Celebrating Rossland's Ski Patrol, past and present
By Contributor
By Sparky Steeves
On Saturday, September 20, The Red Mountain Ski Patrol hosted an historic event bringing together Red Mountain Ski Patrollers past, present and perhaps even future. The ski patrol community was welcomed to the Rossland Lion’s Park Campground for a potluck barbecue feast featuring guest speakers and live music.
The primary goal of Patrol Fest was to bring together and celebrate our mentors who helped create the knowledge and systems we use to serve our ski community today. And they came.
We had guests from throughout BC make the trek. Notably, Rino DeBiasio from Trail, BC, our senior alumnus, the longest serving patroller at Red Mountain and a hero to us all. Rino is living in Trail and is now 90 years old.
John Tweedy, who started the professional ski patrol in 1976, was our keynote speaker and he spun tales from the early days of managing the avalanches on Granite Mountain with a chairlift, a back-pack full of explosives and one other teammate, Bob
Sawyer, who was also in attendance.
Following John’s speech was a robust open mic where we heard many perspectives on what The Red Mountain Ski Patrol has meant to its members over the years.
Music was provided by Peter Reed, in support of his new album: (Check out Peter Reed’s new album on Bandcamp), Dead Head Red, Rossland’s own Grateful Dead party band, The White Crows, original mountain music. Bradley Whiplash and the Werewolves of Thunder closed out the night. Many of the musicians are patrollers past or present and they were all great.
The organizing committee of Patrol Fest wishes to thank the many volunteers and supporters for this event and also send a special thanks to Red Mountain Resort which provided a generous donation to support Patrol Fest.
