#ski-patrol

#ski-patrol

Imagine being a ski patrol responder racing toward an injured skier on a freezing mountain. Your hands are gripping poles, your attention is split between the terrain and the emergency ahead, and your radio crackles with critical information. Now imagine if you could access maps, communicate with your team, and log vital data without ever touching a device. That's exactly what the Argus AR Helmet promises to deliver.

As we approach the midway point of January, it's evident that Colorado is behind on snowfall not just in the numbers, but in the way skiers are spending their time on the mountain. Ski patrol and mountain operations teams all over the state have had their hands full, to say the least. Opening new terrain and creating space on the mountain is directly correlated to guest experience, but more importantly, guest safety. To put it lightly, it has been a madhouse out there.

At around 1:30pm on Sunday, January 11th, the Boulder Chairlift at Heavenly in California came to a stop, forcing a lift-wide evacuation by ski patrol. According to KOLOTV, the ski patrol team was forced to evacuate the chair person-by-person, hoisting a seat for the chairlift rider to sit on and return to the ground with. Some guests, including Judy Spees, were forced to wait as long as 2.5 hours for rescue.

Ski patrol has a serious job to do, ensuring everyone stays safe on the mountain through terrain control, avalanche mitigation, and general safety checks. In general, most ski patrollers are hard working, great people who want to keep everything moving smoothly on the mountain, but you do, on rare occasions, encounter "power tripping" ski patrollers who seems to blow everything out of proportion.

Dr. Kevin Stone has become a real friend of the show, now making his third appearance on the podcast. He is one of the world's leading orthopedic surgeons and the founder of the Stone Clinic in San Francisco. He's a pioneer in biological knee restoration, a surgeon trusted by Olympic athletes and everyday skiers alike. He's a voice who's been pushing sports medicine for decades.