ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 10, 1997 TAG: 9703120009
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID BARUDIN
The person coming to your assistance on the slope may be an orthopedic surgeon or a district court judge.
In the hours before skiers take to the slopes at Virginia's four alpine ski areas, the emergency medical teams of the National Ski Patrol are testing the lifts and checking the ski operations and snow conditions. During the ski day, the patrollers cruise the slopes mostly unnoticed by resort guests until they're called to the scene of an accident.
John Dobson, 58, from Virginia Beach, is a ski patroller at Wintergreen. When he got the call about an injured skier on Cliffhanger Slope, he snapped on his skis at the top of the run and quickly found her. He barked into his radio for a rescue toboggan as he planted his skis in the snow forming an X above the injured girl. He knelt over her, not tolerating onlookers while he spoke gently to her and manipulated her dislocated shoulder back into its socket. Then he urged her into relaxed breaths.
The girl unclenched Dobson's arm and tried to thank him. He patted her reassuringly as the arriving ski patrollers carefully lifted her into a sled for the trip off the mountain.
Dobson is an orthopedic surgeon. The on-slope medical care he gives as a volunteer patroller each weekend at Wintergreen is protected under the good Samaritan law, meaning he can perform his patrol duties without fear of being sued.
Virginia's 300 patrollers lead double lives from September, when they begin intense weekend first-aid training, until the end of ski season. They balance normal routines with critical rescues in cold weather on icy mountains. What they do to prevent accidents and render emergency care creates intense competition to be the most efficient team in the National Ski Patrol System of 704 patrols in the United States, Europe and Korea.
Wintergreen's 130-member squad was recognized as the best when it won NSP's Outstanding Alpine Ski Patrol award in 1989. The squad also has earned numerous Southern Division honors since its formation in 1976.
Dobson, a Wintergreen patroller since 1984 and the team's patrol leader since 1994, is a big reason for its success. His rank of senior patroller is the second-highest level achievable in the NSP system. Last year, Dobson was chosen from 28,000 NSP members worldwide as The Outstanding Alpine Ski Patroller of the Year.
"I was fortunate to win the award, since I didn't start skiing until I was 36," Dobson said. "You have to be able to ski every slope on the mountain, and that includes bringing the rescue sled down in all terrain and all conditions."
But even novice skiers can participate in the program. New members and developing skiers can join the auxiliary patrol, which is first-aid oriented in the patrol room or on beginner and intermediate runs.
"The benefit of being a volunteer is that we get great satisfaction out of doing our job well," Dobson said. "At the core of our success is the camaraderie of the patrol. We have a chicken farmer, a musician, lawyers, physicians and students.''
During the summer, he and his wife, a physician and ski patroller, provide medical service at mountain-bike races and at other outdoor events. When he retires from his medical practice this year, Dobson plans to become a professional ski patroller at Wintergreen.
"The skills John brings to ski patrolling are unique; he is a big reason our program is successful," said Wintergreen's Ski Patrol director, Jay Roberts, who was the youngest paid director in NSP history when he took over in 1995.
A University of Georgia graduate, Roberts, now 25, was a patrol volunteer at Wintergreen at age 15. His advancement through the ranks to certified patroller - there are eight certified patrollers at Wintergreen and fewer than 300 nationwide - included a rigorous first-aid course taught by Dobson, who helped write the Outdoor Emergency Care Manual used throughout the NSP system.
``The challenge of ski patrol is that you can't call for backup," said Morgan Armstrong, Wintergreen's senior patroller. "You have to handle a situation yourself right there on the spot. If we can't carry the piece of equipment, such as a backboard or oxygen, it isn't available. We can't yell to an attendant to bring something off the truck. There is no truck."
Armstrong, 48, is a judge from the 21st Judicial District of Henry and Patrick counties and Martinsville. He was Wintergreen's patrol leader from 1990-94 and was the assistant leader the year the squad won the country's top patrol award.
His wife, Jo Ann, a psychology and sociology instructor at Patrick Henry Community College, taught him to ski in 1979, two years before they started as patrol candidates at Wintergreen. When he's not patrolling at Wintergreen, he evaluates and instructs Virginia's three other alpine patrols and two Nordic patrols in the Shenandoah National Park and Mount Rogers National Park.
"It's amazing how many different jobs I have during the year," he said. "It's always new and different. I can't set dislocated shoulders like John [Dobson], but I can comfort skiers when they get upset.
"People may not notice, but when we ski past them we check their equipment and a hundred little things, such as wearing gloves to prevent skinned knuckles when they fall. Small things escape people's attention when they're having a good time."
Wintergreen's 90 volunteer patrollers work on the weekends, leaving weekday patrolling to the 40 paid staffers. Professionals are paid $6.75 an hour to start plus meals and skiing privileges.
LENGTH: Long : 101 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Dr. John Dobson, 58, plans to give up his medicalby CNBpractice later this year to become a full-time member of the Ski
Patrol at Wintergreen. color.