Mt. Bachelor Part I: Ski Patrol and Their Canine Companions

Speaker 1: 0:31

Pretty much every decision I've made about what I'm doing in life has been based on skiing. In fact, when I went to Chamonix, I had been accepted to go to law school at Gonzaga the following winter, and then I called my dad from a payphone in Chamonix and said Dad, there's no way, after what I've just learned and seen and done, that I'm going to go spend the next few years in a law library. So I deferred and the rest is kind of history.

Speaker 2: 1:03

I remember when I was a dad times were hard and things were bad. There's a silver lining behind every cloud, just for people. That's all we were trying to make a living out of Black Landers. We go together in a family circle singing now.

Speaker 3: 1:22

On episode 45 of Bin Magazine's the Circling Podcast, we begin a two-part series highlighting just some of those in leadership roles at one of Central Oregon's most popular recreational resources, mount Bachelor. For many in our community, myself included, mount Bachelor has played a key role in why we live in Central Oregon, as it provides some of the best access to outdoor recreation in the Pacific Northwest, no matter what the season. As is often the case, it's the individuals behind the scenes at Mount Bachelor that contribute to the overall culture, experience and growth that keep many of us coming back for more. On the first of this two-part series, join me as we first hear from ski patrol director Dave Thomas, followed by a great conversation with senior mountain manager Betsy Norsen and ski patrol training supervisor Drew Clinton. Betsy and Drew share their love for the mountains, how they discovered Central Oregon and the life events that have landed them in career positions with Mount Bachelor, where they each play a significant role in the Avalanche Dog Program. Dave, betsy, drew, a big thank you for all your time and an even bigger thank you for all that you do for our mountain community, both on and off the hill.

Speaker 3: 2:43

The circling podcast is proud to be associated with NOTA, since adding visual show notes on NOTA, feedback from listeners has been extremely positive. Visit NOTA at notafm and experience how NOTA takes you beyond the episode and makes podcasts even better with visual show notes. The circling podcast can now be found on Patreon. Visit our page and learn how a percentage of your financial support will support local nonprofits and the continued growth of local community podcasting. Become a member and learn about this unique opportunity at patreoncom. Forward slash the circling podcast.

Speaker 4: 3:30

I moved here in January of 2009 and was just looking to find a new mountain community that I could invest in and learn from and become a part of, and happen to cross bend pretty organically just through a group of friends. They had lived here for a while and lived traditional roommate things sharing a room, living on a couch, that kind of deal. The longer I lived here that first year I was like this is it that following winter, I joined the lift operations crew up here and I haven't spent a winter away since. I'm Dave Thomas. People at the mountain call me DT and I am the patrol director at Mount Bachelor. I don't know if I can summarize all that I get to do up here, but I lead the patrol team and help coordinate our actions and efforts with the other departments at Mount Bachelor to provide best skiing and riding experience in the Pacific Northwest. We have a roster of 50 patrollers. Some are full time, some others are part time, and then there's a complement of National Ski Patrol volunteers that help us out of holidays and weekends, midweek, and they're also kind of anywhere from 50 to 70 members on that squad. I try to focus on making this a fun environment and there's, you know it's really funny being up here in the wintertime because the pace is just so frenetic Like we can be go, go, go, go go. One of the things I try to tell our team, like, remember, it's just ski patrol, we're up here to ski, we're up here to provide a skiing and riding experience for others, but like we still have to just keep perspective and no matter how important are us pressing a task or incident seams at the moment, like we're here every single day the entire season. It's one of the longer seasons in, you know, north America. So it's just you got to kind of have that mindset where you got to shake off the bad stuff and treasure the good stuff.

Speaker 4: 5:39

You know I grew up in Maryland, like suburbia Maryland, and did a lot of, you know, like team sports. That's what I did growing up. I'd only, you know, gone skiing or snowboarding a handful of times before moving out of the house. After school I went to college at St Mary's College in Maryland. It's in rural Southern Maryland, you know, like you can still pick out tobacco fields as you're driving like down the highway down there. The big thing that kind of preempted me moving out West was after graduating, me and some friends we hiked along the Appalachian Trail and that's what kind of opened my eyes to. Oh it's not just jumping into whatever rat race people want you to, and so it made me start to just look for what else is out there. Yeah, I took a course through Knowles National Outdoor Leadership School and some of the folks that were on that course had lived in Bend for a while, so I was looking for whatever was next and like they sold it pretty good, and you know out of the eight people that we all shared a three bedroom house, I'm the last one standing.

Speaker 4: 6:48

You know, earlier in my career, definitely, I mean I spent two years with lift-ups and I was skiing up here seven days a week, the days that I worked, and then every day that I was off. Now, in this point in my career, like it hurts to be in ski boots for 50 plus hours a week. So I choose my days, my off day, skiing, but my wife and I we have two young sons and so the older one just got into Mighty Mites and so it's a different pace for sure. But you mentioned this earlier where you feel like your viewpoint has changed. Your perspective has changed when you go from a recreational skier to a professional one, and that's something that we talk about.

Speaker 4: 7:30

Where, you know, we try to be stewards of this place. You know, obviously we love the sport of skiing. I think everybody on our crew loves the setting of Mount Bachelor. But then there's also like the understanding that comes from working here and how this place operates efficiently, and then that changes your like how you move through, move across this terrain and this environment. So it's we try to give people the best tools that they can. You know also approach it in a educated manner.

Speaker 4: 8:08

But you know that's just part of the difficulty is like not everybody has. They're not not everybody's here to go to a day of work. Like they're here, they're scrambling just like they're barely getting the entire family pushed in the car, law skis loaded up or renting stuff from you know, the rental department getting tickets. Everybody kid it out and by the time you actually click into your skis or strap onto your board like you don't have a spare thought, you're just like you're relieved that you're finally here. And so we just want to be here to help people have a successful time from the time they get into their equipment. You know, I think that does like it plays just the number of specialists that we have on the hill and it's really Comforting when you know whatever is hitting the fan. You go to the affected area and, like you see Alicia or Ryan. You know Ben, he's usually working a groomer, so he's kind of on this other end of the the schedule, but you know that, like, you've got the people in the place to take care of the issue and get it resolved as the best of our ability. So it's awesome. Yeah, I've got tremendous respect for everybody that I work with.

Speaker 4: 9:18

The auger is, you know that's basically our screw-up award and we try to celebrate our stumbles and falls. You know every patroller is going to fall underneath the loaded lift line at some point in their career and it's just having the like confidence to own up to what's going on. You know, sometimes you put a sign in backwards and you know so like the downhill traffic can read it and just like whatever Mistakes that we have, we want to create a culture so that people feel comfortable sharing it and like learning from it, and so, yeah, we all just have a chance to learn from those mistakes and so many of them will be repeated ad nauseam by every patroller that comes through and At the end of the year will award the best one, the most unique or powerful mess up of the season and that's the auger of the year I've collected to myself. Yeah, I still think that they they put me in the crosshairs, like whenever I'm I've got an eligible or a worthy Screw-up of an auger, so that puts a little extra weight on the scales for when that happens. But yeah, I'm the proud owner of two auger of the year awards.

Speaker 4: 10:30

So I was bringing a toboggan to a scene underneath outback chair and it was a powder day and I was. I was making it look good. I was hitting the power stashes, you know, spray and snow arriving to the scene and as I'm approaching the scene, I like kind of plot my entryway and as I'm swooping in to come underneath the patrollers and the patient, I Hit a tree and it was like just submerged underneath the snow level and I kicked a ski off and just, you know, scraped my chin across. All the powder was eating a ton of snow. I was getting hoots and hollers from the chair and, you know, didn't let go the toboggan didn't really break any of our cardinal rules but had to, like stand up, dust myself off and drag the toboggan to the scene the rest of the way. And what really got the the other patrollers on scene is the buddy of the injured guy was just like that's exactly what happened to our friend.

Speaker 4: 11:27

Yeah, that's the funny thing about just being in the mountain environment and the style of skiing and riding we have here, where you know you get to the top of a chairlift and basically the world's your oyster, you can go almost any direction and just get to anywhere, and so it's just kind of up to you, like what kind of riding you want to do, or that's groomers are off-piste and yeah, I do want to just give people that quick public service announcement late.

Speaker 4: 11:52

It is so important to make sure you're coming up to the mountain and you're just Making a plan with your friends, your family, whoever it is that you're up here with, talk about it, and then that way you know that, hey, this is what we're doing at lunchtime or at the end of the day. This is how we get in touch with the one on there. Please have a fully charged cell phone and our ski patrols number saved in it, because that's the best way for you to get in touch with us. The Mount Bachelor app allows us to kind of find you really quickly and Hopefully you don't need us. But if you see us out on the slopes, just give us a big friendly wave. We'll do the same. I'll see you out on the hill.

Speaker 3: 12:34

Yes, long story short, I started this podcast in 2021 Just kind of as a community experiment. You know, no one was doing community local podcasting and we subsequently partnered with Been magazine and, as you guys know, they're doing that feature for the next month. So the my idea was to partner with them and try to add kind of a different layer to the content With these podcast episodes that correlate with the magazine articles.

Speaker 3: 13:01

Okay so if people read the article, they want to learn more about Bachelor and the people that make it run, they can tune in, listen to the podcast. We've done a couple other of these projects and they've gotten a ton of really good feedback.

Speaker 1: 13:16

Yeah, it reminds me when they did that Tunnel Creek accident up at Stevens Pass and there was like that interactive it was like what was that. It was an article, I think it was in New York Times New. York. Times, oh really and it was like you would read the article and then it would go to like some video. It was kind of like interactive. Yeah, it was cool. If you've never seen it you should check it out.

Speaker 5: 13:36

Yeah, you can look. Tunnel Creek, stevens Pass on New York Times Okay, I will. Yeah, my name is Drew clan Denon. I'm the patrol training supervisor and also in charge of our avalanche dog program, and I've been in this role for four years and have been patrolling here, for this is my 12th season. Yeah started out patrolling at Mount Shasta in Northern California for for two seasons before I came here.

Speaker 3: 14:05

And you grew up in that. On an apple orchard, you said yep.

Speaker 5: 14:08

So I grew up on an apple orchard in Humboldt County in Northern California. That's what I do the rest of the year. I know I'm just here December, you know December into May, so you travel back and forth. Mm-hmm, yeah, my fiance and I have perfected the seasonal lifestyle. How's that working out? It's good.

Speaker 3: 14:26

Yeah, that's cool. When I was talking to Ben, I asked every person I've asked, or every person I've had a conversation with is there a question He'd like me to ask? Your colleague I'm gonna talk with next, and he asked me to ask you what's your favorite apple?

Speaker 5: 14:41

Oh, Favorite apple.

Speaker 3: 14:44

Original. Yeah, you are a good.

Speaker 5: 14:47

Gravenstein is my favorite apple. It's like a really early season apple Like very popular in Sonoma County and kind of Central Coast to California and that's uh, it's an, it's like ripe in July, august. It's the first good apple that's ripe in the season.

Speaker 1: 15:04

What are these ones that you brought? They're pretty. These are.

Speaker 5: 15:06

Waltana's. This is a super late season apple and it's a local apple that was developed by a by a famous horticulturist, albert Eder, in Humboldt County. But that's we grow. We grow a bunch of those. I bring apples up for everyone.

Speaker 3: 15:21

I love that. Yeah, and it sounds like you know what you're talking about obviously there's like a ton of New. I don't what. Do you call it? An apple species, like what do?

Speaker 5: 15:32

you what?

Speaker 3: 15:32

are all these new? Like it's not on Apple still on.

Speaker 5: 15:36

Yeah, no, there's lots of. So, yeah, apples. There's like 8,000 named varieties in the world, but we're only, you know, maybe familiar with a couple dozen. Yeah, but but yeah, lots of new varieties like Cosmic Crisp and do you guys do that cross like pollinating?

Speaker 3: 15:52

We don't do any like we don't.

Speaker 5: 15:54

So, yeah, we don't do any like we're not raising our own Apple yeah, but we're you know we're buying apples from it, apple trees from a nursery, yeah, and planting them ourselves, yeah that's crazy.

Speaker 3: 16:07

I owned a produce stand and bend In 2001 in the Old Mill district. It was called.

Speaker 3: 16:15

Old Mill produce cool. It was. In Right across from where REI is there was a little old shack and REI hadn't been built out yet. Huh, and my old roommate, his dad, was a vegetable man who Still does. Their family runs that seasonal produce market on 97 Mm-hmm. So we just piggybacked all our produce orders off of him and opened up like a little produce stand, fresh bread, like bakery. It was fun, man. Yeah, lasted one summer but I learned a lot about produce. That's cool. And I worked in the when in high school. At the end of high school I worked in the produce department at Newport Market.

Speaker 3: 16:50

So he did yeah, it was fun Betsy. Yes sir, you're from Spokane.

Speaker 1: 16:55

Hi I am.

Speaker 3: 16:56

I grew up in Coeur d'Alene. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 16:58

Nice.

Speaker 3: 16:59

Introduce yourself.

Speaker 1: 17:01

Okay, my name is Betsy Norison. I started working here in the fall of 2000 as a ski patroller. I Patrolled for 20 years. I was the snow safety supervisor patrol director and then I was the director Mount Nopps for a couple years and then I kind of took a Bit of a pause or year, mostly off. Last year I was recovering from a knee injury.

Speaker 3: 17:23

Oh yeah, what happened.

Speaker 1: 17:25

I was down at Mount Bailey. My husband was guiding down there and I was coming onto the catch line and hit a Top of a tree that was poking out of the snow as I came onto the catch line and destroyed my knee, basically. Yeah, which um, but anyways, yeah. And so now I'm back as the mountain operations senior manager.

Speaker 3: 17:44

Yeah, you have quite the reputation up here. I'm surprised We've never met you look real familiar yeah. I'm sure we have over the years. I think I worked with Carly Carmichael. Oh yeah a long time ago Is like one of the first riders on the. There's like a bachelor team of sorts. I used to snowboard a ton, um, so maybe back then. Yeah, maybe, yeah so you've held a lot of different roles at this mountain.

Speaker 1: 18:12

Uh yeah, but they've all been in operations and majority of them have been in patrol. Um, but I have real close relationship and you know, working in with lift ops, lift maintenance, grooming train parks, and then I did a stint of food and beverage for a while.

Speaker 3: 18:26

I was a sunset dinner server for a couple years and it's probably why you're you have such a good reputation is because you've worked in a lot of these different departments.

Speaker 1: 18:36

Oh, it's nice to hear that I have a good reputation.

Speaker 2: 18:37

Well, everybody.

Speaker 1: 18:38

I've talked to you.

Speaker 3: 18:39

They're like, oh, she's amazing, aw, that's really nice. So, and not that I've been like taking surveys of the entire staff, but you know I was up here for the derby weekend and Know if a lot of people that work up here and you know probably a dozen people over the last week Just like telling who I'm going to be talking with, and and you always got very good feedback.

Speaker 1: 18:59

So that's nice. Well, I really, uh, I guess I would say I'm a people person, I really care about people.

Speaker 2: 19:04

I.

Speaker 5: 19:06

Uh, yeah, this oh you've trained all of us. I've trained all of them.

Speaker 1: 19:11

Trained all of them, yeah and so you.

Speaker 3: 19:13

You grew up in Spokane, and then you spent some time in Southern California.

Speaker 1: 19:17

Yeah, I went to college in Southern California, which it was like a fish out of water. Yeah, spent most of my senior year going up to Tahoe. My boyfriend at the time was living up there that year. He'd already graduated and then moved there right after.

Speaker 2: 19:30

College and was in Tahoe. Yeah to ski, and then.

Speaker 1: 19:33

I was in Tahoe City. It worked at what was called the resort at Squaw Creek at the time. Now it has a different name. With the change well palisades, but I worked at the resort. Yeah, that was there, the big. I think it's called element or something. No yeah, and then I moved to Bellingham. I was skiing at Baker and I. Then I spent a season over in France, chamonix. That was rad. If only I knew now what I'm. You know like avalanche, you know touring and avalanche science and rescue and stuff.

Speaker 1: 20:35

But uh Luckily dodged a bullet that season, did a lot of exploring, learned a lot over there and then Uh, yeah, then I decided that it was finally time to become a ski patroller.

Speaker 3: 20:47

Where? Where'd you grow up skiing in Spokane, mount Spokane.

Speaker 1: 20:50

Yeah, mount Spokane I was. I had friends, you know the kind of the rich kids had uh condos up at Schweitzer, yeah you know. But so I'd go ski there, some go to um Silver Mountain or jackass mountain was what it's called.

Speaker 2: 21:03

Yeah, totally look out, look out, yeah, all that stuff.

Speaker 1: 21:06

But, um, my bread and butter was. You know, when I was in high school, which was in the late 80s, it was $50 for a pass totally can, and there was the ski bus that picked you up at night ski and there was night skiing.

Speaker 3: 21:18

Yeah, I have a lot of memory as I mount Spokane. What about 49 degrees north?

Speaker 1: 21:23

I didn't really make it up there much Um it is a bit of an outlier. Well, and from where I lived in the valley.

Speaker 3: 21:27

Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1: 21:28

My dad lived at Liberty Lake. Okay, so I you know it was a long way, it was easier to go there and um, yeah they, it turned out a lot of good skiers, though like, uh, how what? You know? Kevin Brazel was a guy that I grew up skiing with, and he is a patroller at Jackson Hole and his name is Micah Black, who was famous pro skier for a while Totally Same area.

Speaker 3: 21:50

That's incredible. So you skiing kind of directed you to these places, oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:56

Pretty much every decision I've made about what I'm doing in life has been based on skiing. In fact, when I went to Chamonix, I had been accepted to go to law school at Gonzaga the. Falling Winter. And then I called my dad from a pay phone in Chamonix and said dad, there's no way, after what I've just learned and seen and done, that I'm going to go spend the next few years in a law library. And so I deferred and the rest is kind of history. Yeah, no doubt man.

Speaker 3: 22:25

What was it about Europe?

Speaker 1: 22:30

The funniest thing is, I went over there and I had the ABCs of avalanche awareness. It was this tiny little book that's almost more like a booklet.

Speaker 1: 22:38

It's like red on top and it was tiny and I had bought a pair of alpine trekkers, which back then, you know, people didn't really have touring bindings. The Freetje was just coming out and I had some skins and I got over there and some guys that I knew from growing up were also over there, a bunch of Jackson Hole folks, and they had been there the season before and so they kind of took me under their wing and just started ski touring and, you know, glacier travel and learning about ice climbing and rock climbing and just like mine was blown.

Speaker 1: 23:11

All this stuff, yeah my mind was blown and all the stuff and so yeah, kind of came back from that and I was working at a place in Bellingham, American Alpine Institute, Worked there for a while and then worked for Outward Bound and then came to Ben because I was kind of sick of the seasonal. Oh, I didn't like the rain in.

Speaker 5: 23:33

Bellingham after growing up in Spokane, yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:35

And so came to Ben and thought I'd move on to somewhere ratter, cooler, whatever you know more badass mountain. And then Ben grew on me and Bachelor grew on me and as it does.

Speaker 5: 23:50

I didn't realize you were about to go to law school, yeah.

Speaker 3: 23:52

Yeah, that's incredible.

Speaker 1: 23:54

I think it was the backside, you know, this off summit, the backside of the mountain.

Speaker 3: 23:58

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:58

When I discovered that and you know it was different then we had the single track member on the back and everything. I was like, okay, this place is pretty cool yeah.

Speaker 3: 24:10

Yeah, I've had a lot of. I mean, you talked to me, drew, about you came up here in high school from Shasta and you it doesn't sound like you had a. You patrolled in Shasta but you grew up learning how to snowboard down there, up here.

Speaker 5: 24:27

I guess I didn't really grow up around snow. Much grew up, you know, backpacking and fishing in the mountains around Northern California and then did a little cross country skiing with my parents growing up. But then had some, you know, in high school, started snowboarding with friends, yeah, and that's how I first, you know, went to Mount Shasta. Yeah, first, came up here and and yeah, just remember being up here, for I think it was like first or second time I was up here, but it was, yeah, big storm day on on outback or Northwest, one of those I can't remember where but and after that I was like, oh, it's a pretty cool place.

Speaker 3: 25:05

Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah, I've had a lot. You guys have a similar experience, kind of clicking on the backside on a good day. I've had so many friends over the years that have been here the first time and just timed it right. And you know, I mean for for low-angle skiing, like it's a special spot on that side of the mountain and good snow man, it's so fun and you're a snowboarder.

Speaker 5: 25:27

Yeah, I mean, I remember just I guess. Yeah, learned to snowboard from a couple of friends on Mount Shasta.

Speaker 2: 25:33

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 25:33

That's where I first, I first learned, and then and then I remember with some of my buddies, probably in the early 90s, they were starting to let snowboarders patrol, but what that's been, that's been kind of established for a while.

Speaker 1: 25:49

But yeah, I mean I think Len Ott was the first snowboarder here. And when I started there were a couple not a lot of patrols allow snowboarders and that has a lot to do with, you know, avalanche control routes and stuff.

Speaker 3: 26:02

But since we have the ridge, and the avalanche you're not Well, there's no denying it's easier to maneuver on skis and snow than a snowboard. I mean, there's no denying it, you know.

Speaker 5: 26:13

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3: 26:13

But you know, I mean, if people can maneuver and kind of have experience, like you know, there's probably value at times in having a snowboard too.

Speaker 1: 26:22

Maybe I don't know, run on toboggan Yep.

Speaker 3: 26:25

Is better on a snowboard, heal edge yeah.

Speaker 1: 26:28

Climb in towers.

Speaker 5: 26:29

Yep, there's some benefits to the soft boots snowmobiling, climbing towers just you know, being in your boots all day. There's some benefits there. And yeah, run on a toboggan, you know, fall line straight down in, like you know, rough, rough, thick snow. That's better and that could be easier in a snowboard. I think that on those weird breakable crust days the snowboard is definitely helpful, but but yeah, in terms of, yeah, not having releasable bindings, that's one part that's not as useful. And then you know just the amount of traversing that's rough. On a snowboard. You have to learn how to one foot everywhere.

Speaker 5: 27:08

Oh, yeah, so you have to be, I think, a much better snowboarder than skier to be able to make it.

Speaker 3: 27:13

Patrol To be able to patrol. Yeah, yeah, have you ever tried those then? I mean, there's been step-ins for a while, but have you tried those Burton step-ons?

Speaker 5: 27:22

No, I've wanted to, but I'm like a patrolling standpoint.

Speaker 3: 27:25

I wonder what those would be like.

Speaker 5: 27:26

I think there's a couple of. I've seen some people around with them. I've never tried one.

Speaker 3: 27:31

I was checking them out, like my wife's, and I'm pretty like picky when it comes to gear and they seem like they seem pretty bomber for what it is. I mean like they look like slick. There's not a lot of fail points you know, which is, you could argue there's more on like a traditional binding. When you look at them, it's interesting.

Speaker 5: 27:51

Yeah, yeah, no, they definitely look slick. Yeah, that's cool.

Speaker 3: 27:54

Yeah, so you guys work together with the avidog program quite a bit. Yeah, so I was hoping that you know you both mentioned your love around talking to guests as kind of a conversation starter about kind of the avi rescue dog program, but then also how it can kind of lead into more of a conversation about like kind of responsibilities of ski or snowboarder up here, that type of stuff and both you guys had made mention. So I thought why don't we talk about that a little bit?

Speaker 5: 28:24

Yeah, I'll go.

Speaker 3: 28:26

Yeah.

Speaker 5: 28:27

So, yeah, I think so. We have four, four dogs in our program. Yeah, sometimes we've had five, but over the years, but yeah, right now we have four avalanche dogs. One of them is three-year-old golden retriever named Shasta, and it's they're this really cool tool to be able to interact with, to with guests, with.

Speaker 3: 28:48

Yeah.

Speaker 5: 28:49

And yeah, they're, they're. They are up here to work and do a job, but when they're not training, we're taking them on runs down the mountain. And yeah, it's this really. You know, kids, kids love the dogs. I think all guests, you know, whether you're a kid or an adult, they love seeing the avalanche dogs out on the hill. And it's this great way to you know, you know, do a meet and greet with a family and then also, you know, talk to their kids about the skiers responsibility code, or snow like deep snow hazards, no suffocation, immersion, how to properly merge on a trail.

Speaker 3: 29:28

I mean those, each one of those you could probably do like a pretty good podcast episode.

Speaker 2: 29:32

Yeah, right, yeah Right.

Speaker 3: 29:34

But like for you know. So who's going to listen to this? So it's going to be probably a spectrum of people, people who are have a lot of experience navigating and walking around in the mountains and people who, you know, have have never. I think a lot of people project that they know more than they actually do.

Speaker 3: 29:52

Right when it comes to some of this stuff, and really you can't hear some of this stuff enough. Yeah, I mean so the dogs you train them, like, talk about the training schedule a little bit, yeah, oh definitely so.

Speaker 5: 30:04

Yeah, I mean, I my rookie year here. I remember helping train your dog Riggins that's now retired Betsy, and you know that was one of the coolest things to you know, like be a part of this patrol family and you know, yeah, get to help train, train a young pup, that was, like I think, one of the coolest parts and that's why I've kept. One of the reasons I've kept coming back, I think, is just the camaraderie that we have as a patrol and our dogs. But yeah, we so you know training starts pretty young with the dogs. They, you know, they're up here at, you know, 10 weeks old as soon as you pick them up from the kennel. Yeah, eight or 10 weeks old. Just their first season up here is really, you know, it's more mountain familiarization. You know you're not doing a ton of obedience work with them, but they're getting used to like the sights and sounds and smells of a mountain.

Speaker 5: 31:01

So, being around snowmobiles, around snow cats and machinery, being around ski lifts, you know, at first you're just picking them up like a little suitcase and plunking them on this chair next to you when you ride up to the top of pine, getting used to the other dogs being in a kennel, being around lots of different patrollers, you know, being around all of the guests that are out here. So that's is actually kind of really fun, like because you have this young puppy and you just get to like tour them around. It's great. And then, yeah, once the dog is like a little older six months then jump into more structured obedience training. You know, I think a lot, of, a lot of that's just you know basic obedience that they need to be.

Speaker 5: 31:50

They need to have that like, sit, stay, come down. They need to have, you know, heal, they need to have that down to be able to safely travel around the mountain and follow, follow different patrollers, not only they're like primary handler and owner, but other patrollers that might take that dog out. You know they need to be able to to follow them around. And then once the dogs you know six months or a year, depending on, like where they fall in the winter season, then we start doing the kind of avalanche training with them and that starts out, as you know, digging a snow cave in the snow.

Speaker 5: 32:32

Sometimes we have groomers. The groomers will make a pile of snow for us and we'll dig a cave out or we'll just, you know, find a wind wave or a pocket of deep snow and dig a hole and that, yeah, you're just getting the dog used to having a reward in a snow cave. And so for our dogs there it's, there, it's a tug of war is the reward. So it's a woven chunk of wool blanket and that dog gets to play tug of war with that Other. You know you can also use like high value treats, like you know, cut up pole sausage or something.

Speaker 5: 33:08

And and so, yeah, all of our dogs, they don't play tug of war unless they're at work and unless they're, they've found someone.

Speaker 5: 33:15

And it's as simple as the. The dog has the strongest bond with its owner or handler and so you'll have another patroller hold onto the dog. The handler will run into the hole kind of teasing and taunting the dog with the tug toy, and then that that other patroller will let go of the dog and the dog will run, run into the hole and get its reward and get to play tug of war in the snow cave. So that's like that's the beginning and that's, you know, that's like the basics of it. And then from there you just kind of amp up the difficulty. You add like a snow block wall in front of the whole entrance. You start bringing the dog further and further away. Pretty soon the dog can't see the entrance to the hole. Then, and then the dog will, the dog and handler just show up and don't know where the hole is at all. And then pretty soon that hole is now flush with the snow.

Speaker 5: 34:14

So there's no like kind of cave wall, it's just completely flush, and then you start amping up the difficulty even more with maybe a couple of holes, maybe a scented article like a backpack or piece of clothing, and then maybe the next step would be, like you know, doing one of our training drills for like a, for an actual avalanche. So we'd have other patrollers there doing probe lines, probing, probing likely areas, doing beacon searches, and then you bring the dog into. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 34:49

So you're just, you're just building it out to create a more realistic scenario.

Speaker 1: 34:54

Yeah, so the end goal being that you get deployed with your dog and you know, you get onto a scene and you've got the parameters of. You know, here's the debris pile and you basically give them their command.

Speaker 1: 35:07

You know those dogs are searched mines find it, and then they just start ranging and then you can see them. They'll catch a scent and their head will snap and they'll go in. And then Riggins, specifically, would like stick his head in the snow to pinpoint, you know where the strongest scent is coming from. And then they'll start digging and then we come in, you know probe and shovel.

Speaker 3: 35:32

And do you guys? Dogs go home with you every day. So they're your personal dogs, but also your colleagues on the hill. I mean that's pretty dope.

Speaker 1: 35:41

It is sweet. You know they are the fastest recovery tool or rescue tool here, majority. Unfortunately, the majority of skiers and riders at Mount Bachelor don't wear Avalon Treskey gear. I've tried to promote that at like Ben Saw's and various know before he goes and things that I've been involved in.

Speaker 1: 36:00

But you know skiing out in the trees off the West Bowls, you know having a shovel on you or you know, a beacon is not a bad idea, whether it's deep snow, immersion, tree well immersion or, you know, on the rare instance that we have something happen after you know patrol's gone on and done their mitigation work, so most people don't have a beacon.

Speaker 3: 36:21

So us, coming in with our beacons, do beacon searches isn't going to be the fastest way to find someone we have Reco and Reco deflectors or deflectors, yeah educate people about those Reco because you know, there you see them integrated into a lot of apparel lines. But I've after talking with a lot of people. Most people have no idea what their function is. It's interesting.

Speaker 1: 36:42

Yeah, so our initial onslaught. If we were to have what they call a post Avalon Treskey release, something happened. After we'd done our work out there, we would come in with beacons. Even though I just said most people don't wear them, we're still going to come in and do a beacon search. We're going to do a scuff search, we're going to bring the dogs in and then we'll also bring in what's called a Reco detector.

Speaker 3: 37:04

Okay.

Speaker 1: 37:05

And so Reco sells to clothing companies ski gear boots. And so it'll say, like this jacket is equipped with a Reco reflector, and so we have a tool where we come in and you can kind of scan the slope area and it kind of makes this flight noise.

Speaker 3: 37:26

So you need your own tool for the yeah.

Speaker 1: 37:30

So the way it all works is, most ski areas are equipped with these receivers. Basically, that can bounce off of the reflector that's in your jacket. So if you and your buddy go out in the back country with your Reco in your clothing, it's not going to do you any good unless you have the receiving end. And so that's kind of how they market that to people. So we do have those.

Speaker 1: 38:14

They are not as quick as a Davelinche dog or a weekend would be, but they are another tool that we have in the toolbox to find someone. If they're buried under snow you have to kind of know. Just it wouldn't be a useful tool in like a missing person because you have to know a known slide path or a known area that you're using.

Speaker 3: 38:37

I guess the point I kind of wanted to bring it up is to really shine a light on what it is and what it isn't.

Speaker 1: 38:42

Yeah, I mean, it's another tool and we have signage up everywhere that says we're equipped with Reco equipment here.

Speaker 5: 38:48

So, yeah. And it's a tool that takes like specific training and practice to be able to use it properly. Which patrols have? Yeah?

Speaker 3: 38:58

Yeah, well, I mean on the same line and one of the unfortunately in some ways Avelanche Danger at Bachelor, compared to a lot of other resorts in ways is less, would you agree?

Speaker 1: 39:13

I mean, we're a sleeping giant. So I always have thought about it too. I don't remember were you here in 04 when the whole bull sit out?

Speaker 2: 39:23

Yeah, I was. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Went three quarters away down Marshmallow. Yeah, I was yeah.

Speaker 5: 39:28

That's a big class four plus slide.

Speaker 1: 39:32

We don't have things happen very often. We mitigate the circle all the time where you get up there more often now, so we're not seeing as big of crowns as we used to when I first started. But and you know we were out in the West Bowls checking that rarely slides, but every once in a while it does, and it's all dominated by the wind here. And wind will build a start zone where there wasn't one. It'll build a wind wave that creates a steeper pitch.

Speaker 1: 39:58

That'll create a start zone, and so those are really hard to historically count on, because they're being formed by the direction of the wind and the amount of snow, just the same reason that the snowboarders love the wind waves here. So it's for us it's almost harder If we were a ski area that you knew. Every time it snowed, you went out and you threw a bomb.

Speaker 3: 40:21

That's a really good point.

Speaker 1: 40:22

And every single one of these.

Speaker 3: 40:25

Lines would release Lines and it releases and then you're good.

Speaker 1: 40:28

Instead, we're like well, we can't keep this closed Even then we're gonna get a foot of snow during the day, so we've got to keep going out there and checking. And there have been. They're all been relatively small because we're staying on top of it, but there have been a few. Yeah, that have happened out there, and that's why we have our avidogs.

Speaker 3: 40:43

And really the more you think about it and I've been in a couple of. It doesn't take much snow moving to get yourself in a bad position.

Speaker 1: 40:52

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 40:53

It's not the classical like massive avalanche that you think of that can get you in a bad spot. It can be a 15 foot little weird shift and a bunch of stuff.

Speaker 1: 41:05

If it knocks you off your feet Totally and your head down first.

Speaker 3: 41:08

It kind of plays in. And when I brought up comparison to other resorts really I mean tree wells and slow like kind of lower angle snow safety here is super important.

Speaker 1: 41:19

Exactly.

Speaker 3: 41:20

Because the lower angle, the harder it is to move around.

Speaker 1: 41:22

Exactly.

Speaker 3: 41:23

And I don't think people, I don't think about that. You know, until you get out and you post-haul and you're trying to, yeah.

Speaker 1: 41:29

What I love about Matt Batchelor is the tree skiing. I mean it's phenomenal, it's you know? You go to Colorado you don't ski in the trees. I went to Sun Valley you don't go ski in the trees there, it's you know, the trees are too tight.

Speaker 1: 41:42

We have this amazing tree skiing, but with that comes an element of extra hazard.

Speaker 1: 41:48

And you know we have all this second growth, these small grows of trees that on most years are buried and you don't even realize you're skiing over the top of a 10, 20 foot little tree. But on lower snow years you know they can catch you, they can grab you and if you go head first into a grove of trees, you know there's all those air pockets. When I first learned about tree well hazard it was back in 2002 when we had an incident here and I thought of, like the biggest trunk is gonna make the biggest tree well, and that's where the biggest hazard is gonna be. You know, but it's all these low lying branches or small groves of trees, air pockets, you know. So when we get a period of heavy snowfall, cold snowfall and then also, you know, the tree wells, incidents have gone up in recent years, even though we have so much more education about them. But everybody has so much better equipment, everybody's going out and skiing in the areas they're traversing out past the.

Speaker 1: 42:51

you know the last track to get out there, and so, even with all the education that we have out there and the awareness, still happens.

Speaker 3: 42:59

Yeah, there's more users.

Speaker 1: 43:00

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 43:02

It's interesting how that I mean I go back. I was thinking about your trip to Chaminie and, like you know, you were AT skiing at a time when, like very few people in the States were doing that, maybe some people in Utah. Growth is inevitable, but with that comes more users and more risk, and it just, you know, it's not hard to connect the dots, yeah exactly.

Speaker 1: 43:23

I mean, you know, when I started skiing here, I had Freeshie bindings in 2000. I, boss, didn't know what they were.

Speaker 1: 43:28

I was trying to explain that you know they were AT bindings and that they gave me a free heel, just like the telemarkers that you know I could go out on a search with a free heel and skin and then now the majority of the crew is all on AT gear. So it's huge and you know tree well and snow immersion, suffocation is not just a front country problem, it's a bad country problem as well and you know it could happen in the back country out here.

Speaker 1: 43:56

It's just we're just not as many people in the back country, even though it's exploded, it's still just not as many people that are riding the lifts and skiing around.

Speaker 3: 44:05

Yeah, what do all the patrollers here, what's kind of the level of training I mean you apply and then talk me through, like for a new patrol, or what their first couple of years is like.

Speaker 1: 44:16

Yeah, so yeah, well, maybe I'll talk about the application and how they get hired Perfect. You talk about training, because these are trainings Sounds good Betsy. Yeah Well, all patrollers have to come with some sort of medical certification, whether it's an EMT or Wilderness First Responder or, through the National Ski Patrol, the outdoor emergency care. So that's a requirement you basically can't even apply if you don't have that, and then nowadays most come with a level one avalanche course, and most people have some sort of back country skiing experience.

Speaker 1: 44:51

Most of them have a alternate seasonal job. That's something like river rafting or kayak guide or climbing guide or something, so they have familiarity with rope systems and rescue systems and things like that. So it's quite a bit different nowadays than when I first started, where you know it was like you were a lift up. Now you become a ski patroler. These guys are coming in with so many skills.

Speaker 1: 45:16

And so it's great and it's made for some amazing new hires, and then he's in charge of the training, yeah, so we have, there's 46 patrollers on staff this season.

Speaker 5: 45:33

So the last couple of years we've built up the, I should say our patrol director, dave Thomas, has built up like our roster, which is awesome. So it's been a that's really helpful for just being able to make everything happen that we need to do out on the hill, operations wise, as well as training. And yeah, you, so, if you, yeah, some patrollers have a little patrol experience. The last couple of years we've had two or three per year that have previous patrol experience, but the bulk of them, you know whether they're coming from another department or with you know just back country experience. They, you know, they've never patrolled before in their life.

Speaker 5: 46:12

And so we go into like a five day new hire training week, and so that was last week. So we had eight new patrollers and, yeah, they start out learning how to run a toboggan, how to set them, how to do morning setup, how to take their medical training that they've practiced and gotten that certification. But take now, take that out on the hill, add snow, add guests, add the weather and add a toboggan to that and how to put all those things together. I think that's like the biggest aspect of training. And then, yeah, how to learn how to use a snowmobile, how to work with guests, and then they spend their first entire year kind of like drinking from a fire hose of information and it's.

Speaker 5: 47:02

I think it really takes. My predecessor, when I you know one of the first years I started, he said it takes three years to learn this job, and I think that is still true. And yeah, it takes three full winter seasons To really learn how to patrol at this mountain and learn all of our systems and how everything works.

Speaker 1: 47:23

I'm still learning. Well, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2: 47:25

And then something new will happen and a new experience or sorry, my phone is going off.

Speaker 1: 47:31

I have my radios turned down so it's not blaring, it's all good, you're busy.

Speaker 3: 47:36

My teams are getting ahold of me via text right now. Yeah, do your thing, don't know need to apologize. Apologize for that. Add to the experience, honestly.

Speaker 1: 47:42

I could turn my radio up and then get here, yeah, I know that's good.

Speaker 5: 47:46

Just add on to Betsy like yeah, I think every year I work here I realize how much more there is to learn. And that's one of the coolest parts of the job.

Speaker 1: 47:54

And we're always adapting to the. You know as much as people don't think it. We're hearing feedback from the community or how can we do this better? How can we do that better? What can we learn from things? And I mean, I think the biggest misconception of anybody, or the vocal complainers, is we work our asses off to every single time, every single day, no matter what day of the week it is, no matter what part of the season it is to ride as much Skiable terrain to everybody and there's never a management decision or anything.

Speaker 1: 48:30

It's all safety or like a snow cat couldn't get to the top of Northwest. They got pushed off the crossover so we couldn't get it groomed and the winds were too, strong. And we're always like fever.

Speaker 3: 48:41

It wasn't what it is now.

Speaker 1: 48:44

In the weather so we could maybe get a couple of hours summit opening for you guys. It's, we'll come in. Maintenance will be up there and 70 mile an hour winds the day before cleaning the towers, because I've predicted there's gonna be a three hour weather window in the morning and you know it's.

Speaker 3: 49:01

Yeah, the level of prep that goes on up here is unbelievable. People have no idea. I mean, I was reading through, like every chair. What do you call the wheels on the chair?

Speaker 1: 49:14

The shiv, the grip, the running wheels, the off-arm.

Speaker 3: 49:17

I was talking with Alicia the other day we did one of these and just the electrical demands of this place and her story of how she, like kind of same idea came on and just kind of worked her way into this like head electrician role.

Speaker 2: 49:32

She's a badass.

Speaker 1: 49:33

She is a total badass Straight up. Oh yeah, she's a total badass yeah. That's cool man, we couldn't, like I said she was getting her like I think it was like a 10 or 15 year award for being here and I said this mountain could not function without her, we would not be spinning these lifts if she wasn't here. That's cool, that's really cool.

Speaker 3: 49:53

Yeah, I think it's always good Like this is exactly why I wanted to do this with you guys because you guys are skiers in your snowboarders, which changes how you look at the like. You guys want it to open just as much as everybody else, which is of your right. A common misconception Like that should not open, you know.

Speaker 1: 50:12

Yeah, oh my.

Speaker 5: 50:12

God, oh, our favorite thing to do as patrollers is open terrain, because we want to be out there just as much as our guests do. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 50:21

Yeah, cool. Well, I mean, is there anything we didn't talk about that we should? I wanted to touch on your guys is. I mean we kind of talked about snow safety to some degree. I don't know if you guys want to, if there's anything else that would be good for your kind of public to hear, going into the season, I think?

Speaker 1: 50:39

just the whole idea of, you know, having personal responsibility coming up here.

Speaker 1: 50:45

I got interviewed once on KTVZ and I think I was in a bad mood and she's like, is it safe in the mountains? And I'm like this is not Disneyland, yeah, but I mean that's probably not the best way to have said it, but like it starts, like we like to say, it starts at home check in the weather report. No one if you're, you know, cars going to be able to drive up and having an idea of the conditions and dressing, I mean simple stuff, is dressing appropriately Also to, like, you know, following the skiers responsibility code, like we can't force this upon you, we educate you, but if people don't look uphill when merging, you know, then we can't function as a ski area. So those and then also choosing train, that's right for your ability on those certain conditions, and you have to. I think about it kind of like as cars going around, you know, drivers and driver's license. We wouldn't function if people just wanted to drive however they wanted or do whatever they want, and that's kind of the same with being up here.

Speaker 1: 51:38

So I know that sounds kind of like, maybe a little corporate, but it's better than saying this isn't Disneyland.

Speaker 3: 51:44

Well, it's true. I mean, it's nature. It's nature, it's outdoors. There's inherent risk. Your job as a responsible user is to mitigate that risk as much as possible.

Speaker 1: 51:53

you know yeah, for yourself.

Speaker 3: 51:54

And sometimes you can't, sometimes things happen, but you know, I mean yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think that if people pause for a moment and consider that into the decisions they're making for their day, it would it'd save a lot of events every year.

Speaker 1: 52:10

Yeah, minor and major yeah. You know, and we do our best, you know, with signage and rope lines and blurbs on the website.

Speaker 3: 52:18

It's a weird reality because, you know, I mean people and I've observed this as a healthcare provider, but also as, like someone who's up here a lot and works in healthcare, and just in tune with, like, how does the world we live in projects this experience at the mountain that oftentimes people get, you know, excuse the analogy, you know over their ski tips?

Speaker 5: 52:44

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 52:45

They don't know what they're doing. But it's been so normalized through social media or media in general, that some of the prep work gets overlooked.

Speaker 1: 52:54

I think too, it's interesting, and this is another thing you could cut out. But just to carry this conversation further, I've noticed sometimes behavior out of people that I don't think that they would do. You know, if I say, oh sorry, that lift's closed right now, it's on delay because of this, and I'll have, you know, a 40-something-year-old been yelling at me, screaming at me about it, and you know I've just always been like, wow, would you walk into a restaurant?

Speaker 1: 53:23

and say like hey, I want this and, oh sorry, we're out of hamburgers today and then just, you know, unload your shit on this female server.

Speaker 3: 53:32

Like it's so true. Like there is a certain level in this last week of like coming up here with a different looking at things through a different lens. I worked at Brighton in Utah for one winter. Like in the 90s and like when you work in a mountain, it changes your relationship with what a ski resort is Right, yeah. But most people would do well to like. Just look at this place through that lens as like what it is because it gives you a lot of context to all the different moving parts.

Speaker 1: 54:03

man, and I think, just realizing that we're community members like I live here you know, like my husband went and walked into a restaurant. Well, maybe he would.

Speaker 2: 54:11

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 54:12

But and unload on. You know somebody's wife, but someone's up here and they've got you know.

Speaker 3: 54:17

Yeah, it is interesting, now I've, I've, and then people will always be people.

Speaker 1: 54:22

You know, that's true but there's something about that gets checked at the door Like people. It's interesting. I don't know. I went off on a tangent, but I think that's good.

Speaker 5: 54:32

Two things I was thinking about. So I think one of the things that kind of, one of the things that's really cool about Mount Bachelor is that you know we operate on a special use permit on the on Forest Service land, and so when you leave Bend or Sun River, you drive a half hour and you're. You know, for a lot of people this is like a wilderness experience that they've never had before. I think it's what makes our mountains so unique, right. So for all, for folks that keep coming back up here and have been skiing here their whole lives, or if you're brand new to the sport, it's you are in like this wilderness area and we are in a ski resort and you know around all the departments that help make it happen and safe. But it's kind of a, it's a unique experience here and with the bad weather we have, that's I mean, that's why I love coming up here.

Speaker 3: 55:22

Yeah, I agree, I think I was talking and I've been saying this a fair amount lately, but we, you know, we don't live in the mountains in Bend we go to the mountains but we're so close that you still have that feeling that you live in the mountains, but it's too different. You got to approach life differently in Bend when you're up here.

Speaker 5: 55:41

And.

Speaker 3: 55:41

I agree with you. Like, people come up here and it is a very, you know, pretty easy approach to get to and get a wilderness experience, even if it's going snowshoeing for your first time, you know through the Forest Service program, but like I mean world-class views, right.

Speaker 5: 55:57

Like, so this place is magical.

Speaker 3: 56:00

And you know, as things get popular and grow, there's growth and you know a lot of that's to be is unavoidable, you know.

Speaker 1: 56:08

but just educating people, and I think our pass-holders and our people that come here regularly or ticket people buying day tickets you gotta be pretty hearty, you gotta be like you know to be able to come here and ski on those days where you can't see anything and it's blowing 60.

Speaker 3: 56:28

Or it's icy and gray bird out and you know the skiing's not great, but there's a lot of people out there today. I was impressed.

Speaker 1: 56:36

I was impressed too, and you know, sure, we have great spring days where it's nice, but majority of the time you know you're dealing with weather and you gotta be pretty hearty, and so I commend the people that are out here all the time. And in that weather and yeah, and I, you know I like that. I'm not skiing by a multimillion dollar mansion.

Speaker 3: 56:55

Yeah, me too, as I'm going down the get back. That's super unique. I know it is Do you guys both back country ski a fair amount?

Speaker 5: 57:01

Yeah, yep, quite a bit Splitboard. Splitboard with snowmobile.

Speaker 1: 57:05

Yeah, rad.

Speaker 3: 57:07

Yeah, awesome, and you do. I do, but I don't as much as I used to, because when you're working up here five days a week it's hard to motivate Totally. Man, I get the. We've owned snowmobiles over the years, yeah.

Speaker 1: 57:18

My son. I think the first time I took him to a touring was like 10, you know.

Speaker 3: 57:22

Yeah, yeah, my daughter and I she's been going back, but splitboard in a few years too, and she's 14, it's fun to get him out there. I did an episode with Jonas out.

Speaker 2: 57:33

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 57:34

Known him forever.

Speaker 5: 57:34

Yeah me too he's a good friend.

Speaker 3: 57:36

This one was one of the very first episodes we recorded it out there At the. Huts At the Huts during the woodcut in October.

Speaker 1: 57:45

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3: 57:46

It was so fun yeah.

Speaker 1: 57:48

So that's awesome.

Speaker 5: 57:50

Cool, you guys. My one last pitch about just avalanche dog safety in our program.

Speaker 5: 57:55

So we, yeah, we have the just yeah for folks that are out and see our dogs out on the slope or at the top and bottom of the lifts. You know they're an awesome presence out there, but just remember they're working. And so, to check in with the patroller, don't yell the dog's name from a chairlift, don't, you know. Don't approach the dog. Ask the patroller if you can pet him. Yeah, check in with that person first before approaching the dog. Most there's going to be those times when the dog is going to some training or doing something and can't be bothered, but a lot of times we're happy to stop and let folks pet the dogs and interact with them.

Speaker 5: 58:37

And then, yeah, we have the support of Subaru. They help make our avalanche dog program run. We also sell t-shirts and we're super thankful for all the locals and community support that we have over the years, my entire time here for our program. But, yeah, we've got new dog shirts this year. They're for sale at the top of Pine Martin Lift and down in the West Village Patrol Room. And yeah, going to the top of Pine's a great opportunity to say hi to a dog while you're up there. That's where their kennels are.

Speaker 3: 59:09

Do they have them at the West Village Store Just?

Speaker 5: 59:11

in our first day down stairs.

Speaker 1: 59:14

All right cool. I would add yeah, one of my favorite memories of in the 20, whatever four years I've been here was when Riggins was a seven week old puppy and it was the 10-11 season, which was our epic 607 inch season and we were reopening for Fourth of July and I just picked him up and that whole Fourth of July weekend.

Speaker 3: 59:34

Is that how long that's been already?

Speaker 1: 59:35

He's skied around in my jacket.

Speaker 3: 59:37

That's incredible.

Speaker 1: 59:39

Yeah, now he's 12 and a half and retired.

Speaker 3: 59:43

Riggins. What's the story behind that name?

Speaker 1: 59:46

So I like to tell people that it's Riggins Idaho because my husband's a big rafter, but I was actually watching Friday Night Lights at the time and there's a character called Tim Riggins who drove a black truck and I was like, oh Riggins, that'd be kind of a cool name.

Speaker 3: 1:00:00

That is a good name.

Speaker 1: 1:00:01

So that's where.

Speaker 3: 1:00:02

I like it. I like it, and Shasta is the obvious.

Speaker 5: 1:00:08

Yeah, so my fiance and I both have strong ties to that area, and so that's how she got her name.

Speaker 3: 1:00:14

So Golden Black Lab. Black Lab and then what are the other two breeds that are up here?

Speaker 5: 1:00:20

So we have two other Golden retrievers right now and then we have a brown and white border collie, and so we've had German shepherds over the years. Husky, but yeah, like any of the Labradors, German shepherds, border collies, the Belgian Malawas those are all awesome dogs. They're easy to train and have a good hunt drive, which is what you're after.

Speaker 1: 1:00:48

My first avalanche dog was a yellow lab named Kenai, so he was like Kenai Peninsula.

Speaker 3: 1:00:54

Yeah, kenai Peninsula.

Speaker 2: 1:00:55

Yeah, my husband has family there and so he named it after that.

Speaker 1: 1:00:59

That's really cool. Yeah, these Riggins was my second, so I'm out of the avalanche dog handler profession. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:01:09

Yeah, see, when you were talking about bringing up a puppet Kenai reminded me a lot about training like a bird hunting dog. Just like getting them used to loud noises in that environment and kind of.

Speaker 2: 1:01:20

Yeah, there's a lot of similarities there and a lot of some of the breed.

Speaker 3: 1:01:24

there's crossover. Yeah, that's super cool.

Speaker 5: 1:01:27

Yeah, whether it's a hunting dog or a drug detection dog.

Speaker 3: 1:01:31

Totally.

Speaker 5: 1:01:31

There's a lot of similarities in the training style for sure, awesome.

Speaker 1: 1:01:35

Yeah, Ruddy is our first border collie we've had at Mount Bachelor. There are other skiers that have him. And it's been really fun to watch how he's evolved and to go on a run with him. He's faster and quicker and bouncing around and it's just been really interesting because I had two labs back to back and we had a lot of historically a lot of labs and retrievers.

Speaker 3: 1:02:00

Well, thanks for what you guys do man, thank you, this has been super fun.

Speaker 5: 1:02:03

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:02:04

Good wrapping out with you guys. I hope you have a good winter and a safe winter yeah. We hope so too. Yeah, it's going to come. It's Bachelor right. It always does, it always does It'll happen.

Speaker 2: 1:02:13

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:02:14

All right, you guys. Well, see you later.

Speaker 1: 1:02:17

See you later. See you.

Speaker 3: 1:02:42

Hey, thanks for listening to Bin Magazines, a circling podcast. Make sure to visit binmagazinecom, where you can subscribe to the number one selling magazine in Central Oregon. Make sure to check out our first issue of 2024, where there's a great article by Kathy Carroll and Noah Nelson on the startup landscape of Central Oregon and Lee Lewis Husk shares the story of local ski legend Frank Cammick. Our theme song was written by Carl Perkins and performed by Aaron Colbaker and Dr Aaron Zerflue of the Aarons. We love mail, so please send us comments, questions or art to thecirclingpodcast at binmagazinecom. Support the circling podcast by becoming a member on Patreon at patreoncom. Forward, slash the circling podcast and learn how your financial contribution will help support local nonprofits while also supporting local podcasting. Follow us on Instagram at thecircling podcast to learn more about past, current and upcoming episodes. Please subscribe to the circling podcast on all major podcast platforms and leave us a review. It really does help.

Speaker 3: 1:03:55

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