My Rookie year on Patrol was an amazing adventure and a very wild ride. I was a member of the infamous Rookie class of 79/80. What a Wild Bunch we thought we were. The experience was humbling, terrifying and awesome! Mammoth at the time was a Funky Sierra Ski Town with incredibly large weekend crowds.

Working Patrol was exciting and also very rewarding. We couldn’t believe that they paid us to do that job. The Psychic Benefits far outweighed the wages we received. Made some of my best friends ever and turned my Hobby Job into a Career. The Mammoth Mountain Ski Patrol Alumni Association has been so good for reconnecting and rekindling these friendships. More important, it has been the sharing of stories and experiences across time. We have a short, but very rich history with an incredible crew of characters. The following story is just one of the many that made Patrolling at Mammoth so dang good.

I was working the Top one day enjoying some of the sweetest wind buff Mammoth had to offer. Crockett and Boucher snuck up on me as they usually did with some really long downhill boards on their feet. Being the ever-inquisitive Rookie that I was, I asked them what’s with Big Sticks? They both gave me that smile they were famous for and told me they were “Training”. They asked me to spot the lip and take off zone on Hangman’s. I was happy to oblige and knew that something Big was about to go down. It was sight to behold. Straight off the
cornice and landing in the throat of Hangman’s with maximum velocity pointed straight down the Mountain. It was spectacular, until Dave hit the compression at Saddle Bowl and blew up bigger than snot. He hit so hard that it blew up his knee brace and broke it. I caught up to them, way down in Saddle Bowl and brought Dave his skis. I got the courage up and asked them what they were Training for? “Rookie, we are Training for the 4:28 Downhill”. Didn’t have a clue what they were talking about, but knew better than to ask any more questions.

Turns out that this was way back in the day when the spring season days grew longer and the lower lifts were kept open for an extra ½ hour longer on Saturdays since it had been so crowded. Dave McCoy wanted to make sure that his loyal customers got an extra ½ hour to play in the spring. It also allowed the Ski Patrol to have an impromptu Chinese Downhill just prior to closing. The 4:28 Downhill happened on the Roller Coaster West Run. Top of 4, now Roller Coaster Express to the bottom of 4. Just enough time to get to the bottom and get on the chair before closing. The 4:28 was an amazing spectacle to behold. A mass start ensued with pushing, roller-balling and total chaos. No prizes, just bragging rights. Patrol met at the Top of 4 and the Main Lodge guys came over to sweep the 10 area from the Top on their way back to the Main Lodge.

I had come from the Top of the Mountain with the rest of the Main crew to do sweep. I was wearing the Code 3 Pack designed by Jim Flaherty, aka Speedball. The old Code 3 packs were heavy monsters loaded to the gills with everything needed and then some to respond to Codes. We always brought them back down to the Lodge in the evenings to protect the O2 from freezing. They were awkward, heavy and down right unruly to ski with. So, I showed up for my first 4:28 Downhill, clueless and naïve. Rollerball held a short Safety Meeting and shared safety instructions with us all, “don’t get hurt”. Seemed pretty straight forward. Go fast, take chances and tuck it. I was mid pack, going as fast as I could skiing in a tuck watching the more experienced Speed Skiers pull away fast when that dang code 3 pack hit me in the head and almost dropped me to the snow. Total survival, humbling, frightening and the most fun a Patroller could have at 4:28 on a busy Saturday. Eventually, somebody did get hurt and the 4:28 was over. Sweeping the 10 area was once a privilege with benefits.