1944-1945 Year Book - the Gatineau Valley Historical Society

Ottawa Ski Club Year Book 1944-45 27
The Ski Patrol always stands
in readiness to answer a call for
help from any quarter, but its
duty does not end there. Every
member of the patrol is in
charge of a trail, and his duty
is to see that it is covered before
nightfall.
"Speed the parting guest" is
the motto of the patrol. If the
day is cold or blizzardly, the
guest a bit slow or clumsy and
the shades of night fast falling
about him, the patrol man stays
with him until he is out of
harm's way. Or if the guest is
handicapped by some breakage
in his equipment, skis and poles,
tape or wire are produced from
the pack of ,the patrol man and
temporary repairs made, sufficient
to enable the guest to "get
on" with reasonable speed.
If the break cannot be repaired,
the guest is led to the nearest
highway, where he can foot it
home, his skis on his shoulders.
He might be only a few hundred
yards from such highway and
not know it--keeping going on
sinking and floundering in the
snow until he is too tired to
move. If the guest has injured
a part of his anatomy, either a
break or a sprain, splints, tape
or bandages are soon found,
and, if necessary a call for help
sent to the nearest ambulance
squad or farm house. Such is in
Rhort the main duty of the Ski
Patrol, a mopping up of the trail
as it were when the day's fun is
over, to make sure that everyone
goes home safely.
And so every Sunday -::hat
comes around and in any weather
or any snow conditions.
fair or foul, soft or icy, thirty
above or thirty below, just as
the sun touches the crest of
· Traveler's hill and the shadows
of the pines around Camp For­
.tune begin to lengthen, the men
of the Patrol squad strike out to
cover the various trails assigned
to them. They time their
departure about an hour after
the last skier is known to have
gone home, and they generally
catch up with him before the
end.
Not many casualties have
been found but many weary
travellers have been helped and
comforted, and the services
rendered in this respect by the
Ski Patrol have been sufficient
to justify its existence. Most
casualties occur in the immediate
vicinity of Camp Fortune,
on the Slalom hill, at the
foot of the Canyon, on the Dippers,
and yet last year Elmer
Cassel· picked up a man with a
broken leg half way down on
the Wrightville Trail, just about
at night fall, and it is doubtful
that this man could have made
the first farm house.-As we
said before one never knows
with the fool skiers.--JC.E.M.
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