
STOWE, Vt. (WCAX) – Mount Mansfield Ski Patrol at Stowe Mountain Resort has been keeping Vermonters and visitors safe on the hill for nine decades.
Mount Mansfield Ski Patrol says they’re the oldest ski patrol in the country. On Monday the organization turns 90.
If you’ve plummeted down Mt. Mansfield you’ve seen the rush of red nearby.
“It’s hard to do anything else when you’re able to spend every day on the side of the mountain,” Craig Fisher, the director of MMSP, says the patrollers are the first and last on the slopes, setting up and closing up the mountain, and helping folks along the way.
The team responds to hundreds of medical calls a season, made up of 50 paid EMS patrollers and 16 volunteers.
“Years and years ago, there were a lot more folks who were much more volunteer-based. But, now we’ve established this professional program that you see across the country,” said Fisher.
Brian Lindner lived in the base lodge growing up. Now, he’s a second-generation patroller and a mountain historian.
He and MMSP take their claim to be the oldest patrol in the country seriously saying proof is in the pudding. Lindner has this document dated 1934 which created Mount Mansfield Ski Club and their patrol. He adds that documents show a 1936 race at the mountain was where the first conversations about a national patrol organization began.
“Many resorts to this day are all claiming to be the oldest and the first, but none has any documentation that they can prove they existed prior to Mansfield ski patrol,” said Lindner. But, it’s all in good fun the crew says all patrol organizations learn from one another nowadays.
No matter who came first the patrollers say a lot has changed in 90 years. What began as treating patients at the base when needed, ski patrolling today is a full emergency service.
“Over the years, you can see the progression, the improvement in ski equipment. In particular grooming and that sort of thing. And now we look at snowboarders primarily with arm or shoulder injuries, and we look at skiers primarily with knee injuries,” said Lindner. Operations evolve in 90 years too. While Fisher says there’s still a home crowd, Stowe is now owned by Epic Resorts, which brings in new athletes at every level.
And not to mention East Coast skiing is filled with curveballs every season. “Whether the weather’s good or not, it’s just a special place to be and it’s a special thing to do,” said Fisher.