1944-1945 Year Book - the Gatineau Valley Historical Society

Ottawa Ski Club Year Book 1944-45 25
One day at Dome Hill, a young
man tarried until everybody had
gone home; he climbed up the
hill once more, for one more
slide, fell at the bottom and
broke a leg. No one heard his
cries of distress and he spent
all night out. He survived owing
to his robust constitution, but it
was an ordeal that few could
have stood and lived. The SKI
PATROL was born out of this
incident.
Ski€rs in distress who, at some
time or other. have been rescued
by the Ski Patrol need not be
reminded of the usefulness of
that organization. They know.
Others might go on to the end of
their ski care€r quite unaware
of its existence, just as a reasonably
careful, lucky and peaceful
citizen, avoiding intoxicants and
banana peels, might, to the end
of · his days, remain in blissful
ignorance of the Black Maria or
the Ambulance Squad. For the
sake of the latter, it is well perhaps
that this story should be
told.
However, while skiers shoul9
know of the institutions that
watch over th€ir welfare, it is
just as well perhaps that they
do not put too much reliance
on them. The knowledge that
help may be coming should not
prevent them from observing
the rules of the trail.
On€ of these rules, and a
fundamental one, is that no skier
should ever venture alone on
a remote trail, and particularly
towards the close of the day.
Always travel in groups, waiting
for one another. If you
-The Ski Patrol-
happen to be alone, keep to welltravelled
pa.ths, and give yourself
plenty of time to complete
your journey before the flow of
skiers ceases. In other words,
avoid if you can being the last
straggler on the trail.
It may .be argued that lone
skiers seldom or never take
chances, and that one "shows
off" only when there is company.
That may be, but accidents are
not always the result of daring.
Good skiers have been known to
break a leg or snap an ankle on
a flat course.. Slippery stuff is
always treacherous, and snow is
almost as bad in this respect as
a waxed floor.
-If accidents may happen to
the best of us, anywhere, a disability
that would lbe almost
insignificant on a travelled highway
might prove quite serious
on an out of the way path. A
trail teeming with life at high
noon might be just as desolate
at sundown as the most lonely
part of the North Pole or the
Sahara desert. Unless one had
a book or a radio-let alone food
or blankets-to improve the
passing time, it would be a bit
tedious, if one was disabled, to
wait a whole week for the return
of the throng.
No one fortunately has ever
been known to spend the night
out in any of the many trails
criss-crossing the Kingsmere
range of hills but it might happen-one
never knows with
these fool skiers-and it is just
to prevent such happenings that
the Ski Patrol, a branch of the
Night Riders, was organized.