Chris Halsey, Aspen Snowmass
“I'm Chris Halsey and I'm a bike patroller in the summer at Aspen Highlands and a ski patroller in the winter here at Aspen Snowmass. I started ski patrolling in 1987, so this is my 30th year ski patrolling.”
“I grew up in a small suburb outside Boston, but I ended up out here at Colorado Mesa University. I came out here for biking, kayaking, and skiing. After college, I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. I went to school for business management, but I ended up ski patrolling for a year after college. And here I am 30 years later still in it. It’s been a fun career—a pretty good lifestyle. We get to enjoy the mountains. We're here in the magnificent Rockies and every day is different with weather and different challenges. You never know what you're going to get. The primary reason ski patrollers are up there is to respond to medical injuries. We also do a lot of avalanche control at Aspen Highlands.”
“We're fortunate to have a really strong team and the guys and gals on both the Highlands patrol and the Snowmass patrol. We're all there for each other. We goof around plenty when things are mellow, but when shit hits the fan, we’re ready to go. Overall, I feel pretty fortunate to have found this job. There are seven billion people or so on the planet—how many of them are lucky enough to do what we do, you know? The mountains, the coworkers… all in all, it's a superb package.”
