On patrol for the last 55 years

Giffin started skiing at the Rutland Country Club.

“I started skiing in elementary school going to the golf course with my dad and sister. We lived on North Church Street, and at the time the Rutland Country Club had a rope tow. Later, as we got better, we would drive to a little ski area outside of Brandon called High Pond. This is one of the many small ski areas that do not exist anymore. It had a rope tow and a T-bar,” Giffin said.

Eventually, the Giffin kids graduated to take single runs at Pico on the T-bar.

“When I was older, maybe sixth grade, we would receive a season pass at Pico for our Christmas present,” he said.

“I took lessons for a couple of years from the Pico Ski Club’s Sunday lessons program. They had volunteers that would teach kids about an hour a day. Mostly, I learned skiing by following other kids who were better than me,” he said.

Giffin said he started his ski patrol career in the Junior Ski Patrol with the Otter Ski Patrol at Pico in 1966.

“The Otter Ski Patrol room was at the base of B slope and had a potbelly stove for heat. It was the junior patrollers’ job to split the wood to keep the stove going,” he said.

Equipment used today is vastly different from the skis used in the 1960s, he said.

“I started in bear trap bindings (they don’t release when the skier falls) and wooden skis with screw-in edges. I remember when the first metal skis came out and also the various safety bindings over the years.”

“Plus, the whole approach to skiing is different now. ... (In the ’60s) it was a real challenging outdoor activity. You had your wool coat, corduroy pants and laced leather boots. Day tickets were $2 to $3.”

“Now, you have high-tech clothing, buckled plastic boots, all kinds of skis that respond to different terrain, and release bindings. Now, day tickets can exceed $160,” he said.

When Giffin started skiing, most Vermont ski areas were small and locally owned. Today, most are owned by large, out-of-state corporations such as Wyoming-based Powdr Corp., which owns Killington and Pico; Vail Resorts, of Utah, which owns Stowe, Mount Snow and Okemo; and Alterra Mountain Co., of Denver, Colorado, which owns Stratton Mountain and Sugarbush.

Bolton Valley, where Giffin works today, is one of the few holdouts as the resort is owned by the DesLauriers family. The ski area was founded in 1966 by Ralph DesLauriers and his father, sold in 1977, and then repurchased by DesLauriers and a group of investors in 2017.

There were no high-speed lifts when Giffin started skiing, and most areas had T-bars, Poma lifts with a disc seat, as well as J-bars, which are not common now.

“Just like the evolution in skis, the lift industries have evolved over time. We now have high-speed chairs, quads, six-packs, trams and more. Plus, a lot more safety features on the lifts,” he said.

Giffin said he has helped hundreds of injured skiers during his 55 years.

“One memory I will never forget is the time the upper lift at Pico came off the bullwheel (the main driving wheel or gear of the lift). I had just unloaded and was walking to tell the lift attendant to stop the lift when a chair came off the cable and flew by me. Fortunately, the only people thrown from the chair were people at the top and the mid-station that had their safety bars raised to unload,” he said. “I will never ride a lift without a safety bar, which is required by Vermont law. Other people along the line had bloody noses and other injuries, but none were thrown from the chair. We did not have enough toboggans at the top, and I remember we took the door off the patrol room to evacuate one person with a snow cat,” he said.

First-aid training is more rigorous now than when he started, Giffin said.

“Back in the ’60s, the only first-aid book was the ‘Green Book,’ basic first aid by the American Red Cross. We all had to take that course. A lot has changed in the medical field since them. One of the recommendations from the Green Book was to put butter on burns.”

In 1973, the Red Cross developed the Advanced First Aid. This became the new minimum standard for the ski patrol.

During the 1980s, the National Ski Patrol recognized its members needed more specific training for ski-related injuries. So NSP developed the Outdoor Emergency Care training program for patrollers and others in the recreation community who had to deal with emergency situations with limited equipment.

“The training program is tailored to the non-urban rescuer. This became the standard for patrols,” Giffin said.

According to Giffin, the Eastern Division of National Ski Patrol is developing a focus on patroller stress awareness to help the patrol director and patrollers deal with traumatic events.

Giffin said he also has watched the dramatic change in weather over the decades.

“Certainly, the last two years, we have not had great snow years. My memory will always be in the ’70s for a number of years when we had twice the normal snowfall, and we all had that expectation for every year. Ski areas today would not survive without snow-making,” he said.

Giffin, who is 70 and a 1970 graduate of Rutland High School, said he isn’t sure how much longer he will patrol.

“Patrolling is really a young person’s occupation, although experience can help in a lot of situations. One of my favorite expressions for new patrollers is, ‘Let gravity be your friend.’ This means position yourself, injured skier and toboggan so you can avoid moving/lifting people uphill,” he said.

In his career, Giffin worked for the State of Vermont for more than 33 years as the chief financial officer for the Agency of Human Services. He also worked for a year as the interim liquor commissioner to assist with some internal issues.