway.
Murphy (17:05):
Your career in the mountain or your career in
general, your weekly, your paidoccupation?
Oh, your paid occupation.
Gordy Winterrowd (17:15):
Yeah, you'll learn skills and techniques for
personnel management that willmake a lot of difference in your
paid career.
Murphy (17:26):
Oh yeah.
So as a former patrol directoror mountain lead, you know I've
done that job and I'm going totell you, managing paid people
right in like my regular job, isa whole lot different than
managing volunteers.
Yes, it is, you know that windsup because you can't like
(17:47):
incentivize them with any moremoney.
Hey look, I'll give you somedough to go do this job.
That doesn't work and that's.
You know, one of the biggestchallenges that I had to make in
ski patrol is figuring out waysto be motivational without
using money or something elselike that.
Gordy Winterrowd (18:07):
Right, right, no, and it's a very enjoyable.
You know, it's been great andthe friendships are the reason
that I've stayed involved for 57years.
It's been the friendships, andthat includes both patroller
(18:30):
friendships.
There's a few patients thatI've stayed in contact with.
Jodie (18:35):
Really.
Gordy Winterrowd (18:41):
And the area management.
Getting to know and beingfriends with area management has
been good as well.
Murphy (18:50):
How's the relationship with the paid staff?
Pretty good.
Gordy Winterrowd (18:54):
Very good Okay , very good yeah.
Yeah, and you know, it's just.
You know, I would say yeah, Iwould say very good.
So I would say yeah, I wouldsay very good.
You know, there's just like inany organization.
There's certain individualsthat are a little more
challenging.
Murphy (19:15):
Nicely, nicely done.
Good job, gordy, that goes with.
Gordy Winterrowd (19:21):
you know both volunteers, volunteer staff and
and paid staff, but um so.
Murphy (19:30):
So have you gone to like tour to other mountains?
You know I'm sure you have andlooked at ski patrollers around
there or chit chatted with skipatrollers that you know, like
Anthony lakes.
Or you know 49 North, you knowup in Seattle Mount Spokane have
you ever been to?
You know those kind of just asa patroller and chatted with
(19:51):
people Over the years.
Gordy Winterrowd (19:54):
I've done a lot of that both in the United
States and in Europe.
So there's a group that I'mpart of.
We met a patroller fromAnchorage, alaska, alyeska,
chris Breast, a number of yearsago in Austria.
(20:16):
He was there with a group ofpatrollers or former patrollers
from Alaska, and Chris's goal isto ski every area west of the
Mississippi before he dies.
He's up to about 95 or 96 rightnow, and so I've and one of the
patroller from Mount Hood.
We've gone out with Chris'sgroup a number of different
(20:39):
areas and typically we'll try tospend either.
You know, and typically we'lltry to spend either pre-morning
time with those patrollers orafterwards with them, and when
(21:01):
we go to Europe we typically inthe last couple of years this
hasn't been the case, but weused to try to spend a half a
day with the European skipatrols to discuss equipment,
techniques, procedures, and thatwas always educational and
worthwhile.
Murphy (21:15):
Is it true?
All right, I'm just asking thatif you get injured on the
mountain in Europe, that theirservice isn't entirely free as a
ski patrol.
So if you get rescued, you'regetting out your checkbook.
Jodie (21:36):
Speaking from personal experience.
Gordy Winterrowd (21:39):
I've got a little personal experience to
answer that.
But what you want to do ifyou're skiing in Europe is buy a
insurance policy which willallow a helicopter to pick you
up should you be injured in oneof the higher elevations, and so
(21:59):
that's where there would becost.
If you were injured and ahelicopter came to pick you up,
there would be a charge unlessyou bought the insurance.
Insurance is inexpensive $35, Ithink, for the week perhaps and
so you always want to buy thatinsurance.
That would be the cost.
(22:19):
But if a patroller picked youup and did a sled ride, there'd
be no charge.
But I've helped on a number ofcases over there, and there was
one case we were involved within Chamonix, an area called
(22:47):
Grand Mountain is the Englishversion of it, but anyway where
the patient it was a brokenmidline femur.
We splinted and provided sometraction and basically the sled
ride was, you know, a hundredyards or less to where there was
(23:08):
a flat spot that the helicoptercould come in and pick them up,
and so, and just to get them tothe hospital faster.
In another case, in an areacalled the Stubai Glacier, the
person was injured and basicallyit was picked up by a snowcat.
(23:30):
What they do is the front ofthe snowcat has a chair on it,
but the center of the chair,rather than a chair, is a
stretcher chair is a um.
The stretcher and the snowcatwill deliver the patient to the,
the flat area where ahelicopter can come in and and
(23:51):
take care of it, take it fromthere.
Murphy (23:54):
So it's the helicopter that you'd be paying for if you
don't have been charged, or theyalluded to the fact that they
were charged when you know theywere rescued, so yeah.
Gordy Winterrowd (24:17):
Yeah, I was.
Two years ago I was hit by ahigh-speed, out-of-control skier
in Lech, Austria.
Jodie (24:28):
Why don't you tell us a little bit more about that,
Gordy?
Gordy Winterrowd (24:31):
Okay.
Murphy (24:32):
Did you buy the insurance, Gordy?
Gordy Winterrowd (24:34):
Yes, I think I bought the insurance.
Oh, okay, but more importantly,by travel insurance.
I bought travel insurance.
More importantly, buy travelinsurance.
I bought travel insurancebecause the travel insurance
will take care of yourhospitalization.
The individual when he hit me,big guy, I don't think I was
(25:01):
injured, but then he proceededto land on me and that's when he
broke five ribs, creating aflail chest.
He punctured one of my lungsand he had pneumothorax and
eventually hemothorax.
And the exam perhaps Ishouldn't say this, but the exam
(25:24):
by the patroller was uh, canyou get up now?
Jodie (25:28):
Um, can you get up now?
Gordy Winterrowd (25:32):
I can't breathe but sure, get up.
I can't breathe, but um, so umwe.
Murphy (25:39):
I just want to know was that the primary or secondary
assessment?
Jodie (25:43):
I just want to know was that the primary or secondary?
Gordy Winterrowd (25:45):
assessment it was both, so it was about maybe
a mile and a half down.
Jodie (25:55):
So I chose to ski down rather than I.
Just this just flummoxed me.
Here he is with a flail chest,and for people that don't know
what a flail chest is, it'swhere part of the lungs, sort of
the brigs, go in when you'reinhaling, and it's separated
from the rib cage.
It's a little hard to breathe,let alone what elevation were
(26:16):
you at?
Gordy Winterrowd (26:18):
Ballpark.
Yeah, that you know.
I'm not sure I'll look it uphere real fast.
Yeah, I'm not sure I'll look itup here real fast, but I told
them that I would just make itdown on my own, so I wouldn't
necessarily call it skiing down.
Jodie (26:36):
Why did you choose to ski down versus go down in a sled?
Curiosity that curiosity.
Gordy Winterrowd (26:41):
Well, I was a little concerned about the uh
capabilities of the individualprimary and secondary exam and
then and there he that area usesakias and I.
I could just see myselfbouncing across moguls and the
pain associated with that.
Jodie (27:03):
Oh my goodness gracious.
Gordy Winterrowd (27:06):
So I chose just to.
I wouldn't call it skiing down,but made my way down, and then
we walked to the medical clinic.
With a pneumothorax.
Jodie (27:18):
Correct Five broken ribs.
Yes, oh my goodness gracious.
Gordy Winterrowd (27:25):
And then Murph , eight days in the hospital, oh
man that's not an overnight.
Eight days, yeah, yeah.
So, jody, to answer yourquestion on the elevation, it's
4,700 feet where we were, orless Ouch, so not too high.
Jodie (27:48):
High enough when you have a collapsed lung.
So he then went to.
How many different facilitiesdid you get?
How I happen to know a littlebit more about this is I get
these random little texts fromGordy asking me some information
about how he might get home,and I'm like what the heck do
you mean?
How are you going to get homemy air transport, air ambulance
(28:10):
yes, so I'm doing research overhere in the us of a trying to
help him figure this out.
Murphy (28:16):
Oh, this wasn't that long ago, two years ago.
Two years ago, I thought thiswas like ancient history.
No, it was uh well, it wasactually.
Gordy Winterrowd (28:26):
Yeah, it was uh beginning of 20 february 24,
so actually one year ago.
Murphy (28:32):
Yeah, yeah, february of 24, yeah, that's last year yes,
yeah, oh man so that had to hurtI when it happened we were in
them.
It was into february and it wasin March, so were you skiing by
yourself or were you part ofthe ski flight thing that was
(28:52):
going on?
Gordy Winterrowd (28:53):
Correct, yeah yeah, oh, okay.
We had met a German attorneywho we were skiing with two of
us and the three of us wereskiing when it happened.
Jodie (29:08):
So was Paul there when you fell.
Yes, was he impressed with theassessment.
I mean.
Gordy Winterrowd (29:17):
Well, I was skier number three, so they
weren't aware that it hadhappened.
Oh, gotcha, gotcha.
So we had radio, so I wastalking to them, but they were,
you know, half a mile away ormore over the hill, so they
couldn't see any of it.
Jodie (29:37):
And when you say a large guy, gordy, you are not a short
guy by any sense.
You are how tall 6'3", 6'3",okay, any sense.
You are how tall 6'3", 6'3",okay.
And.
Gordy Winterrowd (29:49):
This guy.
I'm guessing he weighed 250pounds or something.
Jodie (29:52):
Oh.
Gordy Winterrowd (29:54):
Yeah, enough to do some damage.
Murphy (29:56):
So he was petite, because I'm 250 and I like to
consider myself petite.
Okay, and you're 6, what, whatare you?
6'5", 6'5", how tall are you,murphy?
Jodie (30:08):
6'5" Six, what, what are you?
Six, six-five, how tall are you, murphy?
Six-five, yeah, okay, anyway,were you on your side when he
landed on you, do you recall?
I know it's hard to recall.
Gordy Winterrowd (30:18):
I think yeah yeah, right side up.
Yes, yeah, yeah.
Jodie (30:23):
So then you were at the ski areas clinic, then they
transported you by ambulance.
Ambulance, or did you?
Gordy Winterrowd (30:33):
guys drive, we watch on you.
We were at uh it was a privateclinic at the base of the ski
hill and uh, dr romberg's clinicand uh, after the uh, the
x-rays, the, I was sent back tothe hotel with a follow-up.
That was on a Sunday, with afollow-up on Wednesday.
Jodie (30:54):
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
They did an x-ray and you had acollapsed lung then Well, at
that point I don't think it wascollapsed.
Gordy Winterrowd (31:03):
It was punctured but it wasn't
collapsed.
And so Monday, it was a littledifficult to get out of bed.
Tuesday, and there was pain,more pain.
Tuesday there was a lot morepain and a little harder to get
out of bed, but Wednesday it wasimpossible to get out of bed
because you don't have anystrength to be able to sit up.
(31:25):
Oh my gosh, I did not realizethat part After another x-ray
and CAT scan is when I wasadmitted to the hospital and
yeah it was by ambulance fromthe clinic to the hospital.
Jodie (31:45):
And then they put the chest tube in.
Correct yeah, and if I recallcorrectly, on some of these text
messages and emails the tubecame out correct.
No, or it was disconnected.
Gordy Winterrowd (32:03):
No, I think it may have been one time.
The ambulance took me back tothe clinic for x-rays.
The hospital had a cat scanunit but didn't have an x-ray
unit.
In a small little community andthis hospital has 12 beds I'm
sorry, 12, 11 or 12 rooms I wasin the icu because the icu had
(32:26):
oxygen in the walls.
Um, so I think I think it wasin the ICU because the ICU had
oxygen in the walls.
I think it was when I waswaiting in the lobby at the
clinic I received a call thatsome of my equipment might have
still been in the clinic and Igot up really fast without
grabbing my blood container.
(32:46):
It tipped over in the lobby onthe marble floor of the clinic.
I think that's maybe whatyou're referring to.
Jodie (32:54):
Ouch, it was a little embarrassing.
I can't remember all, but therewas something about the thing
secured or whatever, but thenthey were going to give you.
The other part of this wasyou're trying to arrange home
and on commercial flight versusa medical transport.
Gordy Winterrowd (33:14):
Yeah, dr Romberg had written the
insurance company a letter aboutrequesting air ambulance just
in case of embolism or anythingelse, and the insurance company
didn't like that idea becausethey didn't want to spend the
(33:36):
$100,000.
So they wanted me to stay aslong as possible and our regular
flight was like on a Saturday.
So I was supposed to bereleased on Wednesday and talk
to the insurance and they said,well, we can't do it, can't do
any scheduling until you're outof the hospital.
So it would have been thefollowing Wednesday, probably
(33:56):
before I would have left.
So we just decided to take theregular flight that following
Saturday, which they had alittle bit of risk.
Murphy (34:07):
Yeah, I'd say Ouch Last year, don't include this.
Gordy Winterrowd (34:15):
Delete most of this discussion from the.
Jodie (34:20):
Oh yeah.
Well, so the moral of the storybasically would be to make sure
that you have adequateinsurance when you go on a trip,
as well as in case of anemergency, how you would want to
make sure that you have specialinsurance that would cover you
medically, correct?
Gordy Winterrowd (34:38):
Yeah, you'd want to have both travel
insurance and the area rescueinsurance, which is a $35 or $40
weekly for your visit.
Yes, yeah.
I was supposed to.
You know the travel insurancewould probably cover the
(35:01):
helicopter, but it'd be easiernot getting charged at all, so
the $35 is worth it for.
Murphy (35:08):
Oh, I'd say, yeah, those ambulance rides are like I
don't know five grand or somebloody thing like that.
Gordy Winterrowd (35:15):
The air, the air, the, the helicopters, you
know?
Yeah, oh yeah, or maybe evenhigher.
Murphy (35:22):
Yeah Well, that's why every year I look at that.
Uh yeah Well, that's why everyyear I look at that who should
sponsor us Life Flight?
But when I look at that LifeFlight, they give us you know,
patrollers a deal that you canbuy.
Every year I look at that thingand go, oh man, is this the
year that I actually should buythis and put it up there, just
(35:45):
in case.
Jodie (35:46):
It's well worth it because you you would cover your
whole family.
So if there's an auto accident,yeah different things that way,
so little plug there forlifelight or your area in, uh,
whatever service you have inyour part that you're listening
to so definitely well, lifelightsupports us at the convention,
so you know we can give them alittle TLC there.
Murphy (36:07):
Absolutely All right, let's see here.
So, gordy, gordy, gord, whatelse do we have?
We've got your local divisionawards.
Oh, jody has a question.
She wants to ask you that, sheasks everybody.
Okay, go ahead, jody, ask thatquestion.
Jodie (36:27):
Okay, go ahead, jody, ask that question Okay, so
basically and you might haveseen that I don't know, but in
regards to what does it mean toyou with our NSP's creed of 1938
, service and safety, what didit sort of mean to you initially
(36:48):
, and has it changed over theyears?
Gordy Winterrowd (36:54):
I don't.
I'm not sure I would that it'schanged.
I think it just means helpingareas allow the skiing
population to avoid injury andthen, should there be accidents,
(37:17):
and avoid accidents, but shouldthere be accidents, to be able
to handle the situation in avery professionally efficient
and you know the proper way toget them to the next level of
care.
But if you ask that question toareas, they would say the
(37:39):
prevention is their key viewPrevention exactly.
Jodie (37:45):
Key view of the ski patrol prevention Exactly.
Gordy Winterrowd (37:48):
Key view of the ski patrol.
There's, you know, I think mostpatrollers might say help after
the accident, but typicallyarea owners are more interested
in preventing.
They're interested in both, ofcourse, but prevention is.
Jodie (38:04):
Prevention is key.
You're talking to an ear nursehere, and that is something that
I will say for mount hood skipatrol, I mean, and it's its own
, unique, with y east as theregion, but it serves everyone
there.
Um is does excel on is the factthat there's a lot of functions
, whether it's used to be knownas ski fever or now is snowvana,
(38:26):
participating at different inthe summer bike events or
marathons, but really alsotrying to get the message out
and in different ways, and we'veheard a lot of different takes
on this.
This is always sort ofinteresting to hear different
philosophies and the like, butdefinitely as far as that's
concerned.
Murphy (38:48):
So, I like it.
so, all right, switching gears just a little bit.
What's changed?
You know, in your 50 years withyou know Mt Hood patrol in
general, you know things of thatnature.
I mean, have you seen a hugechange in the mentality?
Have you seen a?
You know how things have been.
Gordy Winterrowd (00:28):
Yeah, well, I think the quality we're still
getting great people of goodcharacter and a lot of talented
people.
The equipment has changed.
You know a lot.
Here's a picture of the Y-Eastsled and you saw the.
(00:52):
That's actually a dog sledthere.
And then we went to the Akjaand then the Cascade and now the
preferred sled is the Edge inthe lower right down there and
now the preferred sled is theedge in the lower right down
there, and that dog sled hadthat sort of wooden handle in
the front.
Jodie (01:11):
Now, did that actually do anything other than they put
their hands on it for bracing,because they're bent over while
the other guy is in the backthat's able to stand up a little
bit better?
Gordy Winterrowd (01:21):
It caused some injuries to patrollers a little
bit better.
It caused some injuries topatrollers and you could push.
My understanding is you couldpush it left or right to help
guide the sled a little.
Oh, wow, yeah, but it was morejust a place to hold on to the
sled.
And if you were in moguls,there were some issues
associated with moguls.
I was about to say there's norope, there's no.
(01:42):
I mean, how do you steer thatbloody thing?
And if you were in moguls,there were some issues
associated with moguls.
Murphy (01:45):
I was about to say there's no rope, there's no, I
mean how do you steer?
That bloody thing.
Jodie (01:49):
Yeah, and then that's sort of like having a, you know,
on the old time steering wheels, where you have that handle
that you go, and they outlawedthat because it's called too
much impalement on people withaccidents and stuff.
Wow, what did you think of theAkja?
Gordy Winterrowd (02:09):
Oh, it was a lot of fun, very, very light.
You had four handles.
A lot of times certainly atTimberline, we just used two
handles, but it's verymaneuverable and it was the akia
(02:29):
was originally developed forclimbing and in the in the uh
center now today's akias, Ithink they I think you'd
probably order them, um that youcan separate them into two
pieces.
But the akia in the picturethat you see there can be
divided into two sections and sotwo different people can have
(02:51):
it on their backs to carry upthe mountain to a rescue scene.
And so it was originally.
That's, when they first cameout, it was more for mountain
rescue and then the ski patrolsin Europe started using them.
Jodie (03:08):
So Murphy, you have a four-handle something.
Yeah, we have a.
What's that crystal?
Murphy (03:12):
And I was just about to ask you that.
So from the Akja at Crystalthey wind up using a.
It was called a Cascade 300 ora Crystal sled.
Yeah, a Cascade 350 or aCrystal Sled.
Yeah, a Cascade 350.
Yeah, or 350,.
Gordy Winterrowd (03:27):
I'm sorry.
It was designed after the Akjaand it's good for certain
terrain.
The Cascade is a lot heavierthan the Akja so it runs a
little different than the.
Murphy (03:43):
Akja Right, I love the Cascade sled.
Gordy Winterrowd (03:46):
Yeah or the 350.
Murphy (03:48):
The Crystal, as we love to call it, at Crystal Mountain.
If you've got to traverse withthat thing, it comes in handy.
And moguls, I love it.
You can just, you know, runmoguls with that.
But I have never run of allthose sledseds.
I'm not old enough to run thedog sled but I've never run the
akia.
That'd be interesting.
I guess they still have thoseat a few mountains yeah, we have
(04:11):
a couple.
Gordy Winterrowd (04:12):
Uh, yeah, we have a couple that we just keep
for history I was gonna sayposterity.
Murphy (04:18):
Nobody breaks that out for a rescue I think hayek still
uses Akias.
Jodie (04:24):
Oh God no.
Gordy Winterrowd (04:25):
I've never seen one.
They're also very good for iceand beer.
Murphy (04:32):
Oh, the Akias Ice and beer.
Yeah, Ice and beer.
Yeah yeah, that's a patrolrescue.
Jodie (04:38):
The patrol rescue.
But no, I thought I heard thatand maybe I misunderstood this
so I'll have to double check butthat Hayek might be still using
an Akiya.
And then you said that DaveNelson, not Dave Nelson.
I apologize, keith Petrie, hewas the one that brought it over
to Anthony Lake's patrol,correct?
Gordy Winterrowd (05:00):
yeah.
Jodie (05:00):
So it'll be interesting to see what they're using now.
Gordy Winterrowd (05:02):
Well, yeah, Anthony Lake still uses them.
Murphy (05:05):
Yeah, that's right, because Jack, who is the old
division OET guy, told me thatwhen he was over there they were
still using Akias and they didtheir senior test and people had
an Akia.
Yeah, that's wonderful.
Gordy Winterrowd (05:23):
Yeah, they still do, and they've also
bought some edges from Toby.
They then traded in some Akias,but they have both now, akias
and edges, there you go, thereyou go.
And a little advertisement forAnthony Lakes, if you're in the
(05:46):
category of a senior.
The annual passes are very,very expensive.
They're $10 a year.
Murphy (05:55):
What's the vertical there at Anthony Lakes?
Gordy Winterrowd (05:59):
They have one chair.
I'm not sure exactly what thevertical is, but they have one
chairlift and it's good terrain,though it's a lot of fun.
Jodie (06:06):
Aren't they known for their powder?
Gordy Winterrowd (06:09):
Correct Yep, yep.
Jodie (06:11):
That's what I thought.
That's what I thought Known forthe powder.
Murphy (06:16):
So what about the Mount Hood Patrol in general?
What have you seen change inyour 50 years patrolling there?
Gordy Winterrowd (06:24):
Well, each of the areas has expanded.
Change in your 50 yearspatrolling there.
Well, each of the areas hasexpanded.
Mounted Meadows has moved intoHeather Canyon and is up to.
Probably has added eight liftsover the years.
The Mounted Ski Bowl hasexpanded west into an area now
(06:47):
called Outback which hasoutstanding and probably the
steepest terrain on Mount Hoodand on a great ski day that's a
good place to be.
And then Timberline hasexpanded to year-round skiing up
on the Palmer snowfield.
(07:07):
And you know, timberline hasalso expanded to summer
operations as well for mountainbiking.
Murphy (07:17):
Have there been any changes to how the mountain is
governed or in the patrol thatgoes along with?
Gordy Winterrowd (07:24):
Yeah, we, you know I mentioned earlier Well, I
guess I didn't mention earlierthat we used to the dispatch
system would be you'd show up ingovernment camp at the what is
now the Bowman Rescue Center,and you'd pick numbers and then,
based on your, the sequence ofyour number, you'd pick numbers
(07:44):
and then, based on your, thesequence of your number, you'd
you'd choose your area and therewere certain areas that had
more demand and, if you're able,had a low number, then you
could go to those.
Go to that.
That your number, your area ofchoice, and that was the way the
and it worked out fairly wellfor you, you know, getting all
(08:05):
the areas covered.
We then went to a dispatchsystem which was you'd submit
the dates you wanted to ski theareas you wanted to ski in
advance.
We had three modules during theyear.
You do them for the fall,winter and spring modules, and
there was that was manual, therewas.
Jodie (08:27):
Diane Wasn't that I was going to say, Dave Wheeler,
right.
Gordy Winterrowd (08:30):
Yeah, diane and Dave Wheeler ran that on the
wall of their dining room orliving room.
Jodie (08:38):
Way before computers.
Gordy Winterrowd (08:40):
Right.
And then there were someearlier versions of that that
were computer driven.
But then in the I believe itwas the perhaps late 90s we went
to a dispatch system on the weband we're still doing that.
(09:06):
It's now called Troopeter andthat works extremely well, where
you pick the area in advance.
And the other difference isback years ago it was pretty
random where you could go and itcreated a lot of camaraderie.
(09:28):
Plus you got to know all 300members.
Then it moved to teams nowwhere there's a Saturday team
that is up there every twoSaturdays, every other Saturday,
and then a Sunday team that'sup every other Sunday, and so a
(09:49):
total of four teams per area andthose people work together
every two weeks.
So they get to know theindividual strengths, weaknesses
and get to know the area.
And they're pretty much there.
Are people, of course, movearound to different areas, but
you're assigned to pretty much aprimary area, and that's a
(10:12):
change from years ago as well.
Murphy (10:16):
Okay, I got another question for you.
You know we've talked to somepeople that you know have got
their ski patrol history.
You know we've talked to somepeople that you know have got
their ski patrol history andthey were mentioning back in the
I don't want to say olden days,but you know in history the
(10:37):
volunteer patrol ran themountain and that was
predominantly who you know didthe assignments.
They did avalanche control,they did everything.
They did avalanche control,they did everything.
And then you know, one year orover a couple of seasons let's
just call it paid patrollerstake over I always use paid, not
professional, because I thinkwe're all professional but paid
patrollers from the mountainkind of took over and started
(11:01):
doing avalanche mitigation.
They started as it wascommunicated.
They became the officer classand the volunteers became the
enlisted class, with our youknow patrol director being the
senior enlisted guy that kind ofmonitored and handled all the
enlisted people on the mountain.
(11:22):
Is Hood like that.
Has it been like that?
What's the history?
Gordy Winterrowd (11:26):
and what is it ?
Murphy (11:27):
like that now.
Gordy Winterrowd (11:28):
Yeah, and the level of that varies a little
depending on the area you'repatrolling.
But no, that's pretty much theway we per what you were saying.
Murph would run the morningmeeting and traditionally, now
(11:51):
that depending on the area isdone by the paid patrol director
and or some assistance, maybegoing through weather conditions
and so forth, projectedcustomer count, that type of
thing.
But no, our hill captains stillexist and make sure that the
(12:18):
coverage is adequate and guidethe assignments of the
volunteers during the day.
Murphy (12:25):
But certainly the morning meeting now is done and,
as you said, avalanche controlis done by the paid patrollers
as well the paid staff, and soI'm just going to say you're
alluding or I guess saying thatpay patrollers kind of run the
(12:46):
mountain and we are nowsupplementary kind of patrollers
.
Gordy Winterrowd (12:51):
No, it depends on the area.
There's some areas where, andwell, we are very integrated in
certain areas and perhaps lessintegrated in other areas, but
even in those areas we providethe OEC training for the paid
(13:16):
patrollers.
Oh, interesting, annually we dothat, I would say, pretty much
for all the Mount, the mountedareas.
We provide their OEC trainingAt a couple of areas.
Well, one of the areas we'reengaged in some of their other
(13:36):
training and one of the areas weprovide their OET training also
for the paid patrollers meanalso for the paid patrollers.
Murphy (13:50):
Yeah, that's uh interesting.
So on the oet side, you know, Iknow a lot of mountains in a
lot of different states where ifyou're a paid patroller, uh the
boss goes hey, that's atoboggan.
Uh, you know, go practice.
And you know there's no OETtraining.
Like the volunteers at ourmountain at Crystal, you have
eight weeks every weekend oftoboggan training and it's
(14:13):
intensive, and so when you comeout of that thing, most people
are really pretty competent andwe're actually starting to get
more of our pay patrollers, youknow, know that come over and
participate in our training.
Is that what it is now like atHood, or has it been that way
for a while.
Gordy Winterrowd (14:35):
It's usually not at the same time, same day,
but yeah, in two of the areaswe're involved in.
Jodie (14:46):
One of the areas.
Gordy Winterrowd (14:47):
we're very heavily involved in it and the
other to a lesser extent, butyes yes absolutely All right.
Murphy (14:56):
Well, that's good.
Gordy Winterrowd (14:57):
And particularly help with the new
people.
We're not doing annualrefreshers for the paid staff
typically, but certainly oninitial training we're involved,
right yeah.
Jodie (15:14):
So you guys were talking about more of the in-charge
earlier on.
Did that also determine if arun stayed open or if it was
closed or not?
Gordy Winterrowd (15:25):
No, those decisions are typically made by
the paid staff.
Jodie (15:29):
Currently, but in the past, going back in history.
Gordy Winterrowd (15:33):
Oh yeah, no, those just on the weekends Years
ago.
There might be one paidindividual from the area and the
Mounted Ski Patrol would handlethe rest.
Yeah, even at Mounted Meadowsthat was the case.
Murphy (15:58):
Yeah, we would get that.
I should clarify that that is.
What was told to us is thatduring the week you had a bunch
of paid people and then on theweekend you'd have a
representative from the paidstaff or from the mountain.
That would be there, but it wasthe volunteers that ran the
whole program up until a coupleof years ago, and then they
(16:18):
started taking over Same atMount Hood.
Okay, Okay, well, that's good.
All right, what are the goodstories?
Can you tell us?
Gordy Winterrowd (16:28):
Well, I'll say that anybody that wants to do
community service and get toknow some very fine people,
there's no better way to do thatthan to volunteer with their
local patrol.
They, you know to the extent,the more you get engaged with
(16:55):
your patrol in terms of learningand leadership, the more it'll
impact your career in a positiveway.
Murphy (17:05):
Your career in the mountain or your career in
general, your weekly, your paidoccupation?
Oh, your paid occupation.
Gordy Winterrowd (17:15):
Yeah, you'll learn skills and techniques for
personnel management that willmake a lot of difference in your
paid career.
Murphy (17:26):
Oh yeah.
So as a former patrol directoror mountain lead, you know I've
done that job and I'm going totell you, managing paid people
right in like my regular job, isa whole lot different than
managing volunteers.
Yes, it is, you know that windsup because you can't like
(17:47):
incentivize them with any moremoney.
Hey look, I'll give you somedough to go do this job.
That doesn't work and that's.
You know, one of the biggestchallenges that I had to make in
ski patrol is figuring out waysto be motivational without
using money or something elselike that.
Gordy Winterrowd (18:07):
Right, right, no, and it's a very enjoyable.
You know, it's been great andthe friendships are the reason
that I've stayed involved for 57years.
It's been the friendships, andthat includes both patroller
(18:30):
friendships.
There's a few patients thatI've stayed in contact with.
Jodie (18:35):
Really.
Gordy Winterrowd (18:41):
And the area management.
Getting to know and beingfriends with area management has
been good as well.
Murphy (18:50):
How's the relationship with the paid staff?
Pretty good.
Gordy Winterrowd (18:54):
Very good Okay , very good yeah.
Yeah, and you know, it's just.
You know, I would say yeah, Iwould say very good.
So I would say yeah, I wouldsay very good.
You know, there's just like inany organization.
There's certain individualsthat are a little more
challenging.
Murphy (19:15):
Nicely, nicely done.
Good job, gordy, that goes with.
Gordy Winterrowd (19:21):
you know both volunteers, volunteer staff and
and paid staff, but um so.
Murphy (19:30):
So have you gone to like tour to other mountains?
You know I'm sure you have andlooked at ski patrollers around
there or chit chatted with skipatrollers that you know, like
Anthony lakes.
Or you know 49 North, you knowup in Seattle Mount Spokane have
you ever been to?
You know those kind of just asa patroller and chatted with
(19:51):
people Over the years.
Gordy Winterrowd (19:54):
I've done a lot of that both in the United
States and in Europe.
So there's a group that I'mpart of.
We met a patroller fromAnchorage, alaska, alyeska,
chris Breast, a number of yearsago in Austria.
(20:16):
He was there with a group ofpatrollers or former patrollers
from Alaska, and Chris's goal isto ski every area west of the
Mississippi before he dies.
He's up to about 95 or 96 rightnow, and so I've and one of the
patroller from Mount Hood.
We've gone out with Chris'sgroup a number of different
(20:39):
areas and typically we'll try tospend either.
You know, and typically we'lltry to spend either pre-morning
time with those patrollers orafterwards with them, and when
(21:01):
we go to Europe we typically inthe last couple of years this
hasn't been the case, but weused to try to spend a half a
day with the European skipatrols to discuss equipment,
techniques, procedures, and thatwas always educational and
worthwhile.
Murphy (21:15):
Is it true?
All right, I'm just asking thatif you get injured on the
mountain in Europe, that theirservice isn't entirely free as a
ski patrol.
So if you get rescued, you'regetting out your checkbook.
Jodie (21:36):
Speaking from personal experience.
Gordy Winterrowd (21:39):
I've got a little personal experience to
answer that.
But what you want to do ifyou're skiing in Europe is buy a
insurance policy which willallow a helicopter to pick you
up should you be injured in oneof the higher elevations, and so
(21:59):
that's where there would becost.
If you were injured and ahelicopter came to pick you up,
there would be a charge unlessyou bought the insurance.
Insurance is inexpensive $35, Ithink, for the week perhaps and
so you always want to buy thatinsurance.
That would be the cost.
(22:19):
But if a patroller picked youup and did a sled ride, there'd
be no charge.
But I've helped on a number ofcases over there, and there was
one case we were involved within Chamonix, an area called
(22:47):
Grand Mountain is the Englishversion of it, but anyway where
the patient it was a brokenmidline femur.
We splinted and provided sometraction and basically the sled
ride was, you know, a hundredyards or less to where there was
(23:08):
a flat spot that the helicoptercould come in and pick them up,
and so, and just to get them tothe hospital faster.
In another case, in an areacalled the Stubai Glacier, the
person was injured and basicallyit was picked up by a snowcat.
(23:30):
What they do is the front ofthe snowcat has a chair on it,
but the center of the chair,rather than a chair, is a
stretcher chair is a um.
The stretcher and the snowcatwill deliver the patient to the,
the flat area where ahelicopter can come in and and
(23:51):
take care of it, take it fromthere.
Murphy (23:54):
So it's the helicopter that you'd be paying for if you
don't have been charged, or theyalluded to the fact that they
were charged when you know theywere rescued, so yeah.
Gordy Winterrowd (24:17):
Yeah, I was.
Two years ago I was hit by ahigh-speed, out-of-control skier
in Lech, Austria.
Jodie (24:28):
Why don't you tell us a little bit more about that,
Gordy?
Gordy Winterrowd (24:31):
Okay.
Murphy (24:32):
Did you buy the insurance, Gordy?
Gordy Winterrowd (24:34):
Yes, I think I bought the insurance.
Oh, okay, but more importantly,by travel insurance.
I bought travel insurance.
More importantly, buy travelinsurance.
I bought travel insurancebecause the travel insurance
will take care of yourhospitalization.
The individual when he hit me,big guy, I don't think I was
(25:01):
injured, but then he proceededto land on me and that's when he
broke five ribs, creating aflail chest.
He punctured one of my lungsand he had pneumothorax and
eventually hemothorax.
And the exam perhaps Ishouldn't say this, but the exam
(25:24):
by the patroller was uh, canyou get up now?
Jodie (25:28):
Um, can you get up now?
Gordy Winterrowd (25:32):
I can't breathe but sure, get up.
I can't breathe, but um, so umwe.
Murphy (25:39):
I just want to know was that the primary or secondary
assessment?
Jodie (25:43):
I just want to know was that the primary or secondary?
Gordy Winterrowd (25:45):
assessment it was both, so it was about maybe
a mile and a half down.
Jodie (25:55):
So I chose to ski down rather than I.
Just this just flummoxed me.
Here he is with a flail chest,and for people that don't know
what a flail chest is, it'swhere part of the lungs, sort of
the brigs, go in when you'reinhaling, and it's separated
from the rib cage.
It's a little hard to breathe,let alone what elevation were
(26:16):
you at?
Gordy Winterrowd (26:18):
Ballpark.
Yeah, that you know.
I'm not sure I'll look it uphere real fast.
Yeah, I'm not sure I'll look itup here real fast, but I told
them that I would just make itdown on my own, so I wouldn't
necessarily call it skiing down.
Jodie (26:36):
Why did you choose to ski down versus go down in a sled?
Curiosity that curiosity.
Gordy Winterrowd (26:41):
Well, I was a little concerned about the uh
capabilities of the individualprimary and secondary exam and
then and there he that area usesakias and I.
I could just see myselfbouncing across moguls and the
pain associated with that.
Jodie (27:03):
Oh my goodness gracious.
Gordy Winterrowd (27:06):
So I chose just to.
I wouldn't call it skiing down,but made my way down, and then
we walked to the medical clinic.
With a pneumothorax.
Jodie (27:18):
Correct Five broken ribs.
Yes, oh my goodness gracious.
Gordy Winterrowd (27:25):
And then Murph , eight days in the hospital, oh
man that's not an overnight.
Eight days, yeah, yeah.
So, jody, to answer yourquestion on the elevation, it's
4,700 feet where we were, orless Ouch, so not too high.
Jodie (27:48):
High enough when you have a collapsed lung.
So he then went to.
How many different facilitiesdid you get?
How I happen to know a littlebit more about this is I get
these random little texts fromGordy asking me some information
about how he might get home,and I'm like what the heck do
you mean?
How are you going to get homemy air transport, air ambulance
(28:10):
yes, so I'm doing research overhere in the us of a trying to
help him figure this out.
Murphy (28:16):
Oh, this wasn't that long ago, two years ago.
Two years ago, I thought thiswas like ancient history.
No, it was uh well, it wasactually.
Gordy Winterrowd (28:26):
Yeah, it was uh beginning of 20 february 24,
so actually one year ago.
Murphy (28:32):
Yeah, yeah, february of 24, yeah, that's last year yes,
yeah, oh man so that had to hurtI when it happened we were in
them.
It was into february and it wasin March, so were you skiing by
yourself or were you part ofthe ski flight thing that was
(28:52):
going on?
Gordy Winterrowd (28:53):
Correct, yeah yeah, oh, okay.
We had met a German attorneywho we were skiing with two of
us and the three of us wereskiing when it happened.
Jodie (29:08):
So was Paul there when you fell.
Yes, was he impressed with theassessment.
I mean.
Gordy Winterrowd (29:17):
Well, I was skier number three, so they
weren't aware that it hadhappened.
Oh, gotcha, gotcha.
So we had radio, so I wastalking to them, but they were,
you know, half a mile away ormore over the hill, so they
couldn't see any of it.
Jodie (29:37):
And when you say a large guy, gordy, you are not a short
guy by any sense.
You are how tall 6'3", 6'3",okay, any sense.
You are how tall 6'3", 6'3",okay.
And.
Gordy Winterrowd (29:49):
This guy.
I'm guessing he weighed 250pounds or something.
Jodie (29:52):
Oh.
Gordy Winterrowd (29:54):
Yeah, enough to do some damage.
Murphy (29:56):
So he was petite, because I'm 250 and I like to
consider myself petite.
Okay, and you're 6, what, whatare you?
6'5", 6'5", how tall are you,murphy?
Jodie (30:08):
6'5" Six, what, what are you?
Six, six-five, how tall are you, murphy?
Six-five, yeah, okay, anyway,were you on your side when he
landed on you, do you recall?
I know it's hard to recall.
Gordy Winterrowd (30:18):
I think yeah yeah, right side up.
Yes, yeah, yeah.
Jodie (30:23):
So then you were at the ski areas clinic, then they
transported you by ambulance.
Ambulance, or did you?
Gordy Winterrowd (30:33):
guys drive, we watch on you.
We were at uh it was a privateclinic at the base of the ski
hill and uh, dr romberg's clinicand uh, after the uh, the
x-rays, the, I was sent back tothe hotel with a follow-up.
That was on a Sunday, with afollow-up on Wednesday.
Jodie (30:54):
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
They did an x-ray and you had acollapsed lung then Well, at
that point I don't think it wascollapsed.
Gordy Winterrowd (31:03):
It was punctured but it wasn't
collapsed.
And so Monday, it was a littledifficult to get out of bed.
Tuesday, and there was pain,more pain.
Tuesday there was a lot morepain and a little harder to get
out of bed, but Wednesday it wasimpossible to get out of bed
because you don't have anystrength to be able to sit up.
(31:25):
Oh my gosh, I did not realizethat part After another x-ray
and CAT scan is when I wasadmitted to the hospital and
yeah it was by ambulance fromthe clinic to the hospital.
Jodie (31:45):
And then they put the chest tube in.
Correct yeah, and if I recallcorrectly, on some of these text
messages and emails the tubecame out correct.
No, or it was disconnected.
Gordy Winterrowd (32:03):
No, I think it may have been one time.
The ambulance took me back tothe clinic for x-rays.
The hospital had a cat scanunit but didn't have an x-ray
unit.
In a small little community andthis hospital has 12 beds I'm
sorry, 12, 11 or 12 rooms I wasin the icu because the icu had
(32:26):
oxygen in the walls.
Um, so I think I think it wasin the ICU because the ICU had
oxygen in the walls.
I think it was when I waswaiting in the lobby at the
clinic I received a call thatsome of my equipment might have
still been in the clinic and Igot up really fast without
grabbing my blood container.
(32:46):
It tipped over in the lobby onthe marble floor of the clinic.
I think that's maybe whatyou're referring to.
Jodie (32:54):
Ouch, it was a little embarrassing.
I can't remember all, but therewas something about the thing
secured or whatever, but thenthey were going to give you.
The other part of this wasyou're trying to arrange home
and on commercial flight versusa medical transport.
Gordy Winterrowd (33:14):
Yeah, dr Romberg had written the
insurance company a letter aboutrequesting air ambulance just
in case of embolism or anythingelse, and the insurance company
didn't like that idea becausethey didn't want to spend the
(33:36):
$100,000.
So they wanted me to stay aslong as possible and our regular
flight was like on a Saturday.
So I was supposed to bereleased on Wednesday and talk
to the insurance and they said,well, we can't do it, can't do
any scheduling until you're outof the hospital.
So it would have been thefollowing Wednesday, probably
(33:56):
before I would have left.
So we just decided to take theregular flight that following
Saturday, which they had alittle bit of risk.
Murphy (34:07):
Yeah, I'd say Ouch Last year, don't include this.
Gordy Winterrowd (34:15):
Delete most of this discussion from the.
Jodie (34:20):
Oh yeah.
Well, so the moral of the storybasically would be to make sure
that you have adequateinsurance when you go on a trip,
as well as in case of anemergency, how you would want to
make sure that you have specialinsurance that would cover you
medically, correct?
Gordy Winterrowd (34:38):
Yeah, you'd want to have both travel
insurance and the area rescueinsurance, which is a $35 or $40
weekly for your visit.
Yes, yeah.
I was supposed to.
You know the travel insurancewould probably cover the
(35:01):
helicopter, but it'd be easiernot getting charged at all, so
the $35 is worth it for.
Murphy (35:08):
Oh, I'd say, yeah, those ambulance rides are like I
don't know five grand or somebloody thing like that.
Gordy Winterrowd (35:15):
The air, the air, the, the helicopters, you
know?
Yeah, oh yeah, or maybe evenhigher.
Murphy (35:22):
Yeah Well, that's why every year I look at that.
Uh yeah Well, that's why everyyear I look at that who should
sponsor us Life Flight?
But when I look at that LifeFlight, they give us you know,
patrollers a deal that you canbuy.
Every year I look at that thingand go, oh man, is this the
year that I actually should buythis and put it up there, just
(35:45):
in case.
Jodie (35:46):
It's well worth it because you you would cover your
whole family.
So if there's an auto accident,yeah different things that way,
so little plug there forlifelight or your area in, uh,
whatever service you have inyour part that you're listening
to so definitely well, lifelightsupports us at the convention,
so you know we can give them alittle TLC there.
Murphy (36:07):
Absolutely All right, let's see here.
So, gordy, gordy, gord, whatelse do we have?
We've got your local divisionawards.
Oh, jody has a question.
She wants to ask you that, sheasks everybody.
Okay, go ahead, jody, ask thatquestion.
Jodie (36:27):
Okay, go ahead, jody, ask that question Okay, so
basically and you might haveseen that I don't know, but in
regards to what does it mean toyou with our NSP's creed of 1938
, service and safety, what didit sort of mean to you initially
(36:48):
, and has it changed over theyears?
Gordy Winterrowd (36:54):
I don't.
I'm not sure I would that it'schanged.
I think it just means helpingareas allow the skiing
population to avoid injury andthen, should there be accidents,
(37:17):
and avoid accidents, but shouldthere be accidents, to be able
to handle the situation in avery professionally efficient
and you know the proper way toget them to the next level of
care.
But if you ask that question toareas, they would say the
(37:39):
prevention is their key viewPrevention exactly.
Jodie (37:45):
Key view of the ski patrol prevention Exactly.
Gordy Winterrowd (37:48):
Key view of the ski patrol.
There's, you know, I think mostpatrollers might say help after
the accident, but typicallyarea owners are more interested
in preventing.
They're interested in both, ofcourse, but prevention is.
Jodie (38:04):
Prevention is key.
You're talking to an ear nursehere, and that is something that
I will say for mount hood skipatrol, I mean, and it's its own
, unique, with y east as theregion, but it serves everyone
there.
Um is does excel on is the factthat there's a lot of functions
, whether it's used to be knownas ski fever or now is snowvana,
(38:26):
participating at different inthe summer bike events or
marathons, but really alsotrying to get the message out
and in different ways, and we'veheard a lot of different takes
on this.
This is always sort ofinteresting to hear different
philosophies and the like, butdefinitely as far as that's
concerned.
Murphy (38:48):
So, I like it.
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