Just Wandering
BY RUSS VILHAUER TRAINING DIRECTOR, MOGUL BUSTERS SKI SCHOOL

“Inspiring lifelong passion for the mountain experience.”   PSIA Vision Statement

You are a professional in the snow sports industry, so the small article in the newspaper catches your attention. The headline states, “Oregon Skier Dies after Hitting a Tree at Resort”. Perhaps you take time to read the story, but your time is limited and the crossword puzzle is calling. Twelve letters: Lack of concern: “Indifference” is maybe the best emotion you muster because after all you didn’t know 20 year old Benjamin Hawk of Portland who died at Keystone Resort in Colorado. He was “skiing with friends on the intermediate Spring Dipper run when he lost control and struck a tree. He was not wearing a helmet.”

You wonder if a helmet would have made a difference. If the crossword puzzle can wait another 10 seconds you learn that young Mr. Hawk was skiing with friends from a religious school in Oklahoma.

 Four letters: Sorrow felt for another’s suffering or misfortune: “Pity”. Perhaps you can conjure it for a moment or so, but it’s not useful in the completion of the puzzle. Seven letters: Lacking pity. “Callous” works. After all , the only thing you had in common with the late Mr. Hawk was an affinity for skiing.

You get to the crossword puzzle where you learn that “Fret” is a four letter word meaning guitar ridge. No worry.

Three days after Benjamin’s demise, your job takes you into the parsonage of a church in north Portland where Benjamin’s father is the pastor. Your tenure as a neutral spectator is over. You know that you cannot feel the Hawk’s pain. Hopefully you never will. You only recognize the epic proportions that permeate the house. Your visit is brief, your words of condolence to Reverend Hawk even more so and you stumble out the door.

Driving away you decide to stop procrastinating and buy your daughter a helmet. You know that’s not enough.

Memories of your father’s death from a head injury sustained on a trail ride flood over you once more and once more you ruminate on whether a helmet would have allowed him to meet seven grand children that have come to be since that fatal day.  

You recall the day nine years ago that one of your students, Austen Knight, tried to dislodge a lift tower. The tower prevailed. Austen, who was wearing a helmet, suffered multiple concussions and got a ride down the mountain in an ambulance. He’s still skiing. He’s an accomplished racer at 15 and still banging into poles, only now they are of the bamboo variety.

You review the “Responsibility Code” which addresses safety issues. It fails to mention helmets. Why?

You think about your position in the industry. In addition to being an instructor you are a role model and a factor of influence. That manufacturers flood you with pro forms is proof that they believe in your power of persuasion. Inspire “lifelong passion” that is truly life long.