A Refreshing Weekend Away

This weekend, I participated in something I used to help out with before we left for Australia: the Alyeska Ski Patrol Outdoor Emergency Care refresher training! Every year, they ask for "victims" the patrollers can practice on. I get a free ski pass for doing it, but the real reason I volunteer is because I have a blast.

This year, I showed up thinking I was going to be a head injury, then hearing I might be a leg injury, but finally got told I was on the triage station. I wasn't really sure what that was, but it turns out that it was the most fun station of all! The story was that the snow cat had run into the resort bar and restaurant, so we had a room full of injured people. The patrollers had to come through and assess how injured each person was and whether they could walk out on their own, needed immediate assistance, or were dead.

We presented a variety of situations, including a dead guy, a uninjured blind person, a hysterical teenager, a person with a dislocated elbow, a person with a table on top of them, and a kid with a broken leg. The 11 year old boy with the broken leg got a kick out of wearing his injury.

Ok, a Hollywood production it's not.

The scene was supposed to be really chaotic, so there was also loud music and flashing lights. It felt a little like a dance club, with fatal injuries. I got to be the person with the table on top of them, but in the end I switched it up to be the blind person. Afterwards, we would talk about their assessments and provide feedback. Several different people played the hysterical teenager as well, and one guy was terrific -- I had a hard time not laughing when he wailed things like "Why is everyone around me dead?"

Being a victim for the refresher was only one part of the weekend. I also got to attend the Ski Patrol dinner as Heidi's "date", and I stayed at my friends Harry and Susie's condo, along with a bunch of my other friends. It's always a blast hanging out with those guys, and I got to see some people I haven't seen in a long time. I won't be a patroller myself -- I'm not that great a skier and honestly, I really only like the fake blood and guts, but helping out by being a victim is something they can always count on me for!